Contents
Nature and Nurture
What Rhymes with Bingo?
Last month as you may recall we reported on a killjoy council in the UK who replaced their traditional Norwegian Christmas tree with an artificial substitute on grounds of economic and health and safety reasons. As you will see from the next story, it looks as if ‘killjoy council of the month’ could become a regular feature. Sudbury town council gets the first prize of 2010 from the Bugle with their outstanding demonstration of misguided political correctness. The council has advised former mayor and bingo caller John Sayers to stop using traditional phrases such as ‘two fat ladies 88’ and ‘legs 11’ at his weekly bingo sessions at the Town Hall due to legal concerns . It was thought that if there were two large women in the audience then they might be offended by the call ’two fat ladies 88’ and sue as a result, and the phrase ‘legs 11’ could be perceived as being voyeuristic.
Sue Brotherwood a clerk at the Sudbury Town Council is reported as saying “You hear these things, of people being sued because of it, and obviously we have to take it on board” Who, we want to know, aside from Sue Brotherwood of Sudbury Town Council, has heard of a such a law suit? You will not be surprised to learn that whilst there had been no gripes from bingo players when John Sayers was using the traditional phrases, as soon as he started ’just calling the numbers’ complaints flooded in about the new style being boring. Wouldn’t happen here (or at least we hope not)!
Naked Cycling in New Zealand and a Dead Duck
In stark (or starkers!) contrast to the sense of humour failure which seems to be prevalent in the UK comes this story of tolerance from the Southern Hemisphere. In Coromandel, New Zealand, two men were recently caught cycling in the nude. Local policewoman Cathy Duder spotted the young men whilst she was out on patrol. According to Cathy they seemed to be more shocked than she was and tried to cover their bits with their hands. They apparently told the policewoman that the reason they were cycling in the buff was because they wanted to experience ‘total freedom’. Her response was that the way they were going they were likely to experience total confinement. “They didn’t seem drunk at all” she said “That’s what worried me”. She let them off with a warning for not wearing cycle helmets.
It’s not known whether the men actually did don protective headgear before carrying on with their bizarre activity.
Don’t ask us why this story leapt out and grabbed our attention, but for some reason it did. We are sure you will all be saddened to hear that Edwina the tea drinking duck has died at the grand old age of 22 (which is apparently very old for a duck). Edwina was rescued as a duckling by a couple in Hampshire. The couple tried to release Edwina back into the wild but she was having none of it. Initially called Edward (until she started laying eggs), Edwina adopted the couple, and became fond of tea and toast. The couple are said to be devastated by the loss—but Edwina clearly had a good run. Just in case you were wondering, according to the BBC and The British Trust for Ornithology the oldest known wild mallard in the UK is 20 years and five months. The oldest known wigeon is 34 years, the oldest gadwall (gadwall?!) is 21 and the oldest teal is 18 years. And of course, the oldest wild duck on record is a sea-duck called Eider which is 35 years and six months old. You never know when these facts might come in handy!
The Octopus and the Coconuts
This story is a fantastict example of ‘aren't creatures clever?’. In Bali, Indonesia, veined octopuses Amphioctopus marginatus) have been spotted using discarded coconut shells as shelters. This would seem to be the first time that octopuses have been observed to use tools. The scientist who discovered this is reported as saying that he ‘nearly drowned laughing’ when he first saw them carrying out this trick. The habitat of the veined octopus is extremely hazardous and the octopuses are tasty snacks for all sorts of different types of predators, and trying to stay alive on the muddy sea bed is challenging to say the least. Coconut shells are to be found in abundance in the waters of Bali, as humans throw the shells into the sea after they have eaten the coconut inside. The shells sink to the bottom of the sea, and the octopuses dig them out of the mud. The octopuses clean out the mud from the shells, then scoot off with the shells to a convenient spot.
If they have just one coconut half, then they turn the shell open face down and crawl underneath to hide. If they manage to find two coconut halves then they put the two halves together to re-form the coconut shape before crawling inside. Tool use in animals was once thought to be exclusive to primates, but is now being observed in an increasing number of different species.
Octopuses are already known for being pretty bright. They are said to be able to solve puzzles (crossword puzzles?) and to mimic other species. As we were going to press we hadn’t found out how the octopus manages to mimic other species (parrot fashion perhaps). If we do, we’ll let you know!
Singing all together now “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts….”
