Allegedly Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder Not Rat Proof

...our backyard. A young coyote visited last week and, last night, our indoor cats got in a full on cat fight on either side of a glass door with a visiting outdoor cat. Our new bird (rat?) feeder has a lever that closes when a heavy animal steps on it. This is supposed to deter squirrels. As you can see from the photos, rats easily hacked their way around this problem by shimmying between the lever and the food. Perhaps I can just weigh down the lev...

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Weekend Linkages: Umarells and Oki Dogs

...A friend left a bag of ratchet straps and one of the cats has been sitting in it for a week I think being an Umarell is in my future (thank you to John Zapf for this mind blowing Wikipedia article) A 2-way wrist radio At SXSW, A Pathetic Tech Future Struggles to Be Born “We’ll see you all at Oki-Dogs”: The story of L.A.’s legendary punk hangout (with hot dogs) Down on Alvarado Street by the Pioneer Chicken Stand...

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Worst of NextDoor

...h. What could be wrong with a website that reunites people with their lost cats, offers crowdsourced suggestions for plumbers and operates as an ongoing garage sale? But as is usual for anything coming out of Silicon Valley, NextDoor, has gone full Lord of the Flies except instead of kids it’s mostly old folks beating dissenters to death with their keyboards. I’ve used NextDoor to get rid of furniture, give advice on humanely removing bees and pub...

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