I’m Back

Oh my how it has been a busy past few weeks. Hell, a busy past month!

It has been far too long since I posted regularly on here, and for those few of you who enjoy reading my esoterically themed posts, I apologise. Indeed you can take my previous six-thousand word strong post as something of a compensation for this (I hope it wasn’t too long). But there has been a lot going on lately which explains this absence.

First, there was my favourite day of the year, St Patricks Day. Expect a post on this one soon or at least something outlining my maleficent love of Guinness, and my recent membership to the 100 pint club. Then there was my mates wedding, where I was one of the best men, and agonised over the prospect of doing a speech which apparently went down alright in the end, but about which I have little to no recollection of right now (not to mention the random singing of a Eurovision song as demanded by the father of the groom....). Then the Easter break came along, and a long weekend of caravan parking, and beer drinking, left me thoroughly off the radar on all accounts.

Oh and did I mention that in the midst of this I decided to take up a second job tutoring at university, have yet to figure out how this will work with my current full time job, and am still trying to convince my work that this will in some way offer positive benefits?

Anyhow, this is in part the reason for my absence, and I shall endeavour to rectify it as soon as possible. In the meantime, enjoy this random Hitchens quote and unrelated gif:

 “We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes - one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximum freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way” - Christopher Hitchens

Worth a thousand words

Sometimes when you read an interesting headline you wish they had a picture going along with them, other times you would have been happier if they hadn't. Here are two examples I noticed recently from each camp; one is hilarious, the other is horrifying.

Let’s start with the more palatable example first:

‘Drunken elk trapped in an apple tree in Sweden’

You just know it’s going to be gold. Drunken animals are always a favourite, and apparently this is quite a common occurrence for elks who go searching for fermenting apples and other fruit (that is the drunkenness is common, not the getting stuck in trees part).

No need to worry about the old girl, according to the BBC she was liberated from the grip of the tree, and spent the night recovering in a local residents front yard.

Now to the less savoury example. The headline that caught my eye was:

‘Caterpillars Infected with Melting Virus’

Regrettably I can’t find the article this originates from, but I went one better and saved the original source, an article in the journal nature (Via RichardDawkins.net).

That’s was what piqued my interest, and here is what freaked me out when I followed the link:

That’s right, an actual melting caterpillar, like something from a horror film, right before it lands on the shrieking comic relief foil.

What’s more the caption describes the event being witnessed in the picture by saying that “Caterpillars infected with baculovirus climb to the tops of trees, where they melt and drip the virus onto the foliage below”.

So it’s not just a virus that makes you melt (if you happen to be a caterpillar), but also one that takes your caterpillar mind and turns you into a zombie for its own benefit.