Roadrunners, emus, wedge-tailed eagles, kiwis & YOU!

[Diziet Sma]

I was looking through the viewfinder, thinking, "Good, it's coming this way, I'll get a good photo."

And it got closer, and bigger... and bigger... and bigger. I was so intimidated I stepped away from the waist-high fence and forgot to actually take a photo.

As I said, usually in zoos they just ignore humans, and act as though we don't exist. When one was standing two feet in front of me, completely ignoring everyone else, and staring me straight in the eye, it's something I'll never forget. Did I mention they're really big up close?

Heh.. I had a similar experience back in high school.. a mate had a large aviary in his back yard, with a wedge-tail that could no longer fly.. I got to about a metre away from its' perch, whilst looking through the viewfinder of my SLR.. when he suddenly looked at me like I was lunch.. like you said.. very intimidating!

[Layne]

"I can remember once coming face to face with a free-roaming emu years ago in Sydney zoo. You are strongly warned not to approach them too closely because they can be pretty violent creatures, but once I had caught its eye, I found its irate, staring face absolutely riveting. Because once you look one right in the eye you have a sudden sense of what the effect has been on the creature of having all the disadvantages of being a bird - absurd posture, a hopelessly scruffy covering of useless feathers and two useless limbs - without actually being able to do the thing that birds should be able to do, which is to fly. It becomes instantly clear that the bird has gone barking mad."

--Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

[Wildeblood]

It's worth mentioning there is actually a Twitter account for Oolite, youse can follow:

https://twitter.com/Oolite

[Day]

Added Oolite account.

#Rant on Twitter#
I use Twitter very rarely, but I should do it more (soon, if I can be bothered).
Professionally, it's become a better tool for watch than rss streams. News are always appearing on Twitter BEFORE being retransmitted by journalists.

The difference with Facebook is: on Facebook, your "friends" follow you; on Twitter, "everybody" follows you, including your enemies/concurrents.
#Enf of rant on Twitter#

[Wildeblood]

The difference with Facebook is: on Facebook, your "friends" follow you; on Twitter, "everybody" follows you, including your enemies/concurrents.
#Enf of rant on Twitter#

Use the Block button for your enemies.
Use direct messages for your friends.
Use tweets for reporting road runner sightings near you. #RRinAus #RRinEU

[spud42]

ha ha ha ,, not sure i think the size comparison slipped your mind as you were back peddling

adds a whole new meaning to a wedgie... lol

[Day]

The difference with Facebook is: on Facebook, your "friends" follow you; on Twitter, "everybody" follows you, including your enemies/concurrents.
#Enf of rant on Twitter#

Use the Block button for your enemies.
Use direct messages for your friends.
Use tweets for reporting road runner sightings near you. #RRinAus #RRinEU

Nice
But as a company, when you tweet stoopidities, you can't prevent your concurrents/customers/John Doe from seeing it.
It doesn't do to block everybody

[Diziet Sma]

The difference with Facebook is: on Facebook, your "friends" follow you; on Twitter, "everybody" follows you, including your enemies/concurrents.
#Enf of rant on Twitter#

Use the Block button for your enemies.
Use direct messages for your friends.
Use tweets for reporting road runner sightings near you. #RRinAus #RRinEU

The problem with enemies is, they don't always show their true colours up front.

'Tis safer to not Twit your moves at all..

[Wildeblood]

The problem with enemies is...

Friends come and go, enemies last for a lifetime. That's why I've started a new Twitter account for my road runner advocacy. If I started tweeting road runner pictures from my usual account the h8ers wouldn't disappear, they'd just hate road runners as well. And no-one should hate road runners, that would just be sad.

[Wildeblood]

A little moral conundrum for youse to consider and advise...

What is the ethical status of rhetoric copy/pasted from "unsavoury" sauces? Consider the following paragraph, please:-

We believe that the future is what we make it. We believe that we, as free and conscious agents, have an absolute responsibility for all those elements of the world around us over which we are capable of exercising control: for the structure of our society and its institutions; for the beauty and cleanliness of both our natural and man-made environments; for the cultural and moral climate in which we live and work; for the military and geo-political status of our nation relative to the other nations of the earth; and, most of all, for the racial quality of the coming generations of our people.

In case you're in any doubt, it came from an American white supremacist website. Now, instead of re-inventing the wheel, I'm inclined to plagiarize the bulk of it, slightly re-arranged, for the Road Runner Party's manifesto, discarding the drivel at the end:-

We believe that the future is what we make it. We believe that we, as free and conscious agents, have an absolute responsibility for all those elements of the world around us over which we are capable of exercising control: for the structure of our society and its institutions; for the cultural and moral climate in which we live and work; for the beauty and cleanliness of both our built and natural environments. As custodians of the natural environment, we alone are responsible for the presence or absence of road-runners within it. It is within our power to correct the historical accident that road-runners do not occur in Australia, therefore it is our responsibility to do so.

What do youse think: would such a statement be forever "tainted" by imagined links to its "racist origins"?

[Diziet Sma]

What do youse think: would such a statement be forever "tainted" by imagined links to its "racist origins"?

I think it's only likely to be tainted if you somehow draw attention to the original source.. plagiarising without attribution would seem the way to go, here.


On a less serious note, "control" is an illusion, and this country's track record with introduced species would tend to argue against your argument.

[Smivs]

Much of it doesn't seem related to your 'cause', so maybe just edit it a bit so that is more pertinent and less obviously from a regrettable source.

We believe that the future is what we make it, and that, as free and conscious agents, we have an absolute responsibility for all those elements of the world around us over which we are capable of exercising control. As custodians of the natural environment, we alone are responsible for the presence or absence of road-runners within it. It is within our power to correct the historical accident that road-runners do not occur in Australia, therefore it is our responsibility to do so.

Of course the absence of Roadrunners in Australia is not really an 'historical accident' is it? It is more a function of evolution, and the absence of Coyotes.

[Wildeblood]

On a less serious note, "control" is an illusion, and this country's track record with introduced species would tend to argue against your argument.

Our record with both introduced and native species is disastrous. That's no excuse for giving up on either category. This country needs active environmental management more than ever; standing by and watching while everything dies, saying "Oh well, that's nature for ya," is criminal.

[Diziet Sma]

This country needs active environmental management more than ever

I have no problem with active environmental management.. but let's fix the mess we've got before adding new potential problems to the mix..

[Wildeblood]

Much of it doesn't seem related to your 'cause', so maybe just edit it a bit so that is more pertinent and less obviously from a regrettable source.

We believe that the future is what we make it, and that, as free and conscious agents, we have an absolute responsibility for all those elements of the world around us over which we are capable of exercising control. As custodians of the natural environment, we alone are responsible for the presence or absence of road-runners within it. It is within our power to correct the historical accident that road-runners do not occur in Australia, therefore it is our responsibility to do so.

Need padding, Smivs. Can't have a one sentence manifesto. Although that is good for a short-form, thank you.

What do you mean unrelated to my 'cause'? What 'cause' do you think I am espousing? Neo-niceism is about making the world nicer. Greening the desert, introducing all the good-looking animals (road-runners are just the vanguard species), getting rid of the damned cane toads. Demolishing the hideous International Style buildings, and returning to human scale architecture. Zero tolerance for graffiti vandals... It's demoralizing living in a country that looks like a giant rubbish tip. I just want things to be nice.

Of course the absence of Roadrunners in Australia is not really an 'historical accident' is it? It is more a function of evolution, and the absence of Coyotes.

Evolution? Please explain?