Saturday, May 26, 2007

Call for Immediate Dust-off, Nuke the Site from Orbit

I read an article yesterday about a problem that Florida is having with giant rats. Now any rat problem is a bad scene, but when you are talking about rats that are the size of cats – it’s time for definite action. Yikes!

Florida tries to wipe out cat-sized African rats

GRASSY KEY, Florida (Reuters) - Deep in the heart of the Florida Keys, wildlife officials are laying bait laced with poison to try to wipe out a colony of enormous African rats that could threaten crops and other animals.

U.S. federal and state officials are beginning the final phase of a two-year project to eradicate the Gambian pouched rats, which can grow to the size of a cat and began reproducing in the remote area about eight years ago.

"This is the only place in the United States where this is occurring," said Gary Witmer, a biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.

A former exotic pet breeder, living in a small house, bred the species and allowed the critters to escape.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/
idUSN2430572020070524?feedType=RSS&rpc=22


The state will of course call for the usual answers – poison, having scientists look into it, pie charts, referendums, etc. But there is another answer here that is much more simple – create a new hunting season – without out-of-state fees.

Sure, there’s always the danger of a stray round zooming down some suburban street, but that’s where the concept of arrow-based weaponry really begins to shine. It doesn’t go very far, won’t blow through the wall of a house, doesn’t make noise that will disturb the neighbors and their zombie-like American Idol glaze, and due to the size of the animal, a dum-dum or concussion head may be able to substitute for the broadhead required for deer and their ilk.

And if you already going down that route, you may as well whip out something like the Airrow . . .
The Airrow gun was a paintball maker/crossbow hybrid that used compressed air (in the form of a CA tank) to fire a bolt-sized arrow. It used the same air source as a paintball gun, but used a shrouded tube that the arrow slid over. This helped stabilize the arrow as it exited the muzzle of the weapon. There are now sold by Swivel Machine, and they are not cheap.

It's most notable attribute was that it could fold down into an assassin-sized briefcase ala From Russia With Love, and also that it was featured in John Woo’s first American film, Hard Target, which incidentally may have been the first Jean-Claude Van Damme film to feature the aforementioned Belgian train wreck sporting a mullet.

Ah, the good stuff.

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