Attraction ! .. .. Pelicans - free lunch !!

Sure have heard of the adage – ‘there is no free lunch’ – but Pelicans in Israel are enjoying !!  .. .. before you read further, here is a Pelican trying to attract at Coovum near Napier bridge (this photo is mine, rest are from web news sources) 

Trying to attract is a trait common in humans right from the birth of first woman ! - everyone knows the feeling of walking into a room full of friendly faces, and although each person seems nice, open and willing to talk, only one face stands out from the crowd. There may be a lot of physically attractive people in the room, but you can't seem to take your eyes off of this one particular person.  .. .. or many of us would like to attract a stranger more than a known person, thereby attaching undue importance to one and trying to display all our good qualities to woe and attract ! Most people can tell if they're attracted to someone in the first 90 seconds after they meet. Some theories  suggests that women are naturally attracted to men who exude confidence and passion, and who seem to lead exciting lives.   

According to a Professor of Anthropology, We always want what we can't have. No post on fatal attractions or crushes that develop along line.   "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" and its many variants are  a popular adage communicating the idea that it is impossible to get something for nothing.   The "free lunch" in the saying refers to the formerly common practice in American bars of offering a "free lunch" in order to entice drinking customers. The phrase and the acronym are central to Robert Heinlein's 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, which helped popularize it. The free-market economist Milton Friedman also increased its exposure   by paraphrasing it as the title of a 1975 book,  and it is used in economics literature to describe opportunity cost. 

Moving away, the opening act is a bravura display of visual pyrotechnics and aerial acrobatics. Russian military chiefs intercept a massive UFO in the thick of a dazzling meteor shower, shooting it down as it appears to menace Moscow. The craft plummets to earth in the Chertanovo residential area south of the city center, smashing through high-rise apartment blocks before flattening an entire neighborhood.  Contemporary Moscow becomes a battleground for the survival of the human race in Attraction, a bombastic alien-invasion thriller whose familiar plot is elevated by world-class visual effects. Director Fyodor Bondarchuk is the son of the late Soviet-era Oscar-winning filmmaker Sergei Bondarchuk and a public supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is arguably reflected in this film’s patriotic political subtext, although Bondarchuk insists the message is more universal than local.  .. .. but as every masala movie would have, Attraction shifts gear midway through from action thriller to girl-meets-alien interspecies romance, all spiced with culture-clash comedy and father-daughter friction. It then climaxes with a lurch into violent extremism when angry human mobs rise up against intergalactic immigrants in a running street battle that threatens to obliterate all of Moscow. 

Attraction was  a 2017 Russian science fiction action film directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk. The plot tells about an extraterrestrial spaceship that crash-lands in the Chertanovo district of Moscow. The Russian government immediately introduces martial law, as the locals grow increasingly angry at the unwelcome guest. According to Bondarchuk, the movie is a social allegory. The script writers stated that it was inspired by the 2013 Biryulyovo riots. 

Migratory pelicans have long raided Israeli fish farms, who try to deter them with loudspeakers, laser beams and by firing blank rounds from rifles. In their desperation, they have come up with another way: offering the birds a free lunch. An estimated 50,000 pelicans stop off in Israel during their annual migration from the Balkans to Africa, where they enjoy a mild winter before returning to Europe. They rest and feed in the Middle Eastern country for weeks, causing chaos for fish farmers, whose outdoor commercial pools and reservoirs provide rich pickings. Before the pelicans reach Israel “they have nowhere to stop and eat!” said a person  of the Israel Fish Breeders Association. So six years ago Israeli fisherman came up with a solution — providing alternative feed with unmarketable fish to try to keep pelicans away from the commercial pools.  Israeli fisherman provide  alternative feed with unmarketable fish to try to keep pelicans away from the commercial pools.

 But not everyone believes it’s a good idea. Critics say the birds may get used to making the luxurious stopover in Israel — and may even be enticed to stay the entire winter.    Fish farming is limited in Israel, producing just 10 percent of the fish consumed domestically. But it is vital for the small agricultural communities of Emek Hamaayanot, the lush area below the Gilboa mountain range in northeastern Israel often dubbed the “valley of the springs.” So to protect their livelihoods, the farmers in the Sharon region, north of Tel Aviv, and Hula valley, near Israel’s eastern border with Lebanon, have joined forces with the Nature and Parks Authority to create the alternative feeding sites.  Some of the farmers  spend around NIS 600,000 ($172,000) a year on measures including vehicle-mounted loudspeakers and firing blank rifle rounds. At night, projectors and laser beams are used to keep the birds away. 

Interesting !

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
2^nd Dec 2021.