UK not liking the Fox

Apparently, London has a problem with urban foxes, or at least the media thinks so...

An urban fox crept into a home in Lewisham on Wednesday and dragged a four-week-old baby from its cot, severing its finger in the process. The child's mother, alerted by the boy's screams, had to kick the fox to get it to release the boy's hand, which was lodged down the animal's throat.

First, ewwww. Second, while these attacks are sensationalized, dog attacks are much more likely in the UK. That doesn't stop them from being the British version of coyotes or GASP wolves. A menace that has very little impact on people but you keep hearing stories about it...

Yet despite being such an atypical event, it [fox attacks] is repeatedly referred to in the press. In comparison, the seven children and five adults killed by dogs since 2005, and the hundreds more disfigured, receive far less coverage. Nor are urban fox numbers increasing, despite claims made by yet another "expert" on the recent Channel 4 programme. In many cities fox numbers have declined due to sarcoptic mange, an extremely unpleasant and fatal disease.

So there you have it. FOXES: The Scourge of the UK.

Fox pleases European Royalty with "arranged marriage" reality TV Show

I seriously thought arranged marriages were for people from the 1200s and conservative Christian parents who thought it was the best thing for their daughter to marry a 40-year old pastor.

But, I guess Fox thought otherwise.

Fox is developing a wedding reality series where brides-to-be don’t meet their husbands until they exchange vows.

In A. Smith & Co.’s “I Married a Stranger,” a woman frustrated by the dating scene agrees to marry a man she’s never met. While she prepares for a blind wedding, friends and family are shown selecting a spouse from a pool of six eligible suitors offered by producers. The men are eliminated one by one until only two candidates remain. Both finalists walk down the aisle, but only one makes it to the altar to reveal himself to his new wife.

“She never meets him until the actual moment when they say 'I do,’ ” a source close to the project said. “It’s like the big scene that comes after an entire season of 'The Bachelor,’ only this is in every episode.”

Hmmm, better get my resume brushed off for this show. I'm sure there's some home-schooled girl out there for me.

Headlines from around the world

This current crisis is not "The Great Depression" - you can always trust are media with delivering the most cheeriest of stories. Yay! We aren't in the worst economic downturn of the last 100 years. Hooray!

Pirates too slow for cruise ship - Somebody needs to do something about the pirates off Somalia, although don't worry too much because they have slow boats...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The luxury American cruise ship teeming with hundreds of tourists just might have been too much for the Somali pirates to resist.

But the bandits, riding in two skiffs and firing rifle shots at the gleaming ship, were outrun in minutes when the captain of M/S Nautica gunned the engine and sped away in the Gulf of Aden, a spokesman for the company said Tuesday.

How the heck do you get outrun by a cruise ship? "Cruise" ship. As in, not going really fast ship.

This sounds like something that would happen to me - Wounded deer attacks hunter.

Good thing it was still warm - I mean if you're going to throw something at your girlfriend it might as well be a sweet potato pie.

Company is selling trips to edge of space - No word yet if the ships will be piloted by monkeys.

How to tell if you wasted your day

What did you accomplish today? Anything of importance? What if you can't tell? Well, here is the easy and useful guide to see if you got anything done today. If you answer yes to any of these, congratulations, you have wasted your day. But don't worry, we at Just South of North have the solution to your problem.

1. You spent the whole day waiting for the NASCAR race to begin: the race was rain delayed. Supposed to start at 2:30 CST. At 8:40 CST FOX gave up and just started playing The Simpsons. Solution: The Simpsons RULE!

2. You worked on homework all day: College seems to always have more homework to do. No matter how hard you work, you can never get it all done. Solution: Drop out and move to California to sell mangos on the beach.

3. You spent all day downloading music to your new Ipod from CDs and the Internet: yeah, that is a very time consuming event. Solution: Sell your Ipod and buy a Walkman. Remember Walkmans? Those were so amazing.

4. You spent all day cleaning house: first of all, who does that? Second of all, why do that? Solution: Shove the mess to the sides of the room so you have a path around the house.

5. You layed on the floor, avoiding the light: maybe you live in your parents basement, maybe you have a hangover, maybe you are a vampire. Either way, lame. Solution: Video games. They solve everything.

6. You wasted all day trying to come up with a blog idea, and this is all you have: yeah, maybe the next one will be better. Solution: Read Just South of North everyday.

Oh, and tomorrow is Monday. Sure to be worse than no matter what you did today.