Got That "Summer of Shark" Feeling Yet?

[kelley]

never mind the sharks. deadly water borne brain eating ameobas! what the fuck.

[Harvey]

Even the shark stories are not free of contoversy. (I should perhaps add that another man was killed by a shark in the same place two weeks before)

The widow of a man killed by a shark while on honeymoon in the Seychelles has described the moment she heard his "awful scream".

Gemma Redmond, 27, said she first thought her husband, Ian, 30, from Nelson, Lancashire, was sneezing as he was snorkelling off Anse Lazio beach.

"I heard 'Help' and the most awful scream," she said.

She said Mr Redmond had laughed off the dangers of sharks and they had been told the waters were safe.

"I could see the top of his snorkel because he had a bright orange band around it so I could always follow where he was," she said.

"And, all of a sudden, I heard this 'Help' and I thought at first he was sneezing.

"And then I heard it again - I heard 'Help' and the most awful scream.

"I can still hear it when I close my eyes."

She said she was sitting with their bag on the beach and her husband had been in the water for 20 minutes when he was attacked.

She said they had gone to the Seychelles partly because they thought the islands were free from dangerous animals.

The primary school teacher said she had asked a receptionist if there were sharks and was told: "No, not in the Seychelles, the Seychelles are very safe waters."

She said: "We didn't really think that sharks would be in the Seychelles at all. It wasn't something we were aware of."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-14583394

Or

Telegraph

Seychelles newly-weds were warned of shark attack risk

The owner of the Bonbon Plume bar in the Seychelles, the last place that newly-weds Ian and Gemma Redmond were together before his death, tells the Telegraph that he overheard Mrs Redmond being warned about the dangers of a possible shark attack.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -risk.html

[Harvey]

http://www.blippitt.com/cyclops-shark-f ... ark-photo/

[elfismiles]

Summer of the Gun
by Loren Coleman ©2012
...

During a climate of many media-driven mass shootings, often ending in the death of the shooter, those sitting on the anger-vulnerability-suicidal-homicidal fence fall off and take action via a model for behaving that is presented to these individuals by the mainstream press and news reports. These people then go out shooting. It's called the copycat effect.

I noted in my 2003 book, The Copycat Effect, that we have seen something like this before. During the warm months of 2001, in the Northern Hemisphere, the "if it bleeds, its leads" media called that period the "Summer of the Shark." It was also the "Summer of the Gators" too, from fatal attacks caused alligators (mostly in Florida) and sharks (in several locations). These deaths were all over the news. The shark attacks even got a cover on Time. Strangely, this happened after an intense time of school shootings, from 1999-2001.



Besides the shark attacks, several highly publicized deadly alligator encounters happened during the summer of 2001 in the Sunshine State. Few read of the final fatal alligator attack that year (that we know about). It happened on September 11, 2001, and it was buried in the events of that day outside of Florida.

What occurred to end the "Summer of the Shark" and the "Summer of the Gators"? 9/11 happened. The media changed their focus to the attack on the Twin Towers, and our war in Afghanistan (you know, the one that's still going on). The news organizations did not have energy for sharks and alligators. But also, they quick reporting on school shootings. And school shootings, relatively speaking, disappeared for almost 18 months from the American media, and from actually happening.

...

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2012/ ... f-gun.html

"It Is Happening Again"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWa0dZMHYeE

[8bitagent]

It's midnight in America again.

[Lottie McLotsaluck]

Well we are somewhat past summer....but during the last two weeks I have been very nervous. At times on and off but sometimes 4-6 hours at a go. Have Xanax but don't like to take it. Would much rather have weed but don't have a 'connection.'
I wonder if it's just that the news has been somewhat crazy lately? However, is it any more crazier than normal?
Some writer on the web wrote about his worries of a "cornpone coup" in the US; made my hair stand up on my neck when I read that and I don't often have that reaction.
I don't know -probably just getting old! Just mentioned because last night into this am has been particularly bad.
some weird news and views: http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/

[Fresno_Layshaft]

Is HMW writing that copycateffect blog? Its total garbage.

[Lottie McLotsaluck]

Is HMW writing that copycateffect blog? Its total garbage.

Not unless HMW is Loren Coleman-who knows? stranger things have happened.
although I do sense HMWs presence around quite often

[elfismiles]

Crocodile Suicides, Alligator Attacks, and 9/11
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
<snip>
"Summer of the Gator" - 2001


Youth with trident personifying a thriving new country spears an American alligator on the Washington Monument in Eakins Oval; photographed near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cable television has institutionalized "Shark Week," in which programming and documentaries take the "fear factor" within humans regarding sharks and translate it to the small screen. Of course, it all goes back, during our modern era, to Jaws, for before the successful movie Steven Spielberg made in 1975, there was Peter Benchley's 1974 book Jaws.

