Salon has obtained an internal 117-page draft proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The document proposes to:

“limit the number of species that can be protected and curtail the acres of wildlife habitat to be preserved. It shifts authority to enforce the act from the federal government to the states, and dilutes legal barriers that protect habitat from sprawl, logging or mining.”

Read more here. I guarantee the final draft will be titled “Helping Endangered Species Act” or something similarly compelling. The “Saving Wolves Act” would be nice. Or how about the “Freedom for Endangered Species From Government Interference Act”?

’m in a parking lot in Owego, NY (an actual place!) borrowing bandwidth from an anonymous linksys router. Upstate connectivity sucks. There’s a German Shepherd dog asleep in the back seat. Her name is Fiona. I borrowed her for the trip. I just bought this car. One problem solved.

Don’t know if you’ve heard, but a version of Katamari is coming out for the Wii. Hope you aren’t doing anything this summer.

I’m reading Guns Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years. It gives an excellent overview of the evolution and intersection of human cultures. I’m not far into it, but it’s pretty captivating so far, like taking an anthropology course from Oliver Sacks.

Miles to go before I sleep. Woof to everyone.

oday was big and full. I’m tired, so here’s a list for you. Bullet points are less intimidating.

• I crashed our application today by accidentally deploying to Production rather than my localhost. Oops. But then I fixed it and felt all cool with my mad Linux skillz.
• I’m staying out at my friend’s farm, and this morning I woke up to giggling girls downstairs, local organic bacon and fresh bread, fresh carrot/ginger juice, friendly German shepherd dogs, showtunes, and the nicest snowy upstate NY vista you could hope for.
• Within 12 hours, I asked for and got $5000 from my bank for a new car. Frightening.
• I helped my friend’s daughter watch Sesame Street.
• I helped my employer research how to sell animal sounds for Second Life folks. Advice welcome.
• I drove out to Amish country in a veggie oil-burning truck and saw a tractor museum while helping my friends pick up a forklift that they bought on Ebay.
• We got pulled over for speeding, but were let go because the cop liked the veggie oil truck.
• I waved at Amish children playing in the street with a Shetland pony cart.
• I watched the sun set behind as a mile-long V of migrating geese flew overhead.
• My cow-orkers grilled outside at lunch for the first time. Someone brought venison. Fun was had.
• The pond outside my work window froze last night, and dozens of geese spent the day sliding on the ice with huge leathery feet.
• I received a kind text message.
• I set up my new laptop.
• I helped make a timeline for an NSDL grant.
• I patronized a 4-H bake sale and volunteered to do a beekeeping talk.
• I learned that rolling back to a previous version in Subversion is a pain.
• I stopped taking pain meds and the Frankensteinian curved laceration on my right shoulder has proven to be no trouble at all.

Goodnight. More adventures tomorrow as I travel to Pennsylvania to pick up a car and my motorcycle learners permit.

Stay tuned.