Hi, it’s Greenygrey. Just a short post today, combining a promising scientific declaration that some animals should be treated as conscious and aware as humans with a video of two foxes that seems to verify it.
Anybody who has spent a lot of time with animals knows that they have all kinds of emotions and moods, good and bad, just like humans, although there are obviously different levels of intelligence and sentience amongst the animal species. Humanity is of course the top species overall, but other animals are better at some mental and moral tasks and skills.
Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem contrasts humanity’s search for life on other planets and in the supernatural with the damage it is doing on our home planet. The BBC’s History of the World pulled no punches this week in describing how our species killed off the Neanderthals, and we look set to exterminate a lot more of our close relatives this century unless we change our ways, which looks unlikely the way this century and decade is going.
Sorry if it’s a little negative, and Marc is fascinated by all the space exploration… as well as liking humanity… just not everything our species does… and the priorities it sometimes seems to have. The world is still a beautiful place, and there is still an abundance of life at the moment, so make the most of it, and enjoy life. Here’s the poem:
Mars, 2001, with the southern polar ice cap visible on the bottom. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Search and Destroy
digging the dearth on Mars
discovering minutest microbes,
exoplanets in the habitable zones
of faraway solar systems,
imagining angels above
waiting for sinning souls
ambitions of a species, degradation of our planet
centre stage the clowns
Jester’s acid tears,
melt the polar icecaps
creating new passages to pollute,
plundering nature’s riches
ignoring the beauty of Earth
Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hi, it’s Michael Wolf, weatherperson at the Greenygrey. As Britain seems to be under one big cloud today, with the ubiquitous grey sky dominating the scenery if you forget to look down and include the green below; which, by the way, is now starting to become complemented by gorgeous autumn colours. Yes, Green is starting to unwind now, after a busy summer, and let others work with Grey for the next half-year.
Michael Fish presents a weather forecast in 1974. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Agitated Wave Cloud Formation
Some of you might be agitated now, if you’ve had to go out into the pouring rain, so we thought we’d cheer you up with news that there might be a new cloud formation on the horizon, which the Independentreports as the undulatus asperatus (agitated wave).
TheIndependent reports that the Cloud Appreciation Society has been working to get a cloud formation classed as the first new variety recognised since 1951, and the image of it from pretty Perthshire in the Independent and on the CAS website shows it is a magnificent example of how beautiful we think the Greenygrey can look in its best light:
Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams, now fully recovered sports correspondent at the Greenygrey after the incredible summer of Olympic sport.
Greenygrey Goalie Kits in Premier League
Last season, Rob Green helped West Ham to promotion from the Championship to the Premiership wearing a glorious greenygrey goalie kit. Green moved on in the summer, and West Ham have changed strip, but the Greenygrey will play in the Premiership thanks to Reading FC, which has opted to kit out their goalies in this wonderful greenygrey combo this season:
It is fitting that they are sponsored by Waitrose, as the supermarket chain has a greenygrey colour combo logo layout design:
Disclaimer: The Greenygrey has received no payment for product placement by either Reading FC or Waitrose.
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. The Australian weekend is well under way, and that means it’s time for another instalment of Oz’s favourite Great Novel comedy-fantasy travel quest, all in the best possible taste. Here you are then, you lucky possums. Not yet, Dame Edna!
20. MEERKATS-MONOTHEISTS MIX MAKES MAD MORNING
I had just about absorbed all that information, when another human dropped from the sky in a Porcelain pod. I hoped it wasn’t more trouble; I’d had enough for one day!
Cover of Everything Is Wrong
The human burst out singing: ‘Hallelujah, I am Mildly Monotheistic Moby (MiMo Moby), and I’m Feeling So Real. I know Everything Was Wrong Here, but now that the Sky Has Broken and the Grey descended, the Monotonous Monotheists must Go, and matters return to magic for the meerkats of Meekatharra.’
When I heard him say Monotonous Monotheists in the plural my heart sank; either he’d messed up his lines or there was more than one.
It wasn’t long before my fears were realised. I heard a monotonous murmuring sound coming from somewhere, and it grew louder with every second. The meerkats dived for cover, and Bonzo covered his ears. When the orator came into view I saw it looked like the human I’d landed on. It approached us.
‘Ah, Monotonous Monotheist of the East (MoMo East), I thought you might arrive soon,’ said MiMo Moby.
So there was another one; my heart sank deeper than before. The meerkats were nowhere to be seen, and Bonzo belted out the blues.
‘Aah, hah,’ MoMo East ranted, ‘you might have stopped my Western twin from controlling your lives, but I am the stronger of the two, and I will wreak rampant revenge upon your sinning souls, just you wait and see, aah, hah!’
