Urchins, Power cheats, Death of Broadband

Sea Urchins.
In my search for the perfect beach, which can never succeed, since the perfect beach is in the past, - Chaweng 1979 -
I have ventured to Bohol in RP, to a mostly vacant resort. I snorkeled out above a band of black long spined urchins, saw some coral, even ordinary coral is an extraordinary boost to the minds pattern recognition resources, an entry into a realm of blossoming beyond your walkers ken.

Returning on a falling tide, I found the band of black urchins was now belly-shallow, I couldnt swim over them without getting a chest full of spines. Full of fear, I contemplated climbing onto a banqua until next high tide. Eventually I decided to walk backwards in my flippers, ever so slowly and carefully, as the tropical evening came crashing on.
I got back to the beach with just one spine in a heel. The spines are not so bad, not so toxic. Actually magnificent single crystals constructed molecule by molecule over the long 30 year lifetime of each urchin. I attempted to elicit the locals into an urchin eradication program. A few days clearance work and the beach would be useable by casual swimmers again. I got no response.
... In RP there seems to be no tradition of eating urchin roe. Whereas in NZ, Maori relish the oily kina. In Mindoro the dive shop owners wouldnt countenance the killing of any wildlife. Anyway they looked down on snorkelers, they made their living taking boatloads of scuba enthusiasts out to famous walls. Beaches were for infants and non-divers.
...I then learned that urchins are important to coral. They vacuum the algae that tends to smother living coral, particularly where resorts leach eutrofaction into the bay. So I learned to co-exist with urchins. I learned where the half-dozen or so black urchins lived in the inshore coral at Big La Laguna.


... Now I find that Urchins are a problem in colder waters, consumption of algae there creates a "barrens" which threatens fish habitat.
nationalgeographic

...Scott Ling, University of Tasmania: "The work up at St. Helens, where we have large barrens, we're really looking at a cure up there. Here the urchins just appeared, and we're looking at how good these large lobsters can be at preventing the sea urchin barrens forming further."

large Crayfish ("rock lobsters") are dropped onto urchins which have 'extended their range south' - it seems the cray eat the urchins.
This is great news. Cray as they are called in South NZ and Tasmania are perhaps the finest taste one can experience on this blue world.
Sadly, rich Asia has discovered this southern treat, so I can not afford it now. Traveling South past Kaikoura, we once stopped at a Cray shed, and got given a bunch of legs free. The tails were off to Japan, but the legs we boiled in a tin by the roadside, carefully sliding each delectable muscle out of its carapace. I dont know if they still give legs away.

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Power cheats
"Privatised" electric power corporations have overcharged NZ people by $4.3 Billion dollars
Full hydro lakes are pouring over slipways.
Seems like the worst of Capitalism and Government.
Better to return to State operation ... the "electricity Department" couldnt be any worse
What is needed is an information channel alongside the power, which gives a price for the next 20 minutes.
Appliances could then decide to switch on or off.
eg Washing machines could wait until low rates.
Oil heaters could switch down at high peaks.
Hot water heaters could use 4am low rates only, unless 7am urgent overrides kicked in.
Smart appliances could smooth peaks.
At times of full lakes and strong winds we could all indulge in electric clothes driers and sandwich makers for peanuts - the marginal cost of spinning those generators. Instead we shiver in unwashed clothes while fat coupon clippers toast their own greed.
SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) the worst part of state and enterprise?

In the case of all but Contact, of course, that shareholder is the Government, which has creamed windfall returns amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars from the power companies for years.

stuff

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Peak Broadband
Predictions are appearing that broadband is peaking with peak oil. The dream of world wide video is over.
I just paid my voda bill, why the fuck I dont know. They obviously were letting me slide on low-speed forever. Now I've paid and I still cant stream videos.
Moral: dont pay your Voda bill, get by for months...
Its irritating how many sites post video links. The 98% of the world who dont have broadband will never get it.
Phone billionaires attempt to bind people to expensive 3G contracts. I know 3rd world people, they only go for free txts and occasional pic sends. The rest of the time its bluetooth porno swaps.
Having said all that, this is a funny video:
Hitler reacts to Star Treck:
maruthecrankpot
really Hopkins in the bunker?
Of course, having once lived in 3rd world, its impossible to go to the cinema ($14?) having paid $3 for a dvd with 20 new movies (how do the Chinese manage such fantastic data compression ?) - In the 3rd world slums one sees new movies by the dozen, sometimes shot with hand-held cameras in cinemas, sometimes oscar-voter pre-releases. Back here in the cold cold-hearted West, I dont bother with movies.
Now that the rich have video recorders and can fast forward over commercials, I find it impossible to tolerate ads, so I dont watch much TV. The worst ads are the 'clever' mini-dramas, which in NZ are intolerable, even on first viewing. 'Reality' TV is obviously cheap actors with cheap scripts, so that gets a miss.
How is it to exist post peak of so many elements of culture?

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