Imponderable #14: Sao Paolo Brazil

26 Aug

August 26, 2011

I understand and believe that animals have a place in law enforcement.

This is not it.

Geese make noise when they sense “strange movements.” I think that to a goose pretty much every movement a human makes is strange. How can a goose differentiate between normal yard activity and someone getting a shiv in the back?

Even granting their premise, I think they would need a whole flock of geese to cover the prison. How much help do they really think they will get out of two geese?

The question is Imponderable. 

My apologies to Pierre’s friend Gus the Goose.

 

 

34 Responses to “Imponderable #14: Sao Paolo Brazil”

  1. Daniel's avatar
    Daniel August 26, 2011 at 12:19 am #

    Stories like this support my theory that Earth is the Lunatic Asylum of this section of the galaxy ( The Orion Arm, if you want to be exact. Look it up. ). Or maybe the entire Milky Way, Magellanic galaxies & outer sections of M – 31 / aka Andomeda.

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    • bmj2k's avatar
      bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 12:22 am #

      As I said in the blog, there is a place for animals in law enforcement. This isn’t it. I’d be worried about the geese. If I were planning a prison break my first move would to be to take out the geese, then the guard tower. Get those nosey geese out of the way first. “I would have gotten away with it if weren’t for those meddling geese!”

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      • Daniel's avatar
        Daniel August 26, 2011 at 12:26 am #

        My Lord….. Bloodhounds, Rottweilers. Even trained alligators or silverback gorillas. But geese ?

        Economics – or madness ( both ? ) ?

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        • bmj2k's avatar
          bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 1:05 am #

          Oh, I love the gorilla idea!

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          • Daniel's avatar
            Daniel August 26, 2011 at 6:34 am #

            Got it after a friend talked about possibly going to see
            ” Rise of the Planet of the Apes ” tonight. A happy coincidence.;)

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  2. Thomas Stazyk's avatar
    Thomas Stazyk August 26, 2011 at 12:45 am #

    Duh!

    Warden: Did Rocco manage to escape?
    Guard: No sir, his goose is cooked.

    or

    Warden: I hope the prisoners aren’t getting up to any inappropriate behavior.
    Guard: No sir, someone got goosed, but that’s about it.

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    • bmj2k's avatar
      bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 1:04 am #

      Maybe it is because it is 1 am here, but I am laughing my butt off!

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      • Thomas Stazyk's avatar
        Thomas Stazyk August 26, 2011 at 1:15 am #

        Glad to hear! What are you doing up so late?

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        • bmj2k's avatar
          bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 1:39 am #

          Until my schedule radically changes in a few weeks, just the usual surfing the net.

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          • Thomas Stazyk's avatar
            Thomas Stazyk August 26, 2011 at 5:41 pm #

            Do you have to worry about the hurricane? Hope all is well.

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            • bmj2k's avatar
              bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 5:56 pm #

              I do have to worry, but not as much as the others. They started some evacuations but not in my area. I am in Zone C, the last evac zone. It doesn’t look I’ll have to bug out but I am hunkering down. I should be OK to ride it out. Thanks so much for asking.

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              • Daniel's avatar
                Daniel August 26, 2011 at 6:34 pm #

                If you’re in apartment, I hope they have a back – up generator, if you’re a home – owner, you should have a small gas – powered unit **just** to be on the safe side…..

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                • bmj2k's avatar
                  bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 6:52 pm #

                  No generator in my building, it was built in 1936 and I’m lucky when the elevator works. I’ve got plenty of batteries and flashlights (I am a little obsessive about those and always have plenty of both) and my electronics are all charged. I’ve got enough supplies to last a lot longer than I should need anyway. My onlly real concern is if a window breaks.

                  As a side note, I was working in a store built over the water during the great 1994 winter storm, the Nor’easter. I watched our loading dock shake, shatter, and crumble into the sea. The sales floor split and the wind blew dirt and water up and into the store, and the building’s roof sprung dozens of leaks and ruined my store and the one above. And this storm is expected to be worse so I am glad I don’t work there anymore.

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                  • Daniel's avatar
                    Daniel August 26, 2011 at 7:24 pm #

                    My place was built in ’94, has back – up generators that at least keep the lobby lights & smoke alarm / security system going. The elevators go dead though. I’ve experienced 2 long, tedious blackouts that I rode out with help from Dr. Heineken.

                    Whether it’s the East / Gulf Coast, ” Tornado Alley “, or life near the San Andreas Fault, we get reminded that we’re not separate from the environment.
                    & back in the days when the Cold War was still icy, a hospital I worked at had a cavernous supply that could serve as a bomb shelter in a pinch. It could’ve housed the Egyptian treasures in the Valley of the Kings !

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                    • bmj2k's avatar
                      bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 7:30 pm #

                      My building has a “bomb shelter” from the 50’s that I think will today withstand a strong sneeze or even a bad fart, and nothing else.

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                    • Daniel's avatar
                      Daniel August 26, 2011 at 7:47 pm #

                      Of course, in the building where I live now, if we get serious storm activity, their ” precautions ” are to go into the bathroom, climb into the tub & pray.
                      & if my tub falls 3 stories during a storm through a collapsing floor onto a little old lady & her dog on the ground floor, my insurance premiums go up like a ROCKET !

