Robot Claw

On this day, 30 years ago, a then-secret US satellite named Vela detected a double flash of light coming from an area in the Indian Ocean about 2000 km southeast of Africa. The flashes were characteristic of a nuclear airbust, and the immediate theory was some country had detonated a nuclear test at the location.

The event has entered the history books as somewhat of a mystery. Immediately afterwards the US flew many sorties through the area using planes fitted with equipment to detect fallout, and nothing was detected. Questions about the accuracy of the detector on the ageing satellite seemed to be answered by the fact that an EM wave (presumably caused by the event Vela detected) was detected by a second satellite and the Arecibo radio-telescope in Peru. The wind patterns in the south Indian ocean end up in Australia, and the fact that radioactive elements were discovered in sheep and cattle thyroids within a few months of the event also suggest a nuclear blast had occured.

Speculation fell onto South Africa, or perhaps a joint South Africa / Israel test. One can imagine the machinations of the world’s spy agencies in those days, attempting to confirm or deny the theories. Various investigations and reports from within the USA to congress both supported and rejected the idea of the event being an explosion, and although many authors and even retired officials have since supported the possibility of a South African weapon test (South Africa did not – officially -have nuclear weapons in 1979) the truth of what happened in the Indian Ocean 30 years ago today remains unknown.

What I find intriguing about this is the fact that were the satellite not positioned to detect the event when it happened, it would have remained unknown.

One wonders what else various governments have gotten up to over the years unbeknownst to their neighbours on earth. After all, a nuclear explosion is a mighty difficult thing to hide, and if this was indeed one, whomever was responsible almost hid it (and even though ‘caught’, haven’t yet been found).

As we move from summer into fall (ie. autumn), the squirrels ratchet up their nut-collecting efforts. In particular, they spend long hours in the oak trees harvesting acorns. This entails them picking them off the branches and throwing them down where they congregate on the ground. Woe be to anyone who walks under the trees during the height of this activity, for the rain of acorns can be perilous to say the least!

We have one such tree just down the road from us, and you can almost always see the squirrels scampering around up in the branches. And if you don’t see them, you can’t miss the evidence of them as the acorns fall down, one every few seconds. Walking underneath while they are at work is quite an adventure.

But far more treacherous is a string of oaks planted right on the side of the road on Brockley, a street a couple of minutes walk from us. The trees are ancient and tall, close together, and full of acorns and acorn-harvesting squirrels. Here’s what the edge of the road looks like underneath these trees (obviously some of these have fallen naturally as well):

Last week, walking underneath, I was hit by an acorn. Luckily it only glanced off my shoulder, but even then it hurt. I can only imagine the pain were one to land right on the top of your head! At the time squirrels were at work above, the the frequency of falling nuts was greater than one per second. Only instants before I was hit I considered crossing the road for safety’s sake!

Eventually, presumably, the squirrels will grab the fallen acorns and either bury them (we see them doing this all over our yards) or stash them somewhere secret. They live off them in the winter (squirrels can wake during the snow season) and early spring. The acorns the squirrels don’t get are collected by bluejays (who ferret them away to similarly secret stashes in trees) or deers (and this year we have seen more deer than ever before) who eat them from the ground.

There comes an age when we, as men, must say “no” to common sense and reason. When we must embrace madness – the beast inside – and yell: “Go to hell, rational thought!”

This time has come for me, and therefore, for no other reason than to once again drink 55 liters of Lift in 3 weeks…

I AM GOING TO AUSTRALIA AGAIN!

This trip will be different though, for I will have a student with me. Yes, my brother is going as well, and I can finally train him in the legendary “1000 calories a day” style.

The lunacy begins December 29 (Australia time). Here’s hoping the local Coca Cola bottlers are ready…