Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Holy mackerel!
(And sacred sardines!)

Authorities in the Los Angeles County coastal city of Redondo Beach are reporting that "millions of fish" are part of a massive "die-off" in the harbor there.

They are guessing this is due to oxygen depletion, not pollution, but damn is this a freaky (and frightening) thing to behold).

6 comments:

RobertWednesday, March 09, 2011 4:27:00 PM
No matter.

There is no pollution crisis on this globe.

There is no climate change on this planet.

There is no sixth mass extinction in this world.

Business as usual!
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kushiboWednesday, March 09, 2011 6:05:00 PM
Well, I see what you're getting at, but if this is not a direct matter of pollutants in the water there, then I don't want to see someone shouting that it is.

I believe we are teetering on a number of environmental disasters and we have the ability to pull back from them, but if we are seen as crying wolf, then the legitimate cries will get dismissed and ignored.

This has happened before in Redondo Beach, and I believe at that time it was oxygen depletion, not direct pollution, so their tentative speculation is not off base.

I haven't checked the local news in SoCal, but I'm guessing this won't go away right away. I found it very prominently on the front page of latimes.com.
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UnknownFriday, March 11, 2011 10:31:00 AM
Sardines, not mackerel.
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kushiboFriday, March 11, 2011 6:01:00 PM
The LAT article I linked to specifically said sardines, anchovies, and mackerel. While later reports indicated it was primarily sardines, for obvious reasons I went with mackerel.

However, I have since updated my headline with a parenthetical reference.
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DustinParkSaturday, March 12, 2011 7:11:00 AM
what if this was because of the earthquake?
animals usually know way before humans..
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kushiboSaturday, March 12, 2011 7:18:00 AM
I hadn't thought of that, but that would be weird. I think that three days in advance, though, seems a bit beyond even what has been observed in the past, in terms of odd animal behavior before a quake.

But there's a lot we don't know about earthquakes. Heck, there are people who believe a dam built over a fault line precipitated the Sichuan earthquake.
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九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Holy mackerel!(And sacred sardines!)

6 comments:

Holy mackerel!
(And sacred sardines!)