Weird World

Kailash ‘Kalau’ Singh is Indian Man Goes 35 Years Without Bathing

2009-05-22T11:42:00.001-05:00

Kailash ‘Kalau’ Singh is from the village of Chatav outside the holy city of Varanasi. He is 63-years-old and the father of seven daughters. He has gone for 35 years without bathing apparently in an attempt to have a son.

One of Singh’s neighbors, Madhusudan, says that a seer told Kalau years ago that if he didn’t take a bath, he would be blessed with a male child. It seems that many Indians prefer sons for financial reasons. Sons are breadwinners. Girls have to have the matrimonial dowry for the grooms family when they marry. Also, in Indian culture, all their earnings go to their husband’s family. For those reasons, girl children are considered a burden.

So for 35 years Singh hasn’t bathed. It appears his efforts are not working so far.

This has been costly for him. He used to own a grocery store, but had to go out of business when customers quit coming to his store because of his ‘unhealthy personality’. He now works in the fields. He also incurred the anger of his family when he refused to take a ritual dip in the river Ganges even after the death of his brother five years ago.

In spite of what his neighbors have said, Kalau claims he doesn’t remember how it all began. He claims his pledge to not wash is in the ‘national interest’. ‘I’ll end this vow only when all problems confronting the nation end,’ he said.

Even though he refuses to take water baths, he does take fire baths. That involves standing on one leg next to a bonfire, smoking marijuana and saying prayers to Lord Shiva. He claims its just as good as using water to bath and the fire kills germs and infection in the body.

Oh, and he doesn’t brush his teeth either.

Considering this whole scenario its not surprising that he hasn’t had a male child. The surprising thing is that he’s had any children at all.

Source

Atheist offers to deliver messages to friends of Christians transported in The Rapture

2009-05-18T09:50:00.003-05:00

There are those who believe in the Rapture prophesied in the Bible. And there is Joshua Witter, avowed atheist.

They need each other.

At least some people think so -- those willing to pay Witter to be their post-apocalyptic postman, delivering cards and letters to their non-believing friends, relatives and neighbors who will be left behind when the Day of Reckoning arrives.

About 70 people have paid the Orlando man about $5 apiece to get their messages to those doomed to face the plagues, pestilence and darkness of Armageddon.

As sure as the True Believers are they will escape this earth when the Rapture arrives, Witter is just as certain he will be left behind to deliver their mail. He has committed blasphemy to make sure.

"Anyway you look at it, I'm screwed. It's too late for me," said Witter, a 24-year-old computer software engineer who wears long sideburns and hip black-framed glasses.

Witter started his website -- postrapturepost.com -- as a joke, a satiric jab at those who see things like the swine flu, economic collapse and the election of a liberal president as sure signs the end is near.

But then he started receiving orders for his merchandise. Since 2005, Witter said he has sold more than 200 items, most of them T-shirts and coffee mugs, and many of those (he admits) to friends and fellow atheists.

Among the best sellers are the line of I-Told-You-So cards, which sell for $8. Some of those who ordered the cards -- Witter suspects they are not true Christians -- are willing to pay extra to have them sent early as Christmas cards.

Witter doesn't have a stack of cards or letters with Post-Rapture messages in a dresser drawer or safety deposit box. All the messages are stored in his computers, encrypted to protect their privacy and backed up by a fail-safe system. His website might be all in jest, but when it comes to his paying customers, Witter is a responsible entrepreneur. He doesn't share the contents of the messages with his friends over beers or mock those who take this whole end-of-the-world business more seriously than he does.

He concedes that delivering on his promise to hand-deliver the cards and letters entrusted to him may be difficult. Witter has read all the books of the popular "Left Behind" series, so he knows what to expect. Covered with boils, he will have to fight his way through perpetual darkness, clouds of insects, and meteors falling from the sky to deliver the mail.

"Your hope lies with me. I am your mailman," he vows. "I'll do my best come Hell or high water to deliver those letters."

On the other hand, should the Rapture not arrive in his lifetime, he gets to keep the money, which he promises to use to subsidize his sinful lifestyle.

And don't even think about asking him to forward a message from the future for free.

"I turn people away who ask for free letters," he said. "I'm not a charity."

Credited to www.orlandosentinel.com

A pilot landed on an Illinois golf course

2009-05-15T02:04:00.004-05:00

A pilot who landed his four-seat airplane on an Illinois golf course so his 14-year-old son wouldn't be late for a tennis lesson has been sentenced to 18 months of court supervision.

Lake Villa resident Robert Kadera pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Lake County Associate Judge Charles Johnson also ordered the 66-year-old to pay a $500 fine and perform 60 hours of community service.

No one was injured in March 2008 when Kadera landed on a golf course in Lincolnshire without permission. Police stopped Kadera and his son as they were walking to a nearby tennis club.

