Ozpossums

Subject: Ozpossums
From: rangeroger
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 10:14 PM

Culled this from today's paper

Cable TV Peril

Thousands of Australian opossums are being electrocuted each year because cable television lines,which are strung lower than power lines, give the marsupials a route to dangerous wires above.Scientists in Melbourne reported that the opossums use their prehensile tails to grasp the lines and electrocute themselves.

Power disruptions are also caused when one of the animals meets its fate on the electrified lines. Wildlife expert Dr. Peter Brown of Deakin University reported in New Scientist magazine that opossum deaths have increased considerably since the introduction of cable TV in the mid-'90s. He said "There's probably been at least a doubling of wildlife-caused power outages,and most of these relate to possums."

And they were probably watching the History Channel in the middle of the night,while posting to a deathless thread on the Mudcat.

rr

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 10:24 PM

Ohmygawd..............Where's Cleigh?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Callie
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 12:03 AM

We don't call em opossums round these here parts. It's POSSUMS, unless you're being poetic.

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Sorcha
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 12:12 AM

Maybe that's why the Ozzies have some trouble in HearMe, etc. It's them possums eatin' up the transmissions.....

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: GUEST,miketm
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 12:19 AM

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: GUEST,kiwi
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 12:20 AM

Never mind, when they run out we can always ship some of ours over from NZ.

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 03:08 AM

G'day Rangerover,

I presume the problems are in the rural areas as we (EnergyAustralia ... Sydney / Newcastle energy retailers) are moving towards Aerial Bundled Conductors [ABC], 3-phase bundles of inslated cables, in heavily treed areas to minimise tree-trimming. There are many 'possums in the treed suburbs ... they seem to be the only native wildlife that actually LIKES humans (well, they like the rubbish we drop). Much as some householders would appreciate it, there is no Sydney plague of crispy-fried 'possum.

Kiwi: I'm afraid that lot have no intention of coming home. You are reaping the weeds of your forebears' greed in trying to establish a 'possum fur industry in New Zealand.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Callie
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 03:43 AM

No Sorcha, it's the Possums nibbling our toes.

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From:
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 04:12 PM

I wish the possum in my attic would get tangled up with one of those cables. I think the correct name is "pissum", by the way. According to NSW state law, the only way to get rid of it is to build another house next to mine and try to convince the possum that this is a better location.

Murray

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Biskit
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 05:16 PM

Thank GAWD it's not Cleigh! Whereth'heck is NSW???? -Biskit-

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: GUEST,Cleigh O'Possum
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 05:38 PM

When catspaw told me of the horrendous death of my relatives in Australia, I was saddened as I am when I see so many of my brethren turned into "Sail Possums" on the roads here. Very tragic. Catspaw gave me several valium and after some rest, I'm much better now.

Mr. Murray, perhaps the possum living upstairs from you senses your dislike for him. I'd suggest you blow up his ass as a token of your good will. A lot of folks have blown up my bum and it gives me a warm feeling to be so loved.

Cleigh O'Possum

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Helen
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 08:35 PM

NSW = New South Wales, state of Oz in which the Oz-lympics will be held, after which we might get some funding back for our schools, hospitals and other essential services.

Helen

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Callie
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 09:07 PM

Possums of the world unite against the Olympics! (come on, bretheren, show 'em your claws!)

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From:
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 10:32 PM

Spaw. It never turns that way. Whenever I see it, it is turned in the "can you spare a carrot, mate" direction.

Helen, you are being optomistic. It'll be ten years before there will be money for such unprofitable things as edu. and health.

By the way, around Sydney we have two types of possums: the brushtail and the ringtail. The brushtail is the pest and the ringtail is the one with the prehensile tail. I kinda like them. I wonder which ones are getting zapped.

Murray

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Sorcha
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 12:28 AM

I think US'ns are ringtails, but I have never been able to see rings on their tails. I have always loved them too. They are so much fun to see on the un-paved roads after dark, and I just hate to see them as "road kills". I loved them long,long before I met Cleigh.

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Helen
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 12:59 AM

Murray,

I saw this article in a fairly recent New Scientist magazine. I'll see if I can find it again and tell you whether it's ring-tails or brushtails. You're probably right about funding for services etc. Once the gummint takes away funding it's awfully hard to convince them to give it back.

The only bright spot re: Olympics is the inimitable John Clarke and his tv show The Games. The first series was funny because I thought most of their antics were improbable, but hte second series is even funnier because it is all too close to the truth. Very prophetic. Helen

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Lena
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 03:43 AM

If it's a thread about perils in Oz,well cats are another one.A pity,because I love them.Unfortunately,when they turn wild they can be worse than Mudcatters'cables.

Murray,your possum is welcome to set down in my house,but I don't think he's like Kings' Cross or my huge dog.

If it's a thread against Olimpics,this is the right place to put up a fuck-the-Olimpics party. Helen,i think you're in the wrong country(given the Government at the moment)to hope that any possible money will ever be given to your schools.No matter if it comes from the Olimpics or the Red Cross.You know that Howie is struggling to get his beloved aussies higly ignorant like him.

