h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Catch you later filter is even more annoying than the actual right there immediate filter

Seal?

I've only ever seen seals as tiny little dots way out to sea, where someone has gone 'that's a seal' (and they might have been guessing anyway).

Is this global warming? Are there larger numbers of Antarctic visitors heading your way? We keep getting reports of Great White Sharks and giant turtles and lots more whales than usual round these waters. Oh, and jellyfish

We have permanent seal populations (well actually they migrate I think, but there are colony places that are the same over the years). They were hugely knocked back in the 1700s/1800s (killing seals and whales was what brought Europeans here in the first place), so it's taken them quite a long time to recover. In the last decade or so you start to hear about fisherman complaining about seals because they eat too many fish (never mind people eating too many fish), so I guess the numbers are getting up there again.



>>Great White Sharks and giant turtles and lots more whales...jellyfish<<

That's very cool. You'd have had whales round there traditionally though wouldn't you?

Fisherman say the same thing here - they keep pressing for a cull, but I find it hard to believe seal numbers are really quite as healthy as is made out. Otherwise I'd have seen loads, wouldn't I?

Traditionally, the whales you'd get close in to British waters would be quite little 'uns though, Pilot Whales especially (lots of those, I've even seen one).

Mind you, when I was in Ireland last year, a sperm whale got washed up and that doesn't happen everyday, though it does happen. Well, obviously it happens. It was an odd thing to see: I hadn't really appreciated what happens when a creature that big ends up on land - it basically collapses and you wouldn't think it was a whale to look at it. Though we were facing away from its jaw, which might have helped make it seem more whale-like. Now those eat jellyfish (among other things) - maybe that was why, following the food source. Though I think that one was dead when it arrived, it hadn't beached itself.

Ah, global warming. That should work the other way round with whales, though? Heading further north/south? I don't know. The sea temperatures are definitely going up round here, but there are various projections to do with the North Atlantic currents being switched off and the Gulf Stream not happening anymore... and then it's going to get cold instead. Really cold - uninhabitable cold.

Good-oh

I would have thought you'd have had big whales for some reason. Is it too cold in the past?


So are people taking that theory (the really cold one) seriously? - seriously in the sense of is anyone preparing for that - personally, locally, nationally?

The worst case scenario I've heard for NZ is 100+ metre sea level rises, although presumably that's for everyone not just us But it's a NZ scientist that's saying it.


*

Being essentially an old hippy (well a middle aged one now that I'm over 40 ), the whole approaching catastrophe stuff isn't news, but I have to admit that recently I've been having this sense of unreality, like oh, it's really happening. Now. And we haven't even got to the bad stuff yet I suppose it's because we really have no idea of what's going to happen or how bad or not so bad it's going to be.

You probably do get really big whales the further north you go.

Whale is still a local delicacy in the Faeroes after all

The really cold scenario involves the Atlantic Conveyor switching off and Western Europe getting the climate its latitudes would seem to deserve - it's only the Gulf Stream that makes these islands inhabitable in the first place. So, there's not really an awful lot of point preparing for it, since the temperatures wouldn't just drop a bit, but they'd suddenly (or over about a ten-year period anyway, which is sudden enough) go from entirely moderate to Northern Canada instead. It'd be so disastrous, the only immediate remedy would seem to be mass emigration.

Probably to New Zealand

100 metre? What'd be left?

Have you seen the Al Gore film? I watched it over Christmas - didn't tell me much I didn't know already, but it was still quite well done, certainly worth watching: and it was causing a big stir in the US.

I go from 'oh woe, what can we do?' to a vague sense of hope, in fact - that there's still time and things will get done.

Oh wow! A steam train just went past my window - a big old-fashioned locomotive with old-style carriages and everything Wonder where that's going? I've never seen it before.

Well if you're planning to emmigrate to NZ you'd better get in quick because the US Americans are buying the place up apparently for when the big crash comes

Northern Canada, eh? Maybe you should just hand over the place to the Canadians now, so they super insulate it, and solve all your social problems at the same time

Where are the Faroes?

