artistinu.com.au

TO A MAN WITH A HAMMER, EVERY PROBLEM IS A NAIL.

SEA SHADOW by Andy M Beattie, 2008-06-10

Andy lay back in the little wooden rowing boat and stared up at the blue sky, a gentle breeze fondled a piece of old bleached rope that was tied to one of the heavy old wooden oars, now drying and stacked down each side of him. Somewhere some seagulls squawked, their calls floating by in the wind. The boat was tied to an anchored marker buoy, just a few hundred meters out in the little Cornish bay, the sea was calm and Andy felt sleep drift across his forehead, within seconds he was asleep, vaguely aware of the waves slapping soothingly on the side of his little boat, but totally unaware of what was taking place right below him, in the deep calm blue sea.

Shadow chased through the school of mackerel at high speed, catching biting and swallowing as he swam. The light changed and with a blinding myriad of colours all merging into the depths of the deep, he raced to meet the challenge, that big fish with the rainbow sheen, he could sense it’s panic, smell it’s vigour as he pumped his tail hard to gain speed. There! Almost! One more second and it was his! He opened his mouth ready, the water curling and gurgling in it, the grab, one experienced twist, a bite and.. Got it!

Shadow swung sideways and out of the shoal, eating his fish as he did so, then headed up for some air, infact the whole pod of Striped Dolphins, some 25 or so of them all headed for the surface at the same time, all having had a good feed on the shoal of Mackerel, which moved on and disappeared as fast as possible.

The sea around Andy’s boat erupted with energy, Dolphins leaping and crashing back into the water, some blowing steamy spray and taking breaths of air, others still holding fish, their bodies arching and flipping through the breeze before meeting back with the calm seas and melting back into it, some silently and others with intentional splashes of excitement.

But Andy was still fast asleep, Shadow leaped close to the boat, looking in and recognising the shape of a living being in it, curiosity brought him back again for another look, and another, and again closer this time, close enough to spray water across the little rowing boat and push a little wave under its wooden hull. The little boat rocked side to side, drips of sea water ran down Andy’s face, but still, he did not wake, his mind in some peaceful place, his worries and cares all a million miles away, but he did make a noise as he found a more comfortable position on the wooden boards. Shadow heard that little noise and responded excitedly with a multitude of clicks half out of the water and half in the water, then a long whistle which resounded out into the sea telling all the other Dolphins what he had found but the pod had moved on and was turning to make it’s way out of the bay and into the open seas. Shadow was about to follow, but decided to have one last look, he swung around and speedily aimed for Andy’s rowing boat, lifting his nose and driving hard to get a high leap, he pierced the waters surface and flew high into the air.

Andy woke with a start! Sat bolt upright just in time to see Shadow’s shiny striped body with a glint in his eye, re-enter the water. His surprise made him reach for an oar and as he did so, his sight fixed firmly on the approaching trawler, one that had definitely not noticed him at all!

Greg had had an annoying few days, they got the sonar working and found the Mackerel schools but they were all way too close into the rocky shorelines to be netted, besides which he was 3 crewmen short and whilst the swell had dropped now, when they set out it had been a rough couple of days fishing, without much to show for it. This little bay had at least got depth and the nets were dragging well in the outgoing tide, that big school of Mackerel was right there, in front of them, with nowhere to go except straight into his nets, all escape routes were covered, at last they would fill the holds, then, in a few more hours with these calm seas they would be on the home run, looking forwards to a good night’s rest.

Andy fumbled with the hard nylon rope he had tied to the buoy, he bumped an oar and it fell out of it’s rowlock into the water drifting out of reach within moments, “Damn!” he exclaimed to himself as the nylon rope slipped undone and fell into the water .He grabbed the other oar quickly, swung it over the boat and down onto the top of the escaping oar, grappling to get it back. The trawler still bearing down on him at a frightening rate, he shouted abuse at it as if it would hear, but his words were lost in the mass of squawking seagulls, nets and the engine noises that were gaining ground on him by the second!

