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Thursday, July 25, 2013
Today in History
| 326 | Emperor Constantine refuses to carry out traditional pagan sacrifices. | |
| 1394 | Charles VI of France issues a decree for the general expulsion of Jews from France. | |
| 1564 | Maximillian II becomes emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. | |
| 1587 | Hideyoshi bans Christianity in Japan and orders all Christians to leave. | |
| 1759 | British forces defeat a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada. | |
| 1799 | On his way back from Syria, Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt. | |
| 1814 | British and American forces fight each other to a standoff at Lundy's Lane, Canada. | |
| 1845 | China grants Belgium equal trading rights with Britain, France and the United States. | |
| 1867 | President Andrew Johnson signs an act creating the territory of Wyoming. | |
| 1850 | Gold is discovered in the Rogue River in Oregon, extending the quest for gold up the Pacific coast. | |
| 1861 | The Crittenden Resolution, calling for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, is passed by Congress. | |
| 1894 | Japanese forces sink the British steamer Kowshing which was bringing Chinese reinforcements to Korea. | |
| 1909 | French aviator Louis Bleriot becomes the first man to fly across the English Channel in an airplane. | |
| 1914 | Russia declares that it will act to protect Serbian sovereignty. | |
| 1924 | Greece announces the deportation of 50,000 Armenians. | |
| 1934 | Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is shot and killed by Nazis. | |
| 1941 | The U.S. government freezes Japanese and Chinese assets. | |
| 1943 | Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is overthrown in a coup. | |
| 1944 | Allied forces begin the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy. | |
| 1978 | The first test-tube baby, Louis Brown, is born in Oldham, England. |
Heroic Japanese commuters pushed train to free woman trapped between carriage and platform
News of the positive sort
Train passengers and railway staff pushed a train to rescue a woman who fell and got stuck between a carriage and the platform while getting off at Japan Railway Minami Urawa Station in Saitama, near Tokyo, on Monday morning.
Following a public service announcement that a passenger was trapped, about 40 people joined train officials to push the 32-ton carriage, whose suspension system allows it to lean to either side. The unnamed woman in her mid-30s, was safely rescued without any serious injuries. After just an eight-minute delay, the train went on its way.
Following a public service announcement that a passenger was trapped, about 40 people joined train officials to push the 32-ton carriage, whose suspension system allows it to lean to either side. The unnamed woman in her mid-30s, was safely rescued without any serious injuries. After just an eight-minute delay, the train went on its way.
The Five Second Rule Will Make You Sick (And Maybe Dead)
Scientific Minds Want To Know
The origins of the five second rule are still being debated; some credit Genghis Khan for first implementing the rule for eating food from the ground and others credit the fast food industry as a means of reducing food waste, though both seem improbable.
Did you know ...
Did You Know ...
That more major sponsors sail away from Lush Dimbulb
That the world's oldest calendar was found in Scottish field
That collecting rainwater is now illegal in many states
About how christian fundamentalist homeschooling hurts kids
North Carolina Senate repugicans Pass the Most Draconian Voter Suppression Bill Ever
Lunatic Fringe
This bill makes registering hard and voting harder – with the added bonus of longer voting lines. To add insult to the pretense that this is about preserving election integrity, they are making it easier for thugs like True the Vote and the Voter Integrity Project to intimidate voters and for outside groups to help Art Pope buy the government.
In terms of suppressing the vote, you name it this bill has it.
The bill eliminates pre-registration for 16 and 17-year-olds. It eliminates paid voter registration as well as voter awareness month. Say goodbye to same day registration. The bill reduces early voting, prevents counties from allowing votes on the Saturday before an election or extending voting hours by one hour on Election Days in special circumstances (like long lines that will be an inevitable result of reduced early voting)
The bill also got rid of voter owned judicial elections (making it easier for Art Pope to buy the Judiciary) and straight party voting is gone, because we all know what a threat that was to integrity in the election process.
Voter registration polls will be purged more often.
