The scales have fallen from mine eyes.

The advice boldly emblazoned on the cover of THHGTTG!

The most useful book ever written.

Okay, change of theme for today's word. This one is sure to provoke some debate

beaver

. . . brazilian . . .

Dirty boy! In your basket!

That's the second time you've sent me there!!!




I might not play this anymore . . .

Well, you can come out if you promise to be

Send him to his basket then!!!!!

Steve Martin's comment to the librarian?

God you lot are dirty!

Beavers are two primarily nocturnal, semi-aquatic species of rodent, one native to North America and one to Eurasia. They are known for building dams, canals, and lodges (homes). They are the second-largest rodent in the world (after the capybara). Their colonies create one or more dams to provide still, deep water to protect against predators, and to float food and building material. The North American beaver population was once more than 60 million, but as of 1988 was 6–12 million. This population decline is due to extensive hunting for fur, for glands used as medicine and perfume, and because their harvesting of trees and flooding of waterways may interfere with other land uses.

Now is this a big beaver or what!



Julien

Did you know the beaver is a Canadian emblem?

The Beaver

You would think with the size and wilderness of Canada that the animal most associated with our country would be the moose, or the bear. But no, it's the quiet, unassuming, hard working beaver...........actually, maybe it's a perfect representation after all...

But, how did the beaver become "our animal"? Famous enough to grace our nickel and receive official Canadian emblem status. Truth be told, it is a sordid story beginning with greed and death in the 1600's.

Europeans travelled to Canadian shores, and instead of the spices they had hoped to find, they discovered a country teaming with busy little beavers. Not a big deal except, fur hats were becoming all the rage. As the popularity for beaver chapeau's grew, the European population of beavers declined. As a result, the exploration of Canada was largely due to the furry little creature with the flat tail.

France's King Henry IV thought beavers were a great way earn an income while building a new empire on Canadian shores. The Hudson's Bay Company, Canada's oldest and longest running business made so much money from the fur industry that they added four beavers to their coat of arms in 1678. A coin was developed around the same time that was equal in value to one beaver pelt.

The reason beaver fur was so sought after for hat making is because the fur has little barbs on the end of each hair; when pressed together they become like felt and is probably what keeps the beaver dry and warm while swimming.

By the mid-19th century the beaver had almost been trapped into extinction - it was estimated that Canada was home to six million of Canada's largest rodents prior to the fur hat fashion season. When the demand for beaver pelts was at its highest, 100,000 pelts per year were being shipped to Europe. Fortunately for Canadians - and the beaver - fashions change; eventually beaver was out and silk was in.

Trivia Eh?
Officially became a Canadian emblem when it received royal assent on March 24, 1975.

The Hudson's Bay Company is still in operation today and may be recognized as retail department store "The Bay".

The first Canadian postage stamp was the "Three Penny Beaver" in 1851

The beaver is still found on the crest of the Canadian Pacific Railway

In the 1930's, an Englishman posed as Metis (French/Indian decent) and wrote about the declining numbers of beavers. The government closed trapping for many years to allow the population to regenerate.

In the 1980's it was determined that the current beaver population was stable.

Records continue to be kept of its trapping and export, in order to prevent illegal trade and to ensure it does not become endangered again.

T' interweb is full of stuff!

Julien


ps shave your own beaver: http://www.howard.tv/shaveTheBeaver.jsf

Pierce Brosnan was in a wet little movie a few years back called Grey Owl. For reasons that elude me, part of the character's eco-message involved bringing two beavers from Canada to the UK, and for reasons that are doubtless even more tedious, the poor little beavers had to be sent to different places to live. Which did at least mean that the movie had the most moving split beaver shot in history.

Dont you mean Leslie Neilson in Naked Gun?

Julien

That's the one. Not big on American 'comedy' Just beavers!

Right, you're all filthy, and you can all be sent to your baskets! Except you, Nick, you've been a good boy.

Today's word(s), and I chose this one especially to avoid the controversy and general rudity that beaver generated, is:

bearded tit

Part 1:

Bearded Tit is Rory McGrath’s story of life among birds. From a Cornish boyhood wandering gorse-tipped cliffs listening to the song of the yellowhammer with his imaginary girlfriend, or drawing gravity-defying jackdaws in class when he should have been applying himself to physics, to quoting the Latin names of birds to give himself a fighting chance with the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
As an adult, or what passes for one, Rory recounts becoming a card-carrying birdwatcher, observing his first skylark – peerless king of the summer sky – while stoned; his repeatedly failed attempts to get up at the crack of dawn like the real twitchers; and his flawed bid to educate his utterly unreconstructed drinking mate Danny in the ways of birding.

Rory’s tale is a thoroughly educational, occasionally lyrical and highly amusing romp through the hidden byways of birdwatching and all its attendant arcane knowledge.

Interesting stuff, Nick. Are you deliberately avoiding being sent to your basket today? Or are you saving that for Part 2?

Bill Oddie.

Got this from wiki, a nice looking little bird

"The Bearded Reedling, Panurus biarmicus, is a peculiar small passerine bird. It is also frequently known as the Bearded Tit due to some similarities to Long-tailed Tits, or Bearded Parrotbill since it was later placed with these after it was removed from the true tits in the family Paridae. But according to more recent research, it is actually a unique songbird - no other living species seems to be particularly closely related to it. Thus, it seems that the monotypic family Panuridae must again be recognized.

The Bearded Reedling is a species of temperate Europe and Asia. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate other than eruptive or cold weather movements. It is vulnerable to hard winters, which may kill many birds.

This is a small orange-brown bird with a long tail and an undulating flight. The male has a grey head and black moustaches (not a beard). Flocks often betray their presence in a reedbed by their characteristic "ping" call.

This species is a wetland specialist, breeding colonially in large reedbeds by lakes or swamps. It eats reed aphids in summer, and reed seeds in winter, its digestive system actually changing to cope with the very different seasonal diets."

Joel

Cooler! Three veeks!

Some good info there, Joel - I never realised it wasn't a tit any more. Perhaps I should change the word of the day...

David Blunkett

Cooler also for you, mein freund.

Me neither Obi. Bearded Reedling doesn't have the same ring to it somehow, and certainly cuts down on the amount of mischief we would otherwise see here!
What did they do to get kicked out of the tit family? Answers on a post card.
Joel

Perhaps they hung around with Bill Oddie too much.

A brown, long-tailed bird, usually seen flying rapidly across the top of a reedbed. Males have black 'moustaches' rather than 'beards'. They are sociable and noisy , their 'ping' calls often being the first clue to their presence. They are particularly vulnerable to severe winters and their population has declined in recent years, making them an Amber List species.

Nice picture, Julien. Where did you find it?

opps!

Picture credit to http://www.birdingworld.co.uk/

Julien

Nice site, mate, I've added that to my favourites. Thanks

Always happy to help

Julien

i certainly got in trouble whe describing long tailed tits saying against my better judgement

" they are almost always found in pairs !!"

Okay, after the weekend break, today's words:

little bustard

What teachers have to call that kid at the back of the class if they're to avoid being beaten up by the kid's parents.

We all knew a kid like that, I bet.

The Little Bustard, Tetrax tetrax, is a large bird in the bustard family, the only member of the genus Tetrax. It breeds in southern and central Europe and into western and central Asia. Southernmost European birds are mainly resident, but other populations migrate further south in winter.

This species is declining due to habitat loss throughout its range. It used to breed more widely, for example ranging north to Poland occasionally (Tomek & Bocheński 2005). It is only a very rare vagrant to Great Britain despite breeding in France.

Although the smallest Palearctic bustard, Little Bustard is still pheasant-sized at 45 cm long with a 90 cm wingspan. In flight, the long wings are extensively white. The breeding male is brown above and white below, with a grey head and a black neck bordered above and below by white.

The female and non-breeding male lack the dramatic neck pattern, and the female is marked darker below than the male. Immature bustards resemble females. Both sexes are usually silent, although the male has a distinctive "raspberry-blowing" call "prrt".

