Hands up who thinks the world is coming to an end - hands up those who don't

One thing for sure, it's definitely easier to believe that the world will not come to an end. I'm in that category although not all the time depdending on the latest world events. The controversy surrounding the Mayan calendar and its sudden and abrupt end leads some believers to assume the end of the world is nigh. So it's not surprising that another new poll reveals that 15% of people worldwide believe the world will end in their lifetime. Another 10% are convinced that the Mayan calendar indicates it could occur in 2012.

The beliefs are varied depending on the geographical location. The Ipsos Global Public Affairs conducted the poll for Reuters and asked 16,262 people in 20 countries their opinion on their beliefs. Only 6% of French residents believe that their time on planet earth is nigh (love that word "nigh" - so Shakespeare) compared to 22% of in Turkey. This leads one - me - to believe that the French being who they are, refuse to entertain such an idea. Maybe it's the amount of delicious and inexpensive wine they drink or perhaps they're too busy involved in creating those scrumptious patisseries, or turning out those gorgeous fashions. ("What does that have to do with anything, Eleanor?" Nothing really but I was just thinking...) But I digress.

Meanwhile, getting back to the statistics, 22% of Turks are believers as are U.S. residents, with slightly fewer in South Africa and Argentina. A mere 7% of Belgium residents are world-end-believers and 8% of Brits. Thinking further, perhaps it's due to the Brits staunch character makeup and personna that would lead them to question the concept and dismiss it as heresay. But I digress.

So where were we...furthermore, approximately one in ten people around the world answered that they were apprehensive regarding the concept of planet earth's demise in 2012. The largest numbers are in Russia and Poland.

The Ipsos poll questioned people in China, Turkey, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, the United States, Argentina, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, France, Spain, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Italy, South Africa, Great Britain, Indonesia, Germany.

So what does this all mean in the big picture, you might be asking yourselves. Is the Mayan calendar right? Go know! I'm of the belief that polls take the pulse of people at a particular time. Their answers depend on their state of mind at that moment.  If and when the world does come to an end, whenever, there's nothing much we average humans can do about it. When it's all said and written, perhaps we should live each day as if it was our last and take in everything our world has to offer.

"The mountains, rivers, earth, grasses trees and forests, are always emanating a subtle, precious light, day and night, always emanating a subtle, precious sound, demonstrating and expounding to all people the unsurpassed, ultimate truth." (author unknown)

Cutting the grass, mower or less

It's Spring, when a man's or woman's thoughts usually turn to...mowing the lawn. After a long winter's nap buried snugly under a blanket of white, nature compels grass to do what grass usually does. Grow it does and then some.

Came accross an interesting piece in a news article.

Here's something for people who kvetch about how fast their lawns grow and how difficult it is to keep up with cutting them/it/the grass.

Seems that the British are now adopting - wait for it - wallabies as pets to trim their lawns. A wallabie according to Wikipedia, is "any of about thirty species of macropod (Family Macropodidae). It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name."

Now you know but let's get back to this new craze that could be sweeping England.

According to the article that I found, wallabies don't come cheap at a cost of £150 for males and £650 for females. Notice that the females are considerably more expensive than the male wallabies whatever that means.

Let's say...people (in this case Brits, but their popularity could spread) really take to wallabies and slowly they replace sheep. Slowly, sheep will lose their place as the official grass nibblers of the hills, replaced by the interloping Australian marsupials. A time could arrive down the line when sheep will have to fight for a piece of land, just like the days in the old west. There will be public appearances on talk shows like Oprah and Ellen with their human spokes-people showing un-sheared sheep suffering from over-wooliness syndrome. Facebook campaigns to save-the-sheep will emerge. The craze could spread accross the ocean at our doorsteps and it won't be long before wallabies will become a public fixture on weekends cutting North American lawns.

"See you got a new lawnmower," a neighbor will say to another, setting up the scene. "Nice model. I got a new one too."

At which point the neighbor-Mr. wallabie-owner will lead out his new living model mower while the other neighbor watches in stunned silence.

It's a possibility!

Somewhere down the line there will probably be a public outcry with animal rights protesters decrying the use of wallabies for human usage as barbaric and detrimental to the wallabie's health. At that point wallabies will lose their appeal and sheep will retain their former glory.

By the way anyone looking to keep a wallaby should have enough land for them to roam, at leat a half an acre with fences at least 5ft high to ensure they can't jump for freedom.

I mean, really. What next? Trained angel fish? For the record I tried training my angel fish without any success. Stubborn breed I'm told.