Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history

Lovely view if youve got the nerve ?

is that real? if so where and how much? I'd like to put my man Ferguson on the trail.

I found it on Facebook actually, its on josh Altman-The Altman Brothers page.( Josh Altman of Million Dollar Listing & Hilton & Hyland )  Im guessing its in USA ??

It doesn't really look real to me.

I agree it does look 'odd' ! but, with the spare dosh floating about you never know ? Looking at it again, it does look photo-shopped  

I'm watching a documentary called 'Leave to Beavers', by NOVA. http://www.thirteen.org/programs/nature/leave-it-to-beavers--preview/

This makes me almost as happy as Norc's 'fuck the snow' song.

Anyway, there are several stories woven together, all wonderful.

First, a biologist was going through the records of a park that had been formed in a place where beavers had been hunted into extinction, then re-introduced in the 1930's. She expected to see the beavers taken root where there was already water, but instead she saw them moving into anemic streams, damming them, and filling them up. This led to research in drought areas, where the only greenery was where beavers had taken over streams, and in dam after dam kept the water from flowing through and disappearing. Wildlife would move in.

Another story is about a ranger in Quebec who was hired to deal with beavers; they would build dams were culverts ran under roads, and then during floods the roads would wash out. He found that if he put a tape recorder on a dam with the sound of running water, over the night a dozen trees would be felled and the tape recorder was covered with branches and mud. So what he did was put a row a stakes a short distance from the culverts, making the sound of flowing water. He'd plant extra culverts along the bottom. The next morning a dam would be there, and he could control the water by capping and uncapping his culverts. He could basically order a dam for free wherever he wanted one, and since underwater culverts make no sound, he could always control the water as he pleased.

Another story is about people who rescue beavers and raise them until old enough to be set out on their own. It turns out beavers are as social as dogs, and take to people just the same way. So beaver/human collaborations work very well.

Anyway, the 'beaver whisperer' segment is in the first 15 minutes; when they post the full show, it's worth watching at least the beginning. It will make you grin.

Now they're showing the top live beaver trapper in North America, a hair dresser who's on a mission.  She traps beavers in places like housing developments and then moves them to where people want them.  it's fun to see two old ranchers bouncing up and down with excitement to see their beaver family arrive.  

Sounds very interesting. Gotta love public television.

I wasn't expecting much out of it.  I was all "oh, since I'm gonna eat something may as well turn on the telly, is there anything not completely stupid on?"  Thought I'd only watch for about 20 minutes, but this show about beavers was oddly awesome.

Beavers can be annoying though. Most of all because, from my experience, they tend to leave their work half done. As in, start gnawing through a tree and then give up and start on another one.

We used to have some living close to our cabin, and that's all they ever did.

I just read a fascinating piece about nitrogen on the BBC, I wont go into details just provide the link.

But I had no idea there had been such things as Nitrogen wars- wars fought over the need for fertiliser.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/27731291

Though I knew there were struggles for control of the guano islands, the eye-opener for me was that the Fritz-Haber process uses about 1% of the world's energy.

halfwise wrote: the eye-opener for me was that the Fritz-Haber process uses about 1% of the world's energy.

I didn't know that number either, but I've seen calculations that claim the energy used to make the nitrate fertilizer to grow corn to make ethanol as fuel is more than the energy in the ethanol produced. (Part of the reason that the petroleum industry has never felt threatened by ethanol as alternative energy: They make out like bandits either way!  )

That's a really good article you found Petty!

I knew some of it from farming, and some of it from history of weapons, but I don't think I've ever seen the two put together like that before.

One thing they implied but didn't emphasize is that it was a world shortage of nitrate production capacity during WWI and WWII that drove the development of nuclear weapons.

Then, once the war was over and conventional nitrate explosives were made mostly obsolete by nukes, the nitrate industry turned all of it's massive war production facilities to agriculture, making almost unlimited cheap fertilizer available to farmers, which in the 50's and 60's gave us the Green Revolution, which in turn gave us a huge explosion in world population.

The world we know now is entirely sustained by the energy bubble driven by nitrates and nukes from the wars of the last century and a half.

And that's a little scary. Where's my sofa?
  

Very good points Halfy and Dave, but I think after your piece David I might just be joining you behind that sofa
   

I might be able to do it, but it doesnt look to happy about having to!

Youd be amazed at my sucking ability  - can get the dregs from the bottom of a buckie bottle without the need for a straw   

 

Oooh Yeah!   

There are so many amazing things out there ! gives you a dizzy head just looking   Here's some things made from natural materials.......
Bonzai



Rock



Sand



Snow



Paper



Glass

Those are all amazing   

I have seen the lion carving before, but none of the others. Humans can do amazing things when they're not hurting others or causing trouble in general.

I assume that excludes Scottish neanderthals.