Shark attacks

[perrykneeham]

Does Mrs. V want to go to Anchorage too?

[ootlg]

Anchorage? - No, just tourist class.

[ootlg]

[voice]

This is bull

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-65675517

[mids]

He's a lot less than Mr Vague now.

[ootlg]

Dangerous profession, farming. One of our neighbours baled himself up when he was haymaking: the baler was jammed and he tried to clear it without switching it off. Wife found him when he didn't come home for dinner. And all beasts are potentially dangerous. Idiot walkers with dogs find that out the hard way.

[perrykneeham]

I remember a local fisherman in my parents' village got caught up in his winch. It dragged his arm up through the pulleys and they found him hanging by his mangled arm, dead, after a day or so.

[flatandy]

Beasts are definitely dangerous. I always find it amazing that there are people who seem relaxed around horses and cows. Even sheep, when scared, are big enough to do you some harm. They’re unlikely to kill you if they run at you, but it’s not going to be pleasant.

[mids]

I worry that sheep will follow me.

[ootlg]

Word got around?

[voice]

www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-65750805

What a crock

[mids]

Poor kid. He's dead one way or another.

"A shadowy image captured in the waters surrounding a Louisiana baseball star who jumped off a party boat for a dare has sparked speculation the teen was swimming away from a shark.



Cameron Robbins, 18, jumped off the Blackbeard's Revenge sunset cruise ship while celebrating his high school graduation near Athol Island, in the Bahamas last Wednesday. The search for the missing teen was called off two days later.



Footage shows Robbins swimming in the water as a life preserver is thrown out to him and classmates tell him to grab on. But the teenager seems to be fixated on a shadowy shape which appears in the water and immediately begins swimming away."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12143937/Shadowy-image-water-near-baseball-star-explain-swam-AWAY-life-preserver.html

[rick49]

May 23, 2023 10:42:56 GMT flatandy said:

Beasts are definitely dangerous. I always find it amazing that there are people who seem relaxed around horses and cows. Even sheep, when scared, are big enough to do you some harm. They’re unlikely to kill you if they run at you, but it’s not going to be pleasant.

where i live we have moose, wolves, bears, and even the occasional mountain lion. one morning in the early hours we had a bear walking down the main street of town. and we love it. it's easy for us to be relaxed around horses and cows. we're just careful around them. if a horse or cow accidentally steps on your foot, it's really going to hurt.

[rick49]

May 30, 2023 8:33:35 GMT voice said:

www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-65750805

What a crock

this is for an adult.

"Crocodiles have the strongest bite of all land-based animals, and the Saltwater crocodile is at the top spot with a bite of roughly 16,460 newtons, or 3,700 psi. For comparison, humans have a bite force of around 700 newtons, roughly 150 psi."
leozoo.org/crocodile-bite-force/

i imagine even a juvenile croc would have an incredible bite force. he must have been one strong guy to pry it's jaws apart with his bare hands.

[perrykneeham]

I'm always a bit skeptical about the quality of bite pressure stats as I'm not sure there's a reliable way of measuring it and it always feels like hyperbole wins out. I suspect that there's a bit of fiddling around the pounds/inch^2 figure as expressed as the overall jaw pressure being applied through teeth. Dunno, but it has always seemed suspect and slightly unknowable.

Also, the physics is counterintuitive: animals that require really strong jaw pressure to break the spines or suffocate their prey tend to have short muzzles. Think cats.

Crocodiles have long jaws as a function of the size of their prey (I think) and that prey routinely escapes, especially if the Croc can't overpower it and drag it into the water where it has the advantage. Also, reptiles tend to have poor endurance.

Also, see how alligator wrestlers easily open the gators' mouths and how all crocodiles can easily have their Jaws taped shut.

As you can see, I have wondered about this over the years.

[flatandy]

I don’t think taping gaps shut means anything. That just means crocs aren’t as strong opening as shutting - the jaw muscles will have evolved to only work in the useful direction.

Also there’s the difference between raw grip strength (holding the prey) and the single snap power. But 150psi doesn’t sound completely outrageous for a strong bite.

[perrykneeham]

I think that's the issue. The apparent weakness resistance to opening may also be a function of the the long lever effect.

[ootlg]

Ever tried to turn a wheel nut with a short spanner? Stick a length of scaffold pole on the spanner handle and easy - it changes the dynamics completely. Crocs' jaws are difficult to open but easy to close and hold closed. Exactly the same with a bull terrier which has a much shorter jaw.

[perrykneeham]

I see what you're aiming, but I don't think your observation holds water. Using a breaker bar does indeed improve your mechanical advantage, but that advantage works for both lefty loosy and tighty righty. Also, the force employed to close or open a jaw comes from close to the fulcrum i.e. the hinge of the jaw , and not the distal end of the lever.

[rick49]

watched a show about crocs a long time ago. they had some kind of machine that registered psi to measure bite force. forget how they hooked it up, but when they did they gave the crock something to bite down on and the psi showed on the machine.