| Author | Message | ||
     Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1503 Registered: 02-2013 |
Often my American friends entertain me with their behaviour, but this morning I was delighted to be entertained by two extremely lucky lads from Exeter United Kingdom. Their trick was to grab a pretty little blue ringed octopus and put it on one of their arms not once but TWICE! The fool lived to tell the tale and realised once their video hit social media that what they did was real Monty Python Crazy but not in a fantasy way but in reality itself. Right - death in 8 minutes. And I remembered back a few decades ago when a gangster friend of mine in New York upon hearing my tale of the Funnel Web Spider demanded "Quick send me a box full of them " for reasons I do understand. Hmmn just wondering if these young clowns who cheated almost certain death in Queensland with that little pretty octopus are booked on a flight to Siberia to pat the bears. I just do not understand why people do not do some research about the little things in life that are waiting to send you into the next universe before they arrive here. Its a puzzle for me and I like it. | ||
| Patrick Ryan Grand Master Username: patrick_r Post Number: 2115 Registered: 04-2016 |
Just to add to Vlads post for our non Australian family, Here is some interesting facts regarding this beautiful little beast. https://animalsake.com/facts-about-blue-ringed-octopus  | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1505 Registered: 02-2013 |
Thank you Patrick for posting up a pic of my pretty little friend whose poison I have read is many times more powerful than cyanide. Poor old Hitler could have afforded a few more hits of methamphetamine and saved on the cost of pharmaceutical cyanide with just one of these. Strangely he didn't want to take the free trip to Moscow to argue the point with Stalin who would have very much enjoyed Adolf's company. | ||
| Omar M. Shams Prolific User Username: omar Post Number: 1856 Registered: 04-2009 |
I only ever went to Australia once. I had so many horror stories and warnings about how not to die whilst there. Luckily I survived... But my goodness is it ever hard to stay alive in your country..... | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3379 Registered: 04-2003 |
Omar, I am living proof only the good die young..... Yes, our country has more dangers than most but common sense and awareness mean most of us survive to lead a happy life. | ||
| Patrick Ryan Grand Master Username: patrick_r Post Number: 2119 Registered: 04-2016 |
Vlad, Yes I don’t know why Heir Hitler wouldn’t have wanted a first class tour of the extensive Soviet Union in 1945/46 Maybe it would be that his head may have been in other parts of the country and his body other areas? | ||
| Patrick Ryan Grand Master Username: patrick_r Post Number: 2120 Registered: 04-2016 |
Omar, All you need is a good pair of heavy duty thongs (you may call them flip flops) budgie smugglers (you may know them as Speedo’s) a 6 pack of beer, a hat and your all set. As David says once you dress appropriately as per Vlad’s dress code above, you won’t have to worry about certain death by our nasties here, because you won’t care, so the creatures then ignore you. | ||
| Omar M. Shams Prolific User Username: omar Post Number: 1858 Registered: 04-2009 |
Thongs!!! You Aussies really need to revisit that word.... It is not what you think it is in the rest of the world. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3383 Registered: 04-2003 |
Omar, We have long-standing ownership of the meaning of thongs as a type of footwear - the Yanks have tried to muscle in to use it as a term for suggestive clothing for reasons best known to them. They have also did a similar thing with our Ugg boots despite this brand name being in common use here long before a US smart-arse registered it in the USA and then claimed world-wide rights. The Yanks still have a lot to learn................ reminds me of the old WW2 joke: When the German planes came over, the British and Americans ducked. When the British planes went over, the Germans ducked. When the American planes went over, everyone ducked!!!  | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 742 Registered: 04-2019 |
American jokes ! I am going to leave an never come back ! At least that is what I want to say about the place I am in now. I'm sure I got a lot of hopes up with my first statement, with a big Finally. ;) | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3384 Registered: 04-2003 |
Mike, If you ever come to Australia, you will understand the real strength of our relationship especially the mutual respect we have for each other and our use of humour regarding this relationship. In my case, during WW2, my parents and a US family became close friends as a consequence of a US soldier in the legendary Wisconsin "Red Arrows" [32nd Infantry Division] who was severely injured in a "friendly fire" incident in November 1942 at Pongani in New Guinea which was the first time US troops went into action in New Guinea and where the legendary NY Times war correspondent Byron Darnton was killed. One of the most severely wounded US soldiers, Ben Rozzella, was repatriated to Newcastle NSW for specialist hospital treatment as the hospital was recognised as having extensive experience with treating victims of mining and industrial accidents. Ben's family