Greg ordered his crew to shorten all lines, raise the nets as soon as the turn out of the bay was complete and get ready to ‘haul’. He scanned the sonar, checked depth and speed and began the turn on the wheel, then with a steady hand, he reached over to the engine speed slides and pushed them all the way forwards into full ahead. The trawler leaned slightly and pulled down at the back as it took the weight of the nets on the turn.

The Bow wave struck Andy’s boat flipping it like a leaf, the hull of the trawler scraped along the little rowing boat, its massive rusty steel plates tearing it as if it was made of match sticks , Andy felt the oar close across his head as it broke on impact then heard the vibrations of the engines pulse through the water in a frightening growl as the suction of the trawlers’ wake dragged him down, his yellow sailing jacket stripping off him as it caught on something sharp, he rolled around and around, deeper and deeper, his breath leaving in a stream of bubbles and his mind going cold as he entered unconsciousness.

Shadow dived deep, fast, deep, every part of his beautiful sleek body was hard muscle working towards survival, deeper still, as fast as his species could go, Shadow looked towards the seabed…and ignoring the screams from the others in his pod as they became tangled in the nets, he drove his powerful but tiring body down, down to safety, down to rock bottom, down for survival, DOWN or DEATH, terror filled his mind.

Greg pulled the rudder straight, in the clear for the open seas, his nets being hauled by the crew as fast as they could, the turn keys and ropes spinning and chains sliding across deck, the nets all full of Mackerel coming on board and stacking over towards the hold…”there’s Dolphins!” shouted one crewman “keep hauling!” came another order…”throw them back later” ….”HAUL!”

Greg cast an experienced eye over the churning seas behind his ship, the Mackerel all jumping and switching in the nets, the dolphins tangled and bleeding from their steel cable cuts, the net floats coming up in lines onto the deck, the flocks of seagulls dipping into the catch and his crew all working hard to earn their livings, all wearing their yellows and sow westers…. So who was missing one…the yellow in the nets…he reached for the loud haler with an uncertain cold feeling creeping into his voice …”who’s lost their yellow oilskin?” he shouted across the sound system..” whose yellow jacket is that ?” “…Haul! FAST! “

Greg grabbed the throttles and killed the engines; the Trawler lurched and twisted in the water as the weight of the nets took control…”KEEP hauling” Greg shouted in dismay as the nets pulled up two more striped dolphins and the little broken rowing boat, blood now running red across the deck, Greg dashed towards the windows starboard to scan the seas surface for the owner of the rowing boat and the yellow jacket! “Man overboard!” he shouted into the microphone….”man overboard!”

Shadow had reached the bottom, exhausted and short on air he saw his family being hauled along backwards and upside down above him in the nets, screaming as the nets closed and cut into their flesh, their blood billowing out in clouds, before they were torn from the oceans to their deaths on the deck of the trawler. The end of the net was in sight, filled with the whole school of Mackerel, he swam for his life past the end of the net and to safety, and then up for that vital breath of air, up, up fast, faster. And out into the air he travelled, his tears making way for that breath of air!

As Shadow jumped, he screamed. Those of his pod still alive on the deck of the trawler heard his voice for the last time. His scream reached the hearts of every fisherman on the trawler, as they hauled up the nets at standstill, all lost amongst the frenzy and the fear onboard, as steel and flesh met, fish and mammals dying in death throws all tangled and lost, blood and guts everywhere and amongst it all , what was left of the little rowing boat.

Greg ordered an immediate launch of the pilot boat to search for the owner of the little rowing boat, calling the lifeguard on the radio and instigating a search. He knew he would have to work fast if there was a survivor; there were sharks in these waters.

Shadow lay on his side, in shock, exhausted, allowing the sea to rock his body beneath the cool blue skies, hardly bothering to breath, feeling nothing , numbed by the events he had just survived, the trawler now becoming distant, Shadow just drifted he could taste the blood of his family still in the water, soon he thought, sharks.

