Breaking News Ireland

Clippings from news sources involving fashion freedom and other gender equality issues.
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Kirbstone
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

Post by Kirbstone »

Wrong, Dennis.

The Mute Swan is the heaviest bird on the Planet that can actually fly. A good look at their take-off trajectory amply demonstrates the strength and energy required to get themselves airborne. A strike by one of their wings would indeed be very dangerous.
My eldest brother was boating on the local river adjacent to his boarding school when they were attacked by an angry male swan which broke one of the boys' arms. It was early Summer term and that boy had to forego any sport or athletics for the rest of that term.
With a group of picnicers we boated one glorious day from Wargrave-on-Thames to an island near Sonning and while we were setting up our picnic we were set upon by a ferocious swan which strode ashore with wings extended and neck bent &c, making for our picnic boxes. We successfully fended him off with rowing oars, but the incident was most unpleasant.
As a single sculler it is prudent to avoid approaching any swan's nest as to balance such a boat both oar blades need to be on the water and one would have no defense against a rampant cob (male swan). The emblem of my rowing club (Old Collegians Dublin) is the rampant swan.

Tom
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beachlion
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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The Royal Dutch Airlines KLM used the swan in their commercials. Impressive birds and filmwork.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rwsWZfKzJM

Disclaimer: I have no connection with the KLM other than being Dutch too (but not royal).
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Kirbstone
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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BL,

What a splendid collection of swans-in-flight clips! Beautifully filmed in slow motion with airline staff commentary & sound effects. Very clever. I wonder where you found that?
I suppose it's OK to be Dutch and not Royal.

At my boarding school we were required to walk round the lake in the grounds before breakfast every fine morning. On one such morning there was an altercation between the resident swan pair and another pair which had just flown in. The visitors were repulsed and took off, fleeing the residents. One made it out over the dense surrounding trees with difficulty, the other failed to gain sufficient altitude, collided with the thin top branches, folded its wings upward and fell backwards to the ground quite stunned. A group of us immediately broke ranks and went to its rescue, picking it up and returning it to the water well away from the other swan pair.

It was later announced to us that happily the swan wasn't injured and made a successful take-off later on to rejoin its mate, presumably. That was my closest encounter with a live swan.

Tom
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beachlion
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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Kirbstone wrote:BL,

What a splendid collection of swans-in-flight clips! Beautifully filmed in slow motion with airline staff commentary & sound effects. Very clever. I wonder where you found that? .......
I knew about the KLM-commercials with swans so I searched YouTube. I did not expect to find that bunch of videos. But I liked it too. I studied aircraft engineering so I have a soft spot for flying objects anyway. ;)
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

Post by kiltguyire »

And they are off again, the comments are choice, wow

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/b ... t-17284693
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Sinned
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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Sorry Tom, but I strongly disagree with you on this one. They may do a lot of damage in terms of bruising but breaking a person's bones is rare as they would likely break their own wing bones first. They can be aggressive and try and use their weight to push you away but a mute swan ( the biggest ) only weighs a couple of stones at the heaviest. If a person gets a broken bone then it is probably more by bad luck than judgement. If you've ever seen a swan captured by an RSPCA officer or some other animal welfare person then it brings the size and ferocity of a swan into context.

https://www.britishbirdlovers.co.uk/bir ... meones-arm

https://www.countrylife.co.uk/out-and-a ... arm-190943

There were a couple of hits on the Beeb Beeb Ceeb site as well but I didn't include them. I quite like the Country Life article as it's by a fairly authoritative publication with little to sensationalise. Bird's bones are built for lightness and strength in a certain direction but strength in the long wing bones in attack directions just ain't on that list.

We have swans on our nearby lake and they tend to move away quickly to the middle of the lake even when they have young cygnets.
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r.m.anderson
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

Post by r.m.anderson »

Well so much for this Karate Kid episode !
A swan attacking a full adult male is more in likely to have both walking/winging it away nursing wounds.
A swan should take care to be able to fly/flee the scene should it take a turn for the worse.

As for the adult male a swift kick could result in permanent if not fatal injury to the swan.
Talk about wringing one's neck - et Brutus !

An oar swung around like a sickle could easily do damage and take the fight/flight out of a swan.

But does anyone want to test the merits of this ?

Best leave well enough alone.

Recently had a hunter arrested for shooting a trumpeter swan thinking it was a goose - nothing quite
like shooting down a B52 bomber thinking you bagged a model airplane.
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Kirbstone
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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Dennis,

From those articles you are probably right. My brother's school friend was just a boy and his injury was most probably a greenstick fracture, in which an immature growing bone can suffer a flexion or distortion in shape due to a blow or impact. They were in a rowing punt and 'sitting ducks' for such an attack by a swan.
I was going on my brother's report of the incident which happened on the River Barrow above Carlow town in the grounds of Knockbeg College, a true 'Belsen for boys' as it was in the '40s-50s. May 1949 was the date, I think. My brother is now 83.

