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Steve Irwin Dead
mkosmo writes "News.com.au is reporting that Steve Irwin was killed in a freak accident while filming one of his well known documentaries. Surprisingly it wasn't a crocodile, it was a sting-ray."
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Crickey!
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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I feel for his kids. These poor kids are going to grow up with a father. All they are going to really know about him is going to be what they see on TV.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Anyone that takes that many chances with that many dangerous animals is going to get it, sooner or later.
I was always appalled at how he behaved around animals, what an idiot.
Darwin 1, Irwin 0
Steve should be commended for his efforts over the years. His enthusiasm was infectious.
Unfortunately, while he stood as a model environmentalist, he now stands as an example of the dangers of directly interacting with wild animals.
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/ - Exercise for the rest of us.
As a serial animal botherer, it was bound to happen eventually.
nuttin else, just that.
Crikey!
Oh come on... That's like saying it was unusual or surprising that John Candy died of a heart attack. /I'm out five bucks. I had "cobra mishap." "croc attack" wasn't even money. //I kid, I kid. Sorry. I liked him. Really. ///oops. this isn't fark, is it?
I don't mean to diminish him or be mean... I liked him...
I had a sucky sig.
I always thought he would die of cancer, or heart attack at age 90. Who knew that chasing wild animals to pin them down could be so dangerous?
Does this sig remind you of Agatha Christie?
Noo, noooo... F*cking sting-rays!
When I first read this on the interweb i thought it was a joke, i mean come on we have all joked about the guy being crazy and one day a croc would get em... Now that it has happened it is hard to do so anymore. Barb through the heart, that is brutal. RIP steve.
Well, now that I think of it, no more 'Crickey'
what did he do to cause a stingray to kill him? TFA says it was a freak accident. but was it really? what were the stingray's intentions?
It's best to admire nature from afar... like on TV. People think we're just lazy fat hermits but you don't see us getting ate by bears!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Should be News.com.au
Is he that crazy ausie that screws with the crocs? Like using a lawnmower to keep one away?
Was it Troy Tempest, Phones, or even Marina??
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - veternarian/croc hunter Steve Irwin was found dead in his Queensland home this morning. There were not any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you did not enjoy his work, there is no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an Australian icon.
I only live 30 minutes from his Australia Zoo at Beerwah and have watched him perform the croc stuff a couple of times and it was very entertaining.
I remember trying to take a photograph of my kid at the petting zoo while his kid was in there and I was politely asked not to. Mind you, it was just after the whole 'dangling the baby in front of the baby eating crocodile' incident, I can understand the paranoia at the time.
Task Mangler
Rest In Peace Steve.
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
Poor old Steve - but at least went out was doing what he loved, as opposed to getting hit by a bus or something.
I met him briefly once or twice - he was a friend of a friend - and while he used to ham it up for the cameras, he was a nice guy and very passionate about wildlife.
*sigh*
He will be missed.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
This is the fastest I've ever seen news hit the front page on slashdot.
In fact since this news broke an hour ago I've received 1 phone call, 4 SMS's and 6 e-mails about it. A coworker came running to tell me about it and 88+ news items about it have appeared so far on Google News. Just goes to show that people really care about Steve Irwin.
With that kind of influence it makes you wonder what he might have achieved if he hadn't died.
Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
I heard about this a couple of hours ago while talking online on a MUD I used to code for. The first thought I had was that the world was a lesser place without him, just like the world was reduced when Fred Rogers passed. This was a Grade-A human being, and in an odd way very important to me. Let's just say my dog's name is Bindi.
Good luck, Steve.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
You know that Mister Irwin has already reproduced successfully, right? And that he will leave quite a bit of money to his offspring? I'll lay 10-to-1 odds that his offspring will be more successfull than any of ours. They'll have their father's wealth, outstanding physical health, and at least a shred of his fame.
.. it's sad to see him go. As an Australian it was always a bit embarassing the way he perpetuated that particular stereotype but he did a lot of good for the country, not just for tourism but for conservation as well. A fair chunk of his money went straight back to buying up tracts of land for conservation.
I am a little appalled by the reaction of many /.ers. This was a guy with a family. You have no idea whether he was responsible and careful with animals, not being animal trainers yourselves. All you have is your uninformed opinion about it. Have a little respect for the guy, if only because he was more than just a TV star.
~ I am logged on, therefore I am.
The way his character was built though, he became a living legend, you sort of just expected him to live and keep doing what he did.
A lot of people I have spoken to feel the same way, much like when Princess Di died, its just almost inconceivable.
He was a controversial Australian hero and I hope he will be remembered for all the good things he did and not just the bad.
.. had a frickin' laserbeam attached to it's head.
Happy Labor Day!
It'll be posted again in a week.
s/freak accident/completely unsurprising, predictable accident/
Like him or think he's a tool, he's entertained millions for years, and he's done his bit to help the environment, both through education and monetary contributions. Take a moment to reflect on that, THEN post yer jokes. ;)
I sat on this one for a little bit after I first found out because it seemed sort of unconfirmed, but now that it's received significant press coverage, I've added it to the front page of Wikipedia. It's quite amazing how fast news travels these days.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
What a shocker!
Read my blog: HansMast.com
I really hate it when that happens.
I am suddenly reminded of that FedEx commercial he was in. The one where he gets bit by the snake, and he says "That's no problem, we have a shipment of antivenom arriving via FedEx", then an off-camera voice says: "Uh, we didn't use FedEx this time..."
He was a charismatic, funny, and nutty sort of guy. Past the crocodile wrestling, he was an amazing conservationist, bringing attention to some of the plights that Australian wildlife are facing. I feel bad for his family, especially because of all the people that are going to make distasteful jokes about this...
I loved that guy. Amazing how many people I know who like him too.
RIP Steve.
*weeps like a baby*
I didn't think it'd be on Slashdot. :P
Steve saw the whole world, met thousands of people, and made a positive contribution to the earth as a whole. I'm glad I got to watch it on TV. It's just like doing something!
*You* may have not liked the guy; maybe you hated him. His style, his 'in your face attitude' about "Outback" animals might have been a little bit too 'kooky' for what most mainstream Americans are used to. But anyway...
I met him once while on a flight out to LA (I think he was doing the Late Show /w Leno) and honestly I've never met anyone who had such a zest for life. Seriously, the guy was so upbeat about EVERYTHING, it was hard to ignore him.
People like him are so special. I'll never forget him, and I hope you all won't either.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
From the Grouptionary:
"Dasyatids do not attack aggressively, or even actively defend themselves. When threatened their primary reaction is to swim away. However, when they are attacked by predators or stepped on, the barbed stinger in their tail is mechanically whipped up, usually into the offending foot; it is also possible, although less likely, to be stung "accidentally" by brushing against the stinger. Contact with the stinger causes local trauma (from the cut itself), pain and swelling from the venom, and possible infection from parts of the stinger left in the wound, as well as from seawater entering the wound. It is possible for ray stings to be fatal if they sever major arteries, are in the chest or pelvic region, or are improperly treated."
---
The antics of dancing around dangerous animals will detract from this man's legacy forever. At his core, he was indeed a strong advocate for protecting natural habitats. Too bad he felt needed to traipse around in them. The lasting irony is that he was filming a production to "demystify the stingray" - no mystery here, they're fucking dangerous (but rarely deadly).
:( :( :(
He showed us all about what the wild was about..very intense and exciting and that was reflected in his personality.
A man who was passionate about his work, his fellow people, and the environment.
Though this was an unfortunate event, it just shows that we must respect not just the wildest of animals that can kill, but those that we share our environment with, including ourselves.
So Steve...'respect' - thanks for all the work you and your family have achieved. The legacy will live on.
A true blue Aussie.
RIP mate.
I admire Steve's courage, his enthusiasm, his zest for life and for letting us all share a little bit of the wondererous life he lived. Many of us can only hope to be so lucky as to live a life that isn't mundane, tedious and predictable. Steve's been to more places, witnessed more beautiful and fascinating cultures and people and animals than most of us would if we had 3 lives to live. He knew the risks and chose to live his life the way he wanted to live it. Not many people can say that. We're all gonna die. Might as well go out while living life to the fullest.
this is just the start of the crocidile sting-ray alliance. Their next target is the host of that Funniest Videos show
I just can't get over the irony.
Slashdot - news for nerds - is eulogising someone who is the epitome of everything that geeks are not. To top it all off the news hits Slashdot so fast that I found out about it through an off-topic post in another Slashdot story, and then see it on the front page before I saw it in my newspaper (www.smh.com.au so it's the sort of thing they report on). I can't wait for Muscle magazine to eulogise Stephen Hawkins.
Steve Irwin mustered more humanity for the lowest lizard on one of his documentaries than /. seems to be able to muster for him. "reproduced successfully" "offspring" These are not words which one generally uses with regards to people, and certainly not when a family is currently grieving the loss of their father.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Joining with all the other comments, I'd also like to say that he was a good guy that did good work. He will be missed.
With all due respect to the man, and all the sympathy to the family, I really won't miss Steve Irwin as an 'Australian symbol'.
As an Australian, he represents nothing of the life of an ordinary citizen, all he represented was a stereotypical archetype of what other people saw Australia as, not as a real Australian...
As I said, I give all due respect to the passing of a fellow man, but that dosen't mean I have to respect him as an 'Australian symbol'
The world is truly a sadder place to live because Steve died.
people hunting for the video showing the 'ray nailing him.
Soon, their will be all kinds of simulated 'man gets nailed by ray' CGIs along with Ray nails food, followed by a leaked copy of the actual death.
I'll be calling them death-ray's from now one ...
One of the best shows on animal planet and in the world.. I just wish I could have traveled to his zoo... RIP Steve.
" We don't need to find the weapons of mass destruction we just need to want to find them, that's the way it works!