Andy gasped. He couldn’t feel his hands or feet, but he knew he had to do something to stay afloat, he couldn’t see properly, but he could scream for help, so he did. The water kept catching him as he took a breath, he kept coughing, but by some miracle he was still alive, he could smell the blood in a pool around him, it was his blood, and then the thought came into his mind, sharks.

The pilot boat circled the trawler and then the life guard arrived too, looking and loud haling but finding nothing, except sharks.

An hour or so passed.

Andy went unconscious again, he dreamt a dream, in which he was with a friend, someone strong and loving and very clever, there was an accident; maybe it was a car accident or something like that. In his dream this friend gave him life, but there was this silence, this strange silence and this terribly sad thing that had happened, Andy wanted to know what it was, why it was and who it was, but the dream ended before he could find out. He opened his eyes, there was a window, or at least there were green posts, all wet and rocking gently, outside there was a soft blue sky, it was very out of focus, there was someone there, someone who cared about him, he couldn’t move, but he could breath, he needed something so he made a noise, a scream!

Andy’s scream echoed out across the little bay. He sat bolt upright in his little rowing boat, just in time to see a shadow pass in front of him, it was as if something had just jumped out of the water , something had come to see him, it wanted to talk to him, tell him something. He sat there for a few minutes and then he leaned forwards and untied the nylon rope that had held him safely in the same spot next to the anchor buoy in the bay while he had had a sleep. He took the oars in hand and started rowing back to the shore. He reached the jetty, pulled his little boat up next to the sea ladder and began to climb up out of his boat, tying it up to a metal ring on one of the posts.

As he climbed the ladder, he noticed something rocking in the water under the jetty; he got down under it onto a gang plank to get a closer look. It was an exhausted Striped Dolphin! He jumped into the water next to it, whispering quietly under his breath, “hey, gently does it, lets get you some help”. The dolphin looked very sick, but it opened it’s eyes and looked at Andy , He felt this sudden recognition rush through his very soul, he reached out his hand and stroked the dolphins head. The dolphin made a small weak sound, twisted in the water then relaxed. Andy’s eye’s filled with tears and he held the dolphin as if it was his own.

The sea washed Shadow’s soul out from under the jetty and away from that little Bay and to a place where there were no humans, no trawlers and no nets.

Andy sat on the edge of that little jetty crying to himself quietly, Shadow’s body floating lifelessly between the stays beneath him, Out on the horizon , a trawler was making for the open seas, it’s Captain, Greg, was hoping for a good catch of Mackerel on this trip.

For MJB because you asked for a story.

A mass stranding of dolphins left at least 21 dead.

Dead dolphins on the bank of the Percuil River. (AAP)

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At least 21 dolphins have died after becoming stranded in a river in southwest England.

Rescuers believe a pod of about 15 striped dolphins swam up the Percuil River in Cornwall and were beached, and that other dolphins responded to their distress cries.

Rescuers managed to save seven of the stranded mammals and the last two were taken out to sea in stretchers attached to boats. Other dolphins in the pod were prevented from swimming up the river.

While such strandings are relatively common in Australia, they are rare in Britain.

Tony Woodley of British Divers Marine Life Rescue said it was the biggest mass stranding of marine life in Britain for 27 years.

"We haven't seen a stranding anywhere near this scale since 1981, when pilot whales were beached on the east coast. This is extremely rare," he said.

Woodley said the striped dolphins normally did not swim near coasts, but perhaps they had moved in to feed on fish attracted to a large algae bloom.

"Logistically a rescue like this is a minefield. It is very difficult to manage," Woodley said. "You have to get all the dolphins together. If one or two leave, the river system they will just come back to rejoin the main social group."

  ART, MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT, TECHNOLOGY, IT, EARTH, ENVIRONMENT, SEARCH, GO, START, MICROSOFT, APPLE, IBM, NASA, LIFE, MSN, YAHOO, FIREFOX, BLOG, ARTISTINU.com.au , Andy M Beattie.

