Ever Been Shit-Scared ...

[Malthus]

My radiator once fell down from the wall and it gave off an incredible loud noise, scary in itself. But after rushing to turn off the water and burning myself in the process I tried to figure out why it fell.

To this day I don't know why as nothing had been torn from the wall on which it had been hanging for at least a decade.

Poltergeists? 

[Malthus]

On a morning watch near Drake's Bay in California I was alone at the wheel in the fog.  No real danger as it was dead calm too.  Still, the two humpback whales that suddenly surfaced and spouted about 10 yards behind me scared the crap out of me.

Yeah, that would do it.

[Malthus]

A few years back I did a cross channel swim across porpoise bay*.  About mid channel a dark shape came up from underneath me.  Great, a killer whale has mistaken me for a seal!  As the dark shape came closer my heart stopped - this is it.  Turned out to be a large black seal, it was curious and swam with me for the next 30 minutes or so.

* just up from the Sunshine Coast North of Vancouver.

"Hey seal - fuck off, you will attract killer whales". 

[Viking]

A few years back I did a cross channel swim across porpoise bay*.  About mid channel a dark shape came up from underneath me.  Great, a killer whale has mistaken me for a seal!  As the dark shape came closer my heart stopped - this is it.  Turned out to be a large black seal, it was curious and swam with me for the next 30 minutes or so.

* just up from the Sunshine Coast North of Vancouver.

"Hey seal - fuck off, you will attract killer whales". 

Seal was probably thinking, hey, if a killer whale shows up it'll eat this wet monkey instead of me.

[Malthus]

A few years back I did a cross channel swim across porpoise bay*.  About mid channel a dark shape came up from underneath me.  Great, a killer whale has mistaken me for a seal!  As the dark shape came closer my heart stopped - this is it.  Turned out to be a large black seal, it was curious and swam with me for the next 30 minutes or so.

* just up from the Sunshine Coast North of Vancouver.

"Hey seal - fuck off, you will attract killer whales". 

Seal was probably thinking, hey, if a killer whale shows up it'll eat this wet monkey instead of me.

[crazy canuck]

Seal was probably thinking, hey, if a killer whale shows up it'll eat this wet monkey instead of me.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I'd only recently started working underground at the coal mine. As often happened I'd been sent to a cushy job in a remote part of the pit which required only one man but was not a desirable job for superstitious workmates.

It was for me, as only a few small actions operating an endless rope haulage system were required, possibly none at all..............I arranged some dust into a comfortable heap, sat myself down and started reading my copy of Pere Goriot.

Then the whole bloody tunnel started shaking and rumbling.......aargh, I'm 2000 feet underground and 3 miles out to sea..........I'm doomed!!!

So doomed that I started relaxing, no way to get out, may as well carry on reading the (rather good) book. An hour or two later I realise that while I'm remote in walkable distance there may well have been a face in development quite near me. On the train back to the shaft I chat to the guys and find out that some shotfiring had been done developing a face above where I was "working" but very distant as a walking route.

Needless to say, there was no cause for worry whatsoever and this sort of thing became routine, but the first time when nobody had warned me..............for 30 seconds I thought I was a dead man 

[Razgovory]

As a child I lived in absolute terror because I would see things other people wouldn't.  Now I just ignore it.  Disembodied wolf head screaming at me, yeah that's not real.

[Ed Anger]

The time Channel 7 In Dayton set off the nuke attack message instead of the severe thunderstorm warning message.

I got a shitburger until I realized the sirens weren't going off.

[Ideologue]

A few years back I did a cross channel swim across porpoise bay*.  About mid channel a dark shape came up from underneath me.  Great, a killer whale has mistaken me for a seal!  As the dark shape came closer my heart stopped - this is it.  Turned out to be a large black seal, it was curious and swam with me for the next 30 minutes or so.

* just up from the Sunshine Coast North of Vancouver.

"Hey seal - fuck off, you will attract killer whales". 

Seal was probably thinking, hey, if a killer whale shows up it'll eat this wet monkey instead of me.

Apparently orcas almost never kill people in the wild.  I've always wondered why.  We'd make fine snacks.

My guess is that when they ping us, we don't "look" at all like a seal, and in fact we're so alien to their experience (and they have very little group experience) that they're wary.  It would be like if you got plopped down in the Colombian jungle.  You have no supplies, and you see one of those giant centipedes that refute the existence of your God.  Sure, it's moving, it's made of proteins and lipids and sugars, but you're not likely to be particularly hungry for it.

[Razgovory]

That or people rarely swim in the waters that contain killer whales.

[CountDeMoney]

That or people rarely swim in the waters that contain killer whales.

[Ideologue]

That or people rarely swim in the waters that contain killer whales.

People rarely swim off Vancouver and Seattle?  Perhaps they do.  The Pac Northwest might as well be Narnia.

[CountDeMoney]

What do you care?  You're all morally quagmired and shit.

[Razgovory]

That or people rarely swim in the waters that contain killer whales.

People rarely swim off Vancouver and Seattle?  Perhaps they do.  The Pac Northwest might as well be Narnia.

Killer whales tend to colder deeper water then human beings do.  Killer whales have been known to swim in shallower waters and warmer waters, and even been known to eat land animals such as deer and moose.  I imagine the fat/meat ratio on a deer is probably similar to a human, so there's probably no reason why a whale wouldn't eat a human.  The only reason I can think is that people rarely swim in the areas that those whales frequent.  Unless this species of Whale made a pact with human beings in prehistory that they would never prey on a human being.  Probably as a result of losing a riddle contest or something.  Animals are always getting fucked over by things like that.