Johnson told Kadera to stay away from the golf course. Kadera is still subject to any action by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Credited to news.au

Kangaroo survives arrow through head

2009-05-12T11:16:00.001-05:00

Australian wildlife officers say a kangaroo survived for up to a week after being shot through the head with an arrow and is expected to make a full recovery.

Wildlife Australia has posted a 10,000 dollar (7,600 US) reward to find the people responsible for shooting the kangaroo, which was found in parkland near Melbourne's outer suburbs last Thursday.

Veterinary surgeons from Melbourne Zoo operated on the stricken marsupial over the weekend and were optimistic about his chances.

"This was a big injury, but because the arrow didn't seem to have been in there for a long time, and the injury was fresh, hopefully he'll be okay," Melbourne Zoo vet Michael Lynch told reporters.

"I'm cautiously optimistic about the kangaroo's prospects for a full recovery."

Wildlife Victoria spokeswoman Fiona Corke said the kangaroo was rescued just days after another kangaroo was found with an arrow in its rump in the same location.

She said her organisation wanted to catch those responsible.

"It's just unbelievable, I just can't believe that anybody would do something so cruel. It must be a very cold-hearted person to do that," she told national news agency AAP.

Corke said the kangaroo was believed to have survived for up to a week before it was discovered and taken to an animal hospital.

Bureau Report

Orangutan escapes enclosure in Australia zoo

2009-05-10T12:34:00.003-05:00

A zoo in Australia was evacuated today after an "ingenious" 137-pound orangutan short-circuited an electric fence and hopped a wall surrounding her enclosure.

The ape, a 27-year-old female named Karta, jammed a stick into wires connected to the fence and then piled up debris to climb a concrete and glass wall at the Adelaide Zoo.

Zoo curator Peter Whitehead says Karta sat on top of the fence for about 30 minutes before apparently changing her mind about the escape and climbing back into the enclosure.

Karta came within a few metres of visitors, who were the first to notice the animal's escape bid.

Whitehead says the animal was not aggressive, but the zoo was cleared as a precaution, and veterinarians stood by with tranquilizer guns in case of trouble.

Officials at the zoo in the southern city of Adelaide plan to conduct a "thorough review" of the escape bid and it is likely some vegetation that could be used in a future try for freedom will be removed from Karta's enclosure.

Credited to cnews

Right whales break birth record

2009-05-09T11:23:00.001-05:00

Right whales have plenty to celebrate this Mother's Day — the sea moms gave birth to a record 39 calves this spring.

The New England Aquarium said Friday that the birth surge breaks the old record of 31 and shows much improvement from 2000, when only one calf was born.

Each birthing season is important because right whales number fewer than 400 and are among the most endangered whales in the world.

Having a calf is no easy task for the 50-foot-long whales, who give birth off the Florida and Georgia coasts.

The moms travel nearly 1,000 miles down the East Coast to warmer waters for their babies, who weigh roughly 2,400 pounds at birth. And the moms can lose up to 30,000 pounds in the first year they are nursing.

Bureau Report

Pet fanatic who kept 1,000 exotic animals in tiny Oldham home jailed

2009-05-08T10:58:00.002-05:00

A pet fanatic who crammed more than 1,000 animals into his tiny semi has been jailed.

John Ord Clark kept tanks packed with hundreds of lizards, frogs and other reptiles stacked from floor to ceiling in each of his three bedrooms.

Animal welfare officers who raided the 42-year-olds house twice last year described it as a zoo.

The horrified team found four boa constrictors, seven geckos and a water dragon, plus dogs, parrots, chickens, tortoises and a rat. RSPCA Inspector Catherine Burns told Oldham magistrates court: It was impossible to count all the animals, but I would estimate there were more than 1,000.

The dogs were living in appalling conditions. Their pen was cramped and full of faeces which was splashing on to their coats.

There were no dry areas for the dogs and their water was filthy. Fungus was growing in a tank which housed a snake.

The rat was in a small plastic box which meant it was sitting in its own urine and faeces.

Clark, who had denied all charges, was found guilty of 14 offences including causing unnecessary suffering to seven geckos and failing to meet the needs of a water dragon, three bearded dragons and eight cross-breed dogs.

Also among the offences was running an unlicensed pet shop, following the discovery of a leaflet entitled Reptile Mania which contained his contact details.

He was sentenced to three months jail and banned from keeping animals for five years.

Credited to www.mirror.co.uk/

Stinking whale carcass drives tourists off Goa beach

2009-05-07T09:54:00.002-05:00

The carcass of a 14-metre-long humpback whale, hastily buried by forest department officials in the popular Palolem beach in south Goa, is driving away tourists due to stench from the dead animal, much to the ire of local shopkeepers dependent on the tourists.