I really just want to bring this to the attention of as many people as possible. We as living things on this planet are entering into a new dimension of existence and I for one would rather we all took such issues as this on board seriously, now, to teach our children these simple things, so that their future and ours has a much better quality of life to exist in. Please pass this on, talk about it, blog it, forward it or whatever, many many life forms will benefit from your actions here. Its really important. Thank you, good luck and maybe we will meet and be friends one day... 'on the other side' ...wherever that might be. until then , have a really enjoyable life , never give up and never give in!

Andy M Beattie 

artistinu

Jan 2008 , Canberra, Australia.

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WHi Mi LiTTLe LiFe MaTTeRS

There is a reason why all lives matter. I am referring to all living things on our planet and maybe even beyond into the great unknown abyss of space.

The reason is simple, it is that we all have very common existences, thoughts and needs, often people relate to this with words like compassion, empathy and care but rarely do we assume the moral high ground of actually having the spirit of our convictions, recognizing that we, as humans are at the top of the food chain, able to select what we do, by reason and logic.

We are able to be godlike saviors to all living things yet so many of us trash the world we live in, kill those little living things that either had no choice but to be near us or for some strange reason decided that our company was safer than anywhere else. Life on a planet is difficult at the best of times, for all living things. There are so many environmental factors that are not within the sphere of living things.. as hard as rocks or as cold as ice, hot as fire or as empty of food as space itself.

We are all in it together, all living things, tiny pathetic moths or ants with their colonies working hard to survive, spiders and slugs, mice, bats, birds and animals of all sorts including those that we unfortunately eat and hold in captivity, they all struggle to survive, yet we as humans make their lives hell on earth, without so much as a blink of an eye.

Well, the purpose of this article is simple, it is to ask you ,the readers, to do something about it. Not on religious grounds, nor on practical grounds, but on moral grounds. Who sets the moral standards? We do, every single one of us, at any age, in any given situation every second of our lives. The problem is, that actually we need all the living things below us in order for us to survive. You might not think this way, if you live in a concreted city, as you drive your steel car through the dirty streets, or if you are battling against a high wind in a steel hulled ship somewhere in the Arctic ocean fishing for crabs, but its the reality we just cannot afford to ignore. All life matters. All life has feelings, All life is trying to survive, its not just there as some inanimate object to be killed indiscriminately because its in the way, or it might bite or 'there are too many of them'.

There are reasons why, for every event, there is a mind inside every living thing and that mind operates in exactly the same way as ours do, those bodies feel pain and have senses exactly the same way ours do, because we are all on this planet, we all developed exactly the same methods of survival for exactly the same reasons.

An example, what living thing does not run away when it is scared of dying or being killed? Every living thing that can move..does,sadly usually it was simply not designed to escape poisonous sprays, or huge flat shoes, all human things for killing everything in sight. We no longer need to kill everything, we have evolved into thinking animals capable of avoiding contact, evading problems through our logical ideas...we do not need to kill everything like we had to in the past in order for us to survive, now, we need to keep things alive in order for us to survive.

An example, flies are really annoying, some flies are potentially dangerous...but not all, Bush flies are actually needed to clean up organic matter that would otherwise harbor dangerous bacteria..the story of maggots keeping a wound  clean is true, however humans kill them all. But in killing all the flying creatures, we also remove the food source for Fly catching Birds, which, if there are lots of them will catch all the flies for us  without killing everything else, poisoning the ground and the air with sprays is not a good idea.. helping fly catching birds is a great idea!

But its deeper than that. Much deeper. Its a moral and ethical proposition. Everything has a right to live, or so us humans keep saying about embryos and human cells, we, as living gods to the rest of the living planet we inhabit, should consider that we are probably, most of us anyway, not mass murderers nor ignorant animals, its time we moved on up into the head space of being able to ease the horror and the pain of other living creatures.