The bill contains a provision that requires the state to provide acceptable ID free of charge. As we know when other repugicans tried this trick under the pretense that they weren’t trying to keep icky poor people from voting for free stuff they also knew that the money it costs to get the ID needed to get the free ID would be cost prohibitive. Unlike the comparatively mild House version, the allowed voter ID excludes student ID’s. Voters will have to have a passport, a driver’s license, a non-drivers license ID, a Veteran’s ID or a Military ID. That’s all, folks!
To add insult to what remains of the election process in North Carolina, the Senate bill proposes making it much easier for outside groups, like Art Pope’s best buds, the Koch Brothers, to buy the elections. They did this by raising the maximum campaign contribution to $5,000 with an increase of the limit every two years and reducing transparency requirements.
Would you like to take a wild guess who will be hit the hardest by this law?
Poor people, because getting the id needed to get the few pieces of state issued ID that would be acceptable under this bill still amounts to a prohibitive poll tax.
Young people, since they can’t pre-register. Also, their student ID’s no longer count as valid ID.
Black voters who are more likely to vote early. But that’s just a coincidence, right? According to the Supreme Court, those icky times when the south prevented Black people from voting are over.
For several reasons, older voters will get hit hard. Some older voters don’t have a birth certificate which is needed to get the few pieces of government issued ID allowed under this bill. Since the bill reduces early voter days and hours, it means they will have to wait in line much longer than before. Even then, since the bill also prevents poll stations from extending their hours on Election Day to accommodate people who have been waiting in a long line, there is no assurance that voters regardless of age will actually get to vote at all.
Since 56% of North Carolinians, used early voting in 2012, this bill will have a negative impact on the majority of North Carolina’s voters.
Even if voters survive the restricted registration process, manage to afford and obtain the few accepted forms of voter ID, and endure the inevitably longer wait in line, thugs from True the Vote, the Voter Integrity Project and others will be there to intimidate them. In the name of assuring more voter intimidation, Pope’s Puppets will increase the number of “poll observers”. You may recall the Romney army of “poll observers” purposely misled voters in Wisconsin.
Obviously, Pope and company are determined to dethrone Rick Scott as the most draconian voter suppressor in chief ever.
North Carolina repugican Lawmakers Ram Through Plan That Would Increase Taxes On Poor People
Lunatic Fringe
Just in case you aren't sure, weren't sure and never thought you would
be sure - the repugican cabal is built upon the foundational issue that
the rich need to get richer.From Think Progress
North Carolina lawmakers rammed through massive tax reforms on Tuesday that would disproportionately benefit higher-income earners, bringing the measure to a vote in the House after approximately 25 minutes of debate. The legislative compromise, which was formally unveiled on Monday, represents some of the biggest most regressive changes to North Carolina's tax code in eight decades. The Senate will take up the measure on Tuesday afternoon, both chambers will hold final votes Wednesday, and Gov. Pat McCrory (r) is expected to sign it by the end of the week.
"Those with average incomes of nearly $1 million would receive a total tax cut of nearly $10,000," the North Carolina Justice Center estimated, while the bottom 80 percent of taxpayers "would experience an increase in their taxes on average."
This Proves That repugican Policies Kill People
Lunatic Fringe
The republicans would like to sell us a piece of their pie, but what’s in it? As it turns out, a slimy mess, with a few creepy crawlies thrown in for good measure.
A new study released by the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) leaves little room to doubt that repugican cabal policies are killing Americans. The detailed report released this week, shows which parts of the country have the highest poverty rate and the shortest life expectancy rate (over age 65,) Wouldn’t you know it, those Southern repugican states stand out like sore thumb. Jan Diehm, of the Huffington Post created this infographic, using the CDC report. It creates a stark image of where repugican cabal policies would take the United States:
It’s also not surprising to learn that African Americans have a shorter life expectancy and are less healthy than white people. Those blacks who are unfortunate enough to live in the repugican cabal governed bible belt (also known as the poverty belt) where racism results in disparity, have the shortest life expectancy rates and lowest quality of life of any group living in the United States.
