My Mysteries unfold discussion

Oh no, that can't be. Magpies in Australia are attacking kids on their way to school. They are trying to protect their nests so they swoop down and peck people who come too close and who they perceive as a threat.
    Somebody should talk to them and propose a peace treaty. Hmm, I wonder if that nursery rhyme was misquoted or something, y'know: "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie..."
    Maybe it's "Four and twenty magpies baked in a pie"
    Wonder if there's a recipe.
    Yikes they sound dangerous. I wonder how many nest there are anyway.
    Geez, the kids have to wear helmets going to school?

Oh no. I see that Australians can't bake Magpies in a pie even if their Chef had a good recipe:

Magpie Alert
"Magpies are protected throughout Australia, and it is against the law to kill the birds, collect their eggs, or harm their young. If you feel a magpie is a serious menace, it should be reported to your local council."

Holy cow.
That website has lots of reports:
September 14th, 2016 03:30 PM
Injured:Yes
"Magpies were swooping from all angles. It was viscous. They were perched, ready to attack in all of the trees on either side of Galloway Street, looking down on me and fellow pedestrians."
Reported by: magpieswoop

Somebody said that if you make yourself look like a short-beaked Echidna that the Magpies won't attack you.

The New York Times is talking about it too.
Fear Descends Over Australia
"This black-and-white bird with beady red-brown eyes can become aggressive, dive bombing and pecking anything, especially humans, that it deems a threat to its chicks...
    Australians have developed some odd defense methods... schoolchildren...wore empty plastic ice cream buckets as hats with crude eyes drawn on...Other methods include waving a stick in the air or opening an umbrella...common for cyclists, adults and children alike, to ride around with a forest of zip ties protruding from their helmets."

Crow season is long over here. But they don't seem as fierce. And I think I've heard that they eat the eggs of other birds. I guess that would explain why I saw some little birds attacking a large crow as it was flying by biting its wings.

We are besieged by crows here in N.C. I hear if you split their tongues they can talk. No bats this summer, which is unusual. Nary an owl, either. Lots of hummingbirds, though.

I've heard that crows can remember who you are, and if they think you threatened a nest they will tell all the other crows to attack you. They will keep pecking anyone that they recognize. And they continue to dive swoop any humans that they remember. I don't know if I should offer a blasphemy: reduce the number of nests by telling them bad jokes until the laughing interrupts their nesting habits.

Didn't know that, Doug. I never go near the crows or their nests. I can't believe they recognize people. What an amazing fact!

Oh no! They just issued very lenient rules for Self-Driving cars. They will be allowed to test them on public streets. For now, they have a person in the driver's seat just in case they need to take control of the car in an emergency, but the ultimate goal is to have no driver. There are a few good possibilities like picking up people who can't drive and taking them wherever they want to go. However, there are many nightmare scenarios one could think of. Already there's been one death where neither the human who was sitting in the driver's seat nor the robot braked the car and it crashed into a truck and it killed the human in the driver's seat. Notice the semantics of the discussion about this: they don't call the computer that controls the car a "robot" because the word "robot" has bad connotations, so they just make up more benign vocabulary. The car is just a bigger and more stable version of a robot. Human-like forms are top heavy and have a tendency to fall over, and so they're harder to make. But the self-directing or self-driving concept is the same. "Self-directing" or "self-driving" sound benevolent. But the possibilities are many.

Not sure I like that, Douglas.

A self-driving car is like a self-driving tank that the military has always coveted.

Exactly right.

Australia is moving 2.7 inches North per year due to continental drift. So it's getting closer. I think everyone should demand that every plane ticket be discounted because the plane doesn't have to fly as far. There should be outrage that no discount has been announced. I think that for every $20,000 dollars spent, there should be a discount of $0.01 or maybe even 2 cents. All that money adds up and with compound interest computed over a million years of the heirs' estates, the descendants could get a free trip to Alpha Centauri and beyond. We have to think about the children and their future and the cost of their textbooks. A penny could buy half a page or a tissue. Think about it: this is much more important than snow drifts or mind drifts -- thrift at all costs.

Very informative, Douglas!

Douglas wrote: "Australia is moving 2.7 inches North per year due to continental drift. So it's getting closer. I think everyone should demand that every plane ticket be discounted because the plane doesn't have t..."

I'll give you my 2 cents if they're not willing to issue discounts. But actually the Drift has accumulated over the years and this year they're adjusting the maps by about 5 feet. Therefore, Australia is become more Northern like a Yankee New Yorker. Soon they'll have our winters. Well, soon is relative. Maybe in a million years or so. But I'll still be around as Paul Bunyan is my witness and I can roll logs and you if you like.

Cosmos wrote: "Very informative, Douglas!"

Actually, Cosmos, with all due respect, it's not very informative because everyone knows that Australia is moving and twisting and rock and rolling all night and day being the one that every one claims they want to escape to: "If 'such and such' happens, I'm moving to Australia." But of course they don't really mean it. It's just hyperbole for politics. If Doug gets elected President, I'm moving to Australia... no, I'm just kidding. If Doug gets elected President, I'm moving to the White House and we're going to paint it Red... and white and blue. But we'll 'paint the town red' *expression meaning going wild*

Douglas wrote: " All that money adds up and with compound interest computed over a million years of the heirs' estates, the descendants could get a free trip to Alpha Centauri and beyond. ..."

I think that interest compounded over a million years will add up to a lot more money than would pay for a trip to Alpha Centauri. We could go a lot further out into space, even adjusting for inflation and the low interest rates of 1% now because those interest rates are not going to stay that low forever and besides there's the stock market where we can get 10% before the next crash. Timing is essential when planning for a million years. No?
    But of course we have to get rid of the Estate tax.

Very eye opening, Joyce.

Cosmos wrote: "Very eye opening, Joyce."

Yes, indeed. Pilots there have to keep their eyes open because the GPS coordinates keep changing and they can't depend on satellites for navigation. They even have remote-control ore trucks that they control from hundreds of miles away and so they need to know their exact location -- even a foot off is a big problem. That's why I'm in favor of self-driving trunks and the end of the world at our convenience with free peace flowers for everyone.
    What's your favorite flower?

Mums are my favorite flowers.

I never ordered Chrysanthemums because I don't like anything I can't spell. I didn't know mum's the same. I just knew "mum's the word."

Mums are for Moms.

That can't be

"Stressed" spelled backwards is "desserts"

See: S t r e s s e d and start with the last letter d : d e s s e r t s

That can't be that nobody is alive anymore to post because they are too sad to say what they'd need to say to love somebody, anybody like I do, and tell me why you don't love me anymore, tell me why you are silent and a down feather. I can not crow like a rooster if there is no dawn. Shades keep me from seeing you.

I had to get rid of my rooster because my neighbours where saying "Oh, yea I know it's a pet but your waking my child up so you have to get rid of it." yea yea what ever! ..... I miss my rooster....