As it stopped cackling it sprang towards its twin’s head, but MiMo Moby somehow transported an emerald cork hat from the MoMo West’s head onto my bonce before the MoMo East could reach it.
MoMo East turned with a look of hellfire on its face.
English: View from the lookout at the town of Meekatharra, Western Australia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
MiMo Moby took no pity, shouting, ‘Go, you have no power in Meekatharra.’
MoMo East cackled out another rant and repeated the threat before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
Before also leaving, MiMo congratulated the meerkats on their liberation, and told Bonzo and me, ‘You have done a good deed here today, and should now follow the dust sandy path. The path will be difficult, and full of tests, but will ultimately lead you to the Great Dame of Oz. She should help you complete your epic rambling quest. Take great care of the hat, as it is very precious and has magical powers that will be useful on the dust sandy path. It must not fall into the wrong hands. Let it rest peacefully on your bonce, for there is more than you can imagine resting on it.’
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Notes
Cork hats are traditional Aussie bush headgear.
bonce – slang for head.
Moby and songs: Porcelain, Hallelujah, Feeling So Real, Everything Is Wrong, Sky Has Broken, Go. Wicked Witch of the East (character in Wizard of Oz).
Hi, it’s Susie Dentinfang, word expert at the Greenygrey and Countdown to the Full Moon. I know I haven’t been around for a while, and would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues for keeping the show rolling in my absence.
New Greenygreyisms out of Old Human Traits
Yes, I was awoken from my slumber yesterday by the first uses of the terms greyth and greeth for grey or green growth.
I hope you like my title by the way, which is of course a play on the Kill Bill film of a few years ago, and relates to yesterday’s blog about Cameron’s government resorting to a kill and build policy for badgers and the economy, even though there’s no evidence to suggest either will work, and both are definitely going to result in the death of wildlife and parts of the British environment.
Heubach badger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Greeth not Greyth Growth
It seems to us that continuous greyth growth is a neverending cycle that will see most of Britain concreted over, with more people needing more jobs, so more building will be started, and then there’ll be more people who need more jobs, so more building will be started… and they’ll need more feeding, so there’ll be more cows, and more cows might die because of wildlife, so there’ll be more killing of wildlife, like the badger cull that’s going on now…
An alternative would be greeth growth, where we treat the British landscape like a garden or wildlife park, and try to nurture the nature into a beautiful place, which might attract tourists etc, and bring in more income than just building empty shells that just turn into blots on the landscape.
Maybe it wouldn’t work economically, but it wouldn’t do much harm trying; and there’s no proof that killing badgers or building houses is going to work either, and they definitely have horrible downsides.
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. We’re becoming worried about a couple of disturbing developments in Britain. The first is that the government seems intent on building over green belt land, with plans to bribe local residents so that they don’t oppose building near their homes. The other is a badger cull that seems to go hand in hand with the building on green belt: putting human construction/destruction before the environment and wildlife; sending our balance between green and grey off kilter.
Badger (Photo credit: Tatterdemalion!)
Government Building Policy seems Folly
The planned government build-build-build economic policy seems crazy seeing as Ireland and Spain’s economic downfalls were both linked with a build-build-build policy.
There are now thousands of houses empty in both countries. Just think of the waste of money and environmental wellbeing in both cases.
DUBLIN, IRELAND – DECEMBER 01: Unsold houses lie empty at the Castlemoyne housing estate on December 1, 2010 in Dublin, Ireland. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
While we totally agree with building when needed, there seems to be plenty of already concreted space and empty buildings available, instead of concreting over green belt to build houses that remain empty afterwards.
Save the Badgers
While other countries live with large animals like wolves and bears it seems that we in the UK have trouble tolerating animals like foxes and badgers.
The government is starting a trial cull of badgers, instead of vaccinating them against TB, which badgers might be passing on to cattle or vice versa. Apparently it would be too expensive or difficult to vaccinate the badgers.
Create Jobs Growth more in Greeth than Greyth
It seems that the government is showing a lack of originality or innovation in its economic recovery plans, just resorting to building, not knowing whether its needed or not. They will destroy some of the British landscape in the process, both by building on it and resourcing the production materials.
SESENA, SPAIN – JULY 06: A row of houses stand partially complete on July 6, 2012 in Sesena, Spain. Sesena’s extensive building projects, 35 km south of Madrid, were initially intended to house 30,000 people and triple the population of the town, however most apartments still remain empty. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
We do applaud more environmentally-friendly building materials such as those used to build the Olympic park, and hope that building workers find enough work in non-green belt areas.