I haven't seen Gore's film. Interesting to think that he could have been the president of the US instead of the dipstick they've got now.

>>
Oh wow! A steam train just went past my window - a big old-fashioned locomotive with old-style carriages and everything Wonder where that's going? I've never seen it before.
<<

Did it have caboose? Where I was staying just before I came home was near the main trunk line (not many people in NZ live near a railway). I liked watching the trains, especially at night (my friend found this a bit odd). But there were no cabooses .

Pesky USians I wanted a whole island to myself

It's a nice idea, but asking Canadians to come in and manage things would smack to them of neo-imperialism and they'd therefore be opposed to it on ethical grounds

The Faeroes are roughly halfway between the Shetlands and Iceland - I think they're Danish, but in a self-governing sort of a way. A very cut-off place and part of the local culture involves going whale hunting and having big feasts. At least, I think they still do it, but this is all a bit vague memory trip of things half-read

There was: big steam train; coal cart bit (I know there's a proper name for that, but I can't remember what it is); a few carriages; and then, bizarrely, a diesel locomotive being pulled along at the back. Which spoiled it a bit - maybe they were going by steam one way, then getting taken back by diesel.

It snowed! And the country ground to a halt (inevitably). There was only a bit round here and it had all gone by the next day (still enough for most of my classes on Thursday to be operating on skeleton conditions As is usual, people who had to struggle out to campus from many miles away all made it after many adventures, while all the people who had merely to roll out of bed and cross the road considered it far too perilous to venture out of doors. Pah!)

I always am disappointed when it snows here and the country *doesn't grind to a halt I mean, any chance for a day off you'd think. Too many contractors out there clearing the road before sunrise

My atlas spells Shetland as Zetland Maybe the atlas was published when the vikings where still there There's lots of countries in that atlas that have different names now (although how I would know I'm not sure as my geography is pretty crap ).


I'm meant to be going out of town for half a week or so, but I'm sitting here eating chocolate and hootooing instead

Does hootoo not count as 'out of town' on some level?

I think they do that one purpose: all the countries of the world get together at the UN and, instead of reaching resolutions on disarmament or universal healthcare, agree that at least one country has to make a minor modification to its name every few months. They're probably given backhanders by the atlas manufacturers.

I'm taking my laptop with me but I suspect that easy access to phonelines will be few and far between

Where's all these hotspot wireless thingys? I don't really understand how that works - are people giving away broadband?


Oooh, maybe we could put in nominations for name changes for where we live

'New Zealand' could become 'Slightly worn around the edges but still in pretty good nick Zealand' (we have to keep the Zeal bit because it makes googling so much easier).

I've never understood wireless hotspots either - I think they're free, or some of them are anyway. They do seem to be city centre things round these parts.

New Tealand? (Everyone has to have something new and exciting for tea every single day? )

The name change here would involve dropping the 'Kingdom' bit, obviously. I've nearly finished subbing Galaxy Babe's Camilla Duchess of Cornwall Entry: a fine piece of work, but I don't know I'm really the man for it - I keep getting tempted to make little alterations to the mood of the piece.

"In February 2007, Camilla and her husband declared they would not be succeeding to the throne and said that they were 'totally cool' with the idea of a republic, with David Bowie agreeing to stand for first president of the new state."

I've been good though At no point do the words 'job', 'get' and 'freeloaders' appear anywhere near each other in the subbed version.

They need a brownie points badge for extra good subs then


David Bowie for pres? What about Eddie Izzard?

So, it's midnight here and I just had to go outside to the laundry, and this possum started screeching REALLY LOUDLY just round the corner of the house. My mind immediately went to earlier this afternoon and reading SWL's thread on reintroducing wolves to the UK (which I think is a good idea, but am not sure how I'd feel if it was NZ because I quite like living in a country where you can go walk around in the wilderness and the only thing likely to kill you is the weather or maybe drunk deer hunters). The possum was really close, how cool, but how not cool that would be if I was in the UK and it was a wolf (actually it would be even cooler, but I wouldn't be (do we have a smiley?).

