From "'Heartbreaking' Video Shows Bear Before It Was Electrocuted Atop Utility Pole/The animal’s plight alarmed onlookers and highlighted the drought conditions that are forcing wild bears closer to where people live in search of food" (NYT gift link).
People need to stop rubbernecking. That link goes to Wikipedia where we learn:
H. L. Mencken said the word rubberneck is "almost a complete treatise on American psychology" and "one of the best words ever coined."
By 1909, rubbernecking was used to describe the wagons, automobiles and buses used in tours around American cities, and through their Chinatowns. The tours included a megaphone-wielding individual offering commentary on the urban landscape. Chinese Rubbernecks was the title of a 1903 film....
I looked for that old film, but didn't find it at YouTube, where I did find this:
And, via Wikipedia, here's Čumil, a popular sculpture of a rubbernecker that you can pose with if you go to Bratislava:
What is it about us humans, stopping to stare? It's not just that one bear has died because of our rubbernecking. Many have died. And some of us have lived because others refrained from rubbernecking. I count myself in that group.
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37 comments:
Don’t stop and stare. Go get a coffee.
Rubberneckers called 911.
>"More generally, it can refer to anyone staring at an object of everyday interest compulsively."<
A bear on top of a power pole is not exactly and "everyday" object. Few people are not going to stop and look at it - and they are not rubberneckers (per the linked definition).
OTOH, if I were King of the World, the myriad people who are compelled to take dozens of mundane photos a day with their stupid cell phones would be summarily electrocuted on power poles.
Always surprised when I see videos from Ukraine or wherever and people are looking out their windows the going "look at all the pretty explosions".
Just wait till some piece of shrapnel comes through the window, dummy.
Rubbernecking also leads to the unneccesary freeway slowdown, because every needs to look at the police car or accident on the shoulder.
The Texas City disaster of 1947 should be better known. If it had happened on the NYC/NJ waterfront, it would be. Here's the extract from Wikipedia:
"Flying shrapnel resulted in ignition of refineries and chemical tanks along the waterfront. Falling bales of burning twine from Grandcamp's cargo added to the damage, and her anchor was hurled across the city. Two sightseeing airplanes flying nearby were blown out of the sky,[10] while 8 miles away, half of the windows in Galveston were shattered. The explosion blew almost 6,350 short tons of the ship's steel into the air, some at supersonic speed.
The Monsanto Chemical Company plant adjacent to the slip where Grandcamp was docked suffered the brunt of the first explosion. Of its 574 employees and contractors, 234 were killed, and 200 more were injured. "
I've been watching that Chinese guy's videos lately. He shows all kinds of crazy Chinese health and beauty fads. It's a relief to see that when it comes to crazy, Americans are not alone. The Chinese seem to even be worse.
Pencilneck: Adam Schiff :: Rubberneck : Eraserhead ?
The only thing not cause by climate change is a change in the climate.
I dunno - I assume other bears have been electrocuted, but it's not something I'd typically expect to see. And if people are going out of their way to see the bear, that's not really rubbernecking, is it?
Generally, it's wise to be skeptical if someone tells you "nothing to see here, move along."
Is blogging --- a form of rubbernecking
Or an invitation?
The Rubbernecker, another type of person the good people can feel morally and intellectually superior to. The good people who weren't there can tell themselves they wouldn't have stopped or taken a picture if they had been.
Even if there wasn't a single car, the bear still stood a good chance of getting electrocuted up there.
"Is blogging --- a form of rubbernecking"
The entire internet is a form of rubbernecking.
I’ve sat through rubbernecking traffic jams that were worse than the actual accident that was on the other side of the highway.
I feel bad for the bear but as the Los Angeles Fire Boss would say... He got hisself into a wrong place.
**” Ice Nine said...they are not rubberneckers (per the linked definition).”**
The technical term is “lookey-loos.”
The bear was a big fan of that bicycle guy in Iran. Loved his stuff.
The rubbernecking did not cause the bear to be electrocuted. Being on top of the pole, while the lines were still energized, caused the bear to be electrocuted. It's a shame that they couldn't kill the power to allow the bear to climb down.
In the Philadelphia region it's called a Gaper Delay.
A simple sign would have prevented this:
"Do Not Climb Pole"
If this happened in California, the state would mandate the signs on every pole over 2 foot high, including stripper poles.
Well we have trained about three generations: "Stop! Hey, what's that sound?/Everybody look what's goin down...." CC, JSM
When I lived in or near Chicago, the radio traffic people always referred to it as a "gaper's block". I always preferred that to "rubbernecking". It must be a regional thing.
On the name Adair: I've known several people in my life with that surname, and they all pronounced it AY' dare, accent on the first syllable. I always heard the name of Jerry Adair, American League second baseman throughout the 1960s pronounced this way.
But either way works for me. And I learned today that is your middle name. As Mel Allen used to say "How about that?"
"people had been instructed"
But you know the way I am
There's nothin' you could do
If there's anything you don't want me to do
Said, go ahead and tell me to - Jerry Jeff Walker, 'Derby Day'
The bear climbed up the big pole
The bear climbed up the big pole
The bear climbed up the big pole
To see what he could see
And all that he could see
And all that he could see
Was the forest, river, and mountain
The forest, river, and mountain
The forest, river, and mountain
And a whole buncha people looking up
Was all that he could see
Was all that he could see
He was a linebear for the county
And he walked the main roads
Searchin' in the sun
For another honeycomb
I see him layin’ on the wires
I can hear the karens whine
And the dead Gladstone linebear
Is still on the line
…and he ain’t doin’ fine…
Black Bear Lives Matter
Dallas is also the biggest city in the U.S. I’ve never set foot in. I’m Irish-American. Oswald killed JFK in Dallas. That place is bad luck.
Rubbernecking in "rural New Mexico" is not really a serious problem. Traffic is not a serious problem. People are not a serious problem.
Finding a gas station is a serious problem.
Notwithstanding the mandatory propaganda about "climate change" stressing the bears, the black bear population in New Mexico (as in most other places) is as large as it's ever been and increasing.
https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/black-bear-population-growing-in-new-mexico/
Maybe the bear went up the pole because another bear chased him up there. More likely than humans doing it, as there are not very many humans in that part of the world.
"And the dead Gladstone linebear
Is still on the line"
Oh, golf clap! Heh.
If people didn't stop and look, the NYT would be shaming them for lacking empathy - look at those heartless people passing by without a second glance at the poor bear in distress.
What if? Why not? Jump!
Bearly viable.
I'm still a little surprised that Fish & Wildlife said there was nothing they could do about it. A little bit of enterprising spirit, some cooperation from the utility, and a dart gun......
But saying the drought caused the bear to climb the pole, now that's pretty dumb - but there they are, the experts: '...Scientists said that problem could become more persistent with accelerated land development and climate change....'. And the sheriff ain't much better: '...“The best thing we could have done is move people back and give it some breathing room and maybe we wouldn’t have had this unfortunate situation,” he said....' No, the best thing you could have done is cut the power and organize some hay, but that would have put people out for a while. It's not as if there was a crowd harassing the bear to 'touch the wires'.
...'she saw the bear, said her family drove away before it fell. But she was still haunted by the encounter....'
F*ckin' h*ll, lady, really now? Haunted, because you saw a bear that climbed a pole?
Lot's of people are under the misunderstanding that Climat Change primarily involves the oceans becoming to warm for fish and the ground becoming so dry that everything burns. But NO, it's driving bears mad. Driving them to climb power poles in search of honey.
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