The blubbery carcass of the whale had washed ashore at a small uninhabited island off Palolem April 29. The stinking carcass was later hooked to speed boats and brought to the Palolem beach, 70 km from here.

The forest department officials, who were supervising the operation, chose to bury the massive whale bang in the middle of the beach in a shallow pit. An overbearing stench from the carcass is now driving tourists away from the beach.

"Who will want to come to the beach now? Even we can barely stay at our shacks with this kind of stench," Ramesh Dessai, who runs a popular eatery at a beachside shack at Palolem beach, said Thursday.

"Dogs have now started digging up the pit and feasting on the rotting whale," he said.

Range forest officer Miguel Fernandes said they had not dug the pit, but had requisitioned the Canacona Municipal Council (CMC) to execute the task.

"They had to dig the pit quickly. We did not have time on our hands. The carcass had to be buried quickly because it was already beginning to smell," Fernandes said.

The CMC meanwhile has promised to solve the stench issue quickly. "We are aware of the problem. The CMC is in the process of making alternate arrangements," Agnelo Fernandes, a municipal council official, said.

The Palolem beach is one of the most popular beach in south Goa and is famous for its pristine surroundings and its relatively less commercialised surroundings.

IANS

Russian woman gives birth during heart operation

2009-05-06T10:20:00.002-05:00

A woman unexpectedly went into labor just before heart surgery in the Russian city of Penza, and gave birth to a healthy girl, the clinic's chief doctor said on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old woman from the nearby Russian republic of Mordovia "was admitted to the clinic for an urgent operation to replace an artificial heart valve, which the patient had been living with for several years," Dr. Vladlen Bazylev told RIA Novosti.

Replacing a heart valve usually involves open-heart surgery, and is considered a high-risk procedure.

Surgeons were preparing to carry out the operation, when the woman went into labor, two and a half months before she was due. The doctors decided to carry out a cesarean section, before replacing the valve.

After more than six hours on the operating table, the woman's condition is satisfactory. Dr. Bazylev said the baby girl is being closely monitored, but is not in any danger.

Credited to www.en.rian.ru

Weirdest Japanese Commercial

2009-05-03T13:29:00.000-05:00

Weird ping pong match

2009-05-02T12:53:00.000-05:00

Man Cuts Off, Eats Finger in Protest

2009-04-29T13:14:00.003-05:00

A Serbian union official who chopped off his finger and ate it in a protest over wages that in some cases have not been paid in years, said Monday he did it to show how desperate he and other workers were.

"We, the workers, have nothing to eat. We had to seek some sort of alternative food and I gave them an example," Zoran Bulatovic told Reuters. "It hurt like hell."

Bulatovic, a union leader at the Raska Holding textile factory in Novi Pazar in southwest Serbia, used a hacksaw to cut off most of his left-hand little finger Friday.

Bulatovic said he decided to act after his deputy, "a single mother of three, was the first to say she would cut off her finger. I could not allow her to do that," he said.

State-owned Raska Holding was a major textile producer in the late 1980s with a workforce of 4,000. It suffered during the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and a loss of markets and mismanagement during a decade of wars and sanctions led to massive job cuts, leaving the company with just 100 workers.

Some employees have not been paid for years, only collecting social benefits, like free medical care.

About two dozen workers went on a 19-day hunger strike last year. They want the company's debt to be swapped for state-held equity and a welfare program for those nearing retirement.

Bulatovic said his comrades will not back down from their demands, but they will postpone planned self-mutilations at least until talks with government officials in Belgrade expected Tuesday.

Credited to news.aol.com

Yorkshire man wakes up Irish after brain surgery

2009-04-28T12:50:00.003-05:00

A Yorkshire man woke up from brain surgery to find he'd turned from a flat vowelled, thrifty dalesman into a blarney kissing, 'Danny Boy' singing, happy-go-lucky Dubliner.

The Daily Mail reports that 30 year old Chris Gregory spent three days on life support, after a blood vessel in his brain ruptured. While the staff were relieved to see him come round, they were non-plussed when he opened his mouth and began speaking in a broad Irish accent.

He then spent 30 minutes lilting away and bursting into a rendition of 'Danny Boy'.

His wife-to-be walked into the ward, and heard a commotion including "someone singing 'Danny Boy' really loud. It sounded like a drunken Irishman, and all the racket seemed to coming from the direction of Chris’s bed."

Mrs Gregory then realised the Ronan Keating-a-like was her future husband who had apparently been reset from tyke to jackeen. On spotting his wife, he apparently declared "It's da broid."

She added, "It’s not as if Chris has any Irish relatives. He’s no connection with the country and he’s never been there - that’s what makes it all so strange."

There's no indication whether Gregory was a Boyzone or Westlife fan or if he'd ever seen an episode of Father Ted or Ballykissangel.

The frightening possession apparently wore off after half an hour, leaving Gregory with no memory of the incident.

