Quicunque

A global-warming doomsday scenario from the National Geographic: How 6° Could Change Our World

Whether the rise in global temperatures is man-made or part of a natural climatic cycle, the end results are still very, very alarming. It's scary to think this is happening in our lifetimes. I wish I hadn't explored this just before bedtime...

There was no denying the footprints in the snow on the morning of February 9, 1895. The odd tracks appeared in several towns in South Devon, England. Residents of Lympstone, Exmouth, Topsham, Dawlish, and Teignmouth all reported the same thing. During the night some weird and uncanny creature had raced in a straight line through these towns, covering a hundred miles and more and leaving behind the tracks nobody could identify.

Each track, about 4 inches in length and 2-3/4 in width, was exactly 8 inches apart. They were roughly shaped like a hoofprint and were promptly christened "The Devil's Footprints" by all who saw them. Even the conservative London Times printed a report of the footprints in the snow...

Going straight across country, the tracks never swerved. They were found upon the top of 14-foot walls and they crossed the roofs of barns and houses, went up and over snow-covered piles of hay and even appeared on the tops of wagons which had been left out all night. It was as if the creature had leaped up or down, for the tracks showed no apparent change of pace or speed. In many places it was reported that the snow had been "branded" away or melted from the ground where the "feet" had touched....

Over the hundred-mile course, the distance between the tracks never varied from the regular 8 inches, yet how could anyone or anything travel that far in a single night without varying its stride? Too many people saw the tracks for it to have been a joke or a local phenomenon. In some instances the prints vanished at the edge of unfrozen ponds or rivers, and appeared again exactly in line on the opposite side, to race away in that straight and mysterious flight across the sleeping countryside. And in all that distance, no one saw it, no one heard it. Only the tracks remained as evidence of the creatures passing.

Rest of this article here: 'The Devil's footprints': solving a classic mystery

Other sources on the Devil's Footprints:
Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned, chapter 28 1919
Mysterious Britain: The Devil's Footprints

I try to do the right thing, I really do.

I'd like to think I'm an ethical shopper. I try to use local, seasonal produce. On the rare occasions I buy some dead animal for my long-suffering partner, I make sure it wasn't pumped with more steroids than an Olympic weightlifter and that its brief life was as comfortable and free as possible. If something is labelled 'Organic' I'll buy it even if it does cost twice as much as its unstickered unorganic counterpart, and likewise 'Fairtrade'.

However, today my ethics were yet again the undoing of me *sighs*. I only wanted a jar of decent instant coffee! How simple is that? As it turned out - not so simple at all. I had a choice of organic, or fairtrade. None of the brands on offer specified both. This threw me into a spin - did it mean the 'organic' ones had been produced using slave child labour for corporations that paid the farmers in peanuts, and the 'fairtrade' ones had been sprayed with DDT? Which would be worse? I just couldn't make the choice...

In the end I bought a tin of Clipper Fairtrade Organic Hot Chocolate.

When it comes to many things in life, including online communities, I've always been a firm believer in the old adage that what you get of out them, depends on how much you put into them. I still stand by that very firmly. In fact I was lecturing someone about it just the other day *rueful grin*.

However, I've also learnt pretty recently that - for me at least - something else is equally true: how much I put into something depends on how much I get out of it. I'm not talking material or tangible rewards, but simply 'feel-good factor' - I'm disinclined to put much effort into something that gives me poor or non-existent satisfaction in return. It's just amazing how long it's taken me to have this light-bulb moment considering that reciprocity is a basic human principle... *chuckles*

However, I suppose if I start refusing to feed the cats until they learn to grovel like poodles for my gratification, they'll just wait until I'm asleep then maliciously smother me.