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    • Daniel's avatar
      Daniel August 26, 2011 at 6:36 am #

      An exercise in ” Fowl ” humor….. 😉 🙂

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  3. Mac of BIOnighT's avatar
    Mac of BIOnighT August 26, 2011 at 6:18 pm #

    Are you familiar with this story?

    “In the Capitoline Musuem, the Hall of the Geese honors an episode in the history of Ancient Rome when the sacred geese at the Temple of Juno saved the Eternal City.

    When the Gauls invaded Rome in 390 BC a detachment of soldiers were able to make their way undetected to the side of the Capitoline Hill. The men scaled the hill so quietly that the soldier at the head of the line reached the top without being challenged.

    As he struggled to put himself over the rampart, Juno’s sacred geese, disturbed by the noise, began to squawk, and woke up the sentry on duty. Marcus Manlius, captain of the guards, rushed to the wall and tossed the intruder over the precipice. To commemorate this event, the Ancient Romans carried a golden goose in procession to the capitol every year”

    Question no. 2: have you ever been attacked by a goose?

    However, the imponderable question is: two of them to guard a whole prison? Well, obviously they are specially trained super-geese, that’s why two are enough.

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    • bmj2k's avatar
      bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 6:26 pm #

      I have been honked at but not attacked by a goose.

      Do you about the Peabody ducks? Check this out: http://www.peabodymemphis.com/peabody-ducks/ (They are not related to Pierre D. Duck.)

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      • Mac of BIOnighT's avatar
        Mac of BIOnighT August 26, 2011 at 6:44 pm #

        These are not as heroic, but at least they have prevented their fellow ducks from being eaten in the restaurant – not bad 😉

        I was attacked several times by some geese while driving my car, and it was freakin’ scary. And my car always got some damage, nothing serious, but enough for me to realize what the same attack would have done to me had I not been protected by the car…

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        • bmj2k's avatar
          bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 6:54 pm #

          Do you remember this blog about attacking turkeys on Staten Island? I have seen them in action.

          Lock your doors and hide the women and children! Thanksgiving is almost here!

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          • Mac of BIOnighT's avatar
            Mac of BIOnighT August 26, 2011 at 7:07 pm #

            Turkeys are kind of scary, too, but it seems to nme that these specific turkeys weren’t doing anything horrible apart from walking around in a place where people have totally lost contact with nature and its creatures… :-/

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            • bmj2k's avatar
              bmj2k August 26, 2011 at 7:28 pm #

              They turkeys were doing nothing but being turkeys, but I know that area and it is as clost to rural as you can get in NYC. I don’t think they’ve lost contact, just that this is more contact than they bargained for. But either way, I am pro-turkey in this story.

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        • Daniel's avatar
          Daniel August 26, 2011 at 7:30 pm #

          So…… Be kind to your web – footed friends,
          For a duck ( or goose ! ) may be somebody’s mother, she lives way back in the swamp. where the weather is cold & DAMP. 🙂
          Nostalgia.

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          • Mac of BIOnighT's avatar
            Mac of BIOnighT August 26, 2011 at 8:47 pm #

            Er… sorry, I’m afraid we have a little transcultural problem here… what is this sort of poem you quoted?

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            • Daniel's avatar
              Daniel August 26, 2011 at 11:27 pm #

              Yeah, I was just rying to crank up the ” silliness / craziness ” factor.

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              • Thomas Stazyk's avatar
                Thomas Stazyk August 27, 2011 at 12:22 am #

                Don’t let it bring you “down.” I think you deserve a “pate” on the back for trying.

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                • Daniel's avatar
                  Daniel August 27, 2011 at 12:33 am #

                  As long as my goose doesn’t get cooked, my prose will always be like ” poultry in motion “.

                  Man, that Prozac does wonders !!! 😉 Along w / a good beer ! 😀

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                  • bmj2k's avatar
                    bmj2k August 27, 2011 at 12:40 am #

                    I don’t drink but after these jokes I just may start.

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                    • Daniel's avatar
                      Daniel August 27, 2011 at 6:22 am #

                      You might start wetting your beak or dipping your bill ? 😉

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                  • Thomas Stazyk's avatar
                    Thomas Stazyk August 27, 2011 at 12:43 am #

                    Glad to hear. I look forward to taking a “gander” at more of your poultry.

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                    • Daniel's avatar
                      Daniel August 27, 2011 at 6:24 am #

                      I think we’re all starting to ” quack – up ” here in a honkin’ big way….. 😀

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  4. TexasTrailerParkTrash's avatar
    TexasTrailerParkTrash August 28, 2011 at 11:53 am #

    Guinea hens would be a better choice for sounding the alarm. A flock of those would wake the dead. The only problem is, they’re incredibly stupid.

    And I’ve been attacked by a goose and it wasn’t pleasant. A neighbor of ours out in the country had a goose and a gander and the male was by far the meaner of the two. I would try to run past him on my way to the neighbor’s house and sometimes he would make a rush at me and pinch me really hard on the leg with his beak, leaving a nasty bruise.

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  5. The Hook's avatar
    The Hook September 3, 2011 at 9:26 am #

    What a low-tech solution to the rising cost of running a prison!
    Crazy, but inventive.

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