Aesops Fables

Aesops Fables included the tale of The Crow and the Pitcher in which a Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it.

Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher and he repeated this trick until the water level rose within reach and he slaked his thirst and saved his life.

Well, scientists have found that there may be a basis in truth in this fable, because a rook has been seen to do precisely that same trick when faced with a similar situation .... "The rooks have to put multiple stones in the tube until the worm floats to the top" said Dr Nathan Emery. The four birds did just that. Two, called Cook and Fry, raised the water-level enough to grab the floating feast the very first time that they were presented with the test, while the other two Connelly and Monroe, were successful on their second attempt.

Animal intelligence never ceases to surprise us. especially tool and problem solving amongst birds.

Obama and the "Race Question"

President Obama has recently fallen into the race trap, when he remarked on the arrest of a black professor for verbally abusing the police after they asked for his ID, that there was a "long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately".

Ooops, from a man who has had a favoured background, including being a fully trained lawyer, this was dumb.

It's an indisputable fact that in the US (like most other countries), crime rates amongst Black and Latino communities is many times higher than amongst other ethnic groups in that country. It's also a fact that larger proportions of the males of both these groups have criminal records, therefore "disproportionately', can just mean 'correctly targeted' ....... A stupid mistake by the President, and one that could haunt him in years to come.

The story is running big time in the US, as it has forced Obama to have to call everyone in 'for a beer' to try and calm things down. The President has his critics, many of them very vocal, such as the strange outbursts from James DManning (ironically a convicted burglar), so to raise the spectre of racial politics coming from the White House (Black house?) is to risk confirming the predictions of his opponents.

"Corrective" Rape

The story about South Africa as rape central, continues to strangely attract the BBC ...... after the follow up on the repentant rapist, they are discussing the phenomena of raping lesbians (ahh, now I understand why the 'wimmin' of the BBC are interested), to 'sort them out'.

Known colloquially as "corrective rape", its another penis led African male story, in which just one forced entry by a male is meant to 'cure' lesbians.

It's almost impossible to think of anything to say about a group that thinks like this.

Obama - Long Legged Mack Daddy

This was posted on the Burning Toast blog site as Well, Are We? ...... I am almost speechless, which is more than can be said about the broadcaster.

Sadly that blog is dead now and taken down .... and so has the original video on you tube that was here ... but I have found another version, not quits as good sorry.

 

The speaker gets more and more worked up as his larynx gets warmer, and then starts singing his insults. Be warned that US freedom of speech is much stronger than that in the UK, so be warned again that he doesn't worry about the language or content of his insults.

 

 Here's the object of his ire ....

A Long Legged Mack Daddy?

Trouble In 'The Peoples Republic'

The 'Peoples Republic of Scouseland' has been going through a few internal problems recently. After somewhat ironically being name "European City Of Culture", things have gone a little down hill.

First there was the "Curran Affair", where Alex Curran, the wife of Liverpool footballer Steven Gerrard (yes in the UK, wives of footballers are now classed as 'celebrities', who keep their own surnames), complained about how rough Liverpool was, and how she never went there anymore (presumably she meant because of all the 'chavs and scallys' ...... easily identified by wearing tracksuits for every occasion, cigarettes hanging from lips, pushing baby buggies carrying little 'steviegee' or 'waynetta', very bad perms and talking in 'klingon' ). She said that "To be honest it's rough. Everywhere new that opens attracts the wrong type of people. It's not nice, so I haven't bothered to go out."

This was after a string of upsetting events, such as having the family mansion targeted by burglars last year (Half the Liverpool team have had their houses robbed by the local scallys, in a campaign presumably led by an Evertonian burglar), Mrs Gerrard (aka Alex Curran) was at home when it happened and police said she was left 'shaken but wasn't hurt'.

Then her husband had to defend himself, before he was attacked, by punching lumps out of a man in a Southport bar (Southport is where Scouse footballers live). Gerrard spent a night in the cells, before eventually being found not guilty in a Liverpool court (If I punched a man because I thought he might attack me, then I would go to prison - ask farmer Tony Martin, although a more recent case an inquest defended a man who attacked a burglar who held a knife to his throat.... even the UK courts recognise that as provocative.)

Ms Curran is herself no stranger to police interviews, as she was questioned about an alleged assault in a Liverpool restaurant in 2006 but no charges were preferred.

Needless to say the 'local officials' have retaliated in typical style .... Police and council chiefs have said that 'Liverpool is getting safer', and is 'one of the top four UK city destinations'. The locals were more circumspect, with some agreeing that it was rough, but others saying that it was Ms Curran who was the "wrong sort".

And there the story might have ended as far as I was concerned (although the 'red top press' are all over her for the remarks, and she will be back peddling as fast as she can, like anyone who 'attacks' the people of the 'Peoples Republic'), but then came the second event.

Kenny Dalglish, former Liverpool player, manager and local legend woke up to find that someone had left a bomb, in the form of a live hand grenade, outside his Southport Mansion. It's not clear if it was aimed at him, or his house was just considered a convenient place by locals in which to store a bomb.

Now thats what I call a rough area Alex!