Thursday Things: Unemployed Wizard Edition
28 October 2021. Vol 3 No 43 By Dan McGirt. #116
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Happy Halloween! Photo by James Kemp on Unsplash
It’s hard out there for a wizard. New Zealand council ends contract with wizard after two decades of service. You’d think being a wizard would be a pretty secure occupation. But not in New Zealand. The town council of Christchurch recently fired the town wizard after 23 years:
The official Wizard of New Zealand, perhaps the only state-appointed wizard in the world, has been cast from the public payroll, spelling the end to a 23-year legacy.
The Wizard, whose real name is Ian Brackenbury Channell, 88, had been contracted to Christchurch city council for the past two decades to promote the city through “acts of wizardry and other wizard-like services”, at a cost of $16,000 a year. He has been paid a total of $368,000.
Why would you fire the town wizard? According to the town council’s PR flack:
The city is embarking on new tourism and promotional direction that will reflect its diverse communities and “showcase a vibrant, diverse, modern city that is attractive to residents, domestic and international visitors, new businesses, and skilled migrant workers”, she said.
“We’re going in a different direction.” Lame.
But the Wizard has their number:
“It’s just they don’t like me because they are boring old bureaucrats and everyone likes me and no one likes them,’’ he said.
And fear not! Even though the Wizard is no longer on the payroll, he will continue to serve the good people of Christchurch, because that’s what good wizards do:
The Wizard said he would keep up his regular appearances at Christchurch’s Arts Centre, chatting to tourists and locals. The centre is hosting an exhibition of his life this month, which is supported by the council.
When asked if he would curse the council over its decision, he said he preferred to give blessings.
“I give children happy dreams, general good health, and I want to make bureaucrats become more human.”
That last goal may be beyond even the power of a Wizard.
This just sounds like a bad idea. Physicists Created a Supernova Reaction on Earth Using a Radioactive Beam.
For the first time, physicists have been able to directly measure one of the ways exploding stars forge the heaviest elements in the Universe.
By probing an accelerated beam of radioactive ions, a team led by physicist Gavin Lotay of the University of Surrey in the UK observed the proton-capture process thought to occur in core-collapse supernovae.
It’s actually pretty cool, but “Hey, let’s set off off a supernova reaction” seems like the kind of thing that leads to accidentally blowing up the planet. Physicists, though. What can you do?
Read all the details in Physical Review Letters.
Lost City of Gold. Have Sumatran fishing crews found the fabled Island of Gold?Treasures worth millions found in the last five years along the Musi River could be the site of the Srivijaya empire. I have to admit this article is the first I’ve ever heard of the Srivijaya empire — I’m not as up on Southeast Asian history as I should be — but I’m still excited by this find because Lost City of Gold!
It was a fabled kingdom known in ancient times as the Island of Gold, a civilisation with untold wealth that explorers tried in vain to find long after its unexplained disappearance from history around the 14th century. The site of Srivijaya may finally have been found – by local fishing crews carrying out night-time dives on the Musi River near Palembang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Their extraordinary catches are treasures ranging from a lifesize eighth-century Buddhist statue studded with precious gems – worth millions of pounds – to jewels worthy of kings.
Srivijaya controlled the so-called “Maritime Silk Road” which was a major trade route between the Middle East and imperial China. Its rulers acquired extraordinary wealth as a result. Then, in classic Behind the Music fashion, it all fell apart:
Why the kingdom collapsed is unknown. Kingsley speculates that it may have been Asia’s answer to Pompeii, falling victim to Indonesia’s bubbling volcanoes. “Or did the fast-silting, unruly river swallow the city whole?”
I’ll assume a curse of some sort was involved. However it happened, Srivijaya was lost to time. Now local fishing crews dive into the Musi River and come up with gold coins and statues, jewels, and other artifacts — many of which, unfortunately, disappear into the global black market: “Treasures now retrieved by the fishers are simply being sold before archaeologists can properly study them, ending up with antiquities dealers, while the fishers using dangerous diving equipment and buckets receive a pittance of the true value.”
“They are lost to the world,” Kingsley warned. “Vast swathes, including a stunning lifesize Buddhist statue adorned with precious gems, have been lost to the international antiquities market. Newly discovered, the story of the rise and fall of Srivijaya is dying anew without being told.”
To quote the late, great Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. — “It belongs in a museum!”
Going Hog Wild — Why You Should be Eating More Wild Pigs Right Now. Thursday Things has covered the wild boar menace previously. They’re still out there, millions of wild pigs on a rampage, destroying crops and doing an estimated $52 million of crop damage annually in Texas alone.
As with many problems, this one is self-inflicted: “Most wild pigs found throughout America today are directly related to a combination of Eurasian wild boars and domesticated pigs that have escaped and become feral after spending a few generations in the wild.”
The solution: Eat Them. “Wild pig meat is much leaner than commercially-raised pork, and far richer-tasting. It's widely accepted that pigs that are allowed to roam and forage will taste better than pigs kept in pens.”
If you’re not up for harvesting and butchering wild hogs on your own — and, granted, that can be a messy business. you can still do your part to battle the Porcine Menace.
Hogs For A Cause is on it: “Hogs for a Cause is an organization specifically benefitting local communities by donating thousands of pounds of wild boar. Their ground crew teams up with aerial hunting companies to pick up downed boars and take them to their processing unit, where they dress the animals and get them ready for donations to local non-profits and families who need meat.”
Wild hog meat is slso available through vendors like Broken Arrow Ranch, Heritage Foods USA, and Prather Ranch Meat Company.
“I was framed.” Photo by Ed van duijn on Unsplash
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