had been told he was "missing in action - presumed killed" whereas he was in Newcastle undergoing extensive surgery to repair his wounds. My mother [then single and her girlfriend] were members of the Women's Land Army and were doing voluntary work at the hospital where they met and become good friends with Ben. He was unable to write to his family to let them know where he was due to military regulations so he asked my mother and her girlfriend to write to his family and let them know he was still alive as their letters would not have to go through the military censors. This resulted in a very happy outcome on the same day when two letters arrived at their home in Wisconsin; one from the US Army saying he was now listed as "presumed dead" and one from Australia saying he was alive and receiving the best possible treatment for his wounds. Our families have remained very close for 3 generations and the 4th generation is about to continue our relationship. I became involved with the son of Byron Darnton [John Darnton] who never knew his father but followed in his footsteps as a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the New York Times when he started to write a book about his father and I was able to provide him with information on the events before and after his father's death and some Australian contacts who knew the men on the "King John" when the incident occurred. John kindly acknowledged my help in his book "Almost a Family" published in 2011. For anyone interested, the following links are relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Darnton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Darnton https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/books/review/book-review-almost-a-family-by-john-darnton.html The world moves in mysterious ways and for some reason I will never know; I was meant to help a son document the life of a father he never knew by being in the right place at the right time with the right information and contacts on the other side of the world. . | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1511 Registered: 02-2013 |
That was a great story David. | ||
| Patrick Ryan Grand Master Username: patrick_r Post Number: 2122 Registered: 04-2016 |
That’s amazing David. 2 families tied together for ever. Fantastic mate. | ||
| Mike Thompson Frequent User Username: vroomrr Post Number: 746 Registered: 04-2019 |
David as you know I am working on a theory in physics. Part of which are grouping events. What seems to be random are in reality a grouping event. As a group of people all decide to leave their house to go to a parts store. At the parts store there has not been any customers for quite a while. Then all of a sudden one person shows up then the bell curve of the people show then the end of the bell curve is complete (this happens much more than coincidence can account for). Even though all these people came from different distances and had different things in mind, they all show up within this bell curve. That is a grouping event. There are thousands of such events that says the universe in its calculations of the process of events, because of entanglement, likes to group events as part of the conservation of energy, ultimately due to entropy. A fancy way of saying that you experienced a grouping event, or to put it correctly, a conservation of energy event. Now that you know grouping events happen, you will start seeing them everywhere. And start to think, did I decide to go to the store right now or did the universe put me into that grouping event. | ||
| Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 1514 Registered: 02-2013 |
Mike not sure is physics can help us here. In the second world war, what Russians call the Great Patriotic War, our American friends came in rather late. Yes indeedy, nine tenths of the Germany army was against the Russian front. As I understand it this is historical fact. So yes the second world war.... Australians, French, New Zealanders, Canadians, Scots, English, Irish, including the bloody Welsh and heaps others and later on US army against 10 percent of the Germany army. Now if you look at most Hollywood produced movies you could be excused for thinking the Soviet army was all drunk and staying at home. Moreover, as a Soviet soldier you always had a friend in the NKVD who would summarily execute you if you dared to retreat/desert. Something tells me the US army troops did not have that type of encouragement. But wait on. The second world war also included the land of the rising sun - the bloody Japanese Imperial Army. Now these dudes were something else. Australia was a sitting duck. Low population, low wages, low standard of living, full of flies, monogamy and the churches had their day. The japs were at our necks and then the young men and women of the USA came down and they really started the clean the deal up. Fortunately there was a pulse in Washington and two nukes were dropped. War shows humans to be nuts. Like say you have a pretty girl and all of a sudden you find some other bloke hanging out of her and you go bang. Thats murder. War is different. You get to kill people you know nothing about for reasons you spend the rest of you life trying to work out. The relationship between David's family and the American family was forged in wartime and is set as good as the head bust of Socrates at my University. Physics is not a part of it. |