If the problems in the U.S. include…
- We live too long
- We need more poor people
- Too many people have access to quality health care
- The quality of education needs to lowered
- The quality of life for most people is too good
- Minorities are not dying fast enough
- Children have too much food and nutrition
- Toxic pollution of the air, water and land should be increased
McDonalds And Visa Give repugicans a Justification For Creating a Peasant Class
Lunatic Fringe
The issue many critics had with the special poverty budget is that it required an individual to hold down two full-time jobs, but most fast food chains and large discount retail chains do not offer full time work for their employees. In a canvas of 25 fast food restaurants, and 10 discount retail stores in California over the past week, not one establishment offered full-time work to employees who were not in management positions, and none paid more than the required minimum wage. The devastation is worse for “tipped” employees such as restaurant servers and waitresses who face a Congressionally mandated minimum wage of $2.13 an hour established in 1991, and those jobs, like most fast food and retail jobs are held by Americans with children living at home.
The budget did not account for child care, education, or realistic healthcare expenses; the McDonalds budget allotted $20 per month for health insurance that is non-existent in any state in the Union. It also suggested a rent allowance of $600 per month, and it belies empirical date that in the poorest state in the Union, a minimum wage full-time employee must toil 67 hours to afford the most meager apartment. In what was undoubtedly the most unrealistic assertion in the realistic budget was an allowance for saving $100 a month, and of 30 part-time minimum wage employees surveyed over the past week, not one was able to save even $10 a month as every penny they earned was spent, and exhausted, two days before the next payday.
During the campaign for the presidency last year, Willard Romney claimed 47% of Americans were moochers living off the government, and yet the so-called takers’ debts (living expenses) exceeded their income according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Those “takers” expense to income ratio belies the realistic budget pundits claimed was reasonable, and it realistically portrays the situation the great majority of Americans barely surviving in poverty experience every day. There are Americans who have never set foot in a movie theatre, restaurant, shopping mall, or even McDonalds because they live hand to mouth and struggle to feed their children on a daily basis. The repugicans in the House made their poverty existence more dire over the past few months by eliminating funding for food stamps, school lunches, the WIC programs and used the sequester to cut out Meals on Wheels, housing assistance, and Head Start that millions of poor families depend on the supplement their meager minimum wage jobs.
It is, by no stretch of the imagination, reasonable to assume that the McDonalds-Visa budget plan is preemptive of the plan repugicans intend for the majority of American workers. The repugicans in the House voted to eliminate overtime pay, resisted President Obama’s call to raise the pitiful minimum wage, and have made no secret of their desire to eliminate it to increase profits for their corporate donors. Last month Charles Koch launched a campaign to eliminate the minimum wage, and his legislative arm, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has enacted “right to work for less” laws in states across the nation. During repugicans August recess, they plan to convince their constituents across the country that their primary goal after their vacation most Americans never enjoy is “Fighting Washington for all Americans” that likely includes cutting services, eliminating the minimum wage, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and sending more Americans into poverty. Americans should not be deluded that when repugicans say they are “fighting Washington,” they really mean they are fighting Americans.
McDonalds, like most large corporate businesses and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce oppose any attempt to lift Americans suffering poverty out of a survival existence, and their budget plan is a ploy to prepare Americans for what repugicans have in store for them. Less than minimum wages, working two jobs to survive, and struggling to feed their children is the budgetary reality awaiting most Americans. The idea of upward mobility has been reversed for several years, and as more Americans slip from the middle class to the peasant class, repugicans and their corporate donors are attempting to convince poverty level Americans they can survive the wingnut’s onslaught if they just use budgetary constraint and follow McDonalds’ reasonable budget.
There is nothing reasonable, or realistic, in the McDonald-Visa budget. The great majority of corporate retailers and fast food outlets do not offer full time work, and it means their suggestion to work two full-time jobs is really working four part-time jobs. Even if a minimum wage employee works two full time minimum wage jobs, 85% of their income is relegated to housing and leaves precious little for food, and with repugicans cutting food stamps, even the working poor will be hard-pressed to eat, much less pay for heating, healthcare, electricity, and Hell-forbid public transportation to and from work.
