Kodak moments...

When I woke up this morning, I switched on the radio and heard the news story of the 60 year old female British tourist who was mauled by (supposedly tame) cheetahs in an enclosure at a game park in South Africa. It must have been a traumatic ordeal, I thought.

Apparently she had entered the enclosure with another family so that they could have their photos taken. She had intervened when one of the cheetahs grabbed a girl belonging to the other family. She survived by playing dead until one of the guides chased the animals away with a stick.

I always feel uneasy when I see people's holiday snaps where they're stroking a lion, patting a tiger or sitting on a crocodile. Willingly standing within striking distance of a large carnivore and grinning has always struck me as a bit dumb.

The only shot of me that comes close to standing within striking distance of a large carnivore and grinning, is the one above taken about 15 years ago somewhere in West Wales. To those of you for whom David Attenborough is a stranger, I'm standing next to a vulture while it played with my sleeve. It had just been fed and vultures tend to prefer dishes that are already dead. I felt relatively safe because, as you can see, I'm no dish and I'm not quite dead.

When I got up this morning, I read the story of the woman mauled by cheetahs in more detail on the BBC's News website: Violet D'Mello tells of Port Elizabeth cheetah mauling. One sentence stopped me in my tracks, "Her husband Archie took photos of her ordeal." WTF...!?!

Zebra stripes may have evolved to keep biting flies at bay...

The headline on this BBC article reads, "Zebra stripes evolved to keep biting flies at bay". It's an interesting piece about a study undertaken by Hungarian and Swedish scientists who measured the attractiveness of certain colours and patterns to biting flies. They began by painting boards different colours, then they left those boards coated with a sticky substance in a field. After a set time they counted the flies stuck to each board.

The black and brown boards turned out to be the ones with the most flies stuck to them, with the lighter boards attracting the fewest flies. What came as a surprise was that the boards with zebra stripes attracted even fewer flies than the white boards. This they deduced was because of the light wave formation reflected by the different boards and detected by the flies. They repeated the experiment but with painted horse models covered in a sticky substance with much the same result.

However, it seems that the scientists did not say, "Zebra stripes evolved to keep biting flies at bay". No. And in the BBC report Prof Matthew Cobb, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Manchester, pointed out that the experiment did not exclude the other hypotheses about the origin of zebras' stripes". He went on to say, "Above all, for this explanation to be true, the authors would have to show that tabanid fly bites are a major selection pressure on zebras, but not on horses and donkeys found elsewhere in the world... none of which are stripy,"

And despite all this the BBC went with the headline, "Zebra stripes evolved to keep biting flies at bay". Who was it who once asked, "Why let the facts stand in the way of a good story?"

Ain't no shrimp...

This is the stuff of nightmares; a crustacean monster, some as long as 34cm, has been discovered lurking 7km down in the deep off the coast of New Zealand. When I saw the news item on these gargantuan amphipods, I froze.

You have to admit that this king size member of the amphipod family is a repulsive brute. Even at their smallest, they're not the world's cuddliest of creatures. At over a foot long, cuddly couldn't be further from my mind.

You'd need a couple of jars of Thousand Island Dressing to make a prawn cocktail out of these daddies.

Today's run at 18:30
Distance	4.01 km	Time	21:40
Pace	5:24 min/km	Cadence	81 spm
Comments: Cold. Clear.

I would...

I remember accidentally tuning in to a kids' wildlife programme in the 80s and being mesmerised by the beauty of one of the presenters. He was tall and slim with the most angelic face and a shock of blond hair cut in a Mohican style.

He looked as if he should be in a rock band rather than in a BBC wildlife TV series for children. I can remember sitting there, gobsmacked, and thinking, how does someone get to be that handsome?

That kids' wildlife programme was The Really Wild Show and that handsome presenter was Chris Packham. It ran for 20 years and won numerous awards. Since that first chance encounter, I've followed Chris Packham (now 50) over the years. He has a passion for his subject and he really connects when he communicates. I must admit he still looks as handsome as ever.

Tonight he appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, winning his heat - add erudition to his many attributes. If there was any justice in this world he would be sat in bed now, exhausted having made me dinner and then washed up and tidied. He'd be calling my name right now to come in for a cwtch.

Life is so unfair...

Today's run at 17:40
Distance	4.17 km	Time	24:00
Pace	5:45 min/km	Cadence	80 spm
Comments: Wind, rain.

Yes, but why...?

Tonight's run of 4.02 km in 21'54" at a pace of 5'27" was a wonderfully moist affair in the Cardiff drizzle. While I ran I thought about last night's post, in which I talked about why I blog. This was in answer to Navid's questions about The Scarperer. I said that it was my way of recording my thoughts, possibly for future reading. It all sounds very noble and very worthy, doesn't it?

There's a line of thinking that states all behaviour is driven by our need to be satisfied at some basic level; the desire for food, shelter, sex, self worth. Even seemingly altruistic behaviour can be explained using this thinking. For example, do people undertake charitable work in order to help people who are less fortunate or to increase their own self worth?

Richard Dawkins wrote a book called The Selfish Gene, where he stated that animal (and human) behaviour could be explained by its effect in enabling that organism to pass on its genes (or, at times, in enabling a relative of that organism to pass on its genes). It's a pretty good model for answering those questions about why certain animals sacrifice themselves for the good of their neighbours. The behaviours of ants and bees are good example of seemingly altruistic behaviours. It seems that self sacrifice can be advantagous in passing on (some of) your genes.

In The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins coins the term meme as an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. He describes the replication of memes in the development of human culture. This brings us neatly full circle with memes being replicated throughout the blogging world. They are the double helix of the blogosphere; they enable blogs to live and develop as they spread throughout the interweb.

So why do I blog? I guess there are a number of benefits I get from blogging but at a basic level it satisfies that need in me for self worth. Selfish, I know but aren't we all...?

Nature, red in tooth and claw...

After a lovely warm day, I cycled my hot and sticky carcass over to Cardiff International Pool this evening for a refreshing dip. The pool was packed - I think everyone must have had the same idea. You could hear the hiss of steam as people lowered their sizzling bodies into the cool waters.

I shared a lane tonight with two others; a man in his late twenties who was physically very fit and swam with the power and ferocity of a killer whale and a 12 year old girl who was plump with a little prepubescent fat and swam... well, she swam like a plump, prepubescent, 12 year old girl. In fact, she swam a bit like an injured seal.

None of us seemed that pleased to have been thrown together and I'm sure I wasn't the only one to feel a little exasperated. The injured seal seemed to be getting more flustered every time the killer whale carved past her and the killer whale's frustration was evident as she blocked his path with her nervous dithers and little extraneous splashes.

It was bit like watching a wildlife programme. If he'd finally risen from beneath her with a dizzying velocity to deliver a fatal blow, turning the water from a cool chlorinated blue to a frothing baby seal blood red, I don't think I would've been that surprised.

I've suggested that the pool allocate the lanes as either fast, medium or slow. Other pools have adopted this system. People can then choose a lane that suits them and their ability. That way they can separate the killer whales from the injured seals.

Later when I was changing, coming from the cubicle next to mine, I'm sure I heard David Attenborough's voice...