All jokes aside, like most people in dangerous professions, he knew the risks and died doing what he loved to do. Given a choice of ways to go, that's not so bad.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Life does not cease to be funny when people die, anymore than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
--George Bernard Shaw
Steve Irwin was the real deal. He really cared about the environment he worked in. It was revealed earlier this year that he successfully lobbied the Federal Government to oppose plans for the creation of a crocodile 'game hunting' tourist industry in the Northern Territory. He did it privately and quietly - it was only reported after it came to light through freedom of information requests.
link
My hat goes off to you Steve, and my condolences to your family.
It's frustrating how we, as a species, can only seem to unite through tragedy, and not for very long. We get over it, and we look for someone to blame.
Maybe I just don't see anyone who doesn't care, maybe they've all hit -1 by now, but all I hear are people saying RIP and making jokes. Personally, I find the "crikeys" to be in good taste. He probably would've liked that.
But enjoy it now, because in another few hours, this will all be forgotten in yet another flamewar.
And maybe that's as it should be, but it's sad.
RIP, Steve. You will be remembered.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Mr. Irwin, you will be missed, but it's not like we've not seen something like this coming.
If not stingrays, then an 19 foot croc. Similar incidents have happened over the years. Indeed, _this_ was written before the Siegfried's "accident".
Maybe JWH should add a stanza.
BMO fires up the CD player...
Darwin by John Wesley Harding
http://www.wesweb.net/recordings/d4/lyrics.html
The tourists get into their car
And drive through the safari park
There's animals you've only seen in books
And despite the helpful warnings
(You could read them in the dark)
They decide to try and get a closer look
They park the car and lock it cos you're better safe than sorry
They try to make the lions look their way
And in a perfect Kodak moment, they're hunting for their car keys
As the lions come and bid them all good day
And they say: Haven't you ever heard of Darwin?
Did you think we were going to run and hide?
Haven't you ever heard of Darwin?
Don't roll down your car windows
It's a jungle outside
There's white tigers in Las Vegas
Who deign to show their teeth
Sip tea from china to polite applause
As they're weighing up the gamblers
They're either masters or they're meat
Provided they stay arm's length from the paws
And it's very nearly showtime, the magicians warm up backstage
And the sound effects so loud that no-one hears
As one tiger turns to the other and says: "you wanna see some magic?
Tonight it's the magicians disappear!"
And the they say: Haven't they ever heard of Darwin?
Did they think we'd vanish in thin air?
Haven't they ever heard of Darwin?
Don't roll down your car windows
It's a jungle out there
Further down the food chain
Closer to the ground
Scurry all the scavengers at home
You can tidy up the kitchen
And wash all of the plates
But there's always meat left somewhere on the bone
And all our tiny flatmates are waiting to inherit
The legacy we'll leave behind one night
They feed their little habit and wait with perfect patience til
There's no-one left to turn on all the lights
And they'll sing: Hadn't they ever heard of Darwin?
Now we don't have to run and hide
Hadn't they ever heard of Darwin?
Open up the windows, It's a jungle inside
(edited as sung, not printed - BMO)
--
BMO
His shows were great for those of us who grew up watching him. I hope his kids continue to have the same care for the environment that Daddy had. We'll miss you buddy
He has become something accepted as part of our identity with Australia, in the minds of all people. Like a famous building, or an incident long passed into common lore. It is as difficult to comprehend his parting as it is the loss of slabs and sausages or the disappearance of pedestrian crossings.
He was a dickhead but he was a true blue Aussie icon. He'll be sadly missed.
I've seen him in action once at Australia Zoo and this event cemented my opinion that he is/was a lunatic. He did exactly the things he told you never to do, just to demonstrate what happens if you do them. If you've ever come face to face with a 15ft Australian Saltwater Croc, you know why he was a nut case. Nobody in his right mind would get anywhere near one of these beasties and he did it on a daily basis.
..there's a very good chance his death was captured on video. How long till it hits the net?
he now stands as an example of the dangers of directly interacting with wild animals.
File him in the Timothy Treadwell folder...
The first time I saw Steve Irwin, I cringed horribly (I'm Australian), but he got to me. I can honestly say I've never seen a happier person, with so much energy & such a good, innocent heart. I was mocking him a few years ago, mercilessly. Now, I'm feeling kind of weepy. RIP Steve, and my heart goes out to the Irwin family & friends. Thanks on behalf of the animals :)
Dear Terri Irwin & children,
You probably don't read Slashdot, but I offer my condolences on your loss of husband and father, Steve Irwin.
Yours sincerely,
Anonymous Coward
I mean, it would suck if this became just another of those midnight posts that no one notices..
Purely anecdotal, I know, but while at the PC I usually hear major breaking news stories on the radio first. Whilst searching for more details I find they seem to consistently hit Google (News) about 11 mins later. Obviously the radio has the advantage of being able to simply read stuff as it comes in from Reuters, etc, rather than wait for enough scraps of information to be gathered to make a page for Google to index.
Regarding the story though, considering Steve Irwin was killed whilst working I'm just glad the poor guy wasn't mauled to death by something.
I can't say I'm really surprised that he died as the result of an animal. But, I do respect the man for seemingly living life to it's fullest, and having a true passion for something. He died doing what he loved. We all should be as fortunate. Condolences to his family.
-Alex
I gotta say, that thing about you getting homicidal on someone with a stinger is sorta funny.
"Crickey!" spelt thus looks nearly as stupid as "Blimme" which I saw in an American novel, purporting to be Cockney speech.
a barb to the chest sounds painful. Poor guy, i feel for his family
A man dies and it's an opportunity for jokes that get modded up. Funny. Maybe they'll joke about your lifeless assws when you all die, having done not a 10th as what this man has done positive for the world.
Off to digg, screw this useless, assine place.
Slash out.
Yes, his line of work was hazardous.
Yes, we all saw it coming.
But no one ever wanted it to happen. He was a genuinely nice, good, and well-meaning guy who did what he could to help the conservation effort-- and I'm no treehugger.
Yes, he died doing what he loved to do, but I'm sure we all wish it would have happened much further down the line.
Thanks for all the educational programming, Steve.
I will really miss him - i loved his shows and his energy.
For your unending enthusiasm, commitment and teamwork (how many people to catch a croc!) in bringing folk a little nearer to those wonderful animals.
You'll be missed by both the many who never met you, and by those who loved you.
To your family, may your God comfort you and protect you during these days of mourning.
RIP.
the internet went to a *crawl* around midday down here, it was painfull.
the news sites taken down by this included ninemsn.com.au which just didnt respond, abc.net.au struggled going up and down (with an error page but...) occasionally producing a low bandwidth page. news.com.au went to a crawl.
smh.com.au held in there and yahoo!7 (no typo) who actually reported it first stayed unnoticably effected (although they could be hosted elsewhere)
the internet was absolutely crawling though, nationally not so much, but internationally was insane.
will any politicians get this much fuss over their deaths??
"TFA says it was a freak accident. but was it really?"
When you try to shove your thumb in a Sting Ray's bum then it will, apparently, sting you in the chest.
"Crikey, it's got me! The sting-ray's poison is often lethal within the first few minutes, I'll be lucky to live long enough to finish my..."
Web site is getting hammered I think. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
The first thought I had was that the world was a lesser place without him,...
Even after reading the story, I smiled when I saw him in character. This guy was an amazing educator and entertainer.
First thing that crossed my mind was "With all what's going on, this world needs more Steve Irwin's, not less".
R.I.P. Croc' Hunter
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
I think this whole thing is a huge ratings ploy by the vastly inferior Jeff Corwin.
Steve Irwin was made of win and awesome. Don't worry Steve, wherever you are. We'll avenge you, I promise.
I know a lot of idiots are going to attempt to make something comedic out of this, but he brought a lot of awareness to the natural world and increased the respect a lot of people had for animals and nature. This deeply saddens me.
People, have a little respect. You wouldn't appreciate others making a joke out of the on-the-job death of one of your loved ones.
It's a girl!
wow, thanks...
Not true! I've been bitten several times by sharp edges inside cheap cases! Crickey! I lost a finger installing a sound card once (OK, I didn't, but there was a lot of blood!!)
Did anyone else immediately think of this episode of Rhino and Nutmeg??
return 0; }
This is showbiz news, not science news!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Jeremy Logan's Website.
He was a real animal lover and worked for the preservation of many species.
Rest in peace, friend.
What's Steve Irwin's favourite tv show?
:)
Stingraaaaaaaaaay Stingray! doo doo dooooooo etc.
As awful as it sounds, I'm glad that he won't be screwing with animals any more. The way he dealt with animals always made me feel like they should get a good chomp or poke back at him. Glad that one finally did!
He was feeding a croc with one hand while holding his kid in the other.
I don't care if it was a "calculated" risk... crocodiles can go from sitting dead like a lump on a log to clamping their jaw around your leg in a split second. There is absolutely no calculating anything with a croc. There is no minimum safe distance from a croc except 20 feet behind a very high and thick concrete fence.
Crocs can and do nail gazelles. Was Steve Irwin faster than a gazelle? No? Then his kid was in mortal danger, and he put him there.
That and the way he molested female pigs, etc., makes me have very little respect for him.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I have always had the impression that Steve got slightly too close to the dangerous animals. Sure, he was better at this than I am, and he probably "knew what he was doing" most of the time.....
But still.... If at one point in time you decide to do something dangerous that has a 1/1000 chance of getting you killed, there is a better than 99% chance (99.9% in fact) that you'll survive. If this happens a couple of times during your lifetime. Fine. If 1000 people live similarly dangerously as you, some get killed. Fact of life.
Because Steve did this kind of dangerous stuff on a dayly basis, his chances of survival drop significantly. Statistics.
In practise it's worse than what theoretical statistics predict: after surviving 99 dangerous (say 1/1000) situations humans think they have things under control, and will start to engage in even more dangerous behaviour (say 1/100). Pushing the limits.
Freak accident? No. Statistics caught up with him.
when I was a kid in australiaa I was smacked black and blue by my dad when he caught me playing with a stingray.
