The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

For those of you missing beach life here is a photo of our local beach

 

Not as crowded as in the Victorian era when Londoners flocked to Canvey to enjoy the clean air and enjoy a ride on the monorail. 

[J. S. Bach]

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 ...snip... Apparently, we are going to Costa for lunch,  ...snip...

I read that as Costa Rica and thought that that was a very long way to go for lunch!

 

 

6 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Or worse the Big Mac. 

Oddly, our Broward County Transit bus operators thought that the Golden Arches Supper Club had the second best coffee, 7-11 and Circle K were tied for the best. In reality it was really more like a three-way tie for first, they were that close.

[Happy Hippo]

We are now ensconced back in the Hippodrome.

 

The trip back, was not bad apart from a 30 minute hiatus on the M4 westbound, caused by a car breaking down in entrance to the roadworks between Swindon and Newbury.

 

It was not helped by the alternative route up the A34 being flagged up as a 45 minute delay, so the signage was not available to warn of the route west being blocked.

 

Had I known in advance, I could have diverted down into Newbury itself and picked up one of the parallel roads.

 

I think I may indulge in a glass of beer.

[SM42]

I have already indulged in a beer of Ukrainian origin and not bad it was too.

 

I may move to a Czech variety next. 

 

I'm catching up for yesterday being Ash Wednesday, a day of abstinence and getting covered in ash in church. 

 

Can't indulge too much though as have an early start tomorrow to make the most of the available daylight for train watching 

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

I spent most of today writing an article for a magazine and not going down to the shed as we were expecting the roofers to pitch up and start work and I wanted to be around when they arrived. Guess what ? No roofers to be seen all day and no message from them so if they arrive tomorrow they will get an earful. If they don't they will get an email cancelling the job and we will go elsewhere. Tossers.

 

Dave 

[Dave Hunt]

Going to Shrewsbury tomorrow lunchtime to pick up my mate from Aberystwyth who is arriving by train, providing Transport for Wales deign to run it and don't decide they can't be ar*ed. He is staying the weekend and we are going to a Midland Railway Society meeting in Kettering on Saturday to soak up more of Compound 2632's wisdom re wagons. After the first five minutes we'll do something else 😂. Then on Sunday we're going to the Warley club open day to play trains. Should be a good weekend.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

22 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

That's called missile lock..........

 

Too late NB! Missile lock is the rattlesnake, solid tone is missile launch....

 

Dave 

[jamie92208]

I thought I heard a rattler when I was cycling over Sherman summit in 2005 and stopped to photograph a herd of antelope.  I tried to take Beth feet off the floor but couldn't stay stable.  It turned out to be a very loud grasshopper at 8000' up. 

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I thought I heard a rattler when I was cycling over Sherman summit in 2005 and stopped to photograph a herd of antelope.  I tried to take Beth feet off the floor but couldn't stay stable.  It turned out to be a very loud grasshopper at 8000' up. 

 

Jamie

What's Beth's feet got to do with it?

[Happy Hippo]

The best advice I was given about dealing with venomous snakes in the USA was to stand still.

 

Apart from the Coral Snakes, the rest are pit vipers, the pits being heat sensors: so any rapid movement of heat towards them will prompt them to strike. Due to a human's size, this tends to be as a defence mechanism.

 

It stands as a good plan for most snakes, although I'd slowly move back from a Spitting Cobra if possible.  Their spitting ranges is around 3 meters.

[J. S. Bach]

38 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

What's Beth's feet got to do with it?

Maybe jamie92208 meant "both"?

Edited February 15 by J. S. Bach
To edit the post

[Northmoor]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

The best advice I was given about dealing with venomous snakes in the USA was to stand still.

 

Apart from the Coral Snakes, the rest are pit vipers, the pits being heat sensors: so any rapid movement of heat towards them will prompt them to strike. Due to a human's size, this tends to be as a defence mechanism.

 

It stands as a good plan for most snakes, although I'd slowly move back from a Spitting Cobra if possible.  Their spitting ranges is around 3 meters.

I've clicked "Informative / Useful" because your post was informative, but I sincerely hope I never find it useful.......

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[iL Dottore]

Regarding snakes, I was told something very interesting when I was in Australia on holiday with Mrs iD one year. 
 

As we all know, Australia is home to the most poisonous reptiles in the world, and one has to be careful when out and about in the bush. However, I was reliably informed that some of the very deadliest snakes have very short fangs and if they strike at something that they can’t eat – as when they strike out in order to protect themselves - they will not inject venom when striking

 

The rationale being that to make venom to inject costs the snake valuable calories and in such a harsh environment (such as the Australian outback), any animal that wastes calories (such as by injecting venom into something it can’t eat) will soon die. In very harsh environments every erg of energy expended must be expended for the benefit of the animal, waste energy and you are very quickly dead.

