Ever wonder just what Steve Irwin died from? You recall he was struck in the chest and died from a stingray. Well, how in h-e-double-hockeysticks can you die from that?
Today was interesting. I went-by the shop where they had finished my rebuild of my engine which blew-out the #3 rod big-end after I did a dyno pull. The dyno pull was at a different Miami FL area shop. The story is under 'dyno dilemma' on the 'Motor' thread.
One of the guys who hangs-out at the shop where I had my engine work done by Steve, the owner of Under Pressure, Dania Beach FL, and has his work done there is Jeff, a relocated London UK guy who happens to be a welder, and his clientele is filled with rich guys-no, really-rich guys, the kind who keep 100-200-300+ ft yachts in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami for the handful of times in a year when they want to use them. Sure, they are concerned with prices, as-in, "I want my yacht ready to go when I fly in on my Gulfstream/Dassault/Lear at the end of the week, is it ready?" This could mean anything from staying at dockside, to being able to cross the Atlantic to relocate to the Mediterranean Sea for a few months. Jeff fixes yacht problems. He has a full machine shop and staff of welders, and if you need something maritime fixed for the 'leisure boating' market, you retain Jeff.
Ten years ago, Jeff was looking for a building to house his operations. He bought a building which had been housing a taxidermy business, one of the largest in the world, located in Ft. Lauderdale. Now, it's his welding shop.
One of the side benefits that came with the purchase is that all the workings of this taxidermy business went with the building. So now Jeff has all these fiberglas molds of just about any species or size of fish that inhabits the Atlantic.
He was poking around in the rafters recently and see what he found! It was draped-over a pair of rafters and probably had been put up there and forgotten 40+ years ago. It's a stingray tail. The one that killed Steve Irwin was probably 1/5 the size of this one! Be sure to see the overall size of it, the guy holding it is Jeff, and he's about 6'1". There are typically 3 barbs on the end closest to the stingray body. On this specimen, one is broken-off/missing. In olden days, the islanders would use the quills as needles to mend their nets, after drilling a hole in the ends. One shot is the barbs where the tail begins from the body, another is the overall length of the tail, it's about as-tall as Jeff, and the third is a close-up of the serrations on one of the barbs-easy to penetrate, but like a fishhook times 100 coming-out.
Now you have an idea of what penetrated Steve Irwin's chest and heart, a freak accident which cost him his life, courtesy of a long-forgotten Florida stingray tail found by the present owner of an industrial building once housing one of the world's largest taxidermy firms. What does Jeff do for fun? He owns this, among others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkFk2mWgeo&feature=player_detailpage
That's Jeff using the remote starter at the beginning of the video.
The V-Max, designed long-ago, but capable of bringing grown men to their knees due to its lethal sting, ignore the classic at your own risk. "Do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
:biglaugh::clapping::clapping::clapping::biglaugh:
Today was interesting. I went-by the shop where they had finished my rebuild of my engine which blew-out the #3 rod big-end after I did a dyno pull. The dyno pull was at a different Miami FL area shop. The story is under 'dyno dilemma' on the 'Motor' thread.
One of the guys who hangs-out at the shop where I had my engine work done by Steve, the owner of Under Pressure, Dania Beach FL, and has his work done there is Jeff, a relocated London UK guy who happens to be a welder, and his clientele is filled with rich guys-no, really-rich guys, the kind who keep 100-200-300+ ft yachts in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami for the handful of times in a year when they want to use them. Sure, they are concerned with prices, as-in, "I want my yacht ready to go when I fly in on my Gulfstream/Dassault/Lear at the end of the week, is it ready?" This could mean anything from staying at dockside, to being able to cross the Atlantic to relocate to the Mediterranean Sea for a few months. Jeff fixes yacht problems. He has a full machine shop and staff of welders, and if you need something maritime fixed for the 'leisure boating' market, you retain Jeff.
Ten years ago, Jeff was looking for a building to house his operations. He bought a building which had been housing a taxidermy business, one of the largest in the world, located in Ft. Lauderdale. Now, it's his welding shop.
One of the side benefits that came with the purchase is that all the workings of this taxidermy business went with the building. So now Jeff has all these fiberglas molds of just about any species or size of fish that inhabits the Atlantic.
He was poking around in the rafters recently and see what he found! It was draped-over a pair of rafters and probably had been put up there and forgotten 40+ years ago. It's a stingray tail. The one that killed Steve Irwin was probably 1/5 the size of this one! Be sure to see the overall size of it, the guy holding it is Jeff, and he's about 6'1". There are typically 3 barbs on the end closest to the stingray body. On this specimen, one is broken-off/missing. In olden days, the islanders would use the quills as needles to mend their nets, after drilling a hole in the ends. One shot is the barbs where the tail begins from the body, another is the overall length of the tail, it's about as-tall as Jeff, and the third is a close-up of the serrations on one of the barbs-easy to penetrate, but like a fishhook times 100 coming-out.
Now you have an idea of what penetrated Steve Irwin's chest and heart, a freak accident which cost him his life, courtesy of a long-forgotten Florida stingray tail found by the present owner of an industrial building once housing one of the world's largest taxidermy firms. What does Jeff do for fun? He owns this, among others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkFk2mWgeo&feature=player_detailpage
That's Jeff using the remote starter at the beginning of the video.
The V-Max, designed long-ago, but capable of bringing grown men to their knees due to its lethal sting, ignore the classic at your own risk. "Do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
:biglaugh::clapping::clapping::clapping::biglaugh:
