BajaNomad

drowning

Osprey - 3-15-2007 at 07:23 PM

CETACEAN NEWS CENTRAL


31 Humans drowned near the shore in Mexican waters. The incident occurred last week near Punta Chivato, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Rescue efforts were hampered by unusual tides in the northern gulf. Although the event was within two days of a full moon, skies were overcast and darkness may have added to the confusion. Humans communicate by low-frequency sounds and movements of pectoral appendages. Evidently they simply followed one another down to the beach, got into the water where they drowned. These occurrences have come to be called “followings.” One or more of the creatures might have become imperiled, called to the others and the whole group may have been caught up in the severe high tide, perhaps rip tides were evident in the area. There were no cetaceans close enough to the area to come to their aid, push them back ashore to safety.

This was the third largest group drowning in the last year. Coastal patrols around the globe by pilot whales, dolphins and belugas have been constant but, so far, without positive effect.

Theories about the drownings abound. Mental illness brought on by some new micro-biological agent? Religion based mass suicide? The incidents seem to have little effect on their total numbers on the land; human population is undergoing an unprecedented explosion. Could they be reaching some kind of biological critical mass?

A popular theory offers the notion that the creatures’ original home was the sea, that millions of years ago they crawled out of the water to live forever on the land. From time to time, some mysterious and irresistible siren song resonates from the depths, summons them home.

Packoderm - 3-15-2007 at 07:37 PM

Probably each was lockstep with one another. Now, when they made their journey to their deaths, did they have any doubts and reconsider their choice of action, or did they stay the course?

FARASHA - 3-15-2007 at 11:25 PM

:biggrin: - called selection of nature, to control population!

Bedman - 3-15-2007 at 11:47 PM

Osprey,

and the gene pool thickens.




Thanks for that report from Osprey in Air Chopper 9.

Bedman

coconaco - 3-16-2007 at 07:56 AM

daylight savings is two weeks early-

not april fools day.

Osprey - 3-16-2007 at 09:49 AM

Coconaco

The guy who cleans our beach, Octavio, shares his sobranombre with you, Coconaco. My book says that's the barred pargo -- I thought maybe he didn't like to be called that because it was a kind of big ugly grouper but the barred pargo is handsome, a fighter and good eating. Anything bad about that fish that you know of?

Iflyfish - 3-16-2007 at 10:10 AM

I heard plaintive Humpback whale songs about this tragedy, sort of a Wreck of The Edmond Fitzgerald balad. Very sad.

Iflyfish

djh - 3-16-2007 at 10:29 AM

Youflyfish...

Did that sad Humpback song resemble wailing / whale~ing ?

djh

:?:

Iflyfish - 3-16-2007 at 10:56 AM

djh
goodone
Iflyfish

Cypress - 3-16-2007 at 11:39 AM

Was wondering where all those on the beach came from.:O:o

motoged - 3-16-2007 at 01:01 PM

:O:O:O:O:O
'
What are you folks smoking???????????????

:lol::lol:

motoged - 3-18-2007 at 12:24 AM

SP,
Ah...yes...the shroom with a view .... :o:O:spingrin::tumble::bounce::?:

Any old brujo knows that the only magic that Carlos did was tricking his graduate advisors....but the metaphor has made me look at all crows differently since...

In the local Shuswap Indian language the word for the coyote trickster is "s'klep"...


Shape-shiftin' away.....:spingrin: ...with that psyllocibin grin...

Osprey - 3-18-2007 at 07:14 AM

Hope the moderator will indulge me a little since this thread took a little swerve into one of my essays.
First Things First
Almost every time I learn we are expecting guests at our house who we have not met before I am careful to shower, shave and dress before they arrive. Most of the time I chalk this up to common courtesy -- once in a while I think there may be a little vanity in it.
On these occasions of self exam I think about that silly saying "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". That old chestnut may not always be true. People might well forget meeting you or they may mistake you for some other person they once met. So I have debunked that one -- you may get a second chance to make a first impression.
There are lots of things to be said of "firsts". Carlos Castenada, Peruvian born anthropologist, student of the Mexican mystic Don Juan, learned to experience the world without internally verbalizing. He calls the exercise "stopping the internal dialog". His theory is that if you or I could experience a beautiful sunrise without our brains recording "gee, what a beautiful sunrise", in whatever language our brain usually employs, we take in unaltered sensations. Free from the need to verbalize and describe the event, it can be experienced in a purer sense, almost "for the first time". I have tried and tried to "stop the internal dialog" but, at least when I'm sober, I have not been able to do the exercise justice -- no more than a few measly seconds...not nearly enough time to blot out the "gee, what a beautiful sunrise, with all the deep reds and yellows and bla, bla,bla".
At my age, I am beginning to lose some of my faculties but I am, at the same time, beginning to be more sensitive to the feelings of others...less judgmental. You have probably already noticed that I have not gone into any crude and thoughtless "Alzheimer's jokes" about Easter egg hunts. I think seeing the house you lived in for 20 years for "the first time" as an Alzheimer's victim might, could be something Don Juan might have known about but did not want to divulge. I have never studied the French language, but this occurrence might have a name to mirror Deja Vu.

Maybe Don Juan and Carlos stopped short of something more promising. If adult humans could train their minds to selectively choose which objects or experiences one wished to view "for the first time" we could enjoy the thrill of "firsts" every day. The trick is, you know the thing in front of you is a "house" -- you just don't remember that it is "your house"-- where you have lived for 20 years. Your intimate familiarity with the place and all the things in and around it would be replaced by brand new colors, textures, smells, etc.
In the interest of science I am attempting to selectively forget my house. Each morning, when I arise, I stumble from room to room hoping there is a bathroom. Ah! There is. What a nice surprise. In the afternoons I look for kitchens and garages. When I have time I rummage through drawers and poke around in closets. I do most of my forgetting at night, in the dark and begin each new day thrilled at the sight of my new things in my new home. I have been so consumed by this experiment that I have not stepped back to ask myself some important questions. Are there others living in the house? If I leave the house and move about the city, can I find my way back? Why would I leave such a nice place? Do I have obligations elsewhere, a job, a boss, employees, vacation schedules?
Well, there is plenty of time to sort all that out. Looks like the pantry is well stocked. The new fridge holds some mysteries. The contents are pungent – I see some bronze leaf lettuce. Not bronze exactly, almost a chestnut brown.

bajamigo - 3-18-2007 at 08:49 AM

You've read too much Jose Saramago.

tlove0725 - 3-20-2007 at 08:26 PM

I now understand that there was also some strange music playing when they all started to follow each other into the water, some song about "The Limbo"?