Swandives

Yes, you can!

Especially when it comes to news about the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. I was monitoring the Diggs to the breaking news on news.com.au and it was fast. Really fast. For the first half hour or so there were essentially two entries for it - one from the Courier Mail site and one on the main site, but that has since been rectified. I’ve just used one of the entries here:

After 30 minutes:    340 diggs

After 32 minutes:    368 diggs

After 33 minutes:    387 diggs

After 35 minutes:    435 diggs

After 36 minutes:    459 diggs

After 37 minutes:    511 diggs

Had a meeting, came back, by which time they’d combined the two digg entries.

After 101 minutes:    2104 diggs

After 120 minutes:    2393 diggs

To quote the man himself - ‘Crikey!’

EDIT1: I have fond memories of Steve Irwin - in part because I had a neighbour who used to take the mickey out of him something chronic. But I remember also being asked about him when I was working at What’s On TV in the UK. I remember my answer - ‘he’s that mad Australian who wrestles crocs’. It got me a laugh at the time. Later, I had a very different experience when his publicist decided that an article that mentioned him as an ‘animal tragic’ didn’t portray him in a sufficiently positive light to warrant a publicity shot. Let’s face it: publicists don’t mirror the people they represent.

I feel an unexpected loss, so I went out and got drunk this evening, on very high quality champagne. He lived a vibrant life. I hope I can do the same.

EDIT2: Diggs are now up to 4439…