His logic was that he'd rather I not do it because he hit me then not do it because I was dead. I get his point now, as an adult, but as a kid it just worked, I didn't know why.
A warning to Americans thinking of "liberating" Australia at any time in the future (should we ever find much larger resources of oil here).
Of the Worlds top 10 most poisonous animals, we have the #1 all the way through to #9. It was previously beleived that we had 1-8, however a snake previously thought to be extinct, recently killed a man, bringing as back to 1-9. That does of course exclude all the other dangerous animals, like Crocs (including the salty, which loves to come up on our beaches, out of the lovely surf and snap-up a Yankee snack), wild dingos, sharks, etc.
Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi! Aussie! Oi! Aussie! Oi! Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!!!
If you try to get our Great Barrel of Oil (Great Barrier Reef), the Stingray Gods will get you.
Something I can attest to first-hand. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has an exhibit where you can pet bat rays.
I know Irwin has a lot of fans. But I always found his personality very hard to take. The fact that he managed to get himself killed by such an inoffensive creature does little to raise my opinion of him.
It's actually pretty cool, no one could ever have guessed how he'd die.
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
I can't express how much this saddens me. I spent so many hours in my college days, which only ended in May, watching Steve Irwin. Being stoned only made it that much more interesting.
Killed by a sting ray, or killed by an eventuality everyone but him could see? I wasn't rooting for him to get killed or anything, but he certainly deserves a Darwin award.
No one calls it alligator in Aus, so that phrase just don't cut it.
R.I.P.
http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
Steve would want us to pet an alligator in his memory.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
No way it is accident, remote controlled stingrays are new dolphins
Sadly, Steve Irwin's death has forced producers to shelve plans for Snakes on a Plane 2: Stingrays on a Boat "Crikey! I'm fair dinkum annoyed at all these bodgy stingrays on this bodgy boat!"
The domainrush has begun!
www.ripcrochunter.com
www.ripsteveirwin.com
www.steveirwinrip.com
www.steveirwinisdead.com
Remember, this is Slashdot. The nerds here have only one claim in life: "Being pursued down corridor by jock, having face smashed into locker by jock, getting punched in the nose by jock, having head pushed into toilet by jock, being beaten up by jock, having jock shit on their face."
And then, going off to a bright future of burger flipping, trash hauling and toilet cleaning.
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
A "freak accident" is if you get killed by a sting ray in your bath tub. When you go diving with sting rays, it's more like a calculated risk that didn't work out.
...by stingray. Sadly ironic, in a way.
Simple - if you did it, you might be hurt by the 'ray - but you will be hurt by your Dad. Kids don't believe in death (like adults do, anyway) but they know a good smacking :)
you know, you have to be careful when you do that.
It's very important to note that the stingray attack happened UNDERWATER. On dry land, Irwin would have DEMOLISHED the stingray. I guarantee it.
That is completely false. News.com is owned by C|Net and is a technology news site. News.com.au is owned by News Corporation, whose web site is www.newscorp.com.
Try to get a couple mods to chuckle. When you detached morons are done, have a chuckle thinking about his little children. Still no emotion? Put down your PSP and picture your childhood without a father. I like humor too but it's too easy for people to take shots behind the internet curtain; would it still be funny if you told it to his family. Take a breather and ponder life and death for a moment. Not TV death, real death. Do you think the magical elf Jesus is going to hand you an eternity in a bright white suit when you go? Get fucking real. This is it, the rest is the terrifying nothingness of the unknown.
the mods may say you posted flamebait, but to me it's a flame that warms my heart. rock on, brother! --chebucto
Now, almost any environmentalist or informed vegetarian can tell you why this is wrong. I mean the cow needs food, too obviously. It takes much more grain and water to make a pound of meat than it takes to make a pound of... well, grain. You have to raise the animal over some time.
It's a shame too, because he was a good environmentalist. And his heart was in the right place. He genuinely cared about animals.
Look, everyone knew that this was going to happen to Steve Irwin at some point. It didn't take a genius to see that he was unlikely to live to a ripe old age. He wasn't a complete idiot and he knew the risks he took. It was the game he played.
Personally, I am not too heartbroken about it. To me he was just another celebrity. I found his manner irritating and never gained anything particularly insightful from his documentaries or TV series. While he pumped a decent amount of money into environmental conservation, I feel that his contribution to raising envrironmental awareness was almost cursory, as his work normally relied upon shock value and "action" shots rather than highlighting the fragile nature of the environment or even nature's splendor.
To me, all Steve Irwin's death means is that I no longer have to put up with that ridiculous accent when I watch TV. (He did a lot of advertisments for his Zoo and Australian quarantine.)
As someone else here posted, it's not really an accident, it's just a matter of statistics catching up with you.
Yes, sting-rays are generally non-fatal, but if their stinger is aiming at your chest (as it would be when tryign to ride one), you're quite possibly going to die.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
I know he was a great guy and despite his clearly loony behaviour, we all have a fondness for him. /.? How is this 'news for nerds'? Why is this in the science category?
That being said, why is this story on
"No, no, no, don't tug on that! You never know what it might be attached to."
Personally, I won a book of Gerald Durrell as a prize in school, and that got me hooked onto nature and animals. Those line diagrams and illustrations in those books are far more captivating for a real enthusiast, rather than these 'live' videos and 'personal' encounters. Lying on top of a crocodile... there was the other video of a scantily clad lass suckling a baby deer with a feeding bottle held under her knee... what value do these videos have?
We hear a lot about debates in Parliament on fox-hunting, yet the same populace fly in every year to Zimbabwe and Mozambique to hunt down wilder and endangered species every year. Do we need to motivate such people with realistic videos?
Why not keep a respectful distance and stick to portraits and illustration sketches? Are such exoeditions really worth the trouble and harm?
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
South Park's satire of Steve Irwin really sums up what I thought his show was about. "I'm gonna sneak up on it, and stick my thumb in it's butthole!"
Attenborough gets better footage without intentionally riling the animals up.
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
I was pretty sure that he was invincible... like he found his keyboard and hit iddqd. R.I.P Steve
"I didn't know why"
No offence but it's a pity your dad thought you were too stupid to understand a less violent means of communication.
The first fish I caught as a child in Oz was a "toadie", I wanted to take it home and cook it until I was told it was poisionous. I was also stung (in the leg) by a small ray when I accidently stepped on one at the beach, hurt like hell but I didn't get sick. I can only figure the one that got Steve must have been the size of a dinning room table.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
It might be interesting to note that the Wikipedia article on stingrays has already been locked due to vandalism, only hours after the news hit the Web. Mr Irwin's death has had a much greater impact online than I originally anticipated.
In a bizarre twist of fate, Bob Fortuna, AKA The Sting-Ray Man, was devoured today by a crocodile while taping an episode of his popular TV show in the Everglades. Commenting on the this latest trajedy to reporters in Canberra, Mabel Rosenbaum, known to millions of TV viewers as The Shark Babe, said, "I always said you gotta stick to your area of expertise when it comes to handling dangerous wildlife. These guys think that just because they know how to hog tie one kind of critter they can pretty much wrassle anything. Why, just last year, whats-his-name, the Man-Eating Plant guy, almost had his head bit off by a condor. Gettin' cocky in this busines will get you killed, so that's why I'm sticking to my sharks. No sense in taking foolish risks."
I mean that guy has been going for the ironic style toe tag for a decade.
take risks, live (or dont) with the consequnces. from the articles I read he sounded like a genuinely passionate person and lived his live right and pretty damn hardcore.
Feel bad for the family that has to deal with the loss. he certainly was a dedicated animal lover and showed that to millions of peoples. Seems odd seeing a guy thats taken on the most dangerous animals in the world, go down by a searay. He tought a lot of people a lot, and really dedicated himself to what he cares about, in all honesty, can you possibly ask for anything more...better to burn out than fade away.
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
The grandparent's statement did not mean that the example is unfortunate. Mr. Irwin's death is the unfortunate part.
;)
Also:
Truly stupid people don't learn from mistakes (esp. others'). But maybe some smart people (who are quite capable of stupid acts) will learn from this...
While details are still muddled of his death it would not surprise me if he tried to touch one from above and accidentally triggered the stingray's automatic defence to flick the barb straight into his chest. You can't jump back, or dodge, or do anything in water if an animals reacts. As such you'd think the rules of engagement (even for Steve) in the water would be far stricter than on land.
so long and thanks for all the fish !
I'm so used to seeing fake obits on slashdot I have trouble taking this seriously. Crikey indeed.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I used to watch his shows all the time and loved them (even got a shirt with him on it). Even though he did some crazy shit (the spitting cobra in Africa springs to mind), he always cared about the animals and wanted to show people that we could live in peace with them.
Rest in peace mate....crikey...
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
died doing what he loved best .. RIP Steve Irwin.
condolences to his family.
motherfuckin sting rays in this motherfuckin ocean!
What a load of crap. Absolute drivel. The kids were with their mother in Tasmania. Anyone who knew anything about Steve and his family could never say such a thing. Their children are there passion. There was hardly a sentence out of Steve's mouth that didn't mention his children. They would do anything for them. If people would show have as much passion for their children as the Irwin's did, the world would be a far better place.
Don't tailgate - the end is near!
"but you will be hurt by your Dad."
Only if he catches you!!! Since the GP "didn't know why" it follows that "dad" did not impart any survival knowlage other than how to avoid a smack in the head from "dad", ( ie: "don't get caught by dad" instead of "stingrays are dangerous" ). Communicating with your kids via the "do as I say or I will bash you again" method only teaches them to fear and avoid you. Why do you think kids run away from violent homes as soon as they reach puberty?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
In a while, pedophile
Steve and his antics will be greatly missed both here in Australia and around the world. While we all saw Steve as the consumate entertainer, Steve was as much an friend to the environment and it's creatures great and small. Thanks Steve!!! We will miss you!! A Sad Day......
there are two kinds of people in life, those who laugh at death, and those who find comfort in religion...you won't convince any of the other kind, and it extends to everything else, with those categories always fighting, the bigots of anything (including Linux or Star Wars) against the clowns and the saboteurs. We see fine example in this discussion, "god bless his family and his soul" against "who would have guessed petting stingrays was dangerous".
