Things I'm scared of...

[Phantom Gossiper]

All these natural disasters this year, i know its normal but really feels like this year they have been more frequent and of larger proportions

[Brucetiki]

Birds.

The flying kind.

All stems back to my childhood when...

- Our cocky almost bit my finger off.
- We were cleaning out my budgie Shamus' cage and when it came time to put him back in the cage we couldn't find him. Then I saw him. Well, I saw the end of his leg at least... hanging out of our pet cat Whiskey's mouth. Whiskey looked at me as if she knew she just got busted doing bad. Then Whiskey swallowed him whole.
- Me and my mate got swooped by the ferocious 'Killer Magpie' at Jenkins Reserve. Urban legend has it that this magpie killed a kid in NSW and would fly to SA, specifically Salisbury, for summer. Evil bastard swooped us for a good 500m.

I hate birds.

I'm another one that gets nervous around birds - particularly magpies. Got swooped by many as a kid.

However, even though the larger ones appear to be more intimidating, it's actually the smaller ones that cause the most damage. During year 12 exams, one of those little buggers kept chasing me down the street to the bus stop!

[White Line Fever]

All these natural disasters this year, i know its normal but really feels like this year they have been more frequent and of larger proportions

Getting abit scary now.

[fisho mcspaz]

I am scared of the giant moth my son Angus came home with from last night's footy game. The thing is a good 10cm in wingspan and it has a big horrible squirmy body like a huge maggot with hideous furry wings. I want to feed it to my cat so I won't have to look at it any more but at the same time I don't want to break my son's heart so I guess I have to just put up and shut up. (And vomit in heroic silence.)

[Rik E Boy]

All these natural disasters this year, i know its normal but really feels like this year they have been more frequent and of larger proportions

Well, it may be an inconvienient truth but we continue to burn fossil fuels which continue to diminsh the polar ice caps. Earthquakes remain inevitable. More earthquakes with more water equals more tsanamis. Two in seven years now. It's not all as simple as that of course but as long as we won't pay the bill we will pay the cost.

regards,

REB

[JAS]

All these natural disasters this year, i know its normal but really feels like this year they have been more frequent and of larger proportions

Well, it may be an inconvienient truth but we continue to burn fossil fuels which continue to diminsh the polar ice caps. Earthquakes remain inevitable. More earthquakes with more water equals more tsanamis. Two in seven years now. It's not all as simple as that of course but as long as we won't pay the bill we will pay the cost.

regards,

REB

Probably find these things are cyclical too like our boom and bust economies, the weather and sun spots...planet lets off steam with volcanoes and earthquakes etc for a while then all goes quiet til the pressure builds and something gives and sets it all off again. No one will ever be able to control or stop any of it happening so just do what you can to ensure damage limitation and enjoy each day at a time.

Regards
JAS

[Rik E Boy]

Cyclical? Qld floods maybe but when was the last time we had two major tsanumis in a seven year period? I hadn't heard of one in my lifetime until 2004. I think there was one that hit the coast of Chile in 1960 so if there is a cycle it would be appearing to be speeding up for some 'unknown reason'.

regards,

REB

[JAS]

Cyclical? Qld floods maybe but when was the last time we had two major tsanumis in a seven year period? I hadn't heard of one in my lifetime until 2004. I think there was one that hit the coast of Chile in 1960 so if there is a cycle it would be appearing to be speeding up for some 'unknown reason'.

regards,

REB

I suspect if it is cyclical it would take the tectonic plate movement a little bit longer than our lifetimes to build up that much pressure. Also being a natural event any cycle isn't going to following a precise repeat pattern...some peaks are going to be worse than others just the way it happens with things like sun spots. Some cycles take hundreds if not thousands of years not just a few decades.

Regards
JAS

[fish]

All these natural disasters this year, i know its normal but really feels like this year they have been more frequent and of larger proportions

Well, it may be an inconvienient truth but we continue to burn fossil fuels which continue to diminsh the polar ice caps. Earthquakes remain inevitable. More earthquakes with more water equals more tsanamis. Two in seven years now. It's not all as simple as that of course but as long as we won't pay the bill we will pay the cost.

I've had a bit of a look and it appears that there is some understanding amongst scientists that there may be a link between climate change and geological events such as volcanic activity and earthquakes. Apparantly it's not directly related to temperature or carbon dioxide levels, but more to do with changes in the weight of ice caps on the earths crust. This phenomena is not widely publicised in climate change literature - possibly as the science is still in its infancy on the climate change/geological issue.

This 2009 article give some insight.

Quakes, volcanic eruptions, giant landslides and tsunamis may become more frequent as global warming changes the earth's crust, scientists said on Wednesday.

