Town Fights Cricket Plague With Led Zeppelin 190
The residents of Tuscarora, Nevada are getting ready to fight the annual invasion of mormon crickets with the power of Rock-N-Roll. Trial and error has shown that the crickets don't think much of Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones. The residents circle the town with boomboxes at regular intervals to drive off the millions of crickets. "It is part of our arsenal. You'll wake up and there'll be one sitting on your forehead, looking at you." says Laura Moore, an unemployed college professor and one of the town's 13 residents. The crickets devastate crops, cause slicks on the highway and evidently love rap.
Almost Onion Material (Score:4, Interesting)
TFA: "...best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets"
Mormons and Zeppelin don't mix?
Tuscarorans are preparing once again to get out their extension cords, array their stereos in a quarter-circle and tune them to rock station KHIX
Sounds like another Burning Man festival.
Re:copyright violation (Score:3, Interesting)
If a Led Zeppelin song is broadcasted but there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound^H^H^H^H^Hvalid claim of copyright violation?
Seriously, though, this is why they should play from a radio station broadcast -- then the royalties were already paid. If they play from CD or from mp3, then they could be subject to a public performance complaint... plus then they'd have to deal with the not-so-fun issue of synchronization of a crapload of stereos.
Re:They Love Rap? I Think Not (Score:5, Interesting)
The TFA doesn't say they love rap. What it says is that the 2007 and 2008 crickets had "hipper tastes" (i.e. weren't as deterred by heavy-metal music as the 2006 crickets were). Apparently samzenpus mis-read "hipper" as "hip-hop" and assumed they love rap.
Le Sigh.
Also means the residents of Tuscarora might be applying selective pressure on the cricket population by playing loud rock music.
Re:Easy Solution (Score:3, Interesting)
Stairway to Heaven by Rolf Harris would get me out of bed in zombie mode and change the CD-player/radio to anything else.
Om nom nom (Score:1, Interesting)
If the crickets are eating your crops, eat the crickets.
Re:"Unemployed college professor"? (Score:3, Interesting)
How does a place with thirteen people in it qualify as a town, again?
"Mormon Crickets: Neither mormon nor cricket.... (Score:5, Interesting)
... Discuss." ;)
They're not called Mormon Crickets because they're considered adherents to the faith, they're called Mormon Crickets because they're one of the fine local features the Mormons found waiting for them when they settled in Utah the mid 1800s. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Gulls [wikipedia.org] .
Mormon Crickets are also not only not Mormons, they're not crickets either. They're shieldbacked katydids.
They're also cannibals.
And polygamists.
Manuel Noregia and crickets? (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember I was deployed to Panama for Operation Just Cause as an forward air observer and Manuel Noregia fled to the Vatican's Embassy (Apostolic Nunciature) and the US set some boom boxes around the embassy and they played rock music all day and night. We were camped about mile from the embassy and we can still hear the music clearly from that distance so I know much louder it was at the embassy. Nevertheless, Manual Noregia gave up afterwards.
Re:PC police (Score:3, Interesting)
It's funny how the Mod system can make someone look racist.
I wonder if the trolls bait people for just this purpose? Could they have achieved that level of intelligence? Surely not, or we are doomed!! I'm just going to assume it was a lucky (for the troll) accident and hide under the table just in case I'm wrong.