Google passes Turing test : see my journal
I think he probably landed on the bottom without checking the sand first. This is something I've seen him do more than once in underwater documentaries and it makes me cringe every time. He wouldn't go wading in murky water he knew has crocodiles in it so why does he scuba dive onto sandy bottoms containing hidden crabs, stingrays, stone fish, stargazers, flounder, sand worms and other sea life? Some of these critters can inflict a lot of damage.
I read his heart got pierced by the barb (fatal injury) - so he either landed on the stingray, chest first, or he was trying to ride it.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
He probably wouldn't have done anything if this hadn't killed him instantly. I used to watch the Crocodile Hunter all the time, and Steve always shrugged everything off. Once he was leaning his head out of a moving car and had his ear torn nearly off by a tree. Steve slapped it back in place and continued with the show. What a great guy.
Steve Irwin is dying!
*ducks*
Humm, a few /.'ers seem to not like such a nice down to earth guy as Steve. I
wonder what comments would be said if it was Paris Hilton, Tom Cruise, Jolie or
Pitt ( Too bad life is not a chess game, so we could trade up for a better
piece) I for one, would prefer to see Paris Hilton impaled on a snorkeling
trip to the Bahamas and read the entertaining excerpts of how all the local
villagers rushed to dive after for all the
diamonds and
sparkly gifts she left scattered on the sea floor.
Oh yea...and please do not try to tell me how much humanitarian Jolie is..and her Pitt sidekick get real, how much humanitarian aid can you do, if each time to travel you come back with various cafe shots and a new baby in the oven.
I think this may be the first time, those names were ever posted in the entire Slashdot website...sorry guys..I know, stick with news that matters..
anyway, lets all hog tie Paris and toss her in a volcano see of we can trade up.
an Australian colloquialism for Belinda.
Don't tailgate - the end is near!
did you see that it got me right in the chest. don't worry gang there's nothing to worry oh fu......
He made a Fedex Commercial pretty much along the same lines.
Black humour is natural, even healthy. Once you've finished your holier-than-thou anti-religion bullshit, go and smack yourself over the head with a reality stick. Hard. Please. For the good of humanity.
All your rant has done is show that you're a sanctimonious prick with nothing better to do than preach to the rest of us. Get back to your hole and get some experience in dealing with death, then return and tell us how horribly insenstive you are. Better still, go hang out with some fire fighters for a few shifts. Reckon you've got the testicular fortitude to tell them off for "crispy critter" jokes after a fatal fire? No, didn't think so.
"God, root, what is difference?" - Pitr, userfriendly
By fans, family, friends and animals alike. RIP.
Jesus, what a day! Rest In Peace, mate. I just can't believe He's gone!
he was a passionate Australian. What more can a fellow Aussie ask? As for all you half baked wankers who seem to think its good sport to make jokes at the expense of another family's tragedy, all I can say is you are fucking pathetic. I wont even ask you to put yourself in the position of his family because you are so fucking selfish you wouldnt know how.
I always preferred Sir David Attenborough. That is someone who truly loves and respects nature.
I agree about Sir David Attenborough greatness, but the difference is how thay handled reptiles. After watching Sir David Attenborough, if I found a snake in the back yard I would still chop off its head with a hoe. After watching Steve Irwin, I would think twice and maybe call someone to take it away. Steve changed the image of reptiles from nasty creatures that you kill on sight to animals that should be respected the same as the furry cute ones.
"No offence but it's a pity your dad thought you were too stupid to understand a less violent means of communication."
Very much so, since I haven't seen him since I was 7, because of the very same temper. However he had a point I suppose. I was, um, swinging it around my head.....
"The first fish I caught as a child in Oz was a "toadie", I wanted to take it home and cook it until I was told it was poisionous. "
My mum always said she was amazed how kids in australia ever managed to grow up, since almost everything we played with was poisonous. She's a brit who moved there as an adult, we moved back to england not long after I was 7.
Ever play Jellyfish tennis?
He was an amazing guy, full of life and had a huge respect for animals.
/Mad
My heart goes out to his family.
At least he died doing what he loves most.
Goodbye mate. You were a beauty!
Nuf said.
contrary to some opinions expressed above, death by sting-ray is not so improbable. Here is report of another case in Italy.
Well, he's jamming his thumb right in God's butt-hole now...
</southpark>
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
Am I the only one that's seeing an outpouring of grief comparable to Diana, princess of Wales?
I'm just waiting for the inevitable Candle in the Wind re-record.
Goodbye Oz's cobber;
may you ever grow in our hearts.
You were the grace that placed itself
In the open mouths of crocs.
You called out to our country,
and you whispered to reptiles whose mouths you'd clamped shut.
Now you belong to heaven,
and the stars spell out your name.
And it seems to me you lived your life
like a candle in the wind:
never fading with the sunset
when the rain set in.
And your footsteps will always fall here,
among Oz's sunbleached lands;
your candle's burned out long before
your legend ever will.
How is this a freak accident? He got into the water, and put his chest in the sting-ray's possible-whip-path. What happened was a known risk.
:(
If he had been walking down the street and gotten stabed in the chest by a sting-ray's stinger, THAT would've been a freak accident.
Anyway, RIP Steve, and my condolences to his family
See what happens when f**k with Marina?
-- "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!"
My deepest condolences to his family and friends.
When you do things right, people won't be sure if you've done anything at all.
Love him or hate him, this guy lived his life on his own terms. The fact that he died the same way is no big suprise.
Sad... very dam sad. He was a very nice man that loved what he did. We all did.
His heart was in the right place and that was his problem. If it had been somewhere else he would still be alive.
I found out at work today and was filled with a sense of disbelief that I liken to the feeling I had when I woke up on 9/11 and heard about the terrorist attacks. Theres something about national icons disapearing forever that... hurts.
But we gained a troll.
"Stand by for action! We are about to launch Stingray! Anything can happen in the next half-hour!"
While I've seen David Attenborough's documentaries and have several of his books, I do think Steve Irwin has a great passion for animals too. You have to keep in mind that times have changed nowadays and he was targetting a different audience. He might seem a bit of a clown, but he appeals to the current young generation. Afterall, I don't think most youngsters have any idea who David Attenborough is, so it's clear that his style does not speak to the youth of today.
in all honesty, this guy was a genuine hero, he did so much for animals. and he also did so much for the world in general, by entertaining, and by bringing our attention towards how animals can be.
portfolio
Just a quick note to wish his family much love and regret for their loss.
Having been to Australia Zoo a number of times and seeing first hand the number of risks Steve took it was a toal suprise that it was something so unexpected that a docile animal would be the one who was his undoing.
One example I witness first hand was when he and a dozen blokes were moving a giant salty, he always was more concerned with the crocs health and safety than he was his own, and to see his face right next to the crocs snout really did blow me away, there wasnt anything false about Steve, what you see on TV was the guy in real life, he gave his all for the safety of the animals in his care and also wild out in their domain.
The main point of Steve and Terri's life was conservation and about making the world a better place to which they were born, in this he will be very sorely missed here in australia as no doubt all over the world.
Goodbye Mate.
I'm going to Hell for this:
So Steve Irwin walks into a barb.
Stingray denies any involvement!
*got sent it by e-mail...don't shoot the messenger!* *runs*
... will be completely crushed. Steve Irwin was to our kids as Wild Kindom was for people my age. I can't imagine how many young minds were directed to the natural sciences by Irwin's work.
Which seems a pretty good legacy, when you think about it. But our thoughts turn to his wife and young family.
It's true that Irwin died doing what hew loved. It would have been better if he were 80, though. What a sad thing.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
From reading all the moronic comments below I thought I was on Digg.com for a moment instead of Slashdot. I had hoped that all the script-kiddies and "l33t d00dz" had gone to Digg, but this proves they're still here at Slashdot.
Oh well, maybe when Web 3.0 comes along they'll leave then.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Although in most respects a massive bogan, he was still a great man. Hopefully, his death will not be in vain if we all learn something from his memory
It's unfortunate that a good person had to DIE to help make the self-evident and well-known points you mention.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
...stick your thumb into the butthole of the first dog you encounter today. Extra points if it's a pit-bull.
I landed in Oz from the UK as a 5yro in 1964, my youngest brother often brought home venomous snakes and kept them in glass cages, he is now a zoologist who runs NT "safari's" in a 4WD mini-bus.
"Very much so, since I haven't seen him since I was 7, because of the very same temper."
My old man used to smack us on the bare arse with a cane, however I never saw him as a violent man as he rarely hit out in anger/fear, I always knew why I was being punished. Also "the cane/strap" was a "social norm" in the '60s, no different to the one used by the head master at school. OTOH: My ex-wife is now 44 and still hasn't fully overcome the phycological and behavioural damage inflicted by her father.
"However he had a point I suppose. I was, um, swinging it around my head....."
He still failed to explain the point, he should have sat you down and told you to make sure when you swing a stingray around your head that you hold it by the blunt end, you know, like all the other kids do. Maybe even enforced it with something along the lines of, "Now, if I catch you swinging a stingray by the tail again, I will give you a hiding".
"Ever play Jellyfish tennis?"
LOL yes, also jellyfish cricket and a round or two of cane toad golf. A freinds 4yro amazed me on a recent trip to the beach, he "punched out" a 2-3 foot long Port Jackson shark that had "attacked" him.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Not that I'm normally a pedant, but you're forgetting Luxembourg. Which is about 50%-75% wealthier than you. And it holds one of the three main European Union organisational areas (the *mumble* Plateau), so it's something of a centre of power.
And maybe Monaco, but that's a principality and might not count anyway on the centre of power thing.