It seems that Gregory is just the latest victim of "foreign accent syndrome", where a smack to the head or other trauma leaves the sufferer speaking in a foreign accent, or even a foreign language.

Back in 2007, a Czech speedway racer discovered his inner British toff after another rider ran over his head. Matej Kus, 18, a non-English speaker woke up having lost his memory, but having gained a BBC accent.

In 2004 a Bristol woman woke up speaking French and thinking she was living in Paris. She was subsequently diagnosed with Susac’s syndrome. But as she explained to the Daily Mail last year, "It might sound funny to others, but suddenly thinking you are French is terrifying."

Credited to www.theregister.co.uk

Ultimate Weapon Against Mormon Crickets: Hard Rock

2009-04-27T07:56:00.003-05:00

The residents of this tiny town, anticipating an imminent attack, will be ready with a perimeter defense. They'll position their best weapons at regular intervals, faced out toward the desert to repel the assault.

Then they'll turn up the volume.

Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way.

But the crickets don't much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years ago. So next month, Tuscarorans are preparing once again to get out their extension cords, array their stereos in a quarter-circle and tune them to rock station KHIX, full blast, from dawn to dusk. "It is part of our arsenal," says Laura Moore, an unemployed college professor and one of the town's 13 residents.

In flyspeck villages like Tuscarora, crickets are a serious matter. The critters hatch in April in the barren soil of northern Nevada, western Utah and other parts of the Great Basin, quickly growing into blood-red, ravenous insects more than 2 inches long.

Then they march. In columns that in peak years can be two miles long and a mile across, swarms move across the badlands in search of food. Starting in about May, they march through August or so, before stopping to lay eggs for next year and die.

In between, they make an awful mess. They destroy crops and lots of the other leafy vegetation. They crawl all over houses, and some get inside. "You'll wake up and there'll be one sitting on your forehead, looking at you," says Ms. Moore.

They swarm on roads, where cars turn them into slicks that can cause accidents. So many dead ones piled up on a highway last year that Elko County, Nev., called in snowplows to scrape them off.

Squashed and dying crickets give off a sickening smell. "For us, it's mostly the yuck factor," says Ron Arthaud, a painter here.

Many springs, the infestation is negligible. But every few years, far bigger swarms hatch. From 2003 to 2006, armies of crickets went forth. They smothered the county seat, Elko, causing pandemonium as residents fled indoors. Realtor Jim Winer couldn't, because he had to show homes. "I carried a little broom in my car," he says, "and when I got out, I would sweep a path through the bugs to the house."

Every half-century or so, plaguelike numbers hatch. The critters got their name in the 19th century after a throng of them ravaged the crops of a Mormon settlement. But "I don't think they care about Mormons or Baptists," says Lynn Forsberg, who runs Elko County's public-works program. "I don't think they care about anything."

Including one another. Mormon crickets are programmed to march. Any cricket that falls by the wayside is eaten by others, ensuring that at least some cross the hot, barren stretches well-fed.

Following an unseasonably warm winter, some in Elko County fear a big crop this year of Mormon crickets, known more precisely as shield-backed katydids, or Anabrus simplex. State entomologist Jeff Knight is using computer models to document when the crickets will hatch, and "once they have hatched, we will start going in and mapping where all the crickets are," he says.

Towns in their path aren't waiting to find out. Elko County officials have stored tons of poison bait, which they'll soon start handing out. Placed properly, it can help. In 2003, which was a bad year, residents organized a bucket brigade to lay poison bait in the countryside, luring many bugs to their doom.

But last year Diana Bunitsky sprinkled the bait too close -- right outside the rural diner she runs, Lone Mountain Station -- and crickets swarmed onto her property to gobble it. Ms. Bunitsky ran outside and sprayed them with a garden hose, "but when I looked back, they had gone around and were all over my walls," she says.

Some people use chalk dust to try to smother crickets. Lori Roa, a job counselor in Elko, swears by Lemon Joy. She sprinkles the detergent over her shrubbery. In Jarbidge, Nev., Rey Nystrom, proprietor of the Jarbidge Trading Post, says a neighbor uses a squirt bottle loaded with soapy water. "But you're squirting one at a time, so it's spitting against the wind, so to speak," he says.

Here in Tuscarora, signs are worrisome this spring. Numerous cricket nymphs in the sandy soil are beginning to wiggle, says Elaine Parks, a local artist.

Tuscarora began as a gold-mining town in the late 19th century, and by 1878 had a population of 5,000. But the ore mostly petered out by 1900, and the town has been dwindling ever since, to its current size of just over a dozen. ("But in summer we get up to 20," says postmaster Julie Parks.)

There are hints the community has mixed feelings toward its crickets. The town sports a giant sculpture of a Morman cricket, made out of chicken wire, burlap and glue. For the Fourth of July parade last year, three women dressed up as "cricket witches."

