Unnatural animals
Big cats on moors. Supposed great white sharks off cornwall. Nessie. All these supposed monsters pale into insignificance when you wander into the great unknown of Cannock Chase...

Was at uni at Stoke during the 90's. Was into mountain biking, so a group of us decided to head to Cannock Chase to catch some decent single track and downhill thrashes. As well as our bikes, we took a quantity of hash, which was smoked as we stopped at various points during the ride.

Towards the end of the day, I was hammering down a track when something caught my eye up ahead. Looked at it as I went past - a very small kangaroo. A little startled, I almost fell off my bike, but putting it down to the pot managed to get to the end of the trail and meet up with the others. One of the guys then piped up with "you aren't gonna beleive this but... just saw a kangaroo". So I wasn't the only one! Turns out we all saw it...

Next day we mentioned this to one of our lecturers - turns out there is a little colony of Red Necked Wallabies living wild on Cannock Chase.

Not spooky. And explained. But still, you don't expect to see little kangaroos mucking about in Staffordshire...
(animal252 last activated his kitten hammer on, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 13:24, 5 replies)

Wallabies
I hadn't realised that they were on the Chase as well: I know, though, that there's a colony living on the Roaches around Gradbatch. They've been there for - I think - about 50 years now. Certainly long enough to count as having naturalised... They've found a niche, and good luck to 'em!
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 14:13, closed)

So which is the better university? Stoke or Keele?
Or are there some things mankind is not destined to know... *cue twighlight zone music*
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 14:19, closed)

CD
It depends on what subject interests you. On the whole, Keele has the much higher academic reputation - generally redbricks do, compared to the post-'92s. But Staffs does have some good programmes, particularly postgraduate ones, including a very good MA in European Philosophy, and I hear that its postgrad international law programme is one of the best.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 14:30, closed)

The reason I ask is because I once went out with a girl at Keele
and they always badmouthed Stoke students.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 14:38, closed)

Stoke vs keele...
Keele tended to house the brighter end of the spectrum, whereas Stoke harboured the lower end of the scale generally - they used to do a module on David Beckham for fucks sake. I ended up there as I screwed up my a-levels and they did a 4 year biology degree where they gave you an HND after two years.

But if you wanted to survive, you avoided keele as it had the highest suicide rate of all uk universities
(animal252 last activated his kitten hammer on, Wed 9 Jul 2008, 19:12, closed)