So SECOND richest...
... SteveO and Chris Pontius is still out there molesting animals. If you ever needed proof that there is no God, I give you the case of Croc Hunter vs Wildboyz.
You know in a way you're right, I was first dismayed to read that Irwin - a guy who played around
with some of the deadliest animals on the face of this planet - died because of a sting-ray.
(Though this recent Darwin Award is now having me reevaluate the string-ray threat). But then
someone who plays around with Brown Snakes and Crocodiles had it coming and I'm sure deep down
he knew that someday one critter or another would sink its teeth into him. I guess none of us were
expecting it to be the tail barb of a sting-ray, least of all him.
On the other hand I had to laugh at the joke someone pulled with dying at what one likes to do
best, obviously then a coder dying from a pointer through her chest. His demise will be
made fun off because that's the easiest way for us who actually liked the guy we saw on TV and
who are thus a lot more removed from him to deal with this.
Jokes like that's are perfectly okay though I guess its obvious that talk like that is best kept away
from his wife and children. I am much more personally saddened for them.
Time to get our own back. Bring on Rex Hunt.
But your an idiot, and also you got sH%t for brains too.
This was the first comment that made me laugh out loud ... oh man, I'm such a geek.
Communicating with your kids via the "do as I say or I will bash you again" method only teaches them to fear and avoid you.
:) why things are dangerous and should be left alone.
It does also create a near-pavlovian response to "bad" things.
That said, I don't believe in violence as a form of teaching, and I'm certainly going to explain to my children (2 so far
Isn't this hilarious! omg... CRIKEY! I'm DEAD... CRIKEY!! GET IT? LOLLOL
/. competition to be the 'uber nerd', to show that you're too cool to care (especially when people might expect you to care), but I would just like to show some 'weakness' and say that I find this part of todays news to be kind of sad.
I'm sure I'll be instantly reprimanded, reminded of the place of black humour, and told how much of a wuss I am being. In fact I'm sure there are armies of nerds just waiting to pounce on anyone who is silly enough to object to the clammering for "funny" mod points before the story gets old. Black humour does have it's place, and I did expect there to be a lot here, but when the entire top half of this page is filled with these comments modded "+5 funny", something about it is just a bit disheartening, quite frankly.
So anyway, I'm not sure who won this round of the perpetual
He could be annoying, embarassing, he courted danger (and eventually paid the price)... but he was so exuberant and positive, and niave in a way. No one can accuse him of being fake or caring about himself more than the environment so many of us neglect as matter of mere convenience. Something about his positive outlook and naive manner in contrast with his early death just seems sad to me. Poor bloke
Receiving a smack on the head because you're playing with a stingray has nothing with living in a violent home or being abused anyway. You should inform yourself about child abuse and get some perspective. Do you consider your childhood as having been spent under constant abuse? I guess not. Have you ever been smacked? It would surprise to hear "no".
Global warming is a cube.
I always enjoyed the shows, but I knew that the wildlife studies version of "Jackass" would end badly.
Goddamned kids! Get off my lawn!
anyone?
... as an urban myth..Back then, many people (including me) bought it because it was so easy to believe he got himself into more trouble than he could handle.
This time, however, there does seem to be proper reports about it, and so RIP Steve.
Really sad. Australia has lost one of its greatest cultural icons, only comparable to Yahoo Serious or Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan.
Wow, I never saw this coming.
What Jehovah's Witnesses proclaim may not be that funny though. I hear that in mid October they are about to embark on a campaign advertising the final end of religion at the hands of secular powers. Given the apparent involvement of religiously aligned peoples in various political events lately, and the ongoing cases of child abuse coming to light this doesn't seem quite as outlandish as once thought. Most people I know don't give a rat's about this but we should never make the mistake that what we aren't interested in won't affect us. As for Steve Irwin, well yeah, here in Oz he is a household name. Funny how he single-handedly revived the expression "Crikey!" which was popular in my father's (pre-tv) generation and had all but disappeared till he came along. Here in this country he is as indelibly associated with that word as Homer Simpson is with "d'oh!". Perhaps that will be his unintended means of immortality.
My girlfriend and I swam with the stingrays in the Cayman Islands. It's pretty much the thing to do when you're down there and there is a whole industry built around it. Never thought anyone could get hurt doing it. We touched them, let them swim all over you, and fed them, as do thousands of other tourists. They seemed docile, friendly, and glad that we were there.
Pretty crazy that he went out doing something so many other people do every day.
steave has been bitten poisned stung and other things a million times over. evently he was gonna get attaked 1 to many times and this was the time. sad to see him go thow. but even he said this many times that he could die from his up close encounters and well he did. suprisnly enough it wasent a croc thow.
what did he do to cause a stingray to kill him? TFA says it was a freak accident. but was it really? what were the stingray's intentions?
Steve Irwin was just TOO CLOSE to a secret, I'm sure. I'm not sure what that secret IS, because they killed him with a sting-ray wearing a laser. Very, very, very clever, since everyone is always expecting the whole shark-with-a-laser thing.
It's a shame that Mr. Irwin never had a chance to do anything with that whole Snakes on a Plane thing. Because that would've been funny. He really lived through so many life-threatening situations that I think he came out fairly well.
[/funny]
He was a really neat fellow, from what I could tell. I wish the best to hist wife and children, and may his soul find its way to reptile heaven.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
A good logical explanation! I like it! That should keep them away from Stingrays for good. I never did anything that a good logical explanation said not to do.
Personally I'll encourage the truth by rewarding it, explain what not to do and if I catch my kids doing something stupid, AFTER I've told them not to, I'll tan their disrespectful, unthinking hides with a belt!
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
Ah, well... what did you expect? (-:
Over the years I've very much enjoyed watching Steve Irwin. I was shocked this morning to hear of his accident and my heart goes out to his family and friends.
Having said that, I can't say I'm totally surprised. I know something about snakes, including venomous species, having been fascinated by them from a very early age on. That's why I was so astonished when I saw Steve's program for the first time and how he handled snakes. The crocodiles are one thing; reptile wranglers and herpetologists since Ross Allen have employed much the same methods -- there's really no other good way to do it. But, the snakes! When I first saw how he went about "tailing" Australia's highly dangerous elapids, I thought he was nuts! I still think he was nuts for doing that -- in literature, such methods are never recommended. It simply involves risks that are better -- and easy -- to avoid. How can I say it: people in the same business just tend to live longer when they don't take such risks.
However, we got used to seeing him do those kind of things. It was obvious that Steve had a gift. Only someone who has been around reptiles all of his life and knows instinctively how they behave and react could have done those things and make it look so easy. Indeed, get away with it for so long! It was great for TV, that's for sure! But, I guess that same risk-taking mentality finally got the better of him when he strayed too far from his usual environment. I don't know, but he just seemed a little out of his own element whenever he strapped on a scuba tank over his normal work clothes. Unfortunately, he took that same risk-taking mentality into the water with him and ended up getting stabbed to death by a stingray. How unfortunate. A freak accident? Perhaps, but he was obviously too close and probably doing something most experts would not recommend. But then again, he was Steve Irwin, so what could we expect?
Was he crazy to do what he did? Maybe, maybe not. But, what he did do was use his talent to show the world that the creatures that he loved, the ones that give so many people nightmares, are actually fascinating. That they're not intrinsicly evil, but animals like any others, with important roles to play in the world's ecosystems. Except that they deserve a little more respect. On the whole, from an educational point of view, I think that what Steve did was good. Yes, he often took risks and seemed overly dramatic, but that also got a lot of people to watch his shows and learn things they otherwise would not have. That can only have been a good thing.
He will be sorely missed.
"Like Steve Irwin, you could die with a pointer through the chest."
Instead you'll be too close to the servers when a slashdotting comes in.
Cri-
stupid preview was ok but my post wasn't. Here it goes again. Remember kids, don't use < and > on Slashdot!
---
It reminds me of when Rodney Dangerfield died. The Canadian show "This Hour has 22 minutes" (or was it "Royal Canadian Air Farce"? I always mix-up the two) talked about the fact that Rodney was dead and that he was known as the one with the "I can't get no respect" routine. They then went on and said something along the lines of "it reminds us of (some other guy), who's comedy was appreciated by all. (Some other guy), you will be missed."
They paid tribute to Rodney by sort of not even paying tribute to him (talking about someone else instead), in the spirit of his "can't get no respect" routine. Some posts above did the same thing for Steve Irwin by using some of his usual sentences.
I'm surprised he lasted this long. When playing around with animals like he did is there really any other outcome other then that one day he is going to run out of luck.
10. .. can't do it. But I'm sure David Lettermen won't hesitate to do it soon.
The guy was a treat to watch and he had a huge heart for life, his own his family and for all animals.
He will be missed.
R.I.P. Steve
"No matter how far a jackass travels... he won't come back a horse" - Batou
The best way to tell if a particular Steve Irwin joke is appropriete. Would you tell it to his wife?
The highly trained team of photoshoppers who are on hand for such occasions have been busy...
1
2
3
He was a legend who even in death is providing education and entertainment.
Be nice, sponsor me: http://jailbreak.ragabonds.org.uk
If I had a dollar for every time I've wished this on him.
You'd still be an asshole. So what's the point?
"and its venom.... oh shit.."
Shame to see him gone, he was an entertaining and educational guy.. Even if at times he did go a bit far in taking chances.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I was never a huge fan of steve but I did find him entertaining. I do feel for his family and wish them this best. At least he died doing something he truly loved.
I always figured that an animal would ultimately kill him. I always thought it would be a croc.
I always knew it would never be a croc.
Guy knew his crocs.
You can't take the sky from me...
Was probably cardiac tamponade. The heart has a little baggy/sack around it called the pericardium. With penetrating injuries to the heart, sime blood leaks out with each beat and gets into the bag, thusdepriving the heart of room to expand. The heart is then basically "choked", and it can't pump blood, unless someone withdraws the fluid from the sack and plugs the hole. The pericardium only holds about 40 cc of fluid or so - not much.