 

Now, if the herpetologists are right (and I see no reason to doubt them), the chances of being injected with venom when bitten by an outback snake are low; however, this is not something I would care to rely upon, (even a snakebite where no venom is injected can lead to very nasty outcomes), so wearing high and thick boots is a must - so that if you do have the misfortune to have a snake strike at your ankle or shin, the short fangs will not penetrate the thick leather.

Of course, the best remedy against being bitten is to make sufficient noise so that the snake will be aware of your presence and it will have time to escape (most snakes will avoid confrontation, where possible).

 

And to conclude on a personal trivia note: I don’t mind handling snakes*, but I really can’t handle frogs and toads - they’re just too slimy/sticky (and handling the wrong choice of toad, or a frog will mean you rapidly communion with your ancestors before thereafter quickly joining them).

 

* I’ve only handled poisonous snakes once - with full protective gear. An interesting experience I do not care to repeat.

[Happy Hippo]

It's that QI moment!

 

There are no poisonous snakes, they are venomous

 

Poison ingested, venom injected.

 

Make as much noise as you like, snakes are deaf.  They rely on either detecting vibration through the ground or movement, snakes do not have brilliant vision so they see movement but are not readily able to identify what is moving until it gets closer.

 

The number of natives of Asia who get bitten when accidently disturbing an Elapid (Cobra/Krait/Taipan/etc so typically short fixed fangs) and subsequently die of the envenomation would tend to disprove the dry bite theory.  However, I believe the snake attributed to most deaths is the Saw Scaled Viper, probably because it has a range that spans two continents.

 

Envenomation from such a snake (elapid) or a lack of it is hard to determine until the venom starts to take effect.  This is because it affects the central nervous system so the brain shuts down the heart and breathing functions.  A viper bite is far easier to identify as the area swells, necrosis can occur and flesh and muscle starts to melt as a start of the pre digestive sequence. (A very simplified descriptor of a complex set of chemical reactions for both neurotoxic and hemotoxic venom.)  Some snakes such as the Mojave Rattlesnake carry venom which is both neuro and hemotoxic!

Edited February 16 by Happy Hippo

[DenysW]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

As we all know, Australia is home to the most poisonous reptiles in the world, and one has to be careful when out and about in the bush.

Possibly a legend. When we lived in New South Wales we were told that death from Fierce Snake bites (the most venomous of all - also possibly a legend) also entirely happened to people who went looking for Fierce Snakes.

[Happy Hippo]

26 minutes ago, DenysW said:

Possibly a legend. When we lived in New South Wales we were told that death from Fierce Snake bites (the most venomous of all - also possibly a legend) also entirely happened to people who went looking for Fierce Snakes.

The Fierce snake is better known as the Inland Taipan, which is supposedly the most venomous snake on the planet.

 

It is also very secretive, so only bites those who go looking for it.  Due to the ferocity of the venom and the distance away from medical care when the bite occurs, they are invariably fatal.

 

Somewhere in the bush there is probably an ever growing pile of skeletons where the local Fierce snake population deposit their trophies victims.🤣

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

is also very secretive, so only bites those who go looking for it.

I suppose it gave people on a long sea journey to Australia something to look forward to. 

[newbryford]

13 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The best advice I was given about dealing with venomous snakes in the USA was to stand still.

 

Apart from the Coral Snakes, the rest are pit vipers, the pits being heat sensors: so any rapid movement of heat towards them will prompt them to strike. Due to a human's size, this tends to be as a defence mechanism.

 

It stands as a good plan for most snakes, although I'd slowly move back from a Spitting Cobra if possible.  Their spitting ranges is around 3 meters.

 

How do they respond to a "twirl"?

[Hroth]

Just now, newbryford said:

 

How do they respond to a "twirl"?

 

They drown?

 

[newbryford]

4 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

They drown?

 

 

Or suffocate?

[Dave Hunt]

My two (as far as I know) encounters with venomous snakes were in the sea off Singapore in 1968 when a Sea Snake swam between my legs when I was wading in about 3ft depth of water and in the Blue Mountains of Australia in 2011 when a Brown Snake slithered across the track about ten feet in front of us. In neither case did I have time to do anything before the snake was far enough away no longer to be a threat. 
 

Dave

[Flanged Wheel]

This is a Bothrops Alternatus (pit viper) that we came across in the Ibera National Park in northern Argentina, nearly a year ago. I should probably mention that the photo was taken by my youngest son from our hire car with the doors very much closed and using his biggest lens. We really weren’t that close…!

 

[Dave Hunt]

I’m currently waiting outside Shrewsbury station for my mate from Aberystwyth to arrive. On the way here the cretin in the white BMW X1 that HH and I had experience of a while ago did it again (at least I’m pretty sure it was the same one and I’ve now got his registration number) - overtook two cars, of which mine was the front one, approaching a blind summit. Luckily nothing was coming the other way but it was remarkably stupid. So if you are in North Shropshire beware.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Reference my post yesterday about roofers not turning up, they haven’t turned up today either and more concerning there’s no answer when I try to ring them. Time to contact a different roofing firm methinks.

 

Dave