Enders Game..

[sleepy]

But others take themselves seriously, at anyone else's expense.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

in sochi it was just a matter of passing convenience. as for oz, they're afflicted by invasives, such as rats, dingos and other non-marsupials. more a matter of survival for them.


one of the worst problems is the rats and cats taking a short-ish swim to nearby islands and decimating native fauna. example: there is one kind of large parrot that is flightless, called the kakapo, or owl parrot. it has no experience with placental predators, and is basically just a sitting meal for whoever comes by. they are from NZ and a couple small nearby islands, and there are only about 100+ left. probably doomed in the wild, not unlike orangutans and many other animals. :/

I hate to admit it, but that fucking thing looks delicious! Like one huge chicken breast! And you say it's flightless? Just sitting around getting all... fat. Just kinda stewing in its own juices? I need a sandwich.

Alright! Now that I've eaten and can quit staring at that delicious squab, I gotta call Darwinism on this one, Nic. That is a very adorable parrot, but some animals just aren't fit to live in a constantly-evolving ecosphere. I'm sure that, in this case, it was man that assisted in what will be that poor thing's demise by introducing a creature not native to its habitat. But all I'm willing to give man is "assisted". That poor bird seems unequipped to deal with anything stronger than a light shower, and would have fallen victim to the first thing with teeth and claws that showed up at its door. Goodbye, pretty bird. Or evolve like hell and learn to fly.

 

[sleepy]

I saw that McDonalds is now selling that for half-price.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

... Alright! Now that I've eaten and can quit staring at that delicious squab, I gotta call Darwinism on this one, Nic. That is a very adorable parrot, but some animals just aren't fit to live in a constantly-evolving ecosphere. I'm sure that, in this case, it was man that assisted in what will be that poor thing's demise by introducing a creature not native to its habitat. But all I'm willing to give man is "assisted". That poor bird seems unequipped to deal with anything stronger than a light shower, and would have fallen victim to the first thing with teeth and claws that showed up at its door. Goodbye, pretty bird. Or evolve like hell and learn to fly.

oh man, bill... i was gonna say that i could only make you 100 of those chicken breast sandwiches before they were all gone. D: thank you for saying "adorable," though... the internal champion of nature appreciated!

but, you know... i find this same situation as common as dirt (like, under your frozen grill) with man and across wildlife, as well. example: there was a particular 'cache' of new animals discovered in a remote region of indonesia about two years ago. but same old, same old-- they had no special fear of humans, and likely none of non-native predators as well. i also had this experience myself when tending plants in the rare bird house at the philly zoo-- they were so oblivious to me that i almost had to avoid stepping on the dazzling creatures underfoot.

but, yea... whenever a more-primitive culture of man brushes up against a more advanced one, the end result is usually pretty predictable. i certainly agree that natural selection and change don't always proceed smoothly and incrementally-- moreso that's how they tend to look in retrospect. no, change is a mysterious mofo, and modern humans were apparently almost completely wiped out 75,000 years ago in the wake of the toba eruption.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I recently learned that almost all human life in North America was wiped clean about 10,000 years ago due to weather that, I can only guess, is close to what I'm experiencing right now in Wisconsin. Mind you, I'm not some heartless bastard that believes we need to slap a parking lot on Lil' Floppy's home turf. I find it difficult to support progress at the price of extinction (despite my inability to avoid all the wonderful products whose use will inevitably lead to many such extinctions). But... yeah... poor Lil' Floppy? Doomed. Dooomed!

How 'bout we just call him the Green Penguin? I like it. It's got class. Speaking of which, how attached is he to, you know, "the warmer climes"? Will his evolutionary clock allow him to grow feathers faster than it will let him fly?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

10,000 years ago... the last ice age. in the recent news was the theory that beringea was also much more elevated out of water (rather than just being a strait, see?) and that a pocket of humanity survived there trapped between ice sheets as it were. sound compatible?

but, man... my thing is... this is about much more than a bunch of species getting kicked to the curb in the wake of 'progress'. IMO it's really about two things-- man's many relationships at intrinsic levels with various plants and animals (turn your back on them at your peril)... and, how when you kick too many spokes away from the whole, great big bicycle wheel, it will begin to bend, and maybe even collapse. to put it mildly.

some people are cheerfully leaping ahead to the hopeful glories of life on mars, while i'm snorting derisively and replying that we can't even hang on to the flepping colony on earth, i.e. what makes you think we're going to solve the destructiveness of humanity in an even more precarious future situation?

...sorry! i'm trying not to let a certain cartoon character, mister ecowarrior-philosopher, from grabbing the wheel for too long. D:

 

[StevOz]

Ah then again here we have some damn fine laying hens, a friend of mine has just 4 in his backyard, yet can harvest 8 eggs a day, so long as they collect those 4 in the morning, otherwise it just the 4 a day. This is an urban property..somewhat less then the standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_acre

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

interesting. in the states, it seems difficult to get zoning or whatever for domestic animals. even exotics are pretty well regulated or verboten... even something like a squirrel. (not sure what the nearest marsupial equivalent would be, steve)

fun fact-- i read not too long ago that chickens (fowl) have a close link to the common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs. maybe the closest of all modern birds. and that earlier forms of chickens (that pretty much looked the same as modern ones) were alive during the dinosaur age.

what i'm trying to say is-- those eggs are archeological evidence, mate!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

speaking of chrissie, her birthday is on the 7th (she'll be 63). i posted a little factoid on my public FB wall if you happen to be there.