Go on go on go on go on go on
I’m finding this discussion so interesting! It’s honestly something I’d never thought of at all, but it’s an excellent exercise for my brain. Gannets have evolved special protection for their brains when diving, btw. They hit the water at 60mph. I wish we’d evolved some cooler attributes than opposable thumbs and walking upright. Gills, for example. Ah well.
Not even just the hereditary peers - there are also the 26 Anglican bishops, and the politically appointed lords, eg Mandelson. Senators for life, basically.
Yes, that’s true. But it’s more a stumbling waddle than a walk. I looked at some videos of gannet colonies, and hardly any of the tens of thousands of birds are walking. I think like most of these diving seabirds their feet are set well back.
This is a really nice vid of a Canadian colony: https://youtu.be/g9bzWqfIu2Y
I would vote for the gannet as able to fly and swim. They dive incredibly fast to catch fish, so they go deep, and once down there, they use their wings to swim after fish.
Great article here, with photos: https://www.naturettl.com/underwater-world-gannets/
Too late for me. But thanks for telling me my computer wasn’t good enough for Win 11 and forcing me to install Linux. It was a breeze, and computing is fun again.
I’d gone through about three bars (not in one sitting, lol) before I realised it’s not Tony Chocoloney, it’s Tony ChocoLONELY. And I felt bad and sad.
I still really want to visit their shop in Amsterdam though.
I live near a big estate that breeds pheasants for game shooting, and for several years my garden was visited by a succession of male pheasants. Eventually they’d be tame enough to eat from my hand, and sometimes they’d bring their lady friends along. One day there were 15 pheasants in my garden.
I don’t see them any more because I stopped feeding birds altogether, after one of my neighbours got a predatory cat and I started finding corpses, mainly small songbirds. These days it’s just wood pigeons and magpies, none of which seem inclined to make friends.
I see one of their reasons for going bust is the increase in the minimum wage. OK comrade…
Good question. It’s hard to recall exactly, but I felt in the end that I wanted to try living without their help. I weaned off them gradually and felt ok. Then after a few years I felt the symptoms of depression return and resumed taking them for I think six months. This was nearly 20 years ago. I haven’t suffered depression since.
I know other people on SSRIs have talked about a flattening of emotions, but I never felt that. They didn’t make me happy exactly - it’s more that they enabled me to feel optimistic.
Bubble and squeak in a full English? I think not.
I describe my experience of SSRIs as cleaning the very dirty windows of a room and being able to see out at last, and to see the room itself with all that extra light, and to enjoy the feeling of sun on my skin.
I still remember the first time I woke up in the morning without a knot of dread in my gut. I was on SSRIs for a year, and then took them again for another six months later on. That was all 20 years ago or so.
Travel. Where are you going next, what’s your favourite country, all that. Met someone yesterday who’s going to Vegas, and has booked a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon and tickets to a Barry Manilow show. She hasn’t been there since the 80s and is pretty excited. She and her husband usually holiday in Turkey.