Ah well, I suppose that's the advantage of having opinions in cyberspace



Anyway, I went and got the torch and found the possum in the tree. Don't know what all the racket was about though. It ran off pretty bloody quick

I had to chase another possum out of the workshop the other night. I often leave the door open and they've never gone in there before , but I happened to hear it banging around and went to investigate. Of course it had to run to the fartherest corner from the door and try and hide (there's a saying downunder about 'playing possum' which is when they try and make out they're invisible by being really still even though its bum was sticking up from behind the cardboard boxes. I had to clear all the piles of crap out of the way in order to make a wee road way for it to get out.

Then I started remembering possum stories of people who get possums stuck to their head (that's a really bad scenario because they won't let go and there is apparently a huge amount of blood)... so I got the concrete broom and went and told the possum that it was really easy to get out down the wee path I'd made in the shed. But for some reason it had to ignore the wee path completely and jump all over the place, making me jump all over the place in case I was its next landing spot. It did manage to get out in the end, probably more by luck than anything . I did yell out to it that I got the bigger fright.

*Wanders in and blows some dust about*

Blimey - no posting since Valentine's Day Not doing very well, am I?

End of term was just horrendous here (every year it seems more of a squeeze as the student numbers go up and the lecturer numbers stay the same and the work requirements for each get chunkier and less reasonable). I've spent the last week mostly sleeping and lolling around, which has been very pleasant.

Didn't leave an awful lot of time for hootooing (apart from mucking around with Footie and emergency UG maintenance).

I wanted to go into Ask and post something provocative yesterday, just to see what would happen. It's all gone very quiet again

So, how are you? Are you taking it easy on the hootooing? I've seen the odd bit of Forum sense I think (though I haven't posted there in what seems like months).

Bum - lights have gone out

I forgot to tell you - I'm a broadbandy at last!

I haven't disappeared totally, just thought I'd let you know that Should be able to get back soonish for a chat

You haven't disappeared totally I can see you

Take your time There's nothing much of anything going on round here anyhoo...

So how's the broadband going Do you have real BB over there?

The broadband had a bit of a funny episode a couple of weeks ago, leading to much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Oh, and an extremely expensive phonecall to my ISP's 'helpline' (ha!), one of the aspects of my 'free' upgrade they'd kept confined to the small print.

I think it's real *poke* It's certainly quite whizzy

It still occasionally does this thing of not recognising the remote computer (or whatever it is) and not talking to it, at which point my heart sinks. So, yes, it's much quicker, but there have been a few occasions where I've thought 'this never used to happen with dial-up' and longed for the days of the hand-crank and the man walking in front with the little red flag

Ah, so I can feel grateful for something at least (ISP tech support in NZ is free). There is a big kerfuffle here because Telecom, ex govt dept now private company, still has the monopoly on the infrastructure and have basically screwed ADSL for the forseeable future. Alot of people have slower broadband now than 2 years ago thanks to telecom. I'm sure you've heard me ranting about it before. Luckily I wouldn't touch them with a dead badger (although that is a rather excellent idea perhaps), and my own ISP does still manage to provide an adequate service within the monopoly limitations.

It's a strange fact of the technological revolution though, that new technology often brings worse service (don't get me started about digital phones being worse than the old analog ones... I mean we're talking about a major *communication* device, so why make something that makes it harder to hear people on??!!? Duh.)

I must have been very busy in the last few months, because I keep thinking, oh I'll have half a day on hootoo and annoy the hell out of everyone , but I never seem to get round to it. I think because I've knocked those all nighters on the head it's harder to catch the wave here.


There must be something exciting happening round the place though....

What's this Derek fellow like? He seems to have gotten the swing of things.