Western Australia is the world’s deadliest region for shark attacks. In an effort to make it safer for surfers and swimmers to go into the water, officials have set up a Twitter feed (Surf Life Saving WA) that notifies followers when a tagged shark enters the area. Scientists outfitted some 400 sharks with transmitters that send warnings to the Twitter feed. Here is an example of the kind of tweet the system might send. A tweet like this about a tiger shark had been sent every four or five minutes for about an hour and forty-five minutes before this one.
I think this is a brilliant idea and a fantastic way to do something useful with social media. Now you can take your cell phone to the beach and see if it’s safe to go in the water. Of course, most of us don’t live in Western Australia, so unless scientists working near our shores can tag us a bunch of sharks this innovative way to use Twitter won’t directly benefit us in North America.
This is our daily open thread. Feel free to talk about sharks, Western Australia, or anything else you wish to discuss.
TheZoo 
Age of Ignorance
Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. It’s no use pretending otherwise and telling us, as Thomas Friedman did in the Times a few days ago, that educated people are the nation’s most valuable resources. Sure, they are, but do we still want them? It doesn’t look to me as if we do. The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bullshit.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/20/age-of-ignorance/
This planet’s hominid population is, indeed and in spite of its numbers, on the downhill slope, and in many ways the US is both showing the way and leading the charge. Not much good can be said about a “civilization” in which the educated and the intelligent are epithetically referred to as communists, Marxists, anti-American, etc. etc., and the fans of such stupid crapola as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Louie Gohmert, Sarah Palin, Duck Dysentery, etc. etc. (all interchangeable, for all practical purposes) are viewed by the masses as ‘patriots’ — or worse, as ‘Leaders.’
Problem is, when officially imposed stupidity comes to define a population (especially a global population which has the means of achieving both education and intellect embedded in its gray matter), imposed stupidity accurately portends impending collapse and possible extinction.
In re hominids, with luck the latter will be the case and ‘we’ will not take the rest of the biosphere with us on our way out. Maybe next time evolution will get it right.
I blame the media for pushing these ignorant folks on us. How else would they be heard or known? I still have no clue as to what the show Duck Dynasty is about and I have no interest in finding out. I didn’t even know it existed until someone in a store back in late October, was telling us that she was dressing up as one of the Duck Dynasty men for a Halloween party. It surprised me as I wasn’t aware that Duck Dynasty was a real TV show. This is what happens when one doesn’t have TV service. Guess I’m not missing much. I can watch my favorite shows, such as The Good Wife and The Daily Show, the next day on the computer.
Republicans want to keep people ignorant and uneducated otherwise, no one would vote for them.
I think it’s all about the money=power equation. When the masses are educated (as was pretty much the case prior to the ‘conservative’ takeover in DC), money was more widely distributed, and the vast bulk of people were living comfortably. Since then, since Reagan’s “trickle down” nonsense, the rich have gotten richer, the poor are still poor if not poorer, and the middle class has shrunk. And today, money in the hands of the extreme rich has effectively become a government purchase tool — i.e. the key to immense power. The way to the top has become to monetize everything, including education, with the result being more money trickling UP, courtesy of less education and a more agreeable trickle-up politic.
All of which predicts the demise of what was once seen as the ‘land of opportunity’ into its diametric opposite, for all but the few.
As a culture, as a civilization, we die slowly, but we die. And in the process the rich get richer. And in the end, no one wins.
Creative people amaze me. Wish I was one.
Now that is really cool.
That tree seems to have a funny face on it.
And genitalia.
It sure is.
Cool. The air is so clear.
A Critique of Conservatism
Sounds interesting. I’ll read it later today.
New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, Fla., is the shark attack capital of the world, according to a database called the International Shark Attack File. Each year, thousands of people dip their toes and then jump in, stroking past the surf and into a zone that’s literally thick with sharks.
“Most people who have swum in and around New Smyrna have been within 10 feet of a shark in their lifetime,” says George Burgess, an ichthyologist and fisheries biologist at the University of Florida who maintains the International Shark Attack File (ISAF).
You may well be right about New Smyrna Beach being the shark attack capital of the world. OTOH, perhaps the attacks are more often fatal in Western Australia, so they may both be right. If they did tag a bunch of sharks in that area, I wonder if anyone would ever go in the water again?
The first rule of bite club.
Never talk about bite club.
This is why I stay in the shallow water, jumping waves.
We have a saying: If you’re in over your ankles, you’re part of the food chain.
I like to fly down the beach and check out spots to go fishing.
On one occassion, I observed a large bait pod that was changing shape.
Black tip sharks were beating up the bait pod.
The kicker: The water was full of people in up to their waists with drinks in hand totally unaware of what was going on next to them.