Climate-linked geological changes may also trigger "methane burps," the release of a potent greenhouse gas, currently stored in solid form under melting permafrost and the seabed, in quantities greater than all the carbon dioxide (CO2) in our air today.

"Climate change doesn't just affect the atmosphere and the oceans but the earth's crust as well. The whole earth is an interactive system," Professor Bill McGuire of University College London told Reuters, at the first major conference of scientists researching the changing climate's effects on geological hazards.

"In the political community people are almost completely unaware of any geological aspects to climate change."

The vulcanologists, seismologists, glaciologists, climatologists and landslide experts at the meeting have looked to the past to try to predict future changes, particularly to climate upheaval at the end of the last ice age, some 12,000 years ago.

"When the ice is lost, the earth's crust bounces back up again and that triggers earthquakes, which trigger submarine landslides, which cause tsunamis," said McGuire, who organized the three-day conference.

David Pyle of Oxford University said small changes in the mass of the earth's surface seems to affect volcanic activity in general, not just in places where ice receded after a cold spell. Weather patterns also seem to affect volcanic activity - not just the other way round, he told the conference.

[Psyber]

Cyclical? Qld floods maybe but when was the last time we had two major tsanumis in a seven year period? I hadn't heard of one in my lifetime until 2004. I think there was one that hit the coast of Chile in 1960 so if there is a cycle it would be appearing to be speeding up for some 'unknown reason'.
regards,
REB

I couldn't find any incidence records for the Pacific region but there is this reconstruction attempt for the eastern Mediterranean:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40604477/Tsun ... -Revisited
The table starts on page 320.
[ That's not too bad as the article starts at page 309. ]

[White Line Fever]

The vulcanologists, seismologists, glaciologists, climatologists and landslide experts at the meeting

You mean landslidologists

[fish]

The vulcanologists, seismologists, glaciologists, climatologists and landslide experts at the meeting

You mean landslidologists

LOL those landslide experts must be mighty pissed off that they ended up in a career without an important sounding "...ologist" title.

[JAS]

I must admit, I've regularly had the thought of "what if" I had to defend the home and family without the package wrapped.

I don't want our intruder laughing and stabbing at the same time.

Biggest fears for me were always:

1. Angry Chicks
2. Spiders
Now that I have children their well-being naturally tops the list.

This is my number 1 fear. Why I do not know. I think it's just the way they move perhaps, scampering around.

Snakes don't bother me, nearly stepped on one once and it didn't bother me at all, just stood still while it slithered away. Spiders though make be carry on like a girly man. Stupid really.

You just need to take a deep breath and do what this guy has done

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-12978065

Naked soldier smashes glass to stop Salford car thieves

A naked soldier stopped a robber from stealing his car in Salford by smashing the window with his bare hands.

L/Cpl Wayne O'Mahoney, 41, from Charlestown, chased after three masked men who broke into his house early on Saturday morning.

One of the robbers, who was armed with a knife, tried to drive off in his Seat Leon sports car but ran off after L/Cpl O'Mahoney punched through the glass.

Police are appealing for witnesses to the robbery.

It happened shortly before 0600 BST on Saturday when L/Cpl O'Mahoney and his partner, Gemma, were woken by the sound of intruders smashing through the front door of his home on Gerald Road.

L/Cpl O'Mahoney, a serving soldier with 103 Regiment Royal Artillery, based at Belle Vue, Manchester, immediately ran downstairs and struggled with three men wearing balaclavas.

"Two of them ran out of the house but the third one managed to get the car keys," he said.

"As soon as he got in the car he was waving this knife at me and I thought 'there's only one way to stop him.'

"So I punched clean through the driver's window and I just kept hitting him until he got out."

"The only thing is, I was a little bit naked because I sleep in my birthday suit," he added.

"What the neighbours were thinking I don't know because they were all looking out at this naked man shouting at his car at six in the morning."
...

I believe another suggestion I heard on a comedy panel show was to look the intruder up and down, raise one eyebrow, give a hint of a smile and, in the campest voice you can muster, say 'oh thank god you're here'

Regards
JAS

[Brucetiki]

Justin Bieber fans

[whufc]

******* EAR WIGS!!!!!!!!

[White Line Fever]

RATS

Had one in the house last night

[OnSong]

RATS

Had one in the house last night

An earwig?

[White Line Fever]

RATS

Had one in the house last night

An earwig?

A RAT HAHAHA

[The Dark Knight]

Justin Bieber fans

Just imagine it at the entertainment centre last night, it would of been absolute chaos. Jailbait central.

[Booney]

RATS

Had one in the house last night

Yep, me too mate. I'd pick a mouse up and throw it outside ( in fact, I have done that ) but a rat, no bloody way. They are my single biggest phobia.