..........FULL STOP.
I always assumed Darwin awards were supposed to be for people who died doing really stupid, unnecessary things. There's a difference between that and dying while doing something worthwhile but inherently dangerous. Ask the family of any solider or a fireman who lost their life on duty.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I woke up this morning and read the news. But not by my wife. My wife is completely divorced from pop culture. It took her 6 years to hear about the survivor television show. When I told her this morning that Steve Irwin was dead, she said "Who?" That wasn't surprising, I mean, most people know him as the crocodile hunter. So I responded, "You know, the Crocodile Hunter."
She then asked me if I meant Crocodile Dundee.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
Poor guy; killed by his passion - at least he died doing what he loved. (Although I would have presumed it would have been by a snake or alligator)
Nonetheless, I always enjoyed his shows (they were somewhat comical anyway); I hope they still show repeats of them and people will remember him for at least a few years...
First, I liked Steve Irwin a lot, and this is very sad... But I'm a scuba diver, and at the risk of pissing off everyone, it seems that there're only 2 ways this could've happened:
1.) Steve was literally crawling across the sand on the ocean floor, and a buried stingray nailed him (which an associate suggested this morning in a video interview.)
Or, 2.) Irwin must've done something foolish to get killed this way.
Put simply, it's damn near impossible to get killed by a stingray. They have to feel threatened, and all they can do with their (poisonous) tail spines is to flick them upward (and they're not THAT long.) For Irwin to have actually been killed by a stingray barb to the CHEST, he would've had to have been on TOP of the thing, or else holding it and clutching it to his body. (Maybe lifting it out of the water for a camera shot.) If he were swimming too close to the stingray, and actually tried to lay on top of a large one, sitting on the bottom, then I could see it - but this is the first time I've EVER heard of a diver being killed by a stingray, especially a barb to the chest.
I'm very sorry Steve's dead, but odds are, he would still be alive if he'd been practicing safe diving techniques and maintaining his distance. Otherwise, there's virtually no way on Planet Earth that a stingray could kill a man, unless you stepped on one in shallow water, and had a severe allergic reaction to its venom.
Calls what alligator?
We call Alligators Alligators, and Crocodiles Crocodiles.
There aren't any alligators native to Australia - only crocs, but Steve did in fact have both crocodiles and alligators in his zoo
He wasn't some one who chased profits as his primary motivation
Yes, god forbid someone is motivated by money! How evil.
How does Dale Earnhardt eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup?
WHAM
Luckily computer parts don't have sharp claws.
Don't try to tell me they don't. Glancing at the back of my left hand, I count eleven easily visible scars. One is from stuffing my hand through a storm door at age 11, one from a grill accident while working at a restaurant. The other nine are all from computer cases attacking me at work while trying to fix them.
I'm glad I went with a Lian Li for my home machine; it hasn't bit me yet.
On the other hand, computers generally aren't venomous when they bite and scratch... except for smokers' machines.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
"You should inform yourself about child abuse and get some perspective."
Umm, look at my other posts and the reply from the OP, you will find my "hunch" about his dads behaviour was correct. Also if you are still whacking your kids with a belt as you indicate in your other reply then it is you who needs to step back for a bit of perspective.
If you took the time to inform rather than defend yourself, you would know there is a world of difference between a "smack on the head" and being "beaten black and blue". OTOH: I do realise, and have met, people who use their parents as scapegoats for their own adult fuck-ups. I have also found people who do that are often young (
"Have you ever been smacked?"
What a moronic question! Do you know anyone that was taught "fire burns" by having their hand held down on a hotplate? No, how about someone bashed into a three month coma because dad ran out of grog? Would you say it's abuse to knock a 12yro's front teeth out because they are scared to swim in the deep end, or was the wimpy little brat "asking for it"?
K.Revees said it best in the movie parenthood:- "You need a license to keep dogs but any butt-reaming arsehole can be a father".
BTW: I had a "happy childhood" and love my dad dearly, my ex-wife was not so fortunate.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
You mean we should all die coding?
Given the typical geek's hobbies, diet, and idea of what constitutes a regular exercise program, a heart attack while wanking off to downloaded pr0n seems more likely.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a batch script to modify.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
"are often young ("
Should read "are often young ( less than 40 ) and/or dim-witted."
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
What a croc.
Steve helped make nature, conservation and animals fun for an entire generation of people. He helped change the nature and scope of tourism in Australia. He changed the way educational TV is done. I'll miss him.
YouTube & Google Video -> podcast http://castcluster.blogspot.com/
Was explaining to my 6-year old that the Crocodile Hunter had passed away, and during my son's normal questioning on how a stingray can kill a man, the natural question was asked - how did the animal sting his heart? Was Steve hugging the stingray or something? Might be one of those unanswered questions ... except maybe the cameras were probably rolling at the time of the accident ...
Presuming that you meant "sentence" not "sentience", it is not even close. The top story in the hall of fame easily beats it.
3 7232.shtml
http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/04/11/03/16
http://slashdot.org/hof.shtml
I'm not trying to justify or defend anything here, just genuinely curious as to why the Aussies are so pissed off at us.
Stingrays normally flee at the first sign of trouble. There are two exceptions: if they are cornered or accidentally stepped on.
h ave-been-agony/2006/09/04/1157222070815.html
Irwin's chest wound led some experts to speculate that he might have provoked the creature. "Unfortunately he may have contributed to his death because he got too close and the animal felt threatened," Dr Fry said.
Wildlife filmmaker David Ireland said if a stingray barb hit any vital organs "it's as deadly as a bayonet".
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/end-would-
Contrary to popular belief, Unix is user friendly. It just happens to be particular about who it makes friends with.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I was doing a presentation for my daughter's fifth grade class on "What's inside a computer?"
Halfway through, one of the kids asked a question: "Do you know you're bleeding?" I'd sliced myself on the case.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
I was a little freaked out this morning about the coincidence of my thought pattern to reality. Although I've always thought of this guy as a tool - I still feel badly for him and his family.
"I wanna die by a misadventure. Wanna die face down in some dudes pool. Not gonna kick it in my sleep, chokin on my dentures. When I die Jack its gonna be Real Cool!!!"
Take a look at this video of some Stingrays -- close to the end, a man and woman are handling a ray with the stinger actually brushing naked flesh several times. It seems the prevailing opinion on these animals is that they are non-aggresive. Perhaps Steve had the same idea when he approached them.
6 381588601
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=725729846
As the parent said, before Irwin, people HATED crocs, venmous snakes & spiders, etc. No one on TV made as passionate and convincing case for the "ugly critters" like Steve Irwin. Thanks to him, I realised I still had a prejudice against reptiles. I.e., I didn't care so much about the extinction of crocodiles, venemous snakes, etc. But thanks to him, you realise -- hey, they maybe ugly, but they're usually MORE important than the cute and cudly field mouse (a pest of biblical proportions in Australia and a very serious ecological threat) and rabbits (another thing that SHOULD be erradicated in Australia).
So many nature specials, etc. focus on the cute mammals and tend to show reptiles as the villains about to much on that harmless wildebeast. Well, without crocks, wildebeasts could eat themselves and their enviornment to extinction. Reptiles are a very good and very important part of nature.
Steve Irwin had the courage to share his love of reptiles with the world and drag us kicking and screaming to realise how important they are in the circle of life. ANd more importantly, he reached out to the NON-science and NON-nature people to make them understand it too, so if someone opposes a crocodile cull in Aussie to make life better for the big ranchers, the public is now more likely to support that person.
Reptiles have lost their biggest fan and lobbiest. God rest ye, Steve. And I hope your wife and children will get through this ordeal.
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
How much the crocs and venomous snakes paid the stingray? Or how much the stingray paid the media to print that it was "a freak accident"?
My other reply? This was my only post in this thread... As for whacking my kids with anything, well, first I'd have to produce some, I think.
Oh well. Pretty much everyone I know has received occasional smacking during their childhood/teen years, yet they grew up as quite normal adults. It's quite obvious that knocking out your son's teeth goes beyond the definition of "occasional smacking".
Any more unsubstantiated trolling based on distortion of words left to do today?
Global warming is a cube.
"I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts...because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting."
:)
- Robert Heinlein, Stranger In a Strange Land
Grok humanity
One of the lighter sides out this tragedy is the fact that he not only leaves the image of international wildlife conservation much higher in regard to millions of people across the world, but that he was also successful enough to enlarge his zoo using over $16 million in profits from his shows along with buying a lot more land than that for conservation use. His family and young children who have been left without a father are also financially secure and have a much better father figure to look up to when they grow up than most people ever will. Rest In Peace Steve, you were a great man.
Business Voyeur
I remember the first time I saw Steve on TV. It was when he just started--before he hit it big. He was standing there holding a small green snake. As he talked about this snake it just bit his fore-arm repeatedly. He just kept on talking and the snake kept on biting... blood started to drip from the bites. It was hilarious. I told everyone I knew about it and to watch the show. If ya gotta go, go doing what you love.
2 tbl vegetable oil
4 lrg tomatoes - (2 lbs) peeled, chopped
1 x onion minced
3 x garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup molasses or dark brown sugar
1 tbl Worcestershire sauce
1 tbl minced or grated ginger
1 tsp Tabasco sauce or dried red pepper flakes
1/3 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 lb skinless Stingray wing cut 4 serving
portions
* Heat the oil in a large skillet, add the tomatoes, onion and garlic and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are transluscent, about 5 minutes. Add the molasses, Worcestershire sauce, ginger, Tabasco sauce, lower the heat to medium and cook uncovered until the vegetables are thoroughly softened and the sauce is thick, 30 to 40 minutes. Take from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let cool.
* Just before serving, cut away any membrane from the Stingray wings. Preheat the grill or broiler. Brush the Stingray wings on both sides with some of the cooled barbecue sauce and let sit while the grill heats.