At some point, Americans must come to grips with the simple fact that repugicans and their corporate funders’ only intent for the masses is a poverty existence, and no special budget is going to provide for anything other than survival which is much more than repugicans are planning for the American people. The biggest atrocity regarding McDonald’s budget was not that so-called intelligent pundits praised it as reasonable and realistic, but that they fell for false information and likely convinced poor Americans that privation is reasonable and for that they are culpable for enabling the repugican assault on the people.
Drug-affected man caught steering car with pair of vice grips
Now that's just Bizarre
Police said they saw a white Holden sedan being driven dangerously with two blown tyres in the Adelaide suburb of Gilles Plains. When the car was pulled over, police said there was no steering wheel and the driver was allegedly using a pair of vice grips to steer. The car was found to be unregistered and uninsured and already subject to a defect notice.
Police also allege the vehicle was involved in a hit-run crash in Northfield just minutes before it was pulled over. A 38-year-old Northfield man is facing charges including driving while disqualified and returning a positive drug test, allegedly for methylamphetamine and cannabis.
Meanwhile, in Cessnock, New South Wales, a 28-year-old man who wasn't wearing a seatbelt has been caught driving at almost four times the legal alcohol limit while holding a small python in his right hand.
Woman fined for taking horse into McDonald's after being refused service at drive-through
Now that's just Bizarre
A woman has been fined after walking into a McDonald’s with a
horse after being refused service at the drive-through. Staff had
declined to serve her at the drive-through on Saturday, saying it was
against company policy.
The woman then took the horse inside the Whitefield, Bury, branch of the fast-food chain, where it left a deposit on the floor. Police were called and the woman was handed a fixed penalty notice fine for 'causing alarm and distress' to customers trying to eat their lunch.
A statement posted by Greater Manchester Police's Whitefield branch on its Facebook page said: "On Saturday, July 20, police from Whitefield received a call from McDonald's on Fountain Place regarding a woman on horse using the drive thru. The staff refused to serve the women due to company policy.
"The women then took the horse into the restaurant who ended up doing his business on the floor. The sight and smell of this caused obvious distress and upset to customers trying to eat, as well as staff members. Officers arrived at the location and woman was issued a Fixed Penalty notice for causing alarm and distress to other customers and staff."
The Lucky Tree Of Chapel Rock
Planet Earth
There is hardly any topsoil, certainly not enough for an obviously thriving tree. How then does it flourish?
US Navy, Coast Guard Prep for Ice-Free Arctic
It's Only The Environment After All
Fort Tells of Spain’s Early Ambitions
Scientific Minds Want To Know
Could the South Have Gone to Spain?
by John Noble Wilford
In the Appalachian foothills of western North Carolina, archaeologists
have discovered remains of a 16th century fort, the earliest one built
by Europeans deep in the interior of what is now the United States. The
fort is a reminder of a neglected period in colonial history, when
Spain’s expansive ambitions ran high and wide, as yet unmatched by
England.
An archaeologist working near Morganton, N.C., in a
section of the defensive moat of the earliest fort built by Europeans.
If the Spanish had succeeded, Robin A. Beck Jr., a University of
Michigan archaeologist on the discovery team, suggested, “Everything
south of the Mason-Dixon line might have become part of Latin America.”
But they failed.
Researchers had known from Spanish documents about the two expeditions
led by Juan Pardo from the Atlantic coast from 1566 to 1568. A vast
interior seemed open for the taking. This was almost 20 years before the
failure of the English at Sir Walter Raleigh’s “lost colony” near the
North Carolina coast or their later successes in Virginia at Jamestown
in 1607 and at Plymouth Rock in 1620 — the “beginnings” emphasized in
the standard colonial history taught in American schools.
