This CNN story is the most misleading piece of journalism I've read in a while.
To those of you who aren't scuba divers, it won't make much sense unless I tell you (with 15 years diving experience) that white-tipped reef sharks are the oceanic equivalent of a domestic cat. I've even grabbed one by the tail and swung it like a cat.
They can't even get their tiny small-toothed mouths around a human, and there are no recorded incidences of attack. It is actually them who are terrified of human-sized creatures because they are barely a few feet long.
Lost amid the sharks for six hours
British diving couple survives ordeal off Australia
The pair told the press they were "freakishly lucky" to have survived.
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- How good does it feel to be rescued from shark-infested waters off Australia after six hours adrift and with daylight running out?
"As good as it gets," English tourist Gordon Pratley said Monday. "As good as winning the Ashes," he added, in a reference to the coveted cricket trophy England snatched from arch rival Australia last week.
Pratley said he and fiancee Louise Woodger hugged, held hands and sang to keep up their spirits after strong currents swept them away from their dive boat over the Great Barrier Reef and a shark circled in the water below them.
They spoke to the media on Monday in the northeast Australian city of Townsville, where they were recovering from their ordeal, which echoed the 2003 movie "Open Water," based loosely on another incident involving divers on the Great Barrier Reef.
American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan are believed to have drowned or been eaten by sharks after a dive boat crew accidentally left them on the reef in 1998. Strict safety measures were imposed on Australia's diving industry following the Lonergans' disappearance.
Pratley said the couple did not even want to contemplate a similar fate.
"We just sort of looked out for each other," he said. "We were hoping somebody was going to turn up. At first you think you are going to be fine, and then, as it gets later and later, you think -- well you don't really want to think what might happen, you just stay cool. No, we always thought we'd be rescued."
The captain of the boat Woodger and Pratley were diving from reported them missing after a routine head count revealed they were not among the group of divers early Saturday, sparking a widespread air and sea hunt that led to their rescue.
They eventually were pulled from the water, suffering from exhaustion and mild hypothermia, almost 10 kilometers (6 miles) from where they first entered the Coral Sea at Wheeler Reef, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Townsville in Queensland state.
Greg Doyle, a Townsville police officer, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that in interviews with police, "they mentioned that at one stage a shark did show some interest in them, but thankfully it swam away without prying any further."
"So they were very thankful for that," he added.
Pratley, 31, joked Monday that Woodger, 29, only told him the shark was circling them once the couple had been rescued.
"You didn't tell me it was ... circling us until we got out," he joked.
Woodger said the shark was about eight feet (2.4 meters) below them.
"I think it was a white-tipped reef shark," she said, referring to a species of shark not known to attack humans. "But not too big."
Coast guard commander Richard Bolton said the couple realized early in their ordeal that they had been stranded.
"They came to the surface after three quarters of an hour and realized they'd drifted away from their boat," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
"They started to look after themselves, they inflated their vests so they could remain afloat, stay together," he added.
Bolton said time was on the couple's side.
"Had the search gone longer -- another couple of hours -- it would have been after dark, but everything was going their way," he said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fearmongering
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MKFaizi
I watch or vaguely listen to CNN all day and all night. I have not heard that report but I have forgotten whether or not you are Australian. I reckon that sort of news might catch attention during a slow period.
During a recent slow news period here, there was news of a couple of deaths from shark attacks.
I have never been a diver except into rock quarreys. So, I don't know a damn thing about it.
Well, I hate to harp but I am going to harp. In the wake of the hurricanes that recently hit the Gulf Coast of the US, it has been proposed that the country needs a disaster plan.
Imagine that.
Ever since the 9/11 thing, the US has supposedly been preparing for all sorts of disasters. We had to endure that color coded thing for levels of danger. Like anyone would have known how to respond. So much for Homeland Security -- must have been one of those George Orwell newspeak things. Homeland Security = No One Knows What the Hell is Going On. I mean, damn.
Harking back to New Orleans, I just don't think the government is prepared to handle a small pox attack, for example. I heard that no one took into account the possibility of the breakdown of society in the wake of cops fleeing the scene, no services, no relief, no intervention.
Oddly, I reckon the government used the New York disaster as an example. In that disaster, most people were either dead or sustained minor injuries. No one was homeless. No one went without food or water.
