John R. Hoaglund III, Ph.D.

Penn State Research

(814) 574-2649

hoaglund@essc.psu.edu

Forwarded to me in an e-mail: A seagull in Scotland has developed the habit of stealing chips from a neighborhood shop.

The seagull waits until the shopkeeper isn't looking (so a camera was installed), and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos.
Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and becomes a feast, for other birds!

The seagull's shoplifting started early this month [9/07], when he first swooped into the store in Aberdeen, Scotland, and helped himself to a bag of chips.
Since then, he's become a "regular". He always takes the same type of chips.

Customers have begun paying for the seagull's stolen bags of chips,... Because they think it's so funny!

Geology, musings, and more from

the Rock Doctor:

"...just when things looked their worst, they changed for the best; so thin is the line which divides success from failure." --Sir Ernest Shackleton (May 9, 1916) after sailing the James Caird, a 20 foot open lifeboat fashioned with a sail and canvas covering, for 16 days across 800 miles of the treacherous Antarctic Circumpolar Current from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island. In a desperate attempt to secure rescue for the ill-fated Endurance expedition, with 22 men remaining shipwrecked on Elephant Island, 3 of the 6-man James Caird crew still had to cross on foot the uncharted South Georgia Island to reach a whaling station on its eastern shore.