Watch out for frozen koalas

Part of me can't help but giggle thinking that someone in New Zealand has a freezer full of frozen koalas

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsport/2826449/Frozen-koalas-may-be-thrown-at-rally-cars

Police say dead koalas and other frozen road kill may be used to disrupt the Australian leg of the Repco World Rally Championship in the Tweed Valley tomorrow. Head of the Tweed-Byron police, Superintendent Michael Kenny, told local media protest groups rallying against the racing event would be watched closely after rumours began circulating about the use of dead animals, the lighting of fires and people laying across the track. "Some of the bizarre things are that there is road kill been put in freezers that is going to be thrown on to the road during the event," Superintendent Kenny said yesterday. "That's a rumour at best but I'm saying there are a lot of stories going around about this sort of madness that may or may not occur." Protest groups No Rally and Kyogle-based 7th Generation oppose the rally on environmental grounds, claiming it will frighten off wildlife and disrupt the areas breeding season. They are also angry at legislative changes passed by the New South Wales Government to lock in the event for the next 20 years. No Rally has so far collected 705 signatures on an online petition. Repco Rally Australian chairman Garry Connelly told The Northern Star event organisers were undeterred by the roadkill threat and would employ a "unique" road tracking system that could detect if any animals had been run over by rally cars. "Other rallies have had threats from time to time, but I don't think they've ever had the threat of a frozen koala being thrown on a road before. That is really bizarre, but you have to expect the unexpected," he said. "That sort of thing will be easily detected. We have put in place a unique technology for the World Championship, in fact for motor sport - a unique road tracking system in relation to wildlife that may be injured during the event and we will have a very solid and conclusive, proven method of determining any road kill or any animal that is injured and we will be recording that and that will be in our report." Superintendent Kenny said placing anything on the track or lighting fires to obscure the drivers' view would put lives at risk. The Riot Squad and police in helicopters would be among 150 officers on hand for the event, which runs from September 3 to 6. But 7th Generation spokesman Peter Lanyon told the newspaper only safe protests were planned. "We respect the right of people to protest but so long as they are not putting anyone in danger," he said.

Koalas are Aussies, Kiwi's and Maoris are New Zealanders...Tweed Valley is Aussie...but that's not to say that some NZ'er doesn't have a freezer full of Koalas....they do have a major dislike of other Aussie marsupials....like possums for instance,

I'm not sure how I got New Zealand, but a freeze full of koalas is still amusing.

No different to a freezer full of deer meat, I am picturing a Koala steak hitting a WRX at 120 kph

aussiesmg wrote: No different to a freezer full of deer meat, I am picturing a Koala steak hitting a WRX at 120 kph

True, but is it as tasty? Never had koala before, and don't tell me it tastes like chicken.

I expect it would have a note of eucalyptus.

At a motorcycle enduro in Florida some years ago, there was some nutball on the course jumping in front of the riders and yelling that they were killing some endangered plant (a statement later found by the USDA Forest Service not to be true). At least he wasn't doing it by (frozen) proxy.

Threat of a Frozen Koala would be a berkeleying great band name. Dibs!

Watch out for those damn drop bears!

Have these people ever seen a state of the art WRC car? It would take something the size of a deer to put a dent in one.

However, when I checked the WRC site, I discovered SS6 was canceled due to protesters putting rocks in the road.

http://www.wrc.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=101&id=5912&desc=SS6%20cancelled

From the same source, Ogier faster than Latvala by 1.9 in Stage 9. Latvala +1.1 overall.

Hey hey hey! Watch it with the spoilers!

Wally wrote: I'm not sure how I got New Zealand, but a freeze full of koalas is still amusing.

Unless you are a Koala.

friedgreencorrado wrote: However, when I checked the WRC site, I discovered SS6 was canceled due to protesters putting rocks in the road.

Hmmm. Taking an action you know is likely to endanger the lives of others.

Reckless endangerment? Assault? Potentially manslaughter?

More than one person working together to commit a crime = conspiracy = felony?

Not that anything will likely come of it.

slantvaliant wrote:

friedgreencorrado wrote: However, when I checked the WRC site, I discovered SS6 was canceled due to protesters putting rocks in the road.

Hmmm. Taking an action you know is likely to endanger the lives of others. Reckless endangerment? Assault? Potentially manslaughter? More than one person working together to commit a crime = conspiracy = felony? Not that anything will likely come of it.

I'd have liked to see them go on and ignore the protesters. How big are these rocks? Don't the cars have lexan windshields? This rally is about the smallest environmental problem on the planet right now.

Rocks can be many sizes, and they tend to break suspensions or throw cars off into the woods before they break windshields when there's only one car on the road. Last time I remember this happening was the Safari, McRae hit a big rock or log or something.

No, they're not lexan windshields. They seem to break like glass.

Idiots. Seriously. Idiots.

A single human likely kills thousands of animals in their lifetime, whether they know it or not. A roadkill koala may be sad, but that's because it's cute. Where are all the people protesting for the armadillos?

mmmmmm.......Koala popcicles!

Both appear to be safe in Ohio, however Polecats and Possums seem to be fair game

Keith wrote: Hey hey hey! Watch it with the spoilers!

Keith, if you've got a way to watch WRC stage-by-stage without waiting for our European friends to post up their Eurosport coverage vids on youtube, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Interested enough to never post a spoiler again...

I watch the Eurosport feeds, but I prefer not to know what's going to happen ahead of time. I expect most North American rally fans work the same way. C'mon, spoilers are just plain mean. Although Latvala leading after the first day? That's not a big shocker. Neither will be "Latvala crashed out of the lead" on day 2

Doesn't WRC.com have a subscription program to get live updates during a race? Virtual Spectator and the like? I'm not going to go to WRC.com to check because I don't want to know ahead of time what's going on...

This might help, if you could line up the greenies in your sights

http://www.arb.com.au/products/arb-protection-equipment/

as far as I know.. this has always happened with the rallies. I seem to recall reading up on the Fiat 124's rally history and it is mentioned there that a few races were determined or at least altered by locals making the roads impassable or waiting until the local teams went through and then putting cars or carts in the way to slow the other teams

Keith wrote: I watch the Eurosport feeds, but I prefer not to know what's going to happen ahead of time. I expect most North American rally fans work the same way. C'mon, spoilers are just plain mean. Although Latvala leading after the first day? That's not a big shocker. Neither will be "Latvala crashed out of the lead" on day 2 Doesn't WRC.com have a subscription program to get live updates during a race? Virtual Spectator and the like? I'm not going to go to WRC.com to check because I don't want to know ahead of time what's going on...

To be honest, I haven't really looked. They do have free short videos and the leader board (posted w/stage times & the overall shortly after the finish of each stage), and they're pretty good about updating their "news" section.

I guess I'm just a victim of my childhood, when real motor racing was never on TV (I still remember playing around with the shortwave radio all day to see if I could find out who'd won Le Mans). I just want to know how the thing is going, and if I ever get a chance to actually see the thing, I consider m'self lucky. I'll stop the spoilers, tho.