Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• The approval, by the Justice Department, of the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR)...[note - more on this can be found here...]
• The bickering between Motorola Inc (MOT) and Carl Icahn...
• Concerns that a technology disruption at Netflix (NFLX) "may delay rentals"...
• The new CFO at Baidu.com Inc. (BIDU)...
• A warning from Valero (VLO)...
• The push by Microsoft (MSFT) to try to use Apple's (AAPL) iPhone to its advantage...
• Continued fervor about J.P. Morgan's (JPM) purchase of Bear Stearns (BSC)...
• Data on retail sales...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story is this - Gophers notch a win in man-rodent battle...according to the article, "A war on gophers waged by two Canadian men went awry this weekend when a device used to blast the rodents in their holes sparked a massive grass fire in a rural area near Calgary, Alberta, causing more than C$200,000 ($197,000) in damages"...

Every so often (unfortunately) we come across a story that highlights animals outsmarting us humans. In this case, you might not think that it really counts as an animal outsmarting us, but this "plot" of man versus gopher was already written. Anyone remember a little movie called Caddyshack?!?!?! Come on people! "Carl Spackler" maybe getting "total consciousness" on his deathbed but that doesn't make him a role model...

For those who may have missed past examples of animal "wins" here are just a few examples...

• man surprised when taunting crocodile goes bad
• repeated steer escapes from slaughterhouses
• lions escaping from a zoo just a month ago three bears broke out
• an alligator escape - note quote of "he's a very smart, healthy gator"
• a monkey escape (twice)
• a red panda outwitting its human captors - repeatedly
• those scientists who kept getting outsmarted by the great ape