* Lightly oil the grill top and add the Stingray wings. Cook until the fish is nicely browned and somewhat firm, 3 to 4 minutes. Brush the top with some more barbecue sauce, turn the fish and continue cooking until the fish is opaque through, about 4 minutes longer.
* Transfer the Stingray to individual plates, brush with more sauce and serve, passing extra sauce alongside.
* This recipe yields 4 servings.
* Comments: The tender meat of Stingray clinging to the strip of cartilage is reminiscent of pork ribs. You'll be surprised how tasty this combination is.
* When fresh, ripe tomatoes are available, they are preferable here, but canned tomatoes are a fine alternative.
snarfed from fooddownunder.com
::
Steve,
Thanks for the many insights on animal behaviour with your excellent sense of humour and dramatic improvisation.
Many's the time one thought you were about to be fck-d or otherwise retaliated against but your respect and knowledge of the creatures you showed us served to illustrate how one could make wild creatures calm down and go to a natural state which did not involve killing humans and~or humans killing them.
Reading the sad news:
Was this a joke or a publicity stunt?... only later did reality sink in...
Another beacon extinguished, perhaps another will be lighted elsewhere?
R I P Steve
with love
# ~: no sigs today
if it flys, floats, or fucks, it's cheaper to lease it.
http://www.crocodilehunter.com/cart/category33_1.h tm
Try Ubuntu GNU/Linux, it's great!!!
People forget that Steve Irwin was continually teasing wild animals and was no different from the fools starring in the "JackAss" franchise. It is quite unfortunate but he was playing with fire and got burned.
You have taken the first step on the path my son. Soon you will be ready to join us.
It doesn't matter which ape activates the Monolith
I've seen a number of posts from Australians that didn't like Steve because he perpetuated stereotypes. Steve is nothing like old Crocodile Dundee (Paul Hogan). Dundee was a nice and honest guy, but he was really backwoods and I could see that Aussies wouldn't care for everyone in the world to think they were all like that. But, Steve Irwin was a nice, honest, insanely friendly, good spirited, compassionate, intelligent, and yes a bit goofy, character. Is that really all that bad?
Half the people in the world think that all Americans are self-centered, money-obsessed, warmongers who don't give a crap about the environment, think it is fine to stab people in the back, and want to take over the world. (newsflash: there are a lot of people in the US, they aren't all the same. Heck there are only ~20 million people in Aus according to the 2004 Australian census results, compare that with the 17 million that are in Florida alone. If you don't think a stereotype is fair to stereotype Australians, why do you think it is fair to stereotype Americans when a single state has almost as many people! )
I'd much rather people think that Americans were all like Steve Irwin. And if you are pissed that people might think you guys have 'funny accents' and kind hearts - well, then you are not the type of Australian that I'd want to meet on a trip.
When did being nice and a little quirky suddenly become something worth getting condemned for?
Finally, I doubt his family is expressing their grief by looking at Slashdot right now. And if they are, they're probably the kind of people that can take a bit of good-natured discussion on the topic of evolutionary success.
For example, the "AIDS drugs to Africa" campaign involved getting the US DoT to first shut down Brasilian companies which were already doing a fine job of shipping the same medications to Africa.
And so on, across the board.
Bill's idea of "philanthropy" seems to have a very stiff controlling aspect. Steve's philanthropy was/is more intersting & genuine.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
It would be interesting to do a poll to see how many slashdot readers are working in the biological sciences right now, and were at least partially inspired by mister Irwin's fanatastic zeal and passion for the wee (and not so wee) beasts of the Earth. I'll be it's more than a few. You can have your Jane Goodall's and whatnot -- Steve Irwin made you want to get out there and see things up close. He got you excited. If we could just put five or six people with that kind of enthusiasm into universities and schools taking the students out on field-trips, we could usher in a golden-age of scientific field-work.
----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
...ain't so wonderful either.
I came very, very close to doing that earlier this year when some turkey opened his car door in front of my pushbike, which I greatly enjoyed riding.
My prognosis was "will die today, if he survives he'll be a vegetable" and I came very, very close to doing just that. That's what they told my family, too, which didn't overjoy any of them.
Not happy (but better than being dead, I think), still undergoing repairs (awaiting a titanium plate for my skull at the moment), still handicapped in various ways (e.g. I'm unable to drive, I wake up sore many mornings, I go to sleep at lunchtime many days, barely able to work at all, etc) seven months after the prang. And I understand that I'm a "miracle case", very fortunate to have healed up so well.
Sense of humour & all, I don't think Steve would be very happy about his own outcome.
...this was on an open side-road, I don't ride that close to cars & Mr Car Door reckons that he only opened it "two inches" despite the injuries all across my face etc from impacting said door; & also, according to the police, I was the 4th person he'd hit that day. He also gave different stories to the police & courts about why he was there at the time.
Accident? Yeah, right.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Because when there are two countries that both are similar in many ways, the differences stand out more.
Americans particualarly admire success over good to the community, Australians see most rich as morally inferior since they spend money themselves which could help someone else more (this is also why the Australian middle and upper classes are impossible to distinguish without finantial records). Americans haven't got a welfare system that an unempoyable individual could live on, America doesn't have a heavily subsidised healthcare system for all citizens, America has education on a local basis so poor people have underfunded schools. This is so the most prosperous indivduals can pay less and the military can get more. Americans have the death penalty which Australians think is barbaric. America has handguns and assult weapons for civilians, Australians think that means a society is warlike and uncouth. Australian think about these differences every time they watch it on an American sitcom (which many Australians love to watch).
There are worse places in the world than America of course, but Australians don't see it like that. Because Americans speak English, like Jesus, vote for their leaders, like eating beef, chicken, carrots, potatoes and white bread with penut butter, play sports that somewhat resembling cricket and rugby, like to watch television at the end of the day and many other similarities; to Australians, Americans are not just another exotic race with a strange culture, Americans are Australians that have gone astray. We do actually care about you guys and it's like your brother has done something that you disapprove of. We both came to the New World to form a new identity, we just think you did it wrongly.
It's not everyone who dislikes you guys anyway, just the ones you're likely to meet, much of the Australian working class admires the United States and love their music and TV shows. The Australian middle class largely can't stand American music or TV shows, despite large amounts of it being around in the media. This is a lot to do with American nationalism that comes through movies and tv shows, flag waving, jingoism, insularism, etc. Nationalism is very uncommon in Australian society (perhaps too uncommon) and every nationalist (from any nation, even our own) is seen as distasteful. Australians REALLY get pissed off when Americans start describing themselves as the freest, capital of the free world and that President is the Leader of the Free world (there are many democracies out there with rights for individuals). Also, stuff like hearing about the Baseball "World Series" that Japan, Mexico, Cuba and ourselves are not invited to play in makes us pissed off because it is insular and disrespectful. Thus, their intense dislike of American media rubbs off on their opinion of Americans in general. If American media stopped coming to Australia, this would stop rather quickly. Thanks to the American media we all know a LOT about your history, geography, politics etc. which helps us work out what exactly we don't like about you.
If you want Australians to like Americans, you should campaign to ban all TV and Movie exports to Australia. I sure will miss Southpark, Futurama and House, but the image of America will go up the less we think about you.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
We don't even hate Americans either, we just think you are jerks. Australia considers the United States to be a friend, even if we don't always agree. Don't forget, we have been at your side in every war you've sent ground troops into. We were at Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iraq again. Many times the only reason we've been there is when a friend gets into a fight, you've got to help them out, whether they were right to pick the fight or not. The last time you helped us out in a war, Japaneese troops had already landed in an Australian protectorate. Australians know that it's our duty to invade everyone you invade because that's what we always do, that's what friends do for each other. That's why Australians generally blame George W. Bush for Iraq not John Howard, because if we hadn't sent our Navy, Special Forces, Engineers, Air Force etc. the useless, unjust war would have still happened, but we wouldn't have done what we are expected to and the war wouldn't have gone so smoothly since the force would be smaller. That's why we really hate your foreign policy, because it will become our policy whether we like it or not.
It's a complex relationship.When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
I challenge you (or anyone else) to show me how coming close enough to feed a chicken to an unrestrained crocodile, is [i]not[/i] extremely dangerous and [i]not[/i] a major gamble with your life (and your kid's).
Crocs jump at their prey like lightning. They're highly unpredictable. They have jaws like steel beartraps. That's three points against you. I'm waiting.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I'm from Brisbane, and have been up to Australia Zoo a number of times (about an hours drive), This place is testimony to a very commited man, long may it stand as a reminder to us all. RIP Steve
You never catch me alive
... any bets as to how long it will take for the video of the attack to appear on ye olde interweb?
Just as I'm quite sure there are drunken drivers out there who are experts at driving and who don't get into accidents.
Yet.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I have always questioned his sanity, but not his love for animals.
He should have "Kids, don't try this at home!" tattoo'ed on him everywhere..
Crazy guy.. I can hear the animals weeping...
You're a moron you conservative twat.
Steve Irwin lived his life for nature, and for that he should be commended; as many have said already, he placed much of his earnings into buying up land for conservation purposes. Young people today should look up to him as a role model for living life with honor in his heart. My first thought upon reading of his death nearly 24 hours ago was, "Holy shit, no." It's a testament to how influential he was that everyone I know has been reeling from his death today. It's such a tragic occurrence, and I'm sorry that he had to go before he'd done more good than he already had (which was a great deal) -- I am in fact getting a little misty-eyed as I write this.
I have a list of deceased people that I wish I could have met, and would go back in time to meet if I could; I'm adding Mr Irwin to that list.
Finally, because I need a little laughter right now, I have to do it:
And in other news, Jeff Corwin has been arrested on charges of conspiracy with a stingray...
He was flying the plane with one hand while waving to hundreds of passengers with the other.
I don't care if it was a "calculated" risk... planes can go from travelling several hundrend kph to sitting dead like a lump on a log in just a few second. There is absolutely no calculating anything with a plane. There is no minimum safe way to fly a plane except by remote control.
