Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 4296-4300 (29th June to 3rd July 2020)
ZoeB:
I emigrated to Australia in 1968.
We did our bit capturing funnelwebs (Atrax Robustus) from our Sydney garden to be milked for venom.
"Oh, it still has all its legs!" I remember one biologist saying. Many who contributed were none too careful about what condition the arachnid was in when they were turned in.
The antivenom was finally completed in 1981, and since then, no deaths have been recorded from funnelweb bites.
Probably the most danger I was ever in was when snorkelling off the heads between Newport and Bungan beach, came up after a 1.5 minute stay at 5 metres, and heard sirens. Shark alarm. Then put my head underwater and saw a school of bull sharks heading my way. A lifesaver inflateable boat chased them off while I slowly swam back to shore, trying very hard not to splash around like an injured fish, and ready to punch one in the sensitive nose if it got too close.
The last encounter I had was about 3 weeks ago, cleaning a table from outside. A nest of redbacks. Chemical weapons were employed.
Since 1968, I've had maybe one encounter per year on average. One nasty spider bite (a bird eater, bled a lot), one experience sharing my trousers with a scorpion (not dangerous, just as painful as hornet stings) on an exercise. Numerous bullant stings when clearing out nests, no worse than bee stings. Front end bites and draws blood, rear end stings like a wasp - which they are ancestral to.
The US has bears, gila monsters, mountain lions, alligators, porcupines, rattlesnakes etc too remember?
Cornelius:
--- Quote from: Farideh on 01 Jul 2020, 20:29 ---Yeah, bureaucracy sucks. I just applied for citizenship (in New Zealand), and they'll get back to me in 3 months or so. Honestly, what are they doing in the meantime? Shredding my application and then putting it back together as a team building exercise or something? Or just doing unmentionable things to Sudokus...
--- End quote ---
Only three months? That's half the time you wait here. And I have it from good sources that it only takes a week or so to handle the actual paperwork. Rest of the time, it's just sitting on a desk somewhere.
Then again, I heard stories about people retiring, only for their successor to find a full ten years worth of untreated dossiers.
Otl1973:
--- Quote from: Gyrre on 29 Jun 2020, 21:43 ---My brother is currently a Floridian. Apparently walking one's dog (or other pet) can be a trecherous enough afair. I wouldn't want to deal with those crocodiles.
--- End quote ---
Our crocodiles are pretty harmless (they very much try to avoid people). The alligators - not nearly as much (and there are *way* more of them). (Though even they rarely are dangerous if you don’t do stupid things.)
BenRG:
I think that Yay showing Roko how to access her manual was probably a bad idea. She's now got access to all her user-defined cosmetic functions and has apparently linked them to her emotions. I mean, as much as the glowing red eyes are cool, I'm pretty sure that Beepatrice isn't the only one who finds it unnerving. It also may somewhat undermine Roko's desire to come across as a 'good guy'.
I'm thinking that, whoever Munroe Robotics turn out to be, there is a reason why we haven't heard of them before!
--- Quote from: Torlek on 01 Jul 2020, 19:53 ---Roko's sinking a lot of invective into words/insults used against humans. Methinks she might have some bias, if not bigotry, to work through.
--- End quote ---
Nah, she just hates the guy in the probation office who essentially called her a time-waster and an idiot.
Gyrre:
--- Quote from: Scarlet Manuka on 01 Jul 2020, 21:24 ---
--- Quote from: Gyrre on 01 Jul 2020, 20:07 ---
--- Quote from: Tova on 30 Jun 2020, 05:36 ---So, speaking of endangered animals...
Koalas will be driven to extinction before 2050 in NSW, major inquiry finds
Unsurprisingly, habitat loss is their biggest threat.
--- End quote ---
Don't most koalas die because they literally can't chew their own food anymore after their teeth naturally wear down?
--- End quote ---
From what I can find out, the major causes of koala death are the following, more or less in order (sources don't always agree about the order):
- Habitat loss
- Hit by cars
- Disease, particularly a range of conditions caused by chlamydia
- Dog attacks
"Other trauma", "Senescence", "Other disease", and "Undetermined" seem to form the next tier down according to this source at around 2-2.5% each, which was the only one I saw that actually went into the minor causes. (The best other sources I found were QLD Dept. of Environment & Science and Australian Koala Foundation.)
I did find a source that supported your claims at koalainfo.com. However, the quality of writing on this site is poor and there don't appear to be any references on any of their articles, so I'm dubious as to this site's accuracy. I saw one or two other sites that mentioned starvation, but they attributed it to several causes, including disease, habitat loss, climate change (which makes the leaves they eat poorer in nutrients), and koala stress syndrome. This was the only site I saw that claimed starvation was mainly due to old age, so I think this is unlikely to be true.
--- End quote ---
I just vaguely remembered the thing about koala teeth grinding down. I honestly couldn't tell you where I read/heard it.
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