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From:
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 01:32 PM

Lena, I have a funny feeling that my possum died of old age. Since participating in this thread I have become aware that I haven't heard him for a while. Maybe the trouble was he was an aged post-prostate possum.

It is not just Howie. The State premier is just as bad, and he is of the other party.

I am taking classical guitar lessons with a Spaniard. He tells me Barcelona is just starting to recover from their participation in the olympics.

I like cats too. I also like r*b**ts. It is a pity they do become feral.

Murray

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Helen
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 08:46 PM

Lena,

How do you like our Howie trying to change legislation to make sure that single women and lesbians can't get IVF (in vitro fertilisation) done. The message is: "Single people shouldn't have kids, they should be married before they are allowed to have kids, and we can't stop the bulk of the population but we sure as hell can stop the ones who need help to have kids." Grrr! Hopefully a good percentage of half the voters (women) will boycott the Libs at the next election. The GST on tampons and the arguments about that should give a good indication of their attitude to women and women's health.

Sorry, back to the topic:

Murray, the article about the possums was in the 22 July 2000 edition of the New Scientist magazine, p.23. It said that brushtail possums were affected but ring-tails are affected more - they get the "lion's share". The power companies are calculating the cost because of power outages and some companies have decided that budling the cables is cheaper than dealing with power cuts.

Helen

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From:
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 04:24 AM

This seems to be a technique of our fearless leader. He rants and raves about a topic like that and then eventually backs down. I guess he shows the hard right-family-values people that his heart is in the right place but doesn't endanger the voting. Barry Goldwater used to do that.

One constant victim of "hot" cables are fruit bats (flying foxes) I remember you used to see dead ones hanging from electrical cables in the old days on Sydney's North Shore. Sometimes, they were pregnant and the baby could be saved by WIRES if you notified them. I wonder if they are having trouble too. They have been getting bad press lately; but they are magnificent creatures in my opinion.

Murray

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Callie
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 04:46 AM

Maybe we could encourage Johnny to put one hand on ONE telegraph wire, and then just reach out with the other hand and touch the other?

Callie (Disgusted at recent Johnny antics. What a freak.)

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: GUEST,Mark Cohen
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 06:50 AM

I thought it was cane toads that were taking over Oz. I saw an immensely amusing film about that. Or was the whole film a put-on?

Here in Hawaii we're worried about brown tree snakes, the ones that have already all but overrun Guam. So far we've managed to keep them out. What didn't get kept out are the mongooses. (Mongeese?) Apparently some bright government type imported them in the 19th century to get rid of rats. The idiots didn't realize that rats are nocturnal and mongoose diurnal, and never the twain did meet. The furry fellers keep dashing across the road in front of my car, so they seem to be more suicidal than rodenticidal anyway. Hmmm, maybe we should train them to climb power lines. Hey Spaw, how's about trying a mongoose ocarina? Real Hawaiian style! Sorry, Cleigh, no offense.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 11:42 PM

G'day Mark,

Cane toads are a real pest up in the tropical north - and spreading westward from Queensland and also (but more slowly) southward into New South Wales - mostly as stowaways on fruit trucks.

The 'possums are another story ... they were here first and this problem is what happens when they climb an interesting "tree" and it turns out to be at 240 volts! The electricity supply authorities used to nail a galvanised iron collar around the pole to create a section too slippery for a 'possum to grip. I guess the lower TV cabling allows a greater number to jump across from nearby trees.

The growing use of various insulated cable systems prevents this sort of thing but the supply authorities are being constantly "milked" by the government (who never set them up, but has appropriated them and now "owns" them) and whenever they demonstrate the capability and funding to do something useful(like their 1960s / '70s plans to put all metropolitan wiring underground) the government works out a way to take the money.

It's not just the 'possums that get burnt!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: GUEST,tinkerbell
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 10:33 AM

omygod,

when are we ozzies going to talk about music? Write a song about little howie

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 01:48 PM

Here in southeast Alaska we don't have possums but a lot of our power outages are caused by eagles.

I remember one pair of eagles, perched on adjoining poles, that I watched for weeks from my window high above. From time to time one would lift off and swoop low over the water, sometimes scooping up a fish in its talons.

Then one day we had a power outage. The next day it was reported that an eagle had shorted out the line. From that day on, one eagle sat there alone.

Felt like I had lost a friend.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Ozpossums
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 04 Aug 00 - 02:26 AM

G'day tinkerbell,

It is hard to separate the two ... Australian traditional songs have always been information driven (who is the worst bastard of a chain gang boss, what sheep station not to bother shearing at, whether you are likely to get to the goldrush without collecting a spear in the back along the way, &c)...

Who knows when all this peripheral discussion will distill into a song? (Or just into a better version of the electricty pole design standards that I am editing?)

Regards,

Bob Bolton