I don’t go that deep 🙂
As if you’d not had enough of Duck Dynasty, it turns out Phil thinks you should marry 15 year-olds. He practiced what he preaches too.
http://aattp.org/watch-phil-robertsons-tips-on-finding-the-perfect-underage-girl-to-marry-video/
No way am I clicking on that link.
There’s not enough eye bleach on the planet.
A&E proved just what Duck Dysentry’s moral standing means to them…… more money….. I suspect Phil whatsit could skullfook a goat on screen and provided the ratings hold up – the show will keep its primetime slot.
I read somewhere that the show lost a substantial number of viewers.
I won’t ever have to worry about sharks, but with regular reports of alligators this far north, I don’t plan to go fishing ever again.
How about that? Ed Schultz is live today. No ‘Best of Ed’ fill-in.
Sharks? Wow coincidence…. here’s the first story I clicked on on Yahoo.
Maybe Socal could use the shark ‘tweeter’. Personally I think the sharks need a tweeter warning system for us.
Spritzer has always creeped me out.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/high-end-hooker-gov-eliot-spitzer-scary-article-1.1560783
Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who prosecuted Woodard’s first madam, Kristin Davis, and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have said that Spitzer was not connected with the case.
So why would anyone automatically believe her?
Publicity is the key to a Reality TV Show deal, I guess.
Turns out it wasn’t a farm.
Could’ve been a Republican or Teabagger political rally.
I’ve never seen nor heard of one of these before…
Let’s hope they stay wingless. I think I can outrun that if it can’t fly.
Those aren’t blades of grass it’s walking on, they’re two-foot high bushes. 🙂
(Just kidding. It’s tiny.)
Why? Because the media promotes this bullshit.
thanks brother!!
Doug Stanhope on raising money for atheist tornado survivor: I did it simply to be a prick
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/30/doug-stanhope-on-raising-money-for-atheist-tornado-survivor-i-did-it-simply-to-be-a-prick/
Absolutely!
He had a couple of great points …. – she did have courage to say what she did and absolutely right, it takes a selfish lack of self-awareness to thank Jesus/God/Allah/whatever for the tornado ripping your neighbours and their houses up on the opposite side of the street from you.
At least next year Christmas and New Years won’t split the week down the middle, making folks like me work one or two days at each end of the week.
The weather Wednesday is supposed to be decent for the first time in several weeks on my day off.
enjoy!
http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/the-twilight-zone/231833/the-twilight-zone-marathon-a-history-of-a-holiday-tradition
Rod had the perfect cadence for the introductions of The Twilight Zone.
Ducks Die Nasty.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-hampshire-democrat-accused-of-mowing-down-as-many-as-six-ducks-with-his-car
This is the kind of cruel, heartless, idiotic behavior that reflects poorly on Liberals. If he had a mental episode that made hi not see the animals, it might be forgivable. But what he did was very deliberate and completely inexcusable. I hope he gets primaried and replaced by a more humane liberal.
The irony is that on the TV show, the Duck Guys get paid to kill ducks. So, not really an apt “payback” by this twit.
I can cope with sharks, I can cope with alligators.
However, nothing instills more fear into my heart than a carload of Jehovah’s Witnesses trolling the neighborhood.
We might have told you the story of our second neighbor from the other side of our house. She was single and she had a handgun. (I never heard her fire it.) One day she was cleaning the gun when some Jehovah’s Witnesses rang her door. She answered with the gun in her hand. They said thanks and never set foot on our property again for about ten years.
My dad’s birth father’s family were JWs.
Bullet dodged.
I had a friend that was deployed to Columbia for the farcical “war on drugs”
Oh stories he told (none of them heartwarming).
After he was out of the military he became scarce, sold everything and became a hermit in Idaho
He oughta head southwest and hook up with my brother who is living somewhere in the foothills of the Illinois mountain range west of the Applegate valley in southern Oregon. Better game and milder climate, I’d bet.
Legalize and treat the addicts. Seriously, even if crack were legal would we all go out and buy some?
Are you kidding? We’d all be FORCED to take drugs! 😯
I’m done channeling wingnuts. 😛
We have to remind RW/TPers who bitch about our national debt of this. The party they support is primarily responsible for our huge debt. Their anger is misplaced.
Their anger, as well as most of the gray matter that is supposed to function as a brain.
Not sure if Nancy Pelosi or Elizabeth Warren want to see “Punch apathy in the dick” in their timelines, but they’ve got it now. OK, I admit I retweeted it.
I love that one.
How do y’all talk?
Mine came up with Des Moines. I grew up in Ohio, but have lived in Minnesota for the last 20+ years, so Des Moines could be about right.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=2
S.F., Oakland, Fremont…
exactly where I’ve lived for 60+ years!
