Tasmanian Tigers Not Dead Yet

[Mercutio]

Giant sock-puppet eating predators once thought to be extinct ravage the forests of Victoria! (http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6989698%5E13762,00.html)

OK. Not really, but that was fun to type. And what's up with "Tasmanian" tigers being found in Victoria? Shouldn't they be "Victorian Tigers?"

Between this story and the possible discovery of a new Great Ape species (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/08/08/coolsc.mysteryape/index.html) just go to show that there's still a lot in this world that we never get to see.

[Tea]

What a moron Mr Moss is.

Do you know where most of those "sightings" came from? Two bored teenagers, a Labrador, and some brown paint - that's where. And Labradors don't eat sock puppets anyway. I'm very good friends with a Labrador, and she is a real sweetie. Always comes to the gate to meet me when I go to the Belinda house.

Speaking of great apes, I imagine that before too long, some bright young scientist will discover me!

[Tea]

Actually they aren't "Tasmanian Tigers" or Victorian Tigers. They are Thylacines. Or were Thylacines, I should say. There is not the slightest doubt that they are extinct. They just couldn't cope with introduced competitors.

[flagreen]

They must have viable DNA in storage somewhere for Thylacines. I would think that may be one of the first species which could be regenerated some day. I hope in my lifetime I'll see them do that with some species anyway.

[Mercutio]

I just enjoyed the hell out of typing "Giant sock-puppet eating predators".
There's a hilarious mental image there, somewhere.

[flagreen]

Hmm... could be the sock-puppets are the predators. Tony hasn't been around much. Maybe they got him!

[Mercutio]

Tony is off writing things in wikipedia. Kind of a neat hobby if there's something you can contribute.

[flagreen]

OMG I hope they have a lot of storage space. Knowing Tony he started at "A" and is working his way up the alphabet. I wonder how many keyboards he's worn out so far. Still, he's just the man to do it.

[Tea]

Well, it started with the Wikipedia, but it's got worse. I wound up specialising, mostly, on fauna, especially birds. But all those dry as dust articles with all text and no pictures looked terrible, so I started trying to take pictures. And that led us to realising that we needed good advice and help, which led to the Bird Forum. And that led to all the gear. And that led to spending so much time taking pictures of birds that I don't have time to write many articles any more.

I really really wish I was real, because poor Tannin wants to spend his usual two or three hours a day here, and at the Bird Forum, and writing Wikipedia articles, plus another three or four hours a day doing the research. That's around 12 hours. Plus it's light enough to take pictures for about 8 hours a day at this time of year. That's 20 hours. Plus travelling time - call it another couple of hours minimum. Plus it takes at least 12 hours to go through the 500 to 1000 shots we take in a good day, picking out the best ones and backing them up and organising them and re-sizing them and tweaking them up in Photoshop and PMView.

See what I mean? I'm up to having a 34 hour day already, and we haven't even considered work, sleep, or food yet.

If I was real, I think we could almost split the workload 50/50 and get about 5 hours sleep each.

[Tea]

And yes, it was a great line - to type or to read. :)