Baobab Beach warning

I’ve got plenty of lab work to do today: this test isn’t going evaluate itself. Because of this, I had no plans to head to BAOBAB BEACH in Kenya’s Kilifi County.

But even if I had, I’d have cancelled them pronto having read this warning from the Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service (Kilifi County). A man with a signature so complicated, it took scientists three decades and one of those huge blackboards filled with equations just to figure out who he was.

But I digress, often.

The warning isn’t to be taken lightly, because… well… see for yourselves:

Kenya believe it?

The first thing that I noticed (pun intended) was that readers are advised twice to NOTICE! That’s already hinting at some sort of serious message coming up, and Mr Wygfbf&ddsfgnk%#cbgsb#kh¥gv doesn’t disappoint as we continue to read.

Additionally, there are other signs indicating that this is a real warning – he’s even Cc’d VICE CHANCELLOR. We’re clearly not messing about here. No-one Cc’s VICE CHANCELLOR without good reason. You just don’t do that. It’s serious stuff.

However, whatever the issue, we’re OK for today as we are only adviced to stay away from tomorrow. Your last minute trip to BAOBAB BEACH is still on, so long as you’re reading this four days ago.

If you’re reading this after then, then you are adviced to avoid BAOBAB BEACH. Do not go there. Stay away.
I’m not sure how I can make this any clearer.

The reason, as you’ll no doubt have read by now, is that three poisonus snakes have been noticed (but note: not noticed! noticed!) on the beach. Now, I’m not going to mock the use of poisonus when what he actually means is venomus; firstly because that’s a common error, and secondly, because the sentence including this mistake goes on to tell us that the snakes can fly and that rather distracted me from his earlier mild misconception.

Because who cares if they are poisonus or venomus when they can fly?

I did a quick google search for flying snakes. Apparently, there is a film called Snakes On A Plane, but I couldn’t find any sort of details on the plot, so I’m not sure what it’s about.

There is a gliding snake, which can’t actually fly per se, but can (allegedly, at least) glide, hence the name “gliding snake”. They’re only found in South East Asia though, which is very much where Kenya isn’t, but then the ANACONDA BREED of snake is only found in South America, and that’s also somewhere where Kenya isn’t. The gliding snake flings itself off things and lands on lower things. I’d be more comfortable with calling it a “falling snake”, as gravity is quite heavily involved in the whole process, but apparently, the grace with which it utilises air resistance on its way down persuaded some bold colonial explorer to plump for some rather overly dramatic nomenclature.

Given the name of BAOBAB BEACH, I’d imagine that there may well be BAOBAB trees there, which is something for those flying gliding falling snakes to use as a launch pad, and so I wouldn’t advice walking underneath any trees there.

In fact, I would advice you to not go there at all. From tomorrow until further notice.

Incidentally, there’s also a Flying Serpent, but only in Chinese Astrology (“Heavenly Snake, Chief of the Water Reptiles”, nogal), Cinematography (a film made in 1946) and Mythology (the Bible).

The Fiery Flying Serpent is to be avoided at all costs, but thankfully, none of those have been noticed on BAOBAB BEACH.

Oh, and or the record, the ANACONDA BREED of snake can’t fly or glide and is neither poisonus nor venomus. Apart from these three, obviously.

But let’s not allow that sort of factual detail get in the way of this heartfelt and serious warning.

Please, as Mr Tsdfjkln7skdgjklxcv*BNMZDbvj^4jsakdf advices, steer well clear of BAOBAB BEACH, Kilifi County, Kenya until further notice.

Back

Mrs 6000 is back from her Taylor Swift-esque visit to East Africa, and it’s great to have her home. She has seen literally several animals and has taken photos of nearly all of them.
As I write, we’ve been looking at those photos for a while. I think we’re through to day 4 of 5 now, which means that I’ve probably seen about 1,200 pictures so far.

It’s not a problem. Given that she was going on this once in a lifetime trip, we grabbed a local deal on a Canon DSLR camera (despite the fact that I still love my Sony DSC-HX300), and by the look of an awful lot of the photos she’s taken, it’s really paid off. So we’re very happy.

The next couple of weeks are rather complicated, but it would be a crime not to get some of her pics on display, so that will be sorted out in for time. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Inappropriate photo 101

I settled down to watch the ding-dong battle between Arsenal and Manchester United last night, only to have my wish for an exciting game ruined in the first 12 minutes by some dodgy defending, some dodgy refereeing and some dodgy goalkeeping, all of which left Arsenal needing to score 4 times to win the tie and left the game as good as dead.

I was irritated. But at least it wasn’t my team that lost. Heavily.

It was Suleiman Alphonso Omondi’s team though and he could apparently take no more, as Sport24 reports:

Nairobi – An Arsenal fan in football-mad Kenya hung himself following his team’s 4-1 aggregate drubbing by arch-rivals Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, police said on Wednesday.
Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan living in the capital Nairobi’s Embakasi neighbourhood, hung himself in his Arsenal shirt late Tuesday after the match, police said.

“We were watching the match at Bamba 70 pub, and when Arsenal was defeated, Suleiman just walked out in protest and he was crying,” Calvin Otieno, one of his friends, said.
“We didn’t know he was going to hang himself until Wednesday morning when we received the reports and came here to find his body at the balcony,” Otieno said outside the deceased’s home.

Tragic tale – and one which, if nothing else, demonstrates Suleiman’s passonate support for his team.

But having reported the story, which staff reporter looked through the files for an appropriate photo to use and came up with this?

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Arsenal players training

Was there really no other shot available? Cesc Fabregas in full flight? An upset or angry Arsenal fan at the Emirates, maybe? Perhaps a pic of the scoreboard or one of the Bamba70 pub? Even one of ugly Ronaldo. Ugh.
In fact, anything  that doesn’t feature an apparently slumped black man being dragged away, really.

Is it just me or was the choice of this particular photograph mildly inappropriate?

EDIT: Sky News gets the story and uses Arsenal badge as graphic. Better.