The Shrinking Globe

I just got a new shipment of button batteries in for the Deben collars -- 100 batteries for $15 which includes shipping from Hong Kong (via EBay).

That works out to just 15 cents per battery as compared to $2 to $2.30 a battery at Radio Shack or Home Depot.

It's an odd thing that you can have batteries sent from China that end up costing a small fraction of batteries purchased from just around the corner.

The world is becoming a smaller place. The locator collars now come from Switzerland or Germany as well as the UK, the antibiotics come from India or China, the button batteries from Hong Kong. The pictures I take in the field are from a camera made in Japan and are looked at by people in Denmark, Sweden, Canada and California. Field sport books can be located in used books shops across the world, from Australia to Maine, or ordered (new) from Wales. Money is converted and changes hands with the click of a computer mouse. A dog's pedigree can be examined on line, and pictures and even video exchanged. The dog itself can arrive on your doorstep with 24 hours.

Some things don't change much, however. The animals are still the same size, and they live the same seasonal lives they always have. The dogs required to do the job are the same as they ever were, and so too are the core tools of shovel and bar. If Jacques du Fouilloux or the Rev. John Russell were alive today, they would feel comfortable with the tools and the goal (though both might be surprised to learn there are no hunt servants around to do the actual job of digging!).