But when a throng of crickets began to advance ominously on Tuscarora in the spring of 2006, Ms. Parks, the artist, dug up a 1934 article in the Elko Free Press about a woman who had used a Chinese gong to drive them away. That led to the modern adaptation of a boombox perimeter.

"Crickets kind of sleep at night, so I would wake up first thing in the morning to get the music on and we would shut the music off at night," Ms. Moore says. Townsfolk cranked up the volume throughout the daylight hours for several days in a row.

"The theory was they'd hate heavy metal," Ms. Parks says. Indeed, locals report, in 2006, at least, many of the bugs stopped in their tracks. Says Mr. Knight, the entomologist: "The vibrations may deter the bugs, but I don't know of any research that says yes or no."

Some of the following year's crickets had hipper tastes, waltzing in to lay their eggs, as many as 100 apiece. In 2008, these eggs hatched right in the middle of Tuscarora. "They were crawling all over the side of the houses and three deep in the yard eating each other," Ms. Moore says.

The nymphs now wriggling in the dry soil near homes are too close to people for poison bait, although residents will probably try some when the hatchlings start to move about.

To fend off the armies marching in from outside, Tuscarora is ready to deploy the boombox defense again. "We'll have to come up with a playlist for the crickets," Ms. Parks says.

They have a fallback strategy, to make even more noise if rock music isn't enough: The townsfolk plan to crank up their lawn mowers and Weed Whackers.

Credited to online.wsj.com

Woman Gives Birth on Fifth Avenue

2009-04-25T12:57:00.003-05:00

After nearly 40 years as a nurse, Lucille Nassery had no problem identifying the sounds coming in the window from Fifth Avenue. Those were definitely the sounds of childbirth.

"There's a certain kind of sound that comes from women who are about to deliver. It's not just a typical scream. It's a whole-body scream," she said Friday, hours after she ran to peer down at an SUV parked hastily in front of Mount Sinai Medical Center. A distraught man circled the vehicle, looking for help, and a very pregnant woman lay across the front seat, howling.

Nassery, a nurse manager, grabbed a team of nurses, doctors and anesthesiologists and rushed outside.

The mother, Elizabeth Brew of Scarsdale, was 33-weeks pregnant. While she remained in the SUV — her legs extended toward busy Fifth Avenue and Central Park — the hospital staff brought equipment into the middle of the street. Nassery and other staffers used their bodies to block off two lanes of traffic.

With the baby girl's head already crowning, the group wasn't going anywhere. The 4-pound, 13-ounce girl was delivered right out on the avenue. Passengers in taxis stuck their heads out of windows to cheer and exclaim over the baby. Drivers stopped to yell out: "Is the mother OK?"

The mother, an old hand at this with two kids already at home, interrupted the merriment to tell the doctors it wasn't over yet.

A few minutes later, the second of the pair of twins, a 5-pound, 5-ounce boy, was delivered. Both children were healthy, but they were expected to remain hospitalized in neonatal intensive care for several weeks because they were premature. Brew, 39, was admitted to recover in a hospital room.

After all the chaos settled down, Nassery said, she gave the babies' father some cleaning supplies — just to tidy up the SUV before finishing his parking job.

Credited to news.aol.com

A mysterious figure sighted on parking lot

2009-04-24T10:59:00.004-05:00

A mysterious figure resembling a human being was sighted on the Doha Corniche’s parking lot, according to a report published in a local Arabic daily.

The report is based on the statement of an Arab expatriate lady who said she had seen the strange figure near the Oryx statue while walking in the area.
Quoting the woman, the daily said she took a picture of it in spite of being terribly frightened.

“She was very soon surrounded by a large number of people who also attested to the fact of what she had seen . But it suddenly disappeared out of their sight when they tried to go near it,” the report added.

Credited to www.gulf-times.com
Picture by Al Watan

A live shark dumped on the doorstep of an Australian country newspaper office

2009-04-23T11:05:00.003-05:00

A live shark dumped on the doorstep of an Australian country newspaper office had local police puzzled Thursday, with authorities vowing to charge the person who left it with animal cruelty.

The juvenile Port Jackson shark, which measured around 70 centimetres in length, was left in darkness outside the office at Warrnambool, on the coast of southeast Victoria state. "We arrived and poured some water on it just to see if it was still breathing and it kicked around for a little while," Constable Jarrod Dwyer told state radio.

"I walked over to McDonalds and borrowed a bucket off them and filled it up with water, and we picked the shark up and put it inside it and then drove it down to the breakwater and released it back into the water," he said.

Port Jackson sharks can grow up to 1.6 metres long (5.5 ft) and typically feed on crustaceans, sea urchins, and fish. They are nocturnal and common across Australia's southeast coast. Dwyer said the newspaper was unaware why anyone would leave a shark to die outside.

