One day in school my English teacher asked a fellow student to explain the significance of chapter three in the Grapes of Wrath. Fortunately she called on the eminently brilliant Brad Setzer who suggested that the chapter, ostensibly about a turtle trying to survive as it crossed a road, was not only a synopsis for the rest of the book but that it represented the very struggle of life itself.

Compare that fictional tale with the recent news about an overturned rabbit truck that deposited huge numbers of the fuzzy creatures on a road near Budapest:

“There are thousands of them on the road but they’re not using their newfound freedom well; they’re just sitting around, eating grass and enjoying the sun,” [highway patrol spokesman] Galik told Reuters.

Are we now less like the struggling turtle and more like rabbits sitting on the motorway, dazed and confused by the concept of freedom?

Before you decide, note the conclusion of the real story:

By midday, 4,400 bunnies had been rounded up, but 100 were still roaming the fields surrounding the highway.

“Those 100 are free to go. We will not collect them,” Galik said.

The ending wasn’t so happy for the ones that were recaptured. They were expected to complete the trip to a slaughterhouse, authorities said.

What would Steinbeck say?

Brad has since moved on to discussion of more mundane things, if you ask me:

I also suspect the impact of inappropriate currency pegs – like the de facto currency union between the world’s biggest oil importer and the world’s biggest oil exporter – is an under-reported story.

Much more fun to report about bunnies on the loose.

While reading about Anniversary Day for Wellington, I noticed some dissenting opinion. For example here is a report from 2005:

Wellington Anniversary Day commemorates the arrival of the first British immigrant ship in the area, marking the start of settlement and consequent taking of Maori land. The day also commemorates the formal settlement of the New Zealand Company which largely organised such settlement and theft.

[…]

The Foreshore and Seabed Act enables the elimination of Maori customary ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the name of public access while private ownership is upheld. The Act breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, and national and international human rights standards and laws, making a mockery of the government’s claims that it protects people’s rights.

“We’ve chosen Chaffers Marina to mark this anniversary of past and present theft as there are locked gates here and signs saying ‘No Fishing’ which is hardly public access”.

“Hapu and iwi, who have historically allowed others access to beaches and seabed, have had their rights stripped away – but the rights of private property owners who can and do deny access are protected. This is clearly discriminatory and illogical”.

Removal of traditional access fishing rights to award public access control to a private group that will restrict it…interesting control dispute.

A Sacramento TV station reports that a woman has died after a radio station (KDND 107.9) held a contest to see who could drink the most water without relieving themselves. The winner was supposed to get a Nintendo Wii ($249 MSRP).

Sadly, the woman who won the contest left and then called in sick to work after telling them “her head was hurting her real bad”. Only a few hours later she was found dead from water intoxication.

The radio station apparently had provided a warning, which was described by another contestant as “if you don’t feel like you can do this, don’t put your health at risk”. The TV station report also mentions a waiver of liability. It does not sound like anyone was given any serious health consultation or recommendation about balance of electrolytes to ensure they were making an informed decision. It’s also not clear if anyone at the station themselves understood the dangers of hyper-hydration.

Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Curran confirmed Strange’s death Friday, but said there were no immediate grounds to begin an investigation.

According to contest participants, 17 to 20 contestants took part in the competition in a room at KDND’s Madison Avenue studios. The contest broadcast during The End’s Morning Rave program began around 6:15 a.m. as contestants were each handed eight-ounce bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes.

Fellow contestant James Ybarra of Woodland said he met Strange at the event and had no idea of the potential danger of water poisoning.

[…]

Ybarra said before the contest, he did not read a liability waiver form handed to him by station personnel before signing it. Ybarra said he was surprised by the physical toll he felt after the contest.

“I was kind of out of it yesterday. I was just drained. I was just going to the bathroom,” Ybarra said. “I wasn’t feeling well and I actually fell asleep. I woke up with a headache (Saturday) morning and then took a couple of aspirins.”

How is someone supposed to know if they are at a proper hydration level? It seems a popular recommendation is to look at the level of color in your urine, the exact measure of health that was forbidden in the contest.

Perhaps this will be filed under psychiatric conditions that lead to death? It certainly does not fit the other “at risk” categories listed by Wikipedia (Infants, Runners, Overexertion and heat stress, Unusual water losses in disease, Iatrogenic water intoxication).

And if you think this is bad, I hear the radio station’s next hot contest will be “Self-Immolation for a Playstation”…

The BBC has posted an amusing security lesson about the historic battle between arsonists and the keepers of a straw goat:

Goats of Christmas past have been burned down on 22 occasions, ram-raided or simply smashed to pieces.

Authorities said the goat’s longevity in 2006 was down to a special flame-resistant chemical coating.

“If the Gavle goat hadn’t been impregnated with flame-resistant chemicals, we would have been left with a black skeleton,” said Anna Oestman, a member of the city’s goat committee.

Leave it to a Swedish city’s “goat committee” to provide the world a way to protect straw from catching fire. But is it safe to touch/breathe, and can animals eat it, or is it just for decoration (like most food preserved and then brought out for the holiday season)?

This year was a big success compared to last year’s tragic end:

In 2005, arsonists dressed as Santa Claus and the Gingerbread Man burned the goat to the ground.

Beware the Santa who wants to get your goat.