(I’ve never heard of a drive-through liquor store. We don’t have insects that light in the night so don’t have a word for them)
We had drive through liquor stores in Ohio, but not here in Minnesota.
There are places where you can get cigarettes, beer, ammunition and, live bait!
What could go wrong?
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010/11/29/guns-ammo-liquor-beer-wine-live-bait/
The fish could bite your drunken ass when you fall off the boat and into the murky swamp water…
OK, Fresno (not too far off from the San Fernando Valley), Salt Lake City? and Jackson, Mississippi??? Hmmm. I must have a smattering of southern Mormonism in my vocabulary.
112. How do you pronounce the word for the type of drug that acts as central nervous system depressant and is used as a sedative or hypnotic? (Please do not look up the word in a dictionary before answering this question.)
Heroin
105. What is your generic term for a sweetened carbonated beverage?
Beer
101. Do you pass in homework or hand in homework?
No.
99. Which of these terms do you prefer for the small road parallel to the highway?
The sidewalk.
95. What is “the City”?
A song by Joe Walsh
60. What do you call the area of grass between the sidewalk and the road?
Another passing lane
62. What do you call the long narrow place in the middle of a divided highway?
A really stupid place to change a flat tire.
Hair-o-in.
Oakland, San Diego, Boston.
I think Boston is an outlier. 😉
Mine said I’m from Minneapolis/St. Paul. They blew it by about 90 miles (or maybe the NYTimes has never heard of New Richland MN?)
That was pretty close, it placed me in NC rather than VA.
As if we needed more proof of its ever-rightward shift away from reality, in the last 4 years the GOP has moved from believing in evolution by a 15 point margin, to rejecting it by a 5 point margin:
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/
A Laurel, and Hardy handshake to FauxSnooze, for corrupting the idiots to the max.
Some religions will stunt intellectual growth!
Creationism isn’t a theory, it’s a religious tenet.
I hope to never again be asked if I “believe” in evolution. I accept the theory unless someone comes up with a better explanation for the evidence. Science is not a belief system.
Anti-Obamacare rhetoric from Papa John’s CEO and a major Applebee’s franchise owner appear to have driven down both chains’ consumer perception with casual dining eaters in the US, and are still impacted two weeks after those remarks were made.
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter’s post-Election Day comments about passing on health care reform costs by reducing worker hours and raising prices coincides with a swift negative reaction among casual food diners seemingly accelerated by the November 13th class action lawsuit accusing Papa John’s of sending unsolicited text messages to customers.
Despite Schnatter’s Huffington Post op-ed on November 20th claiming his words were twisted, Papa John’s perception levels continued to experience one of its sharpest drops of the year, sending it well below rival Pizza Hut.
http://www.brandindex.com/article/anti-obamacare-rhetoric-buzz
Perhaps, some day, these folk will think before they speak.
or
Learn that what they say may have negative consequences.
Not to mention having Peyton Manning shilling for his cardboard pizza imitations…Now that he’s a Denver Donkey, I wouldn’t try anything he endorsed…
Since I’ve never called Papa Johns to order a pizza, I guess that’s why I never got one of those text messages. I never got a text from Dominos, but I have called them on occasion.
I haven’t been in a TJ Applebee’s in a long time either.
Fascism doesnt pay after all there Papa Goering.
I’ve never eaten at either place. Never will, either, thanks to the idiocy implicit.
And the disaster that is the NFL franchise in our nation’s capitol once again hoses up. This time with the firing of the manager, as certain Mr Shanahan. As he sits stuck in traffic on the way to the team HQ. Can the NFL Owners pull emininent domain and just take the team away from Daniel Snyder? Please? Then they can change their name to the more dignified Washington Legislator’sWhollyOwnedByCorporateAmerica. A much scarier and more politically correct name.
And they could also void retroactively the umpteen draft choices they gave the Rams for RG3..OK, well maybe not…
I was going to lobby for the DC NFL team to be renamed the Washington Creepy Ass Crackers, but then I decided we could just call them the Washington Saltines.
Stockman must’ve oiled up his whole armory after Sandy Hook.
He really is a crusty asshole.
Dan Savage needs to popularize Stockman as the anal lube that best creates the Santorum.
Actually a lot of us could use this guide, or keep it handy. 🙂
It’s really not that difficult…
That’s a ‘striking’ photo!
(truly beautiful)
Rust works too slowly?
Another one of those safe oil shipment from up north
Wonder what that evacuated town thinks of the ‘safe oil’ now.
Assuming this is true, this proves that merely increasing safety measures for oil train transport alone isn’t good enough. Also, oil transport needs to be required to be secured with a hefty bonding to prevent ’empty’ corporate shells from being all that can be held liable for accidents/negligence.