crazy
filomancer the other day, warning me
about the FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES that may be hiding in bags of
mulch. You see, FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES live in the New
Orleans area, and there's concern that in the wake of Katrina, with
tens of thousands of trees and frame houses down, chipped wood
containing FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES may be shipped out to the
rest of the nation, spreading a plague of FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN
TERMITES everywhere.Now, I consider
filomancer fairly sane and level-headed,
but this email just smelled like hoax to me. There have been a
large number of hoaxes and urban legends spawned by Katrina ("Three
Katrina evacuees wound up in Bear's Butt Wyoming and embarked on a
crime wave of assaults, hold-ups, and horse-jackings!"). 'Formosan
subterranean termites'?Yet, it seems to be real. There really are FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES. The Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture has imposed a quarantine on wood products leaving southern Louisiana counties because of the FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES.
FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES. So cool. War, famine, pestilence death... and FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES!
(I can't stop saying FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITES!)
I don't usually repost BoingBoing links (I assume everyone already reads BoingBoing), but this one may actually make me do something. It seems that a credit card company will issue a credit card in your name even if the application has been torn up and taped back together, and the address and phone number changed.
I.e., even if you tear up those hundreds of "You're pre-approved!" credit card applications—I don't know about you, but I seem to get at least a couple a week—some random dumpster diver can tape the pieces together, mail it in, and get a credit card in your name, for which the company will soon start happily billing you.
Well, crap. It looks like it's not safe to live without a shredder. The last time I checked out shredders on Amazon, customer reviews were grumpy. Fellowes' heavily-advertised shredders came out especially poorly. Consumer-grade shredder technology does not seem to be very good, until you get into the $150 and higher price range.
