Blue Crab Boulevard

Apparently, all you have to do is feed it an alligator.

An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps.

The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded.

The remains of the two giant reptiles were found by astonished rangers in the Everglades National Park.

The rangers say the find suggests that non-native Burmese pythons might even challenge alligators' leading position in the food chain in the swamps.

The python's remains were found with the victim's tail protruding from its burst midsection. The head of the python was missing. 

Of course, you must realize what this means: alligators can detonate at will. There is also trouble between the factions of the reptile legions of the Animal Uprising™. 

A German author is set to launch his latest book - with a nude reading.

A book about naturism in East Germany is to spice up its publicity tour – with a naked book reading.

East Germans became famous for "Freikoerperkultur" (FKK) before the fall of the Berlin Wall, happily stripping off at summer nudist camps.

Now author Thomas Kupfermann has written a book about the subject, compiling snapshots and memories from leading lights in the naturist movement.

The sold-out reading today at a bookshop in north-eastern Germany will apparently be shrouded in heavy curtains to prevent over-curious onlookers ogling the audience. 

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard would never stoop to such naked opportunism. The upholstery on the office chair is much too scratchy. Not that we've checked. Honest.

The Politico reports that a virtual smoke-filled room is in operation, with Democratic party 'elites' busily deciding how to derail Hillary Clinton and confirm Barack Obama as the party's candidate.

Hoping to avoid a summer-long bloodbath for the Democratic presidential nomination, some party leaders such as Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen have urged a convention of superdelegates in June, after the caucuses and primaries are over.

The idea sounds exotic, but recent public declarations and Politico interviews with top Democratic officials have made clear that something like what Bredesen proposed is already underway — not with a big meeting but with an intensifying series of exchanges among party elites.

The early voting in this virtual convention is bad news for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her hope that Democratic leaders will settle the nomination is starting to come true — with Barack Obama so far emerging as the beneficiary.

After a 10-day slog of self-inflicted wounds and fatalistic headlines for Clinton, these party elders are clearly tilting against her hopes for keeping the nomination contest open indefinitely.

The Democrats’ virtual convention is taking place publicly, with statements like the remarkable comment by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that Clinton should get out now, and semi-publicly, with background comments made by top operatives to the media.

It is taking place also in private entreaties by e-mail or phone — the modern equivalent of smoke-filed rooms — as advocates for Obama urge an early end to the race and Clinton backers plead for time and warn about his general election vulnerabilities.

Ah, the electronic age. The press certainly appears to have settled on who to back - the nonstop negative reporting on Hillary Clinton is telling. The quick shedding of negative reporting on Obama is also telling. Does anyone doubt that if someone like Jeremiah Wright was connected to John McCain that there would have been endless reporting on the sinister connections? The screeching would have been a serious risk to eardrums everywhere. Unless Obama makes a huge mistake in the next few weeks, Clinton is done. The writing is already on the wall for her. 

Legend has it that when the body of Casey Jones was pulled from the wreckage of the train he was killed driving, one hand was clutching the whistle and the other the brake handle. The Democrats are desperately trying to avert the trainwreck that they can all see coming now and are rapidly shifting support to Obama in order to head things off. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton's campaign juggernaut is stalled on the tracks ahead.

WASHINGTON — Slowly but steadily, a string of Democratic Party figures is taking Barack Obama's side in the presidential nominating race and raising the pressure on Hillary Clinton to give up.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is expected to endorse Sen. Obama Monday, according to a Democrat familiar with her plans. Meanwhile, North Carolina's seven Democratic House members are poised to endorse Sen. Obama as a group — just one has so far — before that state's May 6 primary, several Democrats say.

Helping to drive the endorsements is a fear that the Obama-Clinton contest has grown toxic and threatens the Democratic Party's chances against Republican John McCain in the fall.

Sen. Clinton rejects that view. Over the weekend, she reiterated her intent to stay in the race beyond the last contest in early June — and all the way to the party's convention in Denver, if necessary.

"There are some folks saying we ought to stop these elections," she said Saturday in Indiana, which also has a May 6 primary. "I didn't think we believed that in America. I thought we of all people knew how important it was to give everyone a chance to have their voices heard and their votes counted."

It's a bit hard to envision Clinton getting the nod now, but it is also a bit hard to believe that the party will be able to stop the train in time. Funny thing about the legend of Casey Jones that kind of gets lost in the heroic tale of the engineer who died trying to stop the passenger train before it piled into the stopped freight. Jones was found to be at fault for the accident in the first place.