So, after four years, we need a disaster plan.
I did find it somewhat amusing to see George Bush subjected to a lecture on the need for such a plan from an army general. If such a lecture had come from the "liberal" press, he would have done the Robe thing and dismissed it. But coming from an army general, he had to suck it up. He looked good sucking it up. In his short sleeved blue work shirt.
Ever since the shit hit the fan, he's been wearing a blue work shirt and so have his cronies who have ventured to the devasted areas. Irksome.
Anyway, I did take some pleasure in seeing him lectured by a general. Looked sheepish. He should look a lot more sheepish. First time he has not had the luxury of telling a blatant lie in order to start a war.
On the whole, I do not think the press does a completely bad job. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, they were total pussies. I was appalled. They gave him the war on a silver platter with no objection whatsoever. No objection. No tough questions. Had reporters asked tough questions, he may not have gotten away with pulling the wool over the eyes of most Americans. I mean, I simply could not BELIEVE the lack of tough questions or any questions. The press simply went along with it. Part of the show.
NOW, they have questions about the US in Iraq. Questions about the differences between Saddam and Ossama.
DUH. BIG DUH.
I stayed home the day Colin Powell went to the UN. Such big fat lies. Weapons of Mass Destruction. LIES.
The US press sucked it up with a straw. Disgusting.
I am sorry for Hunter Thompson's suicide. Fucking chicken shit. He shoved it up Nixon's ass but whimped out on Bush.
Well, I reckon that might be understandable. Poor Nixon. Couldn't pull off a simple breach of the constitution. What a puss.
All right. I'll shut up.
One more thing -- my only direct contact with television news occurred in the Seventies. I was working in a book store. The second book on the Watergate scandal had just been released. A girl reporter came into the store and asked me how the book was selling.
I said, "Blah" and this and that.
She said, "Are you willing to say that on television?"
"No."
She was so pissed off. Royally pissed off.
I said, "I can't go on television because I look like crap on video but I can get you someone more photogenic."
So, I got this young tall intellectual looking African American dude to tell her exactly what I had told her on camera.
She was as pleased as punch.
It was her hissy fit that got me. What an asshole.
Faizi
During a recent slow news period here, there was news of a couple of deaths from shark attacks.
I have never been a diver except into rock quarreys. So, I don't know a damn thing about it.
Well, I hate to harp but I am going to harp. In the wake of the hurricanes that recently hit the Gulf Coast of the US, it has been proposed that the country needs a disaster plan.
Imagine that.
Ever since the 9/11 thing, the US has supposedly been preparing for all sorts of disasters. We had to endure that color coded thing for levels of danger. Like anyone would have known how to respond. So much for Homeland Security -- must have been one of those George Orwell newspeak things. Homeland Security = No One Knows What the Hell is Going On. I mean, damn.
Harking back to New Orleans, I just don't think the government is prepared to handle a small pox attack, for example. I heard that no one took into account the possibility of the breakdown of society in the wake of cops fleeing the scene, no services, no relief, no intervention.
Oddly, I reckon the government used the New York disaster as an example. In that disaster, most people were either dead or sustained minor injuries. No one was homeless. No one went without food or water.
So, after four years, we need a disaster plan.
I did find it somewhat amusing to see George Bush subjected to a lecture on the need for such a plan from an army general. If such a lecture had come from the "liberal" press, he would have done the Robe thing and dismissed it. But coming from an army general, he had to suck it up. He looked good sucking it up. In his short sleeved blue work shirt.
Ever since the shit hit the fan, he's been wearing a blue work shirt and so have his cronies who have ventured to the devasted areas. Irksome.
Anyway, I did take some pleasure in seeing him lectured by a general. Looked sheepish. He should look a lot more sheepish. First time he has not had the luxury of telling a blatant lie in order to start a war.
On the whole, I do not think the press does a completely bad job. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, they were total pussies. I was appalled. They gave him the war on a silver platter with no objection whatsoever. No objection. No tough questions. Had reporters asked tough questions, he may not have gotten away with pulling the wool over the eyes of most Americans. I mean, I simply could not BELIEVE the lack of tough questions or any questions. The press simply went along with it. Part of the show.
