Darwin Awards: Cheering for Dragons!
« on: 2008-06-08 22:40:34 »
Five Humans Fail at interspecies Darwin Award:
Anybody cheering for the Dragons? Heh Heh! Well, perhaps this is one competition these folks will only try once, but then you never know. Those beaus may not have had a chance to reproduce yet had those Dragons actually won. Now they may. Only time will tell.
“I’m lucky to be alive,” said Charlotte Allin, still scarcely able to believe her luck at coming through the terrifying experience unscathed. Charlotte, 25, and her boyfriend Jim Manning, 30, were among five divers swept away from their support vessel off Indonesia by the viciously strong currents of the Indian Ocean.
She revealed how the group – roped together for safety and clinging to a log for buoyancy – had struggled to survive amid huge waves for 10 hours. They finally managed to swim ashore on a remote desert island, hundreds of miles from the paradise resort of Bali. But Charlotte said their relief had been short-lived as they were confronted by Komodo dragons, 15ft meat-eating reptiles armed with fang-like teeth and razor-sharp claws the size of 6in nails – making them the world’s largest and most deadly lizards.
Coming face to face with the Komodo Dragons in their natural habitat is somewhat humbling. These huge lizards, up to 3 metres in length, have no fear of humans but humans certainly have reason to fear the Dragons - two tourists have died while visiting these apex predators on the remote Indonesian island of Komodo. The Dragons infamously have a bacteria-ridden mouth that causes death by infection from a single bite - the dragons bite their prey and then track the unfortunate victim for days if necessary while waiting for it to die. When they move, then you need to move right out of the way, as you can see from this very shaky video I shot while with the Komodo Dragons on Komodo Island.
Dangerous, dung-mouthed and drooling - what, then, is the enduring appeal of the Komodo Dragon on our collective imaginations? First discovered by Europeans back in 1910, the Dragons are considered to be direct descendents of the dinosaurs, and certainly the nearest creature to the dinosaurs that we still have alive today. They are the world’s largest lizards and belong to the monitor lizard family.
Good Luck to all 'ye brave Darwin Award contenders, cause I'm cheering for the Dragons
Re:Darwin Awards: Cheering for Dragons!
« Reply #2 on: 2008-06-10 00:16:36 »
Hermit offers Mo two plates. One has lightly sauteed, rather silly diver, the other dragon steaks.
Which do you choose?
Given that our ancestors developed skulls to stop crayfish from munching on them and that our limbic system (our amphibian brain) reacts with fear to reptilian motion, and even taking into account how keen modern reptiles are at munching on amphibians (and even mammals when given the chance), the appreciation of the opposite's fine taste seems entirely mutual.
Even so, I make my choice based on how nice snake, turtle and other reptiles taste to us.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Heh Heh! Well, perhaps this is one competition these folks will only try once, but then you never know. Those beaus may not have had a chance to reproduce yet had those Dragons actually won. Now they may. Only time will tell.
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