Nature

Who’s eating who?

The cartilaginous fish, the stingray, is not an aggressive creature.

Tell that to Steve Irwin the self-styled Crocodile hunter. It’s just over four years ago that the over-confident wildlife expert was speared in the chest by a stingray barb, killing him. Irwin exhibited all the negative characteristics of your chummy Australian: porky, cocksure, idiotic gestures. He was colourless, humourless and ultimately reckless.

Just as Steve Wright in the Afternoon begat the transforming of DJ’s from spinners into all-round irritating personalities, Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, spawned many copycat followers. The wildlife expert was now an adventurer. Suddenly it wasn’t enough to show nature in the raw, there had to be interaction. Irwin would get up close and personal with his favoured reptile inviting them to have a bite. This was what the TV executives craved. Exciting, reality television with dangerous animals; peril sells. Continue reading “Who’s eating who?”

Yankee Chickens Panic at a drop of rain

When an area of Queensland larger than France and Germany put together was under water, did your image and video code still get corrected so that other Charioteers could view them? Yes!

When our capital city was inundated under 30 metres of water, were your grammar mistakes and your typos still efficiently put right? Yes!

When Boadicea and I sat for days and weeks under a metal roof pounded incessantly by tropical rainfall at six inches or more per hour, did the high quality of the Chariot degrade for even a minute? No!

When Cyclone Yasi thundered across our State, remaining at Category 1 for a thousand kilometres or more until it crossed the border with the Northern Territory, did we wimper? No!

But when New York was threatened by no more than a tropical storm, the American nation reacted as though the Four Horsemen had teamed up with Al Qaeda to precipitate Ragnarök. Certain cherished colleagues – Charioteers who inhabit the effete country and a timid canis lupus – so lost their intestinal fortitude as to suggest that grammar and punctuation were no longer important. The editorial suite was shaken to its core.

A dose of stiff upper lip (from the Poms), and a laid back “She’ll be right” (from the Aussies) is what you guys need. Forget punctuation? “Tell ’em they’re dreaming” [The Castle, 1997].

Toby Harnden summed it up pretty well on the Telegraph.

No disrespect to LW, CO or OZ intended. Well, not much, anyway. 🙂

Irene, Goodnight Irene.

I’ll see you in my nightmares more like.

Looks like we creek dwellers are in the path of Hurricane Irene, the storm may just graze the Delaware beaches on its (her?) way north. The beach areas are under compulsory evacuation. Current predictions here on the eastern shore are for 70 MPH winds, 10 inches of rain and an eight foot tidal storm surge. Depending on the state of the tide late on Saturday that may put water three or four feet over my dock and could completely submerge my pilings. Right now we have no water at all in the creek, it went out like water down a drain today and will probably come roaring back almost as fast late tomorrow with the wind.
Continue reading “Irene, Goodnight Irene.”

We’re Talking Crabs – part 1

It’s the peak of crabbing season here and this is all about crabs and crabbing. I am told that when get on a subject that interests me I often have to be brought up sharply with a loud “Shut up man! You’re boring people”. So don’t say you were not warned.

The crabs in question are the Atlantic Blue Crab, more specifically those that thrive in what H. L. Mencken (one of my favorite drunks) called “that great protein factory, Chesapeake Bay”.

Here’s a bushel basket of blues just to set the scene

Continue reading “We’re Talking Crabs – part 1”

The Riots and what to do about them.

I started writng this in response to Ana’s post but then felt it warranted a separate entry.

Ana has written an interesting post. However, I can’t help feeling that she has gone against her own advice and that rather than “stand back from such events before forming a definite judgement, simply to allow the facts to settle”, she has reached a conclusion. “It’s no more than hooliganism, based on forms of avarice that would shame even the greediest banker.”

It is of course easy to say that and is probably true. But what it does not reveal is that given the right environment, avarice and hooliganism are present in most human beings. You do not have to be hard up to be greedy. The various financial bubbles, Tulips, Louisiana, South Sea, Dot-Com, Credit etc. have all proved that greed is present even in the most ‘civilized’, affluent and well educated individuals. Just consider some of the high profile divorce cases to see how wives such as Heather Mills or Linda Evangelista try and screw every undeserved penny out of their ‘errant’ husbands. Or those who have sued their employers for sexual harassment stemming from a pat on the bum. Or look at those people from companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco etc to see how with little regard for others, they plundered their companies’ resources and ruined the lives of tens of thousands of employees and shareholders. As for the Credit Bubble, everybody from the unemployedAtlantasingle mother on benefits who took a mortgage she could not begin to afford right up to the likes Fred Goodwin and Alan Greenspan, was guilty of greed and hubris. Continue reading “The Riots and what to do about them.”

Saving lives

Arachnophobia afflicts two members of our household, while I’m rather fond of the eight legged scuttlers, even when they are fairly large. So when I saw this:

on the landing I knew I had to do something. Continue reading “Saving lives”