One of Pardo’s first acts of possession, in early 1567, was building
Fort San Juan in an Indian town almost 300 miles in the interior, near
what is known today as the Great Smoky Mountains. It was the first and
largest of six forts the expedition erected on a trail blazed through
North and South Carolina and across the mountains into eastern
Tennessee. At times Pardo was following in the footsteps of Hernando de
Soto in the 1540s.
Pardo’s orders were to establish an overland road to the silver mines in
Mexico, on the mistaken assumption that the Appalachians were the same
mountain chain that ran through central Mexico. No one then had a sure
handle on the near and far of New World geography. Even the written
records of the de Soto expedition beyond the Mississippi River did not
seem to clarify matters; they did not come with maps.
After years of searching, archaeologists led by Dr. Beck, Christopher B.
Rodning of Tulane University in New Orleans and David G. Moore of
Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., came upon what they described
in interviews as clear evidence of the fort’s defensive moat and other
telling remains of Fort San Juan. The discovery in late June was made
five miles north of Morganton, N.C., at a site long assumed to be the
location of an Indian settlement known as Joara, where military
artifacts and burned remains of Spanish-built huts were also found.
While excavating a ceremonial Indian mound at the site, the
archaeologists encountered different colored soil beneath the surface.
Part of the fort’s defensive moat had been cut through the southern side
of the mound. Dr. Beck said that further excavations and magnetometer
subsurface readings showed that the moat appeared to extend more than 70
to 100 feet and measured nearly 12 feet wide and 6 feet deep, in a
configuration “typical of European moats going back to the Romans.”
Other remote sensing surveys showed subsurface anomalies suggesting
burned timbers of the palisades and an irregularity that may well be
ruins of the “strong house” inside, where tools, weapons and lead shot
were stored. Investigating these artifacts is on the agenda for next
summer’s excavations, Dr. Beck said.
Chester B. DePratter, an archaeologist at the University of South
Carolina who is an authority on Spanish exploration in the Southeastern
United States, happened to be at the Joara site as an independent
observer when the discovery was made.
“I am certain that they have found the long lost Fort San Juan,” Dr.
DePratter said last week. “The coming years, as the moat and blockhouse
inside are excavated, will be quite exciting.”
The discovery was significant, he added, because it emphasized the
Spanish advance deep into the interior by 1566, long before “the English
built a fort as far inland as Fort San Juan, much less as far west as
the French Broad River near Knoxville” — which was “well into the 17th
century.”
None of the other Pardo forts have been found. Spanish records report
that about 18 months after Fort San Juan’s construction, Indians in the
region rebelled and put the torch to them all, killing all but one of
the soldiers in the garrisons. Pardo, who had returned to his base at
Santa Elena on the coast at present-day Parris Island, S.C., lived to
return home to Spain.
The provocation for the Indian uprising is not clear, though Dr. Beck
noted that “food and sex were probably two of the main reasons” for
destroying the Spanish settlements.
Although the soldiers prospected for gold around Fort San Juan, they
never found any. Yet Dr. Beck noted that much later settlers scooped up
nuggets near local rivers, setting off a gold rush before the 49ers of
California. Had the people of Joara given Pardo’s soldiers time to
discover gold, Dr. Beck speculated, Spain would probably have flooded
the area with settlers “and everything changes and nearly everybody in
the southeastern part of the country might be speaking Spanish today.”
Paleontologists uncover pristine dinosaur tail in Mexico
Scientific Minds Want To Know
After 20 days of working in the desert of Coahuila, within the
Ejido Guadalupe Alamitos, municipality of General Cepeda,
paleontologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History
(INAH) and the National Autonomous University of [...]
Excavations begin in ancient city of Patara
Scientific Minds Want To Know
Antalya’s Kaş district’s Patara
ancient site’s 25th year of excavation works have begun. The excavations
are being lead by professor Havva İşkan Işık. |
| This year excavation works at Patara will be ongoing for two months and will take place at the Basilica, the Liman Hamam, the Palestra, the Tepecik Acropolis and the Ancient Lycia Water way [Credit: DHA] |
Up to now, many statues have been uncovered in Patara. A bronze Hermes statue from the Roman era, which was unearthed during excavations and restored at the Antalya Museum, was introduced to the culture and tourism minister earlier.