They seem to have not discovered "Croc Week," or "Gator Week," per se, yet.

Beginning in 1976, when the first records in Florida started, fatal alligator attacks have been on the increase. Some occur in the late summer and early fall. For example, on September 28, 1977, George Leonard, 52, was killed by an alligator while swimming in the Peace River Canal, Charlotte County, Florida. On September 10, 1978, Philip Rastrelli, 14, was killed by an alligator while swimming across the Hidden River Canal of Bessie Creek, Martin County, Florida.

But still, shark attacks generally get more attention by the media.

There seemed to be so many shark attacks on humans right after the turn of the century that Time declared, in the Northern Hemisphere, at least, that 2001 was experiencing “The Summer of the Shark.”

But there was something more sinister waiting in the wings. First, however, the "Summer of the Gator" was about to happen.

In my earlier twilight language book, The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004), I noted:

. . . .

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2014/ ... s-911.html

[elfismiles]

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2015/ ... s2015.html

[LolaB]

now this:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-0615-shark-huntington-beach-snap-story.html

If it seems like there have been a lot more shark sightings than usual off Huntington Beach lately, you’re not mistaken.

For reasons that scientists have yet to determine, the number of juvenile great white sharks observed swimming along the Orange County city’s shoreline has increased dramatically.

“I’ve seen more white sharks this year than I have in the previous 30,” said Lt. Claude Panis of the Huntington Beach Fire Department’s Marine Safety Division.

Prior to 2015, authorities never had to keep the public out of the waters off Huntington Beach because of shark activity. Since then, however, there have been three closures, including one earlier this month after several large sharks were seen in the water about 150 yards off of the coast.

Scientists with the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach detected 21 instances of juvenile white sharks swimming in Huntington Beach waters in 2015 – the first year scientists began to systematically track sharks in that area. That was the highest number of hits along any Southern California beach, matching the number near Oxnard.

Huntington Beach lifeguards posted a shark sighting sign behind Tower 1 to warn beach-goers after a surfer spotted a 6-foot great white shark in August 2015.
Huntington Beach lifeguards posted a shark sighting sign behind Tower 1 to warn beach-goers after a surfer spotted a 6-foot great white shark in August 2015. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“I’d never heard of juvenile great white sharks in the water off Huntington Beach until last year,” said Chris Lowe, who is head of the lab and tracked fish for a decade and has sensors from Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County to San Clemente in Orange County.

Lowe noted that scientists also tagged 16 great white sharks in Huntington Beach in 2015, four times the total of all great whites tagged in 2014.

Juvenile sharks feed on fish and are unlikely to bite humans, scientists said. “We’re nothing close to what their prey is,” said Dana Murray, a marine scientist with the nonprofit Heal the Bay.

[norton ash]

I've got that Summer of the Beast feeling, actually.

[brekin]

It Finally Happened: Donald Trump Jumped the Shark
If Trump tweets something offensive and no one writes a think piece, did it really happen?

Jason Johnson
BY: JASON JOHNSON
Posted: June 15, 2016

You heard it here first: Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has officially jumped the shark. Or, if you want to put it in more modern terms, his political campaign has “pulled a Richonne” or “put Cookie in a cage.” No matter how you put it, when Trump loses to Hillary Clinton in the November election, we will all look back at early June as the beginning of the end. We will see it as the moment when Trump slapped on some water skis and slowly but surely sailed into irrelevance.

But the Trump campaign will not fail because this week was his peak in attacking and insulting important political constituent groups, offending media, or even making national tragedies about himself. He will inevitably lose because this is the week when we as Americans began to expect him to say and do something offensive and foolish.
When Trump is no longer shocking or interesting, he ceases to be a real challenge to win the White House.

I have never been part of the chorus of people who found Trump’s rise as the Republican presidential nominee surprising. Last year when he insulted Vietnam veterans, a disabled reporter and most Mexicans, I didn’t think these things would prevent him from winning the nomination. There are lots of Americans who enjoy the kind of puckish South Park racism that Trump espoused last summer.

Besides, his behavior was fresh and new. America had never heard a presidential candidate talk like that. Combine his shock jock rhetoric and unvarnished racism with the ability to earn more free media than a missing plane, and Trump was the hottest thing in 2015 politics. Nobody knew what Trump would say next, and networks couldn’t wait to post his tweets or have him call in live like an ’80s talk show. However, for Trump, as with all insult comics, there is a point at which the shock and novelty wear off. That has pretty much started happening this week.