Tom
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

Post by mishawakaskirt »

kiltguyire wrote:And they are off again, the comments are choice, wow

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/b ... t-17284693

I saw another story on that site stating that one school is going to make the girls not Wear skirts, they must wear gender neutral trousers.

Several reports of complaints of girls wanting to wear skirts. Wanting to have the choice to choose.

I hope that they follow up on this story.
What do you want to bet that the girls will complain enough to get the school to resend the rule and allow the girls to wear skirts.

Here is the link.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/s ... t-17283091
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Sinned
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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Thanks Tom. I must admit that if any of the swans hiss, wave their wings and lunge then I back off smartly. I know that the damage they could do may not be serious but then I ain't going to take any opportunity to prove that they can't break my bones!!!! Their beaks could cause some nasty cuts and bruises and that brings out the need for self-preservation.
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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From when I was a kid my father instilled in me respect for nature, especially animals. He could have been a figurehead for Green Peace if it existed then. In the 50s he already said that if people went on with the industrialisation at the pace of that period, it would be the end of the world.
Last Wednesday I went to the beach. On a path through the dunes I saw a family of Canadian(?) geese. Papa, mama and four kids. I went on slowly with their pace to not disturb them. They took a path to the side and regrouped with the flock nearby. The picture is a little blurry because of the distance (no telelenses on my action can).
IMG_1719q.jpg
This kind of interaction gives me a good feeling. For a short moment you are a part of their environment and not disturbing them.
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Kirbstone
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

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BL,
What a delightful picture and you did manage to capture them well. Big elegant birds, too.

In 2000, when we engaged in a sparring match with our local Council Planning dept. applying for a one-off house build on our site, we were required to submit a detailed map of the grounds showing tree planting &c &c. I dutifully submitted all this including our half-hectare 'lake' and they threw it out with words like 'Not appropriate to the area' &c.
A Ministry of Agriculture herd number and a few cows secured a rubber stamp on our 2003 modified plans and today the whole now wooded area has been taken over by native wild foul of all kinds which are an enduring joy to watch from the jetty of our little boathouse down there. Looking over submitted plans for a mansion proposed by the neighbour East of us, his local plan included our property and to my amazement our lake area is now officially described as a Nature Reserve!! What a nerve!

Back to swans getting airborne, there is a little 9-hectare (22 acre) park bang in the middle of Posh Dublin, St Stephens Green which sports a small sausage-shaped lake with a bridge spanning its middle. This is mostly hemmed in by mature trees. I enjoyed watching one day a lone swan which had somehow landed there try to get out of the place.
After a few aborted take-off runs he hit on the idea of paddling up the other end and starting his run with much more distance. By the time he got to underneath the bridge he had most of his take-off speed already and once airborne he swerved up between two trees and just made it away to freedom. Fascinating.

Tom
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beachlion
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

Post by beachlion »

IMG_1720qq.jpg
And here the family went off to the left. I had to do some magic to make the individuals more visible.
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Re: Breaking News Ireland

Post by Pdxfashionpioneer »

Middle things first. Beachlion, that Youtube link was great! On their own the ads were terrific! Better yet, last night while I was watching TV I was struck, yet again, at how stupid and annoying the ads are these days; as if there is some unknown competitive race to the bottom amongst the advertising agencies for who can inflict the greatest insult to our intelligence! I felt a nostalgic twinge for the good old days when the most creative television came in 60-second segments (think of the Hertz car rental ads that asked the TV audience to let them “put you in the driver’s sear.”) And then you gave us those beautiful, cleverly shot and edited KLM ads! Thank you Beachlion!

Getting back to the original article, I don’t get all the angst and ire at all.

Read the policy and the original piece. It was a student-driven policy meant to blow the whole social programming wide open. As long as the parents are okay with what a boy chooses and it’s anywhere on the school uniform menu, it’s okay and will be supported. What more is the school supposed to do? Support a kid in defying his parents?

I didn’t listen to the podcast because the pull quotes made it clear to me that all the Administrators were saying is that they would uphold the underlying intent of the students’ recommendation, which was to make the school a safe, comfortable place for kids to express themselves through their clothes. That if anyone tried to turn that on its head and, for instance, wear a skirt to mock other boys who chose to wear skirts to school they would deal with that as bullying.

Guys! Have some faith in your fellow humans! Kids are smarter than we give them credit for and educators more humane.
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Social norms aren't changed by Congress or Parliament; they're changed by a sufficient number of people ignoring the existing ones and publicly practicing new ones.
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