Planes can and do crash. Are pilots faster than a plane? No? Then all passengers are in mortal danger, and the pilot put them there.
"That and the way he molested female pigs, etc., makes me have very little respect for him."
I don't even know what the hell that's supposed to mean. I have 0 respect for anyone who talks about "facts" without knowing what the hell he's talking about.
"My other reply? This was my only post in this thread...As for whacking my kids with anything...Any more unsubstantiated trolling based on distortion of words left to do today?"
Sorry, I confused you with someone else, however we all make mistakes and I humbly retract that accusation from my post. Speaking of mistakes, you are confusing me with someone who thinks a mild smack is abuse and then building a strawman on top of that confusion.
"...first I'd have to produce some[kids]"
That would explain the "armchair expert" attitude you have. Do yourself a favour and watch a couple of episodes of "super nanny", you may actually learn something that most sucessfull parents already know.
If you eventually do get around to breeding and manage to stick around for the requisite 18+ years, you will experience a mixture of rage and frustration that only your child can inspire. How you handle those situations is what makes you a saint, a monster, or something more mortal between the two extremes.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Stingrays now reclassified from "harmless" to "mostly harmless"
Man, I was a little depressed when I heard the news yesterday.. sigh. I really looked up to that guy - I think alot of people did, whether they'd admit it or not..
How many people are out there like Steve? Perhaps there's a few with a heart like his (no pun intended).. but none have made the splash upon the world as he did. He went out into the wide world publicly trying to preserve wildlife and their environment through education in a way that Nature and Wild Kingdom and alot of others failed to do, with great success. The world has truely lost a great man. Alot of us will seriously miss him, and the world will definitely miss all his work.
I hope his wife carries on Steve's work.
God bless, and RIP.
You sound like you were expecting him not to answer your question and say "oh, no, we love the US, we all wished we lived there!" Instead you say "I disagree on the fact." To be fair, it's pretty hard to disagree with someone's stated perceptions; they may be unjust perceptions, but you get what you ask for!
Who cares if he died doing what he loved. That's such a hollywood romanticized statement and so trite. Someone dies while swimming with stingrays, the fact of the matter is that they are still dead. I have a daughter and if you think for a moment that a documentary about the "Ocean's Deadliest" caries equal weight with the presence of a father and husband in the lives of his wife and children, I pray that you reconsider what life is actually about.
If I got bit by a gopher on a golf course and died, do you think that noble "he died doing what he liked" would actually console my daughter for the rest of her childhood or my wife as she wonders how to make ends meet? Hillbillys die in all manner of "Hey y'all, watch this..." accidents and leave real people behind to deal with the aftermath financially and emotionally. I'm not saying Mr. Irwin's contribution wasn't important (personally, I really liked what he did) - I'm just saying that the theatrics, while entertaining to the masses, ended up taking a daddy away from his kids and a husband away from his wife. Senseless and irresponsible when it's all said and done. There are no winners in this scenario.
At least he died showing that the animals he played with are dangerous. I think the guy was an irresponsible moron. About like that guy that was malled by the bear he was trying to protect.
I wonder how many children have been hurt over the years attempting the crap that Steve Irwin would pull in the name of entertainment. I rarely allowed my children to watch him and when I did I followed up with a talk about how dangerous and stupid it was to play with wiled animals.
I saw his rebuttal about the feeding of the croc with his child in his hands. The statement "I was in full control" is a load of shit. Ask any smart person that deals with wild animals as there job and they will tell you the only wild animal that is controlled is a dead one, and then some of them can still kill you.
Stop the hero worship. He was just a lucky redneck that would deserve the Darwin award if he had not reproduced.
To update this to the many comments, the footage has now been shown to the Corona and police and they confirm that he did nothing to provoke the incident. He was simply swimming over the ray, something I myself have done. They are pretty much harmless creatures, I have even hand fed them and their poison is considered nothing more than a nuisance. The direct hit to the heart was the fatality here, not the poison, so ironically, he was actually not doing anything crazy when his luck finally ran out.
As for what I expected: I feared an angry response, but received what I hoped for - a measured detailing of differences of cultures and perceptions. Oh yeah, and one response from an angry git looking to stir the pot.
for those interested, transcript of interview in 2003:
1 732743.htm
... the interviewer sits back and lets people talk.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s
The program is called "Enough Rope"
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post
I'z tol' all o' y'all muthafuckas!! Nowz stops moddin' dem nigga jokes down. Mmmm!!
Dem'z'z be funny, yo!! Shit!!
I-ight, nigga gone.
The correct analogy is, if he has passengers aboard. In which case he's a danger to his passengers and everyone below, too.
I can't imagine a better death than one where I'm helping my kid.
Check the story. He unknowingly swam over a buried stingray that reacted to his prescense with a defense mechanism. He was extremely unlucky in this case, and the magnitude of that bad luck is raised to ironic levels by his everday (for him) activities.
It's like a motorcycle daredevil getting hit by freak lightning on a clear day on the golf course.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
For those of you who don't know.
What we've got here is a wild Dragonweezel. They grow to be about 500 lbs. Look at those wings all wide and scaly. Watch as I hold up one of his four sharp claws. That was tough, he's big bugger. His head is weasel shaped, but he manages to blow the same powerful dragon breath. His body is slender, and very flexible, covered in fur. Let's pet him a bit. Good dragonweezel. Look at this long pointed reptillian tail protruding from his bottom. It helps to ballance him in flight, and the pointy barb at the end can be used defensivly. Watch how he stalks his prey. Sometimes a dragonweezel will skewer his prey with a stick and then cook him to about 500 degrees before ingesting their chard remains. Crikey that poor politician didn't stand a chance. Did you see how he quickly winked at us before he reached in with a single claw and devoured him whole? You should not approach one unless your true of heart.
Thank you Steve.
Rest In Peace..
-DW
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
Crikey! That's not a string ray... That's a Death Ray...
"And now I'm going to jam my thumb up his butthole.. CRICKEY YEA THAT REALLY PISSED HIM OFF!"
Then how is it that he got killed by one of those animals he was fscking with?
That croc could have killed him and his son. But alas it was a stingray that did him in. I guess your logic is since it was a stingray and not a croc that killed him and he wasn't holding his kid in his arms when it happened, he wasn't putting his kid in danger when he was messing with that croc. Because stingrays are unpredictable. Unlike crocodiles.
Oh wait a minute, that is your logic...
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
lesson over
...true, I'm sure Steve Irwin was a good man, but in the meantime, millions of people (let alone other animals) are starving in Africa, global warming is threatening to put an end to the world as we know it, and in the Middle East people are going around blowing each other up. Do I detect some injustice here?
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/01/02 /australia.crocodileman/index.html
/salute
According to the sources I've seen about the incident with Steve Irwin and his child (like the one linked above), he never dangled the kid over a crocodile pit; he had him tucked snugly in one arm while tossing some food to a croc with his other. Irresponsible? Maybe, but seemingly not from his point of view and certainly not to a point where it could be construed as "dangling" his infant son over any crocodile pit. If you take your child out to play in the fenced-in back yard with the sometimes ill-tempered but much loved family dog, would a bystander be accurate in saying that they saw you shove a kid into a frenzied dog pit? That may seem like a leap; but is it really, for a man who seemed to feel as comfortable and confident around crocs as the average canine expert would be with dogs?
Most of us have never had experience with crocodiles in the wild; compound that with the mental image that they bring to mind for many, of a traditional reptilian monster from any given horror flick, and his perceived "offense" tends to look much worse than it may be. With all of his experience with dangerous wildlife, I doubt Steve Irwin felt he was putting his child in any danger. I mean, how many Crocodile encounters do you need to walk away from before you feel like you can handle them in a given situation? 50? 100? 1,000? The point is, Steve had a lot more insight into the nature and capabilities of crocs than most of us do.
All of that being said, I concede that he was likely a bit overconfident when dealing with nature's wild critters. I guess that's part of what I liked about him. He made things like crocodiles and scorpions seem much less monstrous and was always eager to show us the beauty and simplicity of nature. It's ironic though, that it was a freak accident that killed him in the end, especially considering how rare a lethal Stingray attack is. There are what, one or two stingray deaths each year? So says the news media, if I recall correctly. Considering his daily lifestyle and career, his eventual death always had a strong likelihood of being caught on film, so it could easily have been a whole lot more painful and graphic than it was.
Personally, I thought the man was a pioneer, in that he was able to make nature shows interesting AND entertaining, guaranteeing that I would watch the show longer than the typical 5-10 minute period that I would usually allow for something like National Geographic. My college roomates and I watched the show regularly, back when it first started on TV.
Sorry for the long-winded reply. I guess I needed to pay a final tribute to the Crocodile man.
I do respect your opinion. It's not my fault that you're wrong.
Steve Irwin should have worn more sunscreen, it helps protect from harmful rays.
Interestingly, he was not killed doing anything you might consider 'stupid', other than perhaps swimming in the ocean. --Which is probably why it happened. The only times I've ever been hurt while doing anything is when my attention wanders because I think I'm in a safe zone. When I engage in a risky activity, my attention is fully on and everything works out fine. Steve Irwin's accident sounds like the sort of thing which could have happened to anybody.
Feeding fear to your children is an effective way to limit their potential and give them an excuse to resent you for it should they ever wake up to the fact. I've seen that happen. I find it is better to say things like, "Hammers can easily crush things," rather than, "Hammers are dangerous and only stupid rednecks use them!"
It's best to encourage kids to believe in themselves, and to provide them with knowledge rather than dire warnings. --Knowledge is formed from love and awareness, dire warnings are made from fear and doubt.
-FL
Yes, it was made with children in mind (except maybe ROUSes). However most of the humor in the movie goes entirely over the head of children. They do not understand that level of humor. It's not until the teenage years that it becomes apparent that it is humor from front to back.
I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.