"They had no ideas of any person that wished them any harm or wished to send them any type of message, so we're a little dumbfounded," he said.

Credited to news.stv.tv

New Zealand forgets to name islands for 200 years

2009-04-22T11:19:00.003-05:00

You'd think that knowing the names of the major parts of your own country would be fairly simple to get right - but authorities in New Zealand were surprised to discover that their country's two main islands weren't called what they thought they were.

In fact, it turned out they didn't have names at all.

Experts who were looking into possible alternative Maori names for New Zealand's two main islands were startled to find their English names - North Island and South Island - were never made legal.

The board had spent several years exploring a process for formally recognizing alternative Maori names for each island before they noticed that the islands had never been formally given English names either, board chairman Don Grant said.

'While researching this issue, we noted that "North Island" and "South Island" are actually not official names under our legislation, despite their common long-term usage,' Grant said.

To repair the 200-year-old oversight, the country's Geographic Board said it would take steps to legally name the two islands, which make up more than 95 percent of New Zealand's land area.

The New Zealand Geographic Board assigns, approves, alters or discontinues the use of place names for land features, undersea features and protected areas in New Zealand, its offshore islands and its continental shelf and in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica.

South Island, the larger of the pair, is also known locally as 'the Mainland,' while North Island, where three-quarters of the population lives, is also called 'Pig Island,' partly for the wild pigs that English explorer James Cook brought during a visit and that still roam in the wilderness.

Credited to www.metro.co.uk

Rejected baby kangaroo gets life-saving milk at Belgrade zoo

2009-04-21T08:29:00.003-05:00

A startled kangaroo at the Belgrade zoo dropped her baby from her pouch and now won't let the tiny creature climb back in, so an international rescue operation has been mounted.

Belgrade zookeepers said Tuesday that six-month-old Tijana fell out of the pouch last month after her mother was scared by an emu - a large Australian bird.

Now, the big-eyed baby kangaroo, which normally would feed on her mother's milk inside the pouch, is being fed in an incubator with special milk donated by Australia, the United States and Germany.

"The zoo has done a fantastic job," said Australia's ambassador to Belgrade Clare Birgin, after delivering a shipment of kangaroo milk. "They really saved her life."

Belgrade zookeeper Mainga Hamadahamane said that advice from the zoos in Australia, Germany, the Czech Republic, the U.S. and Belgium saved Tijana's life.

"Without them, she wouldn't be alive," he said, cuddling the tiny creature.

The zookeepers said Tijana will be fed from a bottle for the next couple of months before getting such food as rice and bananas.

Credited to cnews.canoe.ca

Wanted: Computer hackers ... to help US govt

2009-04-19T11:58:00.002-05:00

Wanted: Computer hackers. Federal authorities in the US aren't looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks.

General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyse Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.

In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011.

With warnings that the US is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes.

President Barack Obama appointed a former Bush administration aide, Melissa Hathaway, to head the effort, and her report was delivered on Friday, the White House said.

While the country had detailed plans for floods, fires or errant planes drifting into protected airspace, there is no similar response etched out for a major computer attack.

David Powner, director of technology issues for the Government Accountability Office, told Congress last month that the US has no recovery plan for a digital disaster.

"We're clearly not as prepared as we should be," he said.

Administration officials says the US has not kept pace with technological innovations needed to protect its computer networks against emerging threats from hackers, criminals or other nations looking for national security secrets.

US computer networks, including those at the Pentagon and other federal agencies, are under persistent attack, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious assaults, possibly from other nations, such as China. Industry leaders told Congress during a recent hearing that law enforcement and other protections are too outdated to fend off threats from criminals, terrorists and unfriendly foreign nations.

Just last week, a former government official revealed that spies had hacked into the US electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service. The intrusions were discovered after electric companies gave the government permission to audit their systems, said the ex-official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Cyberthreats are also included as a key potential national security risk outlined in a classified report put together by Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pentagon officials say they spent more than USD 100 million in the last six months responding to and repairing damage from cyberattacks and other computer network problems.

Nadia Short, vice president at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, said the job posting for ethical hackers fills a critical need for the government.

The analysts keep constant watch on the government networks as part of a program called Einstein that was initiated by the Bush administration under the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

Short said the USD 60 million, four-year contract with US-CERT uses the ethical hackers to analyse threats to the government's computer systems and develop ways to reduce vulnerabilities.

Faced with such cyberchallenges, Obama ordered the 60-day review to examine how federal agencies manage and protect their massive amounts of data and what the government's role should be in guarding the vast networks that control the country's vital utilities and infrastructure.

Over the past two months, Hathaway met with hundreds of industry leaders, Capitol Hill staff and other experts, seeking guidance on what the federal government's role should be in protecting information networks against an attack. She sought recommendations on how officials should define and report cyberincidents and attacks; how the government should structure its cyberoversight; and how the nation can increase security without stifling innovation.