We have after all used their deaths and their pain to get us to this point.. leather shoes, steaks and experimental trips into space using dogs and monkeys, not to mention the use of animals for testing cosmetics and drugs.. its abhorrent , akin to the nazi's experimenting on people to find out how much radiation the human body could withstand back in world war two.

So, how about next time you see a small innocent creature struggling on concrete, or bashing its head on a hot light bulb, think.. then act to help it out of its pure hell.. just imagine how you might feel and change the world by being a godlike human. But be aware, that once you start to help creatures, you must continue, because the truth is ,that any living creature that needs help and there are lots of them, will instantly recognize you as being that godlike human and will reach out to you, wanting your company as a friend and as one who can help them, that is simply one more attribute that we share with the natural world..we all do that, so don't be surprised, just be in control and do your best.

Finally, I want to assure you, that if you have managed to correct some of the wrongs that humans are engaged in, during your lifetime, no matter how you yourself end up dying, as you leave this living world you will find that you have justified your own existence, you will find that you were loved by all living things and also you will find that the humans you leave behind in the living world will copy you, your spirit will live on in them and as your own soul fades back into the earth's myriad of complex organic structures and systems, you too might find a god caring for you through eternity.

Good Luck and may your God go with you.

 

AB. Dec2007         

There is a reason why all lives matter. I am referring to all living things on our planet and maybe even beyond into the great unknown abyss of space.

The reason is simple, it is that we all have very common existences, thoughts and needs, often people relate to this with words like compassion, empathy and care but rarely do we assume the moral high ground of actually having the spirit of our convictions, recognising that we, as humans are at the top of the food chain, able to select what we do, by reason and logic.

We are able to be godlike saviours to all living things yet so many of us trash the world we live in, kill those little living things that either had no choice but to be near us or for some strange reason decided that our company was safer than anywhere else. Life on a planet is difficult at the best of times, for all living things. There are so many environmental factors that are not within the sphere of living things.. as hard as rocks or as cold as ice, hot as fire or as empty of food as space itself.

We are all in it together, all living things, tiny pathetic moths or ants with their colonies working hard to survive, spiders and slugs, mice, bats, birds and animals of all sorts including those that we unfortunately eat and hold in captivity, they all struggle to survive, yet we as humans make their lives hell on earth, without so much as a blink of an eye.

Well, the purpose of this article is simple, it is to ask you ,the readers, to do something about it. Not on religious grounds, nor on practical grounds, but on moral grounds. Who sets the moral standards? We do, every single one of us, at any age, in any given situation every second of our lives. The problem is, that actually we need all the living things below us in order for us to survive. You might not think this way, if you live in a concreted city, as you drive your steel car through the dirty streets, or if you are battling against a high wind in a steel hulled ship somewhere in the Arctic ocean fishing for crabs, but its the reality we just cannot afford to ignore. All life matters. All life has feelings, All life is trying to survive, its not just there as some inanimate object to be killed indiscriminately because its in the way, or it might bite or 'there are too many of them'.

There are reasons why, for every event, there is a mind inside every living thing and that mind operates in exactly the same way as ours do, those bodies feel pain and have senses exactly the same way ours do, because we are all on this planet, we all developed exactly the same methods of survival for exactly the same reasons.

An example, what living thing does not run away when it is scared of dying or being killed? Every living thing that can move..does,sadly usually it was simply not designed to escape poisonous sprays, or huge flat shoes, all human things for killing everything in sight. We no longer need to kill everything, we have evolved into thinking animals capable of avoiding contact, evading problems through our logical ideas...we do not need to kill everything like we had to in the past in order for us to survive, now, we need to keep things alive in order for us to survive.

An example, flies are really annoying, some flies are potentially dangerous...but not all, Bush flies are actually needed to clean up organic matter that would otherwise harbour dangerous bacteria..the story of maggots keeping a wound  clean is true, however humans kill them all. But in killing all the flying creatures, we also remove the food source for Flycatching Birds, which, if there are lots of them will catch all the flies for us  without killing everything else, poisoning the ground and the air with sprays is not a good idea.. helping fly catching birds is a great idea!