Since locking up the GOP nomination, Trump has been on a bipartisan tear, attacking every Hispanic public official, woman or former GOP candidate he can think of. These attacks have almost become expected, but what’s new is the responses. Hillary Clinton ethered Trump in a long policy speech, then Elizabeth Warren took the mic and hit Trump with a “Back to Back,” and a few days later Clinton’s “Delete your account” tweet went viral.

Trump’s response to these revved-up attacks? The same old lines, weak sauce, Meek Mill-ish blather, nothing worth writing or talking about. This is the Trump whose one-liners a month ago made Marco Rubio question his manhood. Now? His tweeted responses barely got any news coverage. If Trump claps back on Twitter and no one retweets it, is it still a clapback?

The examples of Trump’s slow shark-jumping decline are even more prominent as the new cycle revs up for the general election. Last February, when he suggested that the Bush family was involved in 9/11, everyone was shocked and the story dominated 24-hours news for a week. When Trump suggested last month that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the story was chewed over on the Sunday talk shows. Today? When Trump suggests that Obama was involved in the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla.—there’s barely a shoulder shrug.

Why is this happening? Because we all know what’s coming. We all know that no matter what the event, Trump is going to say something rude, racist, offensive or self-aggrandizing. His terrible behavior hasn’t become normalized, as some pundits feared. He has become something much more dangerous to a presidential campaign: Donald Trump has become … boring.

Oh, you can’t see it entirely now, but it’s happening. Like your favorite TV show that slowly moves from appointment television to DVR’d to “Maybe I’ll binge-watch it some weekend” to finally you just clear it out to make space for Penny Dreadful. Trump knows he’s losing America’s attention, too. Why do you think he’s suddenly switched up his slogan? Twice—in the last 72 hours.

Trump’s greatest strength, what made him a compelling political character, was his ability to shock, surprise and, to a certain extent, entertain the American people. He has been compared to everything from a NASCAR race to a human internet comments section. You tune in and support him because something crazy is going to happen and you don’t want to miss it. But after a while, the shock wears off. Then what do you have left?

He doesn’t really have a second act full of compelling policy. Trump will always have his supporters, but as his antics become more predictable and less shocking, the polls are starting to shift. You can’t put too much stock in individual polls this early in the campaign season, but the trend in polls over the last several weeks shows Trump support petering out, while Clinton’s lead is surging.

The greatest enemy of the carnival barker isn’t that people don’t listen; it’s when they say, “I’ve seen that already.” The greatest enemy of the insult comic isn’t that people don’t laugh at the jokes; it’s when the audience finishes the punch line before the man onstage. Donald Trump has used up his best material, but he’s got no one else to shock, offend or insult, and there are five months of airtime left to fill before the election.

Trump has perhaps one or two more big splashes to garner public attention: when he picks his running mate and when he gives his likely rambling acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July. In the meantime, he’ll be Tila Tequila or Ann Coulter or Andrew Dice Clay circa 1997—a desperate blowhard clinging to the hope that he can shock the public into making him relevant to the news cycle again.

When mainstream-media political panels can’t muster up the strength to get offended over Trump’s Orlando comments, you know he’s looking over those shark-infested waters. The only question now is, will the series drag on to a shocking but predictable conclusion this fall, or will it whimper out, mostly forgotten by all but a few diehard fans? The clock is ticking on the Trump campaign, and the viewers are already starting to get bored.

https://www.theroot.com/articles/politi ... the-shark/

I don't know, as things get more desperate and closer, I could see Trump becoming more abrasive and outrageous. Why wouldn't he double down with the craziness in the final game? And since he isn't above getting personal and conspiratorial, maybe he's got something(s) that he's going to play that are really, truly, insane and inflammatory? I wouldn't be surprised if Trump isn't a past banned poster here on R.I. jk/sorta

[elfismiles]

It is happening.:. Again



https://www.google.com/search?q=shark+a ... 75&bih=549


Largest fish species in the world spotted off Texas beach: report
https://www.wfaa.com/mobile/article/lif ... ch-report/

And holy mole... a HughMANATEE sighting

Rare Manatee Sightings at South Padre Island
https://www.krgv.com/news/rare-manatee- ... nd?sfns=mo

[Pele'sDaughter]

Damn, I got a 404 error on the shark article. So, a great white was spotted in the G of M? There are definitely sharks in the Gulf but I've only seen small ones washed up on the beach and, of course, that was eons ago.