Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A short post about mining

The announcement from Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson represents a major defeat for Brownlee, who first floated the proposals last September, initially encountering only muted opposition.

However, the leak in March of proposals that included mining on Great Barrier Island and Coromandel Peninsula spelt their death-knell.

Brownlee announced instead that the government would now pursue aero-magnetic surveys of mineral potential in Northland and the South Island West Coast, both areas where communities and local councils are believed to favour the extractive industry developments.
They will have their revenge. Aero-magnetic surveys will be conducted. Minerals will be found and extracted. You have been warned.

It is at times like this that I regret not having more knowledge of the Fantasy genre. I am sure there must be many a saga in which an enormous, hideous creature seeks control of mineral resources. If you, gentle reader, know of one such creature, do tell.

9 comments:

Grace Dalley said...

Smaug, in the Hobbit? Dragons in general have a thing for hoarding gold and gems.

Don't know if dragons are hideous, though. Scary, yes. :-)

Paul said...

Yes, dragons are rather sleek creatures. Maybe I am thinking of ogres or trolls: hoarding and coveting while being hideous. Or maybe I am thinking of some character in Dune, although (of course) not the handsome hero called Paul.

Lyndon said...

Perhaps not quite as ordered, but useful:

The dwarves in Moria, in their enthusiasm for mining, unleashed the balrog.

Mildly bemused to be supplying this suggestion.

Word verf - chiting: the act of having a carapace.

Paul said...

Chiting on WikiAnswers:
What can you do to stop chiting?

Answer
We can only answer questions we understand. No one seems to know what chiting is, care to explain that or look in a dictionary and get the right spelling. Thank you.

Samuel said...

"Or maybe I am thinking of some character in Dune, although (of course) not the handsome hero called Paul."

You may be thinking of Paul's son Leto Atreides II - he who transformed himself into a near-immortal hybrid of human and giand sandworm and built an empire upon the spice monopoly for three thousand years.

Anonymous said...

Or Baron Harkonnen perhaps? He was enormous and hideous by all accounts. He also wanted to control the spice on Arrakis.He is described in Dune as so "grossly and immensely fat" that he requires anti-gravity devices known as suspensors to support his weight.

Anonymous said...

Brownlee can't help but remind me of Hoggish Greedly from the Captain Planet cartoons. http://www.turner.com/planet/static/hoggish.html

Anonymous said...

From the website: "A villain of pig-like proportions, Hoggish Greedly lives to devour the Earth's natural resources. His love for overconsumption extends to every aspect of his behavior and is particularly evident in his "sloppy" eating habits.

Greedly goes after precious gems and minerals, noble forests, endangered species - whatever will satiate his enormous appetite for any rare, nonrenewable resource. Wherever he strikes, Greedly leaves waste and destruction in his wake.

Hoggish Greedly's repugnant, hog-like looks are accentuated by his snuffling manner and snorting interjections. Greedly is well aware of his piggish mannerisms. In fact, he delights in using his grossness to frighten and disgust his opponents.

nznative said...

Jabba the Brownlea ,,,,,, or is it Gerry the Hutt ?