Avengers Endgame’s “happy ending” script provides the audience with complete indulgence, a minimal amount of loss suffered by individual characters, dreams fulfilled by all survivors, revenge upon the enemy, and yet another escape from facing the consequences of our actions. It’s what almost everyone wanted to see (except me) while simultaneously being a testament to the self-absorbed, self-righteous state of mind of the modern human.

For example, in both ‘Endgame’ and it’s predecessor ‘Infinity War’ the script and dialogue repeatedly refer to losing 50% of all life. Yet not in a single scene in either of the movies in which we witness characters turning to dust do we see ANYTHING else turn to dust. This includes scenes where characters are in the depths of the jungles of Wakanda, city parks, yards, or entire landscapes such as Agent Barton’s (Hawkeye) estate.
I tried to dismiss this thought as perhaps the writers had actually meant only human life, not all life, but they repeatedly and specifically used the phrase “all living creatures”. If that were the case, to drive home the devastation of what Thanos had done, I thought they might show at least one non-human perishing, such as a deer turning into dust or maybe just one tree amongst the many trees setting the backdrop where we see humans disappear.
Was this an oversight by the writers? Did it not occur to them that when Thanos’s mission was accomplished some of the vegetation surrounding our heroes would certainly fall into the randomly selected 50%? Surely at least one tree or blade of grass would be included in the “random” selection of living creatures.

Or is it even worse? Is this a reminder that our species is so focused on ourselves that non-human living creatures didn’t even register as a blip in the consciousness of the screenwriters?

That’s how most of us approach the planet in our daily rat race devoted to “getting ours while we can”, sacrificing anything in our path in the process. Chop down another forest. Mine another mountain. Level the grasslands to build another strip mall. The mall isn’t necessary but it sure is convenient and why not, there was no loss to life right? Nope. Not as far as we can see. Not as far as we are concerned. Not to a species that doesn’t see any life other than itself. Jobs, the economy, growth, progress, etc. Any one of those is an excuse used to extinguish other life as we expand.

Captain America does make the slightest reference to other life when he says that he “spotted whales on the way in, there are less ships in the water is cleaner.” But this doesn’t mean the whales are recovering from what Thanos did, it means the whales finally have a chance to recover from what we do currently. Black widow responds by giving him a look and a response that amount to, “How dare you think of anything except our personal loss? “
Which brings me to the next overhanging theme of the film. We, under the impression that we are such a special, important species, believe that none of us should ever suffer loss, that every human death is a tragedy, no matter how worthless that particular deceased biped might have been. But for every other living creature on the planet we quite comfortably declare death as a part of life...”that’s nature.” Furthermore, the scenes shown following Thanos’s’ ‘snap’ made it seem as though the planet was reduced to a ghost town rather than the reality that 4 billion of us, still far too many than should ever exist, remained.
I’m not sure people grasp the rate at which we are multiplying...consider that even if Thanos had successfully killed 50% of humans (roughly 4 billion people) he’d have to come back in only 50 years to cut us down to 4 billion again. He must not have done his homework because it turns out destroying the Infinity stones after accomplishing his initial goal seems to have been a premature celebration.

A planet of 1,000 people, 20 million, 8 billion, 15 billion...it doesn’t seem to matter how many of us there are, we all desperately hold on to an ideal that each of us is important. I admit that it doesn’t feel good to think we aren’t important, but it doesn’t change the harsh truth. Our pursuit of shallow existences leaves us feeling hollow at the end of the road, no matter how impressive your collection of selfies in exotic locations may be by the end. A more meaningful life was available, something closer to an actual purpose was yours for the taking, but instead you were another human chasing the almighty dollar at the expense of the survival of the entire planet. The only thing that can change that is us. But change is difficult and since we’re in a position of power we don’t have to change. Just like a spoiled child that won’t put down the candy even while suffering a stomach ache.

Thanos is the disciplinary parent we need, but don’t want.
​
Now that I’ve offended you and your sense of importance you’re probably ready to pose the challenge of whether I’d be willing to sacrifice my own life. The answer is yes, with the guarantee of a planet free from the horrific dictatorship of humanity. My only regret would be not to see it myself.

​

Last night an old travel buddy called me up trying to talk me into going on a trip with him. As he described his goals for the trip I immediately knew my answer would be no, although I didn’t have the heart to tell him immediately.
This caused me to reflect on a “guy trip” to South America with several friends back in 2011. It so happened I was in the early stages of emerging from my hard-core party phase and feeling the call of nature again. As they listed the cities they wanted to visit and party in I found myself conflicted with a desire to instead disappear into the spectacular forests and possibly witness the unique wildlife of those areas. Don’t get me wrong, I still wanted the other part too, but it was occurring to me that traveling all the way to South America to partake in man-made things was somewhat foolish considering the mind-blowing natural treasures exclusive to that part of the globe.

Today I woke up to see posts about the Notre Dame fire and quite a bit of sentiment reflecting my own feelings; ‘why were we so concerned and devastated about a building while we simultaneously have made peace with the destruction of earth’s temples? I turned off the social media before I could see counter-posts from Trumpsters calling people who defend nature “terrorists and Satan worshipers.”
I’ve been to Notre Dame and yes, it’s a cool building rich with history. But treasuring something for its histrionic value is becoming an increasingly hollow sentiment as I watch my species destroy some of the most amazing things our imaginations could even come up with in order to build more buildings...and more buildings and more and more and more of the same. Or make way for cattle grazing. Currently I’m not sure which is worse, grazing fields or building development. Both equal death for EVERYTHING that previously existed in those areas. These forests are homes to creatures which, when we see them documented on television, cause us to mutter, “My God, I never knew anything so amazing existed.” Followed shortly thereafter with actions that say “In the name of God we shall destroy these creatures and their homes.”

When debating the pros and cons of cage diving people are usually talking about white shark cage diving and whether it endangers people.  But what about the use of cages with other species of sharks? Can that be bad? Is it possibly bad for the sharks? Features appearances by Walter Bernardis, Jim Abernethy, Shark Man Dan, and Skyler Thomas.
​#cagedive #cageless #sharkdive

Can you tell which parts of the shark culling news is real and which is fake?  Sadly, reality and parody are not that far from each other in terms of ridiculousness when it comes to proposed methods of "shark mitigation".

Yes, Western Australia really does refer to a 15-month time span as a "trial", thus I jokingly called my non-existent 2-year study a trial.  Does calling something a trial help placate the public who are concerned?  "Oh, well, it's just a trial..."  Yes, a trial that lasts well over a year.

Yes, a contractor paid to check shark cull gear in Queensland died, presumably via entanglement and subsequent drowning.  That puts this year's stats in Queensland at:
1 person killed by anti-shark safety gear
0 people killed by sharks

Yes, smart drum lines still use baited hooks, which, so far, are catching non-target animals. Damage induced by being caught on these hooks simply can't be avoided, but it's not always as obvious as when the hook goes right out the skull of the animal.  Animals that aren't dead upon discovery often die from their wounds later.  These animals are listed as "released alive"...

Although my example of "pointing feet to the left at a beach" is a silly example, it is nevertheless comparable to real-world statistics.  Across the world, beaches enjoy zero shark-induced fatalities, whether there are shark nets or not.  No one pays attention to the success rate of humans entering the ocean without being hurt, we only look at the rare incidents when something goes wrong...then act as though we know how to make a number go from "once in a blue moon" to never.

#sharkcull #sharkstatistics #sharkbitestatistics #nosharkcull #trial #drumline #sharknet #capecod #westernaustralia​

What’s that? 100 green sea turtles slowly drowned in shark nets last year?  Well, are they endangered? Because long, horrific deaths are only bad if it’s happening to an endangered species.  ​

Note: I updated this post at the request of Ocean and Juan.  Originally I exposed (with evidence) multiple examples of hypocrisy and libel committed against Juan and Ocean by "scientific" organizations.  Juan and Ocean stated, "We want everyone to get along and work collectively regardless of any betrayals.  Let's just channel that bad energy toward shark conservation". 
Wow, Juan and Ocean really are jerks!

I had a rather obvious revelation regarding the recent Ocean Ramsey "shark harassment frenzy" taking place as I read the words at the top of yet another post bashing her.  This particular post, unfortunately, came from someone I knew.  The post read:

"Any positive message she supposedly had was buried under negativity and her desire to seek fame."

The particular link and photo these words were posted with was of Ocean's news article urging Australia to rethink culling.  I saw the same news article on another page but without the mean words added to the post and that's when it hit me.  All the negativity surrounding this controversy is born of the negative words people are adding to what were originally positive photos and posts.  To take someone else's post and repost it in a negative way is already uncool, but to then abstractly refer to "the negativity" associated with it as though it appeared out of nowhere when the reality is that you ARE the the source of that very negativity was too much for me to stomach. I posted a video response but took it down after I calmed down due to the amount of cursing I engaged in. 

There are good scientists out there, many actually, but why is it that the ones who are so quick to stir up an attack against people are also the ones who just so happen to be media seekers themselves?

Also read Advocacy Vs. Hate

These shark scientists (whose methods of capturing and tagging sharks have actually led to mortalities) calling swimming with sharks harassment are leading ya’ll down a path of B.S.. Tagging is a tool used in the process of forming a larger scientific picture, but the act of tagging in itself is not salvation for sharks nor is it always performed by those with pure intentions.
#taggingisalie #shiffman #conartist#fakescience #fakeconservation#taggingsavesnothing #realharssment#shark #sharkharassment

One of Guadalupe's legendary white sharks is Lucy, known for her size, personality, and extremely damaged tail.  
​This clip explains how Lucy's injury can be spotted from the air in order to identify her. I also take a moment to address common notions and misconceptions about shark size and growth potential, shark intelligence and perceived signs of intelligence and strategy.
Drone footage by Skyler Thomas.  Underwater footage by Andy Dellios.

​#lucy #guadalupe #sharklegends #sharkID #drone #mavic #greatwhites #whiteshark #whitesharkvideo #wsv

Every moment of white shark footage from my trips to Guadalupe this year...it's not all highlight reels, but if you want to just kick back and watch great white sharks from varying heights please sit back and enjoy.  The shark is sometimes hard to see, but if the footage is included, it means it is somewhere in the frame, so have some fun trying to spot it before it becomes obvious.
#greatwhites #drone #4k