However, we think that the government should be more innovative with their policy for British growth; thinking greeth not greyth; and create jobs in saving life and the environment, rather than killing it off without knowing if it will have any real benefit to the population and country.
Hi, it’s Wolf Whistzer, intrepid newshound at the Greenygrey. The media hoo-ha ‘scandal’ about the Kate Middleton topless photos is a very greenygrey issue isn’t it. Well, it is for us. While we’d prefer a historic republic like France has, perhaps from the time of Cromwell, we think that the British royal family is now quite decent in most ways, and is probably preferable to most of the presidents we might have had in the last quarter of a century. The modern living of William, Kate and Harry only make us warm to the royals, and think the modern British royal family is not too bad at all.
Royal Wedding of William and Catherine Duke & Duchess of Cambridge (Photo credit: Defence Images)
Kate Middleton is a Modern Woman
While the media intrusion is unfortunate for Kate Middleton, we think it shows that her and William are quite normal modern people, and the sympathy that will follow the ‘scandal’ will probably benefit her image in the future.
The diplomatic way the British and French people have responded to the story also shows the way that matters such as this should be handled in the modern era.
Hi, it’s Greenygrey, our summer-September photos reminded us of Grey’s epic comedy-fantasy travel-quest epic saga Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps, so we thought we’d end the week with another thrilling episode of your favourite werewolf travels Australia by Google maps to a Wizard of Oz theme story.
Woman dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
And it is an important episode, because with Bonzo now travelling alongside it, Grey Werewolf meets its nemesis for the rest of the story: the Monotonous Monotheist. The MMs take the places of the witches in the Wizard of Oz.
Thousands of women and men have been executed/murdered for the power, greed and politics at the historic heart of organised religion, so who’s the baddie? Monotheistic religions did help end pagan life-sacrifices, so they have done some good, although it could be argued that the execution of innocents by monotheistic religions on trumped up charges, and the slaughter of animals without a ‘humane’ system are a kind of sacrifice, to make the persecutors/executors feel closer to their God.
The storm seemed to be catching up with us, so I shapeshiftedinto a flying elephant, which is one of the hardest single-species shapeshifts to accomplish. Looking back on it, I was probably showing off in front of Bonzo; or below him to be more exact. My new friend hung on to my ears for dear life as we flew high over the Kalbarri National Park, which looked so beautiful I somewhat regretted not being on the ground.
Washington DC – National Museum of American History: Dumbo car (Photo credit: wallyg)
A couple of hours later I caught sight of Meekatharra for the first time, but couldn’t see any meerkats; I was sure Barry said there was a big community. All I could see was a single human, who seemed to be ranting.
I started to descend slowly, but the storm caught up with us just afterwards. I was spun out of control and we were soon falling like a rock and pebble; until I landed trunk-up on the human. Bonzo was sent sprawling, but was back on his feet before me. I shapeshifted out of elephant first.
The Meerkats Emerge from Hiding
I felt awful to have landed on the human, and Bonzo was distraught. I felt better when masses of meerkats emerged from hiding and seemed to start celebrating with a song that went something like: ‘ding-dong, the monotheist has been put to bed, the monotonous monotheist has been put to bed…’
I was still shocked though, and asked the meerkats what they were so happy about. A couple introduced themselves as Bruce and Sheila Orlov, before telling me their story.
Robin Smith finds himself surrounded by foraging meerkats while filming them (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
They said most of their family had settled in Meerkovo after emigrating from Africa, but they had continued to Oz; building an idyllic meerkat community amongst the wonderful nature in this area. Then a monotonous monotheist(MoMo) arrived, introducing itself as enaB. The MoMo persuaded them to cut all the trees down to build a big new temple, promising them that it would safeguard their future.
There were no problems during the next decade, and they thought they’d done the right thing, but then the rains came. With all the trees chopped down there was nothing to stop flooding in the area. This also polluted the river, so they were left without food and water, and needed to call on their reserves to save the community.
That was when they found out the MoMo had traded all their riches, and left the area while they tried to survive the disaster. It had used its money to grow ever more powerful, and they had been hiding from it ever since. So they felt liberated from a great evil.
I said I knew how they felt after my recent experiences in the Greenygrey world.
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Notes
Grey’s elephant flight with Bonzo is reminiscent of Disney’s Dumbo and Timothy Q. Mouse. Wizard of Oz, Wicked Witch of the West (classic film and character).
Orlovs (Compare the Market [Meerkat] advert characters live in Meerkovo).
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. Our tour of greenygrey photos today leads south to our current September sunshine on the Leeds-Liverpool canal Kirkstall Valley towpath, including some that could be classified as those rare, exquisite and precious ‘Greenygrey Folding Mirrors’.
mistYmuse 