Animal vs Man

Over this last week (the first of 2009), I have seen man and beast cross each other twice, all from the comfort of my bed.

The first video came from iplayer in the form of Natural World: Great White Shark - A Living Legend. This show was not great. In fact, at times, it was very boring. The main argument I have against the show is that it seemed to be more focused on the 'presenter' (in this case Mike Rutzen) than on the animal. And, a creature as impressive as the Great White Shark (or Tommy Shark as they refer to it) deserves our full attention.

The show was based around Mike getting in the sea with the Great Whites and interacting with them. Most of his time with the sharks, as you can probably guess, was spent trying not to get eaten by them. By changing his posture and position in the water he believed he could use his body language to communicate with the shark, employing such techniques as to dive below the shark, which they see as a dominant position. Of course, the show ended with Rutzen still in one piece, having managed to achieve his goal: to watch a shark attack a seal (all be it a fake one dragged behind his boat) from underneath.

The second video I watched was on Youtube and was based on much the same principal, if you swap Shark for Lion, and athletic-diver for fat-man-with-a-cap-beard-and-ponytail. I found this video much more entertaining, and at only 9:22mins in length, the exctiement:boredom ratio was verging on 1:0.

Although these events have provided some brilliant footage, these two men should perhaps ask themselves, should I really be doing this? When was the last time anyone saw this man?

John's Humidity Reading 6th Jan 2009

72%.

Pete's Top Tip no3.

If your ear starts to itch, forget rubbing it, just pull the lobe outwards at an angle parallel to the floor. Give it a good tug and the itching should cease.