A task force of technology giants, including representatives from General Dynamics, IBM, Lockheed Martin and Hewlett-Packard Co. urged the administration to establish a White House-level official to lead cyberefforts and to develop ways to share information on problems more quickly with the private sector.

The administration has struggled with the basics, such as who should control the nation's cyberspace programs. There appears to be some agreement now that the White House should coordinate the overall effort, rejecting suggestions that the National Security Agency take it on — a plan that triggered protests on Capitol Hill and from civil liberties groups worried about giving such control to spy agencies.

Bureau Report

Biting your own penis isn't good for you

2009-04-17T13:04:00.003-05:00

A convicted sex offender from Brooklyn took a bite out of crime and a bite out of himself too, police said.

Damiene Iriarte was found naked and bleeding behind a building in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn after having bitten the tip off his own penis, police told a local newspaper.

It goes without saying that he was subsequently hospitalized.

"How he did it? Limber, I guess. Not the work of a sane mind," a police official told The Daily News.

You think?

Iriarte, 26, pleaded guilty in Suffolk County in 2004 to two misdemeanors after being accused the previous year of raping a 13-year-old girl, according to the News.

It's not clear why Iriarte bit his own penis, but investigators might be just as confused -- or impressed -- that he did it at all.

He's recovering at Brooklyn Hospital Center, representatives of which have not returned calls seeking comment.

Credited to www.msnbc.msn.com

Hong Kong billionaires build Noah's Ark replica

2009-04-16T08:23:00.004-05:00

This city's three billionaire Kwok brothers have just the answer for the rising waters threatening the global economy: the world's first life-size replica of Noah's ark, built to biblical specifications off the coast of this recession-struck Chinese financial center.

The message in its 450-foot-long hull, its rooftop luxury hotel and 67 pairs of fiberglass animals: "The financial tsunami will be over," says Spencer Lu, the Kwoks' project director at Noah's Ark, which is opening soon.

The land-bound ark wasn't built in response to the current global turmoil; it has been in the planning for 17 years. But the financial storm provides a nice marketing hook for the Kwoks' ambitious project, which will probably need to lure visitors from beyond Hong Kong's city limits to be an economic success.

It also ups the ante in the competition to build a big ark. Middle brother and ark champion Thomas Kwok insisted that it be constructed according to biblical specs, in part to distinguish it from one in the Netherlands that actually floats and boasts real farm animals but is just one-fifth the size of the biblical original.

Minders of the Dutch ark say they were in touch with the Hong Kong team and don't see it as competition. "We stand for the same goal as far as I can tell," said Jacky Baken, a 35-year-old gardener who quit her business to work full time on the ark. She says the group is at work on a full-size water-going version. And, she says, "We're still the first one with the floating ark."

These are just the latest additions to a veritable ark armada built around the world by the devout and the merely driven -- from a 300-foot-long ark built by a pastor in the Canadian town of Florenceville, New Brunswick, to one built by Greenpeace in 2007 on Turkey's Mount Ararat, warning of "impending climate disaster."

Richard Greene, a 72-year-old evangelical minister, began building his full-size ark, in Frostburg, Md., after a vision he says came to him in 1974. Mr. Greene ran out of funds in the 1990s, leaving a giant skeleton of concrete and steel, but he says that 35 years on, he hasn't lost hope, though he can't help but be in awe of the other ark-builders. "If I got jealous of what other people are doing, this whole thing would have sunk years ago," he says. "You just keep on keeping on...But if God doesn't move a lot quicker, I won't be around to see the completion of this ark."

Some latter-day Noahs believe the biblical story of a flood washing away man's misdeeds resonates in a time of sunken financial institutions and economic tumult. "Things aren't going so well, and God, even in the midst of all that trouble, has provided an ark of safety, a place where people can turn into and go," says Nathan Smith, a pastor at the nondenominational Florenceville church.

"People are scared and they don't know where they're going," says Johan Huibers, the 50-year-old builder of the Dutch ark, who hopes to be able to sail the boat to London in time for the 2012 Olympics, and then on to the U.S. and Australia.

The instructions in the King James version of the Bible call for a gopher wood and pitch vessel that is 300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high, with a window, a door and three stories. (By the reckoning of modern scholars, that comes out to about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.)

But the instructions aren't specific beyond that, and the engineering isn't easy. The Dutch version is made up of iron barges under the wood, while the Hong Kong ark is made of concrete reinforced with glass fiber.

Hong Kong's ark builders also tried to install a permanent rainbow through light refraction but eventually gave up when the science proved too difficult. The Dutch team is also wrestling with the challenge of installing a convincing rainbow.