This species is omnivorous, taking seeds, insects and other small creatures. Like other bustards, the male Little Bustard has a flamboyant display with foot stamping and leaping in the air. Females lay 3 to 5 eggs on the ground.

This bird's habitat is open grassland and undisturbed cultivation, with plants tall enough for cover. It has a stately slow walk, and tends to run when disturbed rather than fly. It is gregarious, especially in winter.



Julien

heducational.... in it!

Superb

Although the rest of you have disappointed me, I was expecting more of a response to this one!

Right, today's word is:

scapegoated

with thanks to Kirk for this one.

Blamed by the Daily Mail for whatever imagined problem is currently giving them the vapours. It helps if you're foreign, or (for some peculiar reason) a wheelie-bin.

What if you were a foreign wheelie-bin?

Well, first you'd be condemned for putting British wheelie-bins out of a job. We may hate wheelie-bins but when it comes down to it we've got to support our own wheelie-bin industry and protect it from all these evil foreign conspiracies. Then you'd be blamed for everything else, starting with the Garden of Eden.

So, it wasn't a serpent that tempted Eve, it was a foreign wheelie-bin!

Anything can happen when that lid closes behind you.
scapegoat (mid 16th century) This is from the archaic scape meaning "escape" + goat. It refers to the ritual of the Day of Atonement, in which a goat was selected for sacrifice, and a second was chosen to be sent alive into the wilderness, symbolically bearing the sins of the people, literally "escaping death.".
Edgar

Nice one, Edgar. I'd occasionally wondered about the origin, but never enough to look it up!

I try my best you know!

Julien

In the West, the earliest use of the term "scapegoat" can be found in early Judaic ritual described in the Bible's Book of Leviticus. The passage goes something like this:

"On the Day of Atonement a live goat was chosen by lot. The high priest, robed in linen garments, laid both his hands on the goat's head, and confessed over it the iniquities of the children of Israel. The sins of the people thus symbolically transferred to the beast, it was taken out into the wilderness and let go. The people felt purged, and for the time being, guiltless."

The term scapegoat, however, has evolved to refer to individuals or peoples who are symbolically or concretely made to bear responsibility for the faults or problems of others. For individuals, scapegoating is a psychological defense mechanism of denial through projecting responsibility and blame on others. It allows the perpetrator to eliminate negative feelings about him or herself and provides a sense of gratification. Furthermore, it justifies the self-righteous discharge of aggression. For the perpetrator, it can provide a firm separation between good and bad. Others describe scapegoaters as insecure, motivated to raise their own status, particularly relative to the target. Having firmly convinced oneself that the other is responsible, it seems only logical to displace punishment as well.

It is unlikely, however, that this psychological explanation directly translates to the sociological level. At the group level, scapegoating does not reflect mass psychosis. At the same time, it is true that psychological issues may be involved for some group members and some may suffer from psychological problems. The aggregating of individuals to produce scapegoating at the societal level appears to be a complicated process involving a number of personality types and psychological processes. To put it simply, scapegoating involves the creation of a stark "us" vs. "them" dichotomy.

Regardless of whether individual or group scapegoating, it typically is based on real social, political, ideological, cultural, or economic power struggles. Scapegoats are frequently less powerful and more marginalized. This makes them easier targets. However, they need not be. Many of them are in fact privileged, at least in relative terms. The Jews throughout Europe, Chinese in Southeast Asia, or Koreans in inner city Los Angeles are but three examples of the latter. In each case, assertions of unfair advantage provide an explanation for the inferior economic position of others. This sentiment is often beneficial for political leaders who can deflect blame from their own shortcomings. For example, there is evidence that Indonesian government leaders and the military fueled anti-Chinese sentiment after the economic collapse in 1998.

Scapegoating often becomes an important part of conflict. Once scapegoating is perceived to be successful in generating positive feelings in perpetrators, there is likely to be reluctance to give it up. The scapegoated provide a ready explanation for troubles. Therefore, there is relatively little incentive for the perpetrator to give it up. For the scapegoated, they are left with few good options: to flee, to assimilate, or to fight back.

Wow I love this headucation lark!

Julien

Shouldn't that be "headache?"
Edgar