The current head of the excavations, Professor Havva İşkan Işık, said the four-meter long head statue was unique in Turkey and the world. “We have never found such a stature before,” he said.
Işık said the statue was estimated to date back to the period of Emperor Constantine. “This is a work from the late period, which makes it more special,” he said.
Following the uncovering of the statue, it was observed by many that the statue looked like the modern day people of the region.
In 1993, a Roman milestone was unearthed, the Stadiasmus Provinciae Lyciae (also known as the Stadiasmus Patarensisand the Miliarium Lyciae) in the form of a monumental pillar on which was inscribed in Greek a dedication to Claudius and an official announcement of roads being built by the governor, Quintus Veranius, in the province of Lycia et Pamphylia, giving place names and distances, essentially a monumental public itinerarium. The site is currently being excavated over the course of two summer months each year by a team of Turkish archaeologists. By the end of 2007, all the sand had been cleared from the theater and some other buildings, and the columns on the main street had been partially re-erected (with facsimile capitals). The excavations revealed masonry in a remarkable condition.
The city of Patara, along with the rest of Lycia, surrendered to Alexander the Great in 333 BC. During the Wars of the Diadochi, it was occupied in turn by Antigonus and Demetrius, before finally falling to the Ptolemies. Strabo informs us that Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, who enlarged the city, gave it the name of Arsinoe (Arsinoë) after Arsinoe II of Egypt, his wife and sister, but it continued to be called by its ancient name, Patara.
Symposium to be held
Excavation head Işık said that in the 25th years of the excavations there would be a symposium held on Patara. A total of 46 scientists will be attending to the symposium in September.
As long as the budget allows for it, Işık added that they would be continuing the excavation.
Archaeology News
Archaeology News
A silver treasure from a British merchant ship is recovered off the coast of Ireland.
Archaeologists are set to lift the lid on a stone coffin
discovered at the site of the English friary where Richard III's remains
were found.
Astronomical News
Astronomical News
Planets with two parent stars face a double whammy of
radiation, a situation that would seemingly make them far less suitable
for life than single-star systems -- but looks can be deceiving.
Pictures of the Earth, from suborbital space to billions of miles away, remind us how small our planet really is.
For a cosmic rendition of seeing the proverbial forest,
rather than the trees, take a look at Earth from the perspective of the
Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft.
44 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, Discovery News
relives the adventure of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins' lunar mission
through some familiar and not-so-familiar photographs.
Very few images can summarize the entirety of our planet's
existence better than a photo from a spacecraft orbiting another planet
nearly 900 million miles away.
Mother of four loses three limbs to accidental dog bite
Things In The News
A single mother of four from Ottawa, Canada, lost both of her legs and
one of her arms after an accidental bite from one of her pet dogs led to
an infection that put her into septic shock. Christine Caron, 49, was
playing tug-of-war with her dogs on May 22 when one of the dogs, a Shih
Tzu mix named Buster, nipped her hand. The dog backed off, and then the
other dogs licked her hand, she said. Caron thought nothing of it, but
three days later, she was rushed to hospital, and was put in a coma for a
month and a half.
"When I woke up my legs were black and my arm looked sort of mummified," said Caron. Her wound had become infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus, a common bacterium in a dog's saliva. The results for Caron are extremely rare, according to a Health Canada spokesperson. Only about 200 septic shock cases linked to the bacterium have been reported worldwide in the last 25 years, Health Canada says. Ottawa Hospital said they're not sure if it was the bite or the licking that led to the infection.
But Caron's body reacted badly and went into septic shock, cutting off the blood flow to her extremities. "It was mind-blowing. I mean literally I was awake for a day or two before they told me that they were amputating," said Caron. "It was 'what am I going to do? How am I going to raise my kids?' It almost makes me cry to think about it." Caron's right hand was saved and is not at risk of needing amputation, but it was also injured and she has lost movement in it. She is awaiting surgery for skin grafts and other procedures in the hopes that she can regain most of its normal motion.
