Don't feed the dolphins
A DOLPHIN has been attacking swimmers and boaters in the American town of Slidell, Louisiana. It has been living in a canal since it was washed there in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina.
Dolphins have a reputation for friendliness toward humans. But this one has nipped at the hands of several people – swimmers as well as boaters trailing their hands in the water – and wildlife experts believe it has become used to being fed by humans and now associates people with being given food.
It's much like the monkeys in Durban, which become aggressive and an absolute pest once they have been fed by humans.
We must not make the mistake of feeding our offshore dolphins. We don't want them leaping over garden fences and tumbling about our roofs, getting the dogs into a frenzy. The monkeys are bad enough.
St Giles
THE AIR HAD a delightful pungency. It was Mixed Spices day at St Giles Association for the Handicapped, down in the Point precinct. A few of us had been invited there for a breakfast to celebrate the organisation's 60th birthday in Durban. Guest of honour was Councillor Bongani Dlamini, representing the Mayor.
St Giles does all kinds of things to support and revitalise the handicapped, not least in a specially equipped gym that helps stroke victims and others to recover.
The spice packing project is very impressive. For about seven years teams of disabled people have been sorting and packaging spices for Unilever under a contract which pays them at the normal rates for the industry. They work at bewildering speed.
St Giles is an association with branches world-wide. Who was St Giles? He was a hermit who lived near the mouth of the River Rhone in the south of France in the seventh and early eighth centuries. His only companion is said to have been a red deer, whose milk he drank.
One day the king's hunters followed the deer to her lair and shot an arrow which hit and wounded Giles. He then became the Patron Saint of Cripples.
King Wamba of the Franks developed a high regard for the hermit, whose humility rejected all honours. The king nevertheless built for him a monastery, Saint Gilles du Gard. He died there early in the eighth century with a high reputation for sanctity and miracles.
The miracles seem to carry on here in Durban. The spice contract, the gym, the people who care ...
Garden gear
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-40s: "I can't believe that in this day and age wearing underwear in the garden would offend so many people. Admittedly it wasn't my garden or my underwear... but still …"
Missile strike
DOZENS of homes had to be evacuated when a US Army Apache helicopter accidentally dropped a missile near the town of Killeen, in central Texas.
Police cordoned off an area where the missile was embedded in the ground without exploding. An explosives disposal team found it to be an inert M36 missile, a dummy training version of the Hellfire missile.
People on the ground in Afghanistan have not been so fortunate.
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Economics
A SHORT lesson in economics. Debt ceiling – what does this mean? How does one cope?
Let's say you come home from work and find there has been a -sewer backup in your neighbourhood and your home has sewage all the way up to the ceilings.
What do you think you should do? Raise the ceilings or pump out the sewage?
Penguin suits
A PENGUIN that escaped from a Japanese zoo has been recaptured on a river bank near Tokyo after 82 days on the run. Two keepers managed to sneak up on the one-year-old Humboldt penguin after he had been sighted swimming at various locations.
It's understood the keepers were wearing dinner jackets.
Tailpiece
Private detective: "Yesterday I followed your husband to two bars on Elm Street, three on Maple and then finally to the Humpmore Motel."
Woman client: "I see. Do you think that's enough grounds for divorce."
Private detective: "I'm not sure. He seemed to be following you."
Last word
If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.
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