Big Fish and notes

"Makes Jaws look like a goldfish", reads the billboard on the Hutt Motorway advertising the James Woods TV vehicle "Shark".

Aside from the utter uncreativeness of the line, it is also in error. No mere lawyer can diminish Spielberg and Benchley's Great White.

This on the other hand, manages it quite well. Imagine the biggest Great White shark you can (the official record is 7.1 metres long). Now enlarge it by two or three times and you have a creature that primarily ate small whales, and could swallow you whole. Its extinct. We should probably be grateful, but imagine cage diving with one....
Another link here which I include solely because it includes the quote "50 Freakin feet!", as well as an interesting insight into the sort of turf wars scientists can engage in.

Why am I rambling about a giant dead shark, after viewing a billboard for a TV show I have neither seen nor intend to see?
I dunno, I saw the billboard, it made me wonder what could make Jaws look small, I've been interested in zoology and paleozoology since I was a kid, and knew about a shark more badass than Hollywood could ever dream, and here we are.

Really I am a closet greenie.


Interesing things I have discovered lately

If the UK participants are anything to go by, I am plenty knowledgable enough to go on "Who wants to be a millionaire", as are several of my friends.

A vast and majority proportion of commenters on youtube have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, but don't know it.

A shark's only tactile organs are its teeth and skin. They can see and smell of course but they learn about how things feel by biting them. Which is small consolation if one has just learned about you by biting your leg off, but hey it was just being curious. A lot of shark attacks only involve one bite, as the shark decides it doesn't like what it has just tasted and goes away to find something tastier.

Flying a Boeing 737 is much trickier than I thought it would be. Still, I didn't crash it, which is the primary object of the exercise.


Ancient boardgames

Further to my idea for recreating "Hungry hungry hippos" in breakage proof stainless steel or maybe titanium (clank clank clank clank), here are some old games that have been the subject of discussion lately.

Chopper strike
I suspect this one looks way cooler than it is to play. I have dim memories of playing it when I was about seven and enjoying it, but I was seven, so it probably gets old quickly

The Incredible Hulk
I'm pretty sure this was the one that had the wind up hulk that randomly roamed the board knocking down the little plastic buildings that would just as easily fall over on their own, even though said hulk isn't actually visible in the photos.

Mousetrap
Generally agreed to be way more fun to set up and activate than actually play. Didn't know it originally dates from 1963.

Dogfight
Also from the early sixties, this one actually wasn't bad. I have an inherited copy somewhere at my parents place.


Run to the water II

Had my belated first swim of the summer after netball at petone beach. Only vague nudity was involved as it was still daylight. The skinny dipping thing is more of a nighttime ideal, and best practiced as a group.
The water was bracingly cold at first but once acclimatised was quite nice. Helps if you run headlong into it rather than inching I find.


Crazy netball lady

I looked forward to playing her tonight and she didn't disappoint. She is strange...she'd be a lot better player if she didn't try to be so fancy, but in the meantime she is amusing as hell. I thought she was going to so a full on lay-up at one point. Apologies if some of you have no idea what I am talking about, but the Sparkle Motioners will. I'd like to say we won a hard fought victory tonight, but I think the reality is that we nearly lost rather than they nearly won if that makes sense. I blame the heat and the eternal 6:20 rut we seem to be in robbing us of our zing.