The Kwok brothers, backers of the Hong Kong ark, are heirs to their father's blue-chip Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., which at the height of the real-estate boom was the world's largest property developer by market capitalization. But the brothers squabbled in recent years, and last year the board voted to oust eldest brother Walter Kwok as chairman and installed their 80-year-old mother to succeed him.

The Noah's Ark project reflects Thomas Kwok's evangelical Christian faith. During the 1990s, he set up a church on the 75th-floor pyramid atrium atop Sun Hung Kai's Central Plaza office complex. The Noah's Ark project was initially hatched as a theme park with rides, until Mr. Kwok decided the project should be something more than that. It was held up in planning for several years, and construction on the ark's foundations didn't begin in earnest until 2004.

The Kwoks' version of the ark, which sits on 270,000 square feet of space and was developed in conjunction with five Christian organizations, houses a restaurant, exhibition hall and children's museum in addition to the Noah's Resort hotel. Mr. Kwok won't disclose the cost of the project, which is beached on a small island in Hong Kong's harbor most reachable via ferry, at the foot of a busy bridge that connects the city to its airport.

Mr. Lu says his team has yet to come up with a strategy for promoting it to mainland Chinese, many of whom aren't familiar with the tale. The company is touting the project as a family-friendly vacation spot, and is framing it as an answer to the economic woes felt around the globe.

"People are experiencing a crisis right now," says Mr. Lu, waving his hand over fiberglass statues of a pair of bears overlooking the South China Sea. "It's possible that this financial tsunami has come at this time to Hong Kong for a reason. And our message is: The doors of the ark are not closed, they're open, and the animals -- representing new life -- are coming out."

The project has also come under fire from some groups that say the government shouldn't have granted Mr. Kwok a 21-year lease on the island to build an explicitly religious project, without the approval of the legislature. Mr. Lu says the park isn't promoting religion. "We're promoting meaning," he says.

Frances Leung, a 57-year-old social worker who has seen a big chunk of her savings evaporate in the markets, was invited to visit the ark before its official opening. She says she drew great inspiration from seeing the animals, and new hope.

"When you go to Disneyland, there's really no message there," says Ms. Leung. "But at Noah's Ark, there is such a strong message that life goes on."

Credited to http://online.wsj.com

Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships

2009-04-15T06:55:00.004-05:00

Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.

The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's.

The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.

China initiated its three-ship escort task force on Dec. 26 last year after the United Nations Security Council called on countries to patrol gulf and waters off Somalia, one of the world's busiest marine routes, where surging piracy endangered intercontinental shipping.

China's first fleet has escorted 206 vessels, including 29 foreign merchant vessels, and successfully rescued three foreign merchant ships from pirate attacks.

About 20 percent of Chinese merchant ships passing through the waters off Somalia were attacked by pirates from January to November in 2008, before the task force was deployed.

A total of seven ships, either owned by China or carrying Chinese cargo and crew, were hijacked.

Tianyu No. 8, a Chinese fishing vessel with 16 Chinese and eight foreign sailors aboard, was captured by Somali pirates on Nov. 14 and released in early February.

The second fleet of Chinese escort ships arrived at the Gulf of Aden on Monday to replace the first fleet.

Credited to news.xinhuanet.com
Photo Xinhuanet

Man Trapped in Blueberry Waffle Mix

2009-04-15T06:44:00.002-05:00

Firefighters rescued Anthony Abruzzese, who fell more than 30 feet into a silo housing flour for blueberry waffles at a Kellogg’s plant in Winslow Township, Camden, NJ.

Abruzzese, 38, is an employee at Kellogg. He got stuck in the silo when he went to check the flour levels, only to find himself waist deep in the white, powdery mix, according to the fire chief.

Rescuers were very careful as they tried to pull him out, fearing the wrong move could cause him to sink in the 10 feet of flour. There was also a concern that the flour could ignite.

Rescuers dropped ropes inside the silo to pull out Abruzzese, who remained conscious during the entire rescue process, after which he refused treatment.

Credited to www.msnbc.msn.com

Passenger Lands Plane After Pilot Dies

2009-04-15T06:37:00.003-05:00

It sounds like something out of the movie "Airplane!," but without the hilarious mid-air hijinks.

A passenger was forced to make an emergency landing at a Fort Myers airport after the pilot of a small aircraft suddenly died during the flight, saving five people onboard.

The plane was on autopilot and had nearly reached 10,000 feet when the pilot died. The plane, which had left Marco Island Executive Airport Sunday and was headed to Jackson, Mississippi made the landing at Southwest Florida International Airport.

The passenger who took the controls has been licensed for single-engine planes for 20 years, but isn't certified to fly the King Air plane, a large luxury model. To help guide the pilot in, an air traffic controller called a friend in Connecticut who is rated to fly the larger aircraft.

It's unclear what caused the pilot's death.

Credited to http://www.nbclosangeles.com