NOW, they have questions about the US in Iraq. Questions about the differences between Saddam and Ossama.
DUH. BIG DUH.
I stayed home the day Colin Powell went to the UN. Such big fat lies. Weapons of Mass Destruction. LIES.
The US press sucked it up with a straw. Disgusting.
I am sorry for Hunter Thompson's suicide. Fucking chicken shit. He shoved it up Nixon's ass but whimped out on Bush.
Well, I reckon that might be understandable. Poor Nixon. Couldn't pull off a simple breach of the constitution. What a puss.
All right. I'll shut up.
One more thing -- my only direct contact with television news occurred in the Seventies. I was working in a book store. The second book on the Watergate scandal had just been released. A girl reporter came into the store and asked me how the book was selling.
I said, "Blah" and this and that.
She said, "Are you willing to say that on television?"
"No."
She was so pissed off. Royally pissed off.
I said, "I can't go on television because I look like crap on video but I can get you someone more photogenic."
So, I got this young tall intellectual looking African American dude to tell her exactly what I had told her on camera.
She was as pleased as punch.
It was her hissy fit that got me. What an asshole.
Faizi
FEMA had a hurricane hitting New Orleans as number one on their list of potential disasters. Bush and Co cut their budget.Well, I hate to harp but I am going to harp. In the wake of the hurricanes that recently hit the Gulf Coast of the US, it has been proposed that the country needs a disaster plan.
I thought Hunter S. Thompson commiting suicide was a really chicken shit thing to do too. I read some article he wrote claiming the also-ran (forgotten his name already) would beat Bush easily. I thought maybe he knew something i didn't, but it turned out he was just clueless. I hate being right sometimes.
I think maybe Thompson was running on hope by the end, and when that ran out, he sucked a bullet.
Hywel
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MKFaizi
I hate to say it but I agree with you about Thompson's cowardice. Real pissant act. I well understand the idea of suicide. I have considered it before. God knows, despite my fear of physical pain, the thought of suicide has seemed like an option from time to time. Mainly to escape from the bitch of this or that thing -- and I have lots of things -- none of which have to do with lost love or any other luxurious matter.
Hunter Thompson had it made. Nice house. Fame. Respect. No young children or teenagers. Nothing to do but write. Nothing to do but to be a bitch and get paid for it.
He was a sap for politicians before. He thought Jimmy Carter would be a great president. I thought so, too.
WRONG -- though, God knows, anything would look good compared to the current asshole. At the time, I thought Carter would be a great president, too. WRONG.
Plenty of people thought Kerry had a chance against Bush. It was a close race and in the early returns, things looked good. We forgot about the religious assholes who believe that Bush is a good man based on his Christianity. Also, at the time of the 2004 elections, people still believed in the rightness of the Iraq War. Not so much now but it is too late.
Three plus more years. My son will be able to vote in the next election and he is only fifteen now. So will my daughter. She will be twenty.
Put in the context of both of my kids reaching adulthood, seems like a long way off.
When I began writing to Genius, my kids were nine and seven. A lot of water over the dam.
So, I completely resent Thompson killing himself just when things are heating up. What an asshole. His work is history now. Fuck history.
Faizi
Hunter Thompson had it made. Nice house. Fame. Respect. No young children or teenagers. Nothing to do but write. Nothing to do but to be a bitch and get paid for it.
He was a sap for politicians before. He thought Jimmy Carter would be a great president. I thought so, too.
WRONG -- though, God knows, anything would look good compared to the current asshole. At the time, I thought Carter would be a great president, too. WRONG.
Plenty of people thought Kerry had a chance against Bush. It was a close race and in the early returns, things looked good. We forgot about the religious assholes who believe that Bush is a good man based on his Christianity. Also, at the time of the 2004 elections, people still believed in the rightness of the Iraq War. Not so much now but it is too late.
Three plus more years. My son will be able to vote in the next election and he is only fifteen now. So will my daughter. She will be twenty.
Put in the context of both of my kids reaching adulthood, seems like a long way off.
When I began writing to Genius, my kids were nine and seven. A lot of water over the dam.
So, I completely resent Thompson killing himself just when things are heating up. What an asshole. His work is history now. Fuck history.
Faizi