"I have to move forward because I have four kids that still need a mom. I'm not the type of person that wants to curl up and die. I want to live," she said. Caron said her only advice to others is to not wait before going to a hospital after a wound if they fear something is wrong. "If you start to feel weird after you've been bitten, get to the doctor. It can be stopped with a bit of penicillin. If you wait you can die. It's that serious," she said. Christine's family have started to raise money on the fundraising website Fundrazr to help pay for renovations to Caron's home to make it more accessible, and also for prosthetic legs.
There's a longer news video here.
"When I woke up my legs were black and my arm looked sort of mummified," said Caron. Her wound had become infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus, a common bacterium in a dog's saliva. The results for Caron are extremely rare, according to a Health Canada spokesperson. Only about 200 septic shock cases linked to the bacterium have been reported worldwide in the last 25 years, Health Canada says. Ottawa Hospital said they're not sure if it was the bite or the licking that led to the infection.
But Caron's body reacted badly and went into septic shock, cutting off the blood flow to her extremities. "It was mind-blowing. I mean literally I was awake for a day or two before they told me that they were amputating," said Caron. "It was 'what am I going to do? How am I going to raise my kids?' It almost makes me cry to think about it." Caron's right hand was saved and is not at risk of needing amputation, but it was also injured and she has lost movement in it. She is awaiting surgery for skin grafts and other procedures in the hopes that she can regain most of its normal motion.
"I have to move forward because I have four kids that still need a mom. I'm not the type of person that wants to curl up and die. I want to live," she said. Caron said her only advice to others is to not wait before going to a hospital after a wound if they fear something is wrong. "If you start to feel weird after you've been bitten, get to the doctor. It can be stopped with a bit of penicillin. If you wait you can die. It's that serious," she said. Christine's family have started to raise money on the fundraising website Fundrazr to help pay for renovations to Caron's home to make it more accessible, and also for prosthetic legs.
There's a longer news video here.
Pet store shoplifter walked out with baby alligator under his shirt
Animal News
A thief at a Beckley, West Virginia, pet store walked out with a
foot-long baby alligator shoved under his shirt. Surveillance video
caught the man grabbing the 3-month-old reptile from its cage and rolling
it up in his shirt before walking out.
Employee Anthony Williams said he went to feed the alligator and when he didn't see it and realized it wasn't hiding under any rocks, he checked the tape and recognized a man who they say is a frequent customer and already owns an alligator himself.
He told another employee he came in for food and distracted her looking around for some other things when another man in a green shirt did the dirty work ... and it appears as though there was a child with the two. "Doesn't seem like the safest thing to do ... I'm just shocked ...
"Every business has to deal with shoplifting but I would just would not expect an alligator to be shoplifted," said Williams. Williams said even though it was a baby gator, he sure wouldn't put it under his shirt. "I mean I can imagine the boy probably got bit on the way out, it's just an awful strange thing to do," Williams said. The alligator is valued at about $300.
Employee Anthony Williams said he went to feed the alligator and when he didn't see it and realized it wasn't hiding under any rocks, he checked the tape and recognized a man who they say is a frequent customer and already owns an alligator himself.
He told another employee he came in for food and distracted her looking around for some other things when another man in a green shirt did the dirty work ... and it appears as though there was a child with the two. "Doesn't seem like the safest thing to do ... I'm just shocked ...
"Every business has to deal with shoplifting but I would just would not expect an alligator to be shoplifted," said Williams. Williams said even though it was a baby gator, he sure wouldn't put it under his shirt. "I mean I can imagine the boy probably got bit on the way out, it's just an awful strange thing to do," Williams said. The alligator is valued at about $300.
Bear cub reunited with family after getting trapped in dumpster
Animal News
A California game warden rescued a baby bear on Sunday night after it
got locked inside a bear-proof bin. Warden Adam Smith arrived at a
forest parking lot near Cogswell Dam, near Azusa, at about 11:30pm.
"When I got there, the mother bear and one of the cubs were circling
this big dumpster," Smith said.
A second bear cub had climbed inside the open dumpster and somehow the bear-proof lid slammed shut behind it, he said. "It latched so it couldn't push its way back out and the mother couldn't lift it up," he said. "There was no way it would have been able to get out on its own." The mother tried to claw at the lid, but could not get it open, Smith said.
The cub, which Smith estimated as younger than 1-year, only weighed 25-35 pounds, Smith said. "It could have turned deadly for that little guy," he said. Smith used his truck's lights and sirens to ward off the circling mother and cub, so he could open the latch for the second cub. The two bears retreated to a nearby tree. "When I initially approached the can, I could hear him crying inside." Smith said. "As soon as I backed off, he jumped out."
The bear climbed to the top of the dumpster with a piece of trash on his ear. It then spotted the mother bear and ran towards it, Smith said. "He was a happy, healthy little bear when he left," Smith said. "All three of them kind of trotted off into the darkness there." Smith warned guests using trash bins in the national forest to shut the lids to avoid causing similar problems. "That was the big lesson, is that people need to keep those lids closed," he said.
A second bear cub had climbed inside the open dumpster and somehow the bear-proof lid slammed shut behind it, he said. "It latched so it couldn't push its way back out and the mother couldn't lift it up," he said. "There was no way it would have been able to get out on its own." The mother tried to claw at the lid, but could not get it open, Smith said.
The cub, which Smith estimated as younger than 1-year, only weighed 25-35 pounds, Smith said. "It could have turned deadly for that little guy," he said. Smith used his truck's lights and sirens to ward off the circling mother and cub, so he could open the latch for the second cub. The two bears retreated to a nearby tree. "When I initially approached the can, I could hear him crying inside." Smith said. "As soon as I backed off, he jumped out."
The bear climbed to the top of the dumpster with a piece of trash on his ear. It then spotted the mother bear and ran towards it, Smith said. "He was a happy, healthy little bear when he left," Smith said. "All three of them kind of trotted off into the darkness there." Smith warned guests using trash bins in the national forest to shut the lids to avoid causing similar problems. "That was the big lesson, is that people need to keep those lids closed," he said.
Rare zebra-donkey mix born in Italian animal reserve
Animal News
A Florence animal reserve said on Monday that a rare mix between a zebra and donkey born several days earlier is in good health.
The zonkey named Ippo is the foal of an endangered donkey breed from Amiata and a zebra that was adopted by the centre after it was confiscated from a failing zoo.
"Ippo is the only one of his kind in Italy," Serena Aglietti said. There are other zonkeys in Germany, China and Georgia.
Ippo was not bred intentionally, but is the product of the zebra's determination after he climbed a protective fence to get to the donkey, the reserve managers said.
Theres a video of Ippo the zonkey here.
The zonkey named Ippo is the foal of an endangered donkey breed from Amiata and a zebra that was adopted by the centre after it was confiscated from a failing zoo.
"Ippo is the only one of his kind in Italy," Serena Aglietti said. There are other zonkeys in Germany, China and Georgia.
Ippo was not bred intentionally, but is the product of the zebra's determination after he climbed a protective fence to get to the donkey, the reserve managers said.
Theres a video of Ippo the zonkey here.
Kitten almost died from strict vegan diet
Animal News
A kitten in Australia has almost died after its owners fed it a strict
vegan diet. The horrific case at a North Melbourne animal hospital has
prompted a warning about the dangers of people "forcing ideologies" on
their pets. Lort Smith Animal Hospital veterinarian Leanne Pinfold said
the kitten was brought in this month by its owners, who were believed to
be vegan.She said the kitten's diet of potatoes, rice milk and pasta had caused it to become critically ill. "It was extremely weak and collapsed when it came in. It was almost non-responsive," Dr Pinfold said. The kