Ooooh, they're scared of the reflections on the cds?

Ours are, but they also fall in the pond, so I'm guessing they aren't the sharpest of squirrels.

While we were looking out the window a falcon landed in the tree and commenced to tearing the shit out of something rodent shaped. This squirrel walked right out on the branch to get a better look.

Well, the falcon already had a meal.

I have a bird feeder where the squirrel weight trips a lever that shuts off food access. It doesn't fling the squirrels away, but watching them try and fail to get to the food gives my cat something to do.

So I got out my laptop to read up on some financial information I need for tonight's board meeting so that I could legitimately be pissy about other people who come to these meetings unprepared and make them run long.

That was half an hour ago. I'm...caught up in Natter. And Facebook. And the first paragraph of that article about Angry Birds.

It's possible my brother's not the only one in the family with ADD. You know, maybe.

When I spent a month at the Huntington Library and eating in their outdoor cafe, it wasn't the squirrels so much as the damned sparrows who would dive bomb the table and carry off part of your lunch.

Yes! When I lived on the Plaza, i would get coffee and a muffin a lot at the coffee shop across the street from my apartment. The sparrows would be right under your feet, and I could sometimes coax them on the table with muffins crumbs.

My hood squirrels there were fat, cocky bastards though. They would taunt the cats outside the window; the dumpster was in the alley by my bedroom window. Man, those squirrels were rotund.

billytea, were we not on different continents, incompatible, unable to legally wed owing to polygamy laws and lots of other things, I would marry you.

Aww. I thank you for your ill-advised, bigamous attentions.

The squirrels at McGill freaked me out. I got a bad rep as a squirrel kicker, but truth was, I extended my foot very slowly, and THE SQUIRREL SHOULD HAVE MOVED. I am supposed to win. No squirrels were harmed in the making of this story, but my rep got...exacerbated for a bit.

Back at the house we lived in when I was a teen the squirrels were only problematic with regard to tomato plants, but the bluejays would harrass and dive bomb our cat whenever she went outside.

Of course, she understood concepts like transparent materials, and so would sun herself right next to back deck entrance and tempt them into knocking themselves out against the sliding glass door.

I got a bad rep as a squirrel kicker,

Kicker of squirrels!

Driving on the beach at Daytona those damned seagulls KNEW I couldn't go faster than 10 mph and that I couldn't go outside the lines. I wanted to chase them with my car so very much.

Seriously, I am the more alpha creature and I am driving a mechanical crunchy coated thing - fleeeeeeeeeeee before me.

Cool headline: Genetic Errors Nixed Penis Spines, Enlarged Our Brains

Geneticists have linked the physical appearance of humans to patches of DNA lost in the 5 million years since we shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees. One loss prevented men from growing penile barbs, which chimps possess. Another enlarged some regions of our brain.

...

Bigger brains are an obvious advantage (“It probably helped us become the thinkers we are today,” Bejerano said), but it’s unclear why evolution weeded out the spines. These tiny, hair-like projections, found in male chimps and cats, can trigger female ovulation. They also increase sensitivity and remove existing sperm, ostensibly giving males a reproductive advantage. Bejerano suspects the spines are conducive to monogamy.

Could restoring the relevant regulatory DNA in humans resurrect penile spines? “I’m going to leave it to others to paint that picture and its consequences,” said evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll of the University of Wisconsin, who wasn’t involved in the study. “But my guess is that something would probably happen.”