But its deeper than that. Much deeper. Its a moral and ethical proposition. Everything has a right to live, or so us humans keep saying about embryos and human cells, we, as living gods to the rest of the living planet we inhabit, should consider that we are probably, most of us anyway, not mass murderers nor ignorant animals, its time we moved on up into the head space of being able to ease the horror and the pain of other living creatures.

We have after all used their deaths and their pain to get us to this point.. leather shoes, steaks and experimental trips into space using dogs and monkeys, not to mention the use of animals for testing cosmetics and drugs.. its abhorrent , akin to the nazi's experimenting on people to find out how much radiation the human body could withstand back in world war two.

So, how about next time you see a small innocent creature struggling on concrete, or bashing its head on a hot light bulb, think.. then act to help it out of its pure hell.. just imagine how you might feel and change the world by being a godlike human. But be aware, that once you start to help creatures, you must continue, because the truth is ,that any living creature that needs help and there are lots of them, will instantly recognise you as being that godlike human and will reach out to you, wanting your company as a friend and as one who can help them, that is simply one more attribute that we share with the natural world..we all do that, so don't be surprised, just be in control and do your best.

Finally, I want to assure you, that if you have managed to correct some of the wrongs that humans are engaged in, during your lifetime, no matter how you yourself end up dying, as you leave this living world you will find that you have justified your own existence, you will find that you were loved by all living things and also you will find that the humans you leave behind in the living world will copy you, your spirit will live on in them and as your own soul fades back into the earth's myriad of complex organic structures and systems, you too might find a god caring for you through eternity.

Good Luck and may your God go with you.

AB. Dec2007         

real photos of UFOs series of 28 pictures.

When I was a little boy,in England , I would smile happily at thoughts of the natural world , with happy animals like squirrels and mice all living in my natural world. Those thoughts, had birds drinking from bird baths, frogs and goldfish in the concrete pond, dogs and cats in baskets, bees buzzing around the hedgerows and in gardens, even horses in paddocks or pulling carts, that was natural to me, as natural as my own existence dressed in woolen shorts with clean starched shirts and shiny shoes going to school on a bus, or walking along a leafy lane in summer, or shouldering against the rain, in a plastic macintosh in mid winter, splashing the puddles and kicking the Autumn leaves that had built up against the fences of suburbia.

But now, as I reflect on what was and is natural, I realise, having actually been into the great wild natural world where there are no roads, no houses, no cars, no plastic raincoats and certainly no concrete ponds,that my ideal concepts of the natural were wrong. Those animals and birds are all dead now, most without offspring, time ended their lives, but those lives were far from happy, far from natural. My life has been far from natural too, I don't wear woolen shorts, starch went out when cotton T- shirts  came in and now I think I would rather get wet than have a plastic mac on.

The point is, that the squirrel ran along the fences to be free of the dangers posed by man and his cats, Red squirrels that is, they lost their habitat of natural Oak woodlands, consequently when the fast and furious Grey squirrels arrived from North America they became extinct , I saw my last one in 1967, in the only tree on a little green, bordered by roads and houses. that green is now a block of houses no doubt with a few feet of garden each, with plastic ponds with plastic fish and plastic birds drinking from them. Not even a plastic squirrel running up the metal fences, but probably at night,there may be a little boy there somewhere dreaming happily of that natural world he is living in, his Nike shoes, all natural polyester T shirts, reality TV shows and listening to Idol on his ipod and hopefully out in the wild midwinter rainy night, outside, somewhere, there is the great great great grand children of the old wise Barn Owl that I remember as being so very wise as to never be seen by mankind in the daytime and able to live well out of reach of almost all other things, quite at home in a very unnatural changing world.

simple sympatico video MSN Canada . Easy and fast to Australian systems.

Sympatico/MSN Video

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