Toadfish Monastery

This topic has been moved to Moddo Grotto.

http://toadfishmonastery.com/forum/index.php?topic=414.0

Somebody in Melbourne just found this terrific story in the local paper, and posted it on RichardDawkins.net :

Quote
A SOUTH-WEST Victorian chicken farmer known as Swampy and his dog Oddball may have found a way to save some of Australia's endangered wildlife from predators.

After Warrnambool's once-flourishing penguin population was decimated by foxes and dogs until only 27 remained, Allan "Swampy" Marsh hatched a radical plan to save the birds.

His four maremma sheepdogs had been protecting his chickens against predators for a decade. He figured they could do the same for the penguins.

"The difficulty was trying to convince all the wildlife wallies to think outside the square," Mr Marsh said. "It's not an altruistic view of penguins or chooks but an ingrained sense of territory that makes maremma dogs work, and it is far stronger in these dogs than any other domesticated breed."

Oddball's stint as guardian of Middle Island's colony last month was a success.

At the end of the month, 70 pairs of happy feet were counted returning to the island. About 2000 penguins inhabited the island in the 1990s.

"The poor little buggers have copped such a hiding," Mr Marsh said. "Oddy is really protective of the chooks, so to her the penguins were only chooks in dinner suits."

Highly territorial dogs, maremmas have been bred in Italy to guard livestock for 2000 years. They instinctively ward off intruders such as foxes and dogs.

The trial's success has generated interest from overseas. The use of guard animals such as maremmas — and even alpacas, which also deter foxes — is now being considered to save other endangered species such as the eastern barred bandicoot.

Oddball's first encounter with a penguin resulted in a peck on the nose.

But they soon learnt to live in harmony, with Oddball sleeping metres from the penguins' burrows. "They pretty quickly got used to the fact there was a new smell on the island," said Mr Marsh, who also camped on the island.

Warrnambool City Council environment officer Ian Fitzgibbon said the community was excited by the trial's success and its implications for wildlife.

"The penguins are part of the Warrnambool community and everyone feels pretty strongly about them," he said.

"People see maremmas as a conservation technique that could be used with other animals suffering from predation."

The council closed Middle Island to the public during the trial amid concerns that the dog might attack people.

Department of Sustainability and Environment regional biodiversity manager Craig Whiteford said the concept could be adapted to protect shearwater, gannet and other penguin colonies along the coast, as well as the eastern barred bandicoot in the Hamilton area. "We've adapted a normal agricultural process into conservation of an animal and we don't know that that has happened before with native species," he said. "There is global interest in this little trial."

The council and DSE are now considering a year-long trial at Middle Island, using two maremma puppies recently acquired by Mr Marsh.

With Oddball back guarding her chooks and interview requests trickling in from overseas, Mr Marsh said he was chuffed she had become the "Paris Hilton" of the animal world.

"From the point of view of having introduced a new idea to the conservation community and opened a lot of closed minds, I feel really proud," he said.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/01/21/1169330766413.html

We're all gonna die!


Well some time, we are.

So how do you view the prospect of your own death?

I'm not looking forward to it, not waiting impatiently, but the prospect doesn't alarm me at all. I just want to finish my work here first, ya know?

I don't. I hear a lot of people say they do.
Along the lines of Stephen Pinker's model of 'faculties of mental processing', I believe what's going on may be that:

Some (few?) peoples reading is mediated through their speech centers, then to their 'Language Processor'. These are the people whose lips move when they read.

Some (most?) peoples reading is mediated through their auditory centers, then to their 'Language Processor'. These are the people who read at 'normal' speed.

Some (few?) peoples reading is not mediated by either specch or auditory centers and goes (directly? or mediated by their visual processors?) to their 'Language Processor'. These are the people who read preternaturally fast. I'm one of these; on a day off I'll often read three books.

Has anyone here had any 'speed reading' training? I've  tried to do this, but their intial assessment testing always shows I read faster than they think they can achieve with their training - they tell me to go away. I'm wondering if anyone who has been so trained experienced a stopping of hearing what they read.

What do you think?

SCHIZOPHRENIA: Do You Hear What I Hear?

MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER: We Three Kings Disoriented Are.

AMNESIA: I Don't Know if I'll be Home for Christmas.

NARCISSISTIC: Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me.

MANIC: Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and...

PARANOID: Santa Claus is Coming to Get Me.

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER: Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire.

PERSONALITY DISORDER: You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll tell You Why...

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

AGORAPHOBIA: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day But Wouldn't Leave My House.

SENILE DEMENTIA: Walking in a Winter Wonderland Miles From My House In My Slippers and Robe.

OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER: I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus So I Burned Down the House.

SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas While I Sit Here and Hyperventilate.

The Monastery, as a whole is intended to be, and is, a 'safe place', where all members can safely discourse without rude and insensitive people (including 'trolls') trampling all over them. The dedicated private Toadfish areas are even more so.
The offerings in this area are likely to be particularly sensitive, as people are more 'emotionally naked', without common defenses we all use in 'real life', when they offer their 'artwork'.
Nevertheless this area is in Open Water, where all our members can post, and I think that is a sufficient explanation why.   I just want to remind you to treat others submissions as you would like your own to be treated, with Humility, Tolerance, and Respect for Others.
my beloved siblings.

Compass
"Walk.", they said.
"Where?", said I.
"It doesn't matter." they said. "Just walk."
But I knew a true compass
has five directions,
North,
South,
East,
West,
and Here.
So I came Here.
Hi!

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. 
This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

We now have a 'Pirate' Membergroup available on request.
All it does is give the title of Pirate, and Skull and Crossbones instead of that OWL thingy, but I'm guessing yer all would like it...
I've already set a few people up, just let me know if yer want it - reply in this thread would work fine....

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink. If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green. Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating.

I found this link over at Koom Valley (they hated it, too).
Frankly, I will probably have nightmares about this...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,987172,00.html?=rss

QuoteWere you to glance up from the deserted beach below, you might mistake Tranquility Bay for a rather exclusive hotel. The statuesque white property stands all alone on a sandy curve of southern Jamaica, feathered by palm trees, gazing out across the Caribbean Sea. You would have to look closer to see the guards at the wall. Inside, 250 foreign children are locked up. Almost all are American, but though kept prisoner, they were not sent here by a court of law. Their parents paid to have them kidnapped and flown here against their will, to be incarcerated for up to three years, sometimes even longer. They will not be released until they are judged to be respectful, polite and obedient enough to rejoin their families.

Check out the link to read on...

This topic has been moved to Picture Gallery.

http://toadfishmonastery.com/forum/index.php?topic=117.0

We reccommend the use of PhotoBucket http://photobucket.com/ as a free repository service.
Upload your own pictures to there from your computer (it's very simple and good help is available) and then post the Img reference from there in your post here. The Img reference is the third one under your picture, highlight it, and copy it on Photobucket, then paste it here.

Feel free to start a new thread in here or to add your pictures in a reply to an existing thread.

I found this over at TOP.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would like others here to comment.
It seems thoroughly well argued to me, though I'd class it as 'the level of explanation appropriate to our intellectual development' just as I'd justify any of the other 'religious' 'creation myths' from 'primitive cultures'

http://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal

As you can probably tell, we've started the reorganisation of the board.
The intent is to make it easier for everyone to find what they want, and to provide a more meaningful structure.
We haven't deleted any posts.
More explanations, and probably a little more clean-up of the reorg will undoubtedly follow.

I won't be over there anymore.
I've already learned not to stay at a forum run by  a Coalition of the Ethically Challenged.

Since there's not much activity here, yet, I'll just check in from time to time (and at the New Pastafarians site) hoping the activity moves over here (or there).
I won't be back to Venganza.