Tag Mashing

Yesterday afternoon, the tag test post was evidence of my further efforts in WordPress 2.3 site tagging.

I have been using the Simple Tags plugin for Technorati tag generation for a while now, and I’ve been pleased with its functioning. With the advent of WP 2.3, you can now have site tags in your posts, and the Embedded Tag Thing does a great job of adding site tags to the WP database. However, to get site tags to display on the blog, I had to edit the site’s theme. This displayed tags when visiting the site, but not in its Atom feed.

So yesterday afternoon, I managed to hack up both plugins to display both site and Technorati tags on the blog and also to include both in the Atom feed. I let the Simple Tags plugin take care of expanding and displaying the site tags, and then modified ETT so it only updates the tag database. I was then able to revert the theme to its original state.
The results are there now for all to see. WordPress has a motto “Code is Poetry.” With my modifications, perhaps the code no longer is quite as mellifluous, but I go for results first; beauty will come in due course. And I had fun doing it.

-k-
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A Roper!

I have no clue how I manage to find these stories about livestock on the loose. It’s not some weird Technorati tagging, nor an Atom feed focussing on these things; however, from Newark NJ, a tale of a wayward bull ultimately roped by a manager of the Associated Humane Societies’ Newark office. Denton Infield is the man’s name, and he is originally from South Africa, where rounding up of stray critters is a little more common.

In this case, the 600-pound bull evidently was destined for the slaughterhouse, and either escaped from same, or fell off a truck1 bound for there. In any event, he had a 10 hour2 spree in and around Newark, during which he eluded the best efforts of law enforcement to catch him. Then Infield lassoed him, so that another animal control officer could subdue the bull with a tranquilizer dart.

According to the article:

The bull was corralled less than a mile from Newark Liberty International Airport, about eight miles from New York City.

That’s high-human density for humans, let alone a bull. Finally, before the grills are fired up:

Authorities called in a trailer from Popcorn Park Zoo in Lacey Township, a refuge for abused or unwanted animals that is operated by the Humane Societies. Infield said the bull would be taken there to live out the rest of its life.

Great story; I guess my lamenting the demise of roping was premature.

-k-

1 – Where I hail from, critters don’t “fall off” trucks. But that’s what the article said.
2 – 10 hours!? A long time for a bovine on the streets of Newark.

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