Ciaran’s Random Writings

So I tried to break up my ranting with cute animal pictures, but then following landed in my inbox, courtesy of the BBC:

“Police say a number of people are seriously hurt in a crash involving 30 cars which was caused by fog.”

I can’t think for the life of me how a crash can POSSIBLY be caused by fog. Did the fog wrap its icy claws around everybody’s accelerator pedals? Jam the brakes? Topple a bridge? Fuddle their brains? No. Driving ‘faster than they could see’. Stupid bastards. Of course, as is usually the case, the casualties will probably not be restricted to the stupid ones.

I want to know who said the so-called accident was “believed to have been caused by dense fog and rain”. Hopefully just some webmonkey working late at the BBC, and not the Chief Constable quoted later in the article.

I seem to have gone into ranting mode this week, so I’m going back to cute pictures until I can think of something nice to say about someone or something.

So here’s a picture of my big fat cock.

This really made me chuckle - Prince’s new album is to be given away free with a newspaper, and ‘the music industry’ is furious. The BBC’s article on the subject contains a string of amusing quotes from the co-chairman* of the Entertainment Retailers Association. This is a good one:

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One thing that invariably gets on my nerves is speed camera whingers. Apparently, these folks are such good drivers they’re capable of deciding for themselves what speed it’s safe for them to drive. On the other hand, they’re incapable of noticing great big bright yellow highly visible cameras by the side of the road. What chance does a child on a bike stand against these idiots I wonder?

Fine? Penalty points? Revoke their licenses permanently I say.

I haven’t done any work today. Actually, that’s a lie, I’ve poked around in Bugzilla a bit, reviewed some check-ins and discussed a few issues by IM. That probably adds up to a total of 15 minutes though, which is as near to no work as I’m ever likely to get. So, ignoring those 15 minutes, something interesting must have happened, let’s see…

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Here’s another duckling picture. They’re a completely different kettle of fish to pheasant and chicken chicks. Rather than a tendency to peck at each other, the ducklings preen each other, and even help each other out of the eggs. I scoffed a bit when I read that last part somewhere, but then I saw it twice with my own eyes.

The other main non-physical difference is that they respond to quacks. I can summon the whole group by quacking, and a different tone of quack sends them away again.

One late arrival this morning makes a total of eight ducklings. There are a few more that I don’t think are going to come out, but you never know.

Here’s a fantastic picture of the first duck having just hatched at twenty to eight. A second hatched minutes later. You have to look close up to really appreciate the cuteness of this little creature - I can’t wait to see what it looks like when the feathers dry out.

The new chicks we’re about to have are ducks. I have no idea what a newborn duck looks like, but this looks like a duck’s beak alright. Apologies in advance for the awful soundtrack - you might want to turn your volume down before pressing play!

A quick picture of the chicks on their first or second adventure outdoors. This was a while ago now - I’ll probably post some up to date stuff later on. At the moment I’m just trying out posting via Flickr while I eat lunch.