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Penguins Disappearing From Southern Hemisphere
The Scotsman is running a piece looking at the mysterious disappearance of penguins from all around the world. A biologist who studies the rockhopper penguin characterizes the population crash as 'sinister', as scientists are still baffled as to why almost 30% of the birds have vanished. From the article: "Grant Munro, the director of Falklands Conservation, said there were fears that rockhoppers might become extinct. 'If the present situation were to carry on then it's not a particularly great forecast. It doesn't look like they are suddenly going to start increasing in numbers ... In the Falklands, they are part of everyday life. If you head down to the beach you are going to see penguins.'"
> Penguins Disappearing From Southern Hemisphere
Microsoft must be behind of all of this. Who else would like to see cute little penguins to disappear from the world.
So long... and thanks for all the fish!
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
I felt a great disturbance in the [NOUN] , as if [AMOUNT] of [NOUN]'s suddenly [VERB] out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Obviously too many penguins have been reading this book...
If Penguins were featherless, covered in oozing mucous, constantly moaned in pain and had soulless empty sockets where their eyes should be we wouldn't care if they disappeared from the earth or not.
This would make more sense if it were dolphins!
and they will appear on the desktops all over the world!
less is more
My new company KFP is going to put KFC out of business. I was just hoping that no one would notice the population drop until I was ready to go international.
Fuck a chicken wing, penguin wings is the future.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Penguins are not just cute. They're delicious too.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
From wikipedia: "Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are an order of aquatic, flightless birds living exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere."
s.clementmonkey@sympatico.ca, remove the 'monkey'.
Just like the T-Rex, the reason they disappear is because they can't break their fall. No arms, no way to save them self. Well, the T-Rex had arms, but they where to short to do any difference.
they are wondrously imprecise... barring actually going everywhere and penning them all and then counting them out of the pens, you could say anything you like about the total numbers...
just think of all the fudge factors they use as it is... x% assumed to be underwater catching fish, we've only counted them here and we'll assume things are the same over there...
the only thing you can say with certainty is that the scientists are earnestly trying to count them and they haven't found as many of them as previous guesstimation figured there would be
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
What about the food chain? Is commercial fishing by humans affecting the penguin's food supply? Overfishing can have unanticipated effects on other species.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
There are several species of Penuin that NEVER get anyway near the Antartic Ice Cap.
You can see Penguins in Chile, Argentina, Namibia, South Africa and the Falklands to name just a few places. Oh, I forgot those nice islands near the Equator called the Galapagos.
It is more likely that over fishing is the cause of the decline of the Rockhoppers in the Falklands. If there is no suitable food supply then the population will crash.
An alternative theory could be that this is cyclical variation in population just like Lemmings.
At the moment, it is too early to say.
Anyway, I'm off to the Falklands next month and hope to see some live TUX.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
I heard this chap interviewed on the Today programme yesterday morning. He put great emphasis on pointing out that it's only the Rockhoppers that have declined: the Gentoo and Emperor penguin species seem to be unaffected by whatever's causing this. Readers in the UK running Windows legacy systems can watch the related TV story here. Hmmm, and there's a story here from 2002.
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
the bl00dy great fishing fleets hoovering up the fish... and there's a whole sorry saga here... corrupt officials effectively condoning it.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Almost every species that thrives in its environment does so because it's reached an equilibrium with that environment. Change that environment, you start adding or eliminating vegetation, adding or eliminating predators, adding or eliminating their animal food supplies, etc. Never mind fucking up their mating, nesting, or hibernating patterns, or forcing them to adapt to new temperatures that conflict with what their bodies have evolved to be comfortable with.
I said "almost" above because there is one species that isn't content to thrive in its environment, but must constantly meddle with it and fuck it up. And that's our species, and that's because we're smart enough to create things that have awful biproducts, but stupid enough to believe those getting rich off the process that everything's going fine... just fine.
Tell that to the disappearing penguins. Tell that to the drowning polar bears. Tell that to extinct dolphins. Tell that to the Siberians who are getting more bear sightings than usual because it's too warm for hibernation.
Tell that to your GRANDCHILDREN. It used to be the older generation's fault for allowing this to happen. Now it's ours for not stepping up and showing the courage to take the drastic changes necessary to stop it.
Don't blame global warming - the real culprit is thugs with knives: Penguins killed in sickening beach attack
They've been honing their plan for total world domination for years while lulling people into a false sense of security by appearing cute and harmless cratures who just want to fish and frolic. Well, their plans are now complete and what appears as a mysterious disappearance of penguins is simply the beginning of the great penguin war.
They are assembling an invincible penguin army deep in the secret caves under Antarctica. That's where all the penguins went.
The owls are not what they seem
The animals aren't the problem here, the people are. So let's just call them "people", not "animals".
Penguins are for life guys, not just for Christmas. Make sure the person you're giving one to really wants a penguin, and has the time to care for one.
They are just going into hiding. They have a secret lair under the ice where they will wait out global warming, patiently sharpening their tools, for they know that when the icecaps melt and humanity is thrown into chaos, that's when their day will come.
And I, for one, will welcome our Eudyptulan overlords!
Global warming and cooling HAS happened over the eons. However, it naturally takes centuries to occur and animals have to time to let natural selection take its course. Man-made global warming is happening in the span of a human lifetime which is far, far faster then most species can adapt, especially ones like penguins who have maybe one or 2 chicks a year. All bets are off if you're talking bunnies, insects and bacteria.
That's highly unlikely as the RAF operates very strict flight regulations concerning the areas around the Falklands that are used by nesting penguins. Especially so during the breeding season when the noise of an overflying jet may startle a potential parent into letting the egg balanced on its feet to keep it warm come into contact with the frozen ground, almost certainly killing the chick within. More than one RAF pilot has had their flying status revoked and found themselves on the next transport plane home after being caught too close to the penguin colonies.
For those of you old enough to remember the TV advert, the RAF most certainly does not "P-P-P-Pickle a Penguin".
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Teach them to dance.