BS: Flying Penguins

Subject: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Lox
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 06:57 AM

Amazing or what ... ???





















Happy April 1st

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 07:28 AM

All I get is

Sorry, this programme is only available to play in the UK

which is not the type of joke I had expected today.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 07:30 AM

Definately "WHAT" !!

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: The Walrus
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 07:45 AM

The bloody thing kept restarting, I had Terry Jones' intro half a dozen times, but never got to the vital footage - All in all I preferred the "Spaghetti Tree".

W

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: nickp
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 07:46 AM

For Wolfgang's benefit (and others) this was a BBC news feature supposedly a film of the first time ever Adelie penguins had been shown to fly (bad grammar there I know). It was very impressive but I wonder how much it cost to remove the 'sea' background of the film and superimpose on aerial views of icebergs....

Worth a watch if it ever appears on Youtube or similar.

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: The Admiral
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 07:50 AM

There's a nice article and photos in the Telegraph.....

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: nickp
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 08:29 AM

Telegraph article with video option

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 09:09 AM

Thanks, the Telegraph link works and shows what I had expected when I read the thread title.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 11:10 AM

No-where near as dramatic as the flight of the Red Arrows Royal Air Force display team at 1.00pm today, down the Thames in London.

But the penguins were cuter.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 02:24 PM

Liz, I have the pleasure of watching The Reds through my office window most weekdays through the winter, as they train up the new pilots and get the new season's show worked up.

They never fail to amaze me and I never tire of watching them (but my boss gets a bit hacked off!).

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 02:28 PM

The damn thing froze my compu

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 05:06 PM

Sorry Donuel, I hope you ma

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: nickp
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 04:11 AM

Another mention of it on this morning's show - apparently all the penguins are computer generated.

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Irene M
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 05:35 AM

That's a fowl thing to say about penguins. We all know they were fleeing the migrating polar bears....

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 09:56 AM

Simply amazing!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: EBarnacle
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 10:14 AM

Last night Lady Hillary and I really got a kick out of the final shot of the penguin landing on a branch and having both drop out of sight.

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: GUEST,rock chick
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 11:51 AM

I just love this ;-))

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 06:24 PM

The idea that while all the other penguins are huddling together for the winter while these ones are sunbathing in the rainforests of south America had me crying with laughter.

"where have you been?"

"oh you know - we took a trip to ecuador - you should go next year - lovely for a holiday but I wouldn't want to live there .. etc ... etc ..."

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Rowan
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 06:53 PM

Great fun!

But (Pedant alert!!) the first time ever Adelie penguins had been shown to fly confuses the issue of flight.

Penguins have always been able to "fly"; they just do it through a more viscous fluid than most other birds and most of their flight is under water.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Don Firth
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 07:19 PM

I recall reading some years ago about one of the greatest and most elaborate long-running gags ever brought off.

A woman had a sort of goofy thing for pink plastic flamingos, and managed to wind up with fourteen of the damned things in her front yard. One morning she counted, and a couple of them were missing. Next morning a few more were gone. As the days progressed, they all disappeared. This, she found, irritating and upsetting. Obviously someone was stealing them in the night.

But no! She started receiving post cards of the "Having a wonderful time, wish you were here" variety from various parts of the world:   Central and South America, the Bahamas, islands in the Caribbean, even (as I recall) a few from Africa and Hawaii. This went on for several weeks.

Then, one morning, she stepped outside and there were a couple of her pink plastic flamingos standing on her front lawn—with little cardboard suitcases and wearing sunglasses. Within about a week, all fourteen had reappeared, all with suitcases and sunglasses.

She never did find out who did it or how they managed it.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: The Walrus
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 08:18 PM

Now that, I like.

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Rowan
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 08:42 PM

And, Don, there is an Oz garden gnome that has been doing the same thing, also for some years; he also attends folk festivals and sends small critiques on postcards.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 10:52 PM

Our puffins in Maine really do fly. Lord knows how they achieve lift off! They're really quite fat and stubby.

They also have a talent for carrying back five or six fish in their beaks, bringing their take-out back to their burrow.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 08:57 AM

I was wrong about how many fish the puffins can carry in their beaks. Evidently a Maine one was observed with 62! Here's a link for more info on puffins: Click here for website!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: Mooh
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 09:06 AM

Oops, sorry, I thought this was a hockey thread.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Flying Penguins
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 02:22 PM

'Our puffins in Maine really do fly. Lord knows how they achieve lift off!'

Hi, Charley. In our collection we have a slide we took of a puffin taking off in Iceland. You can see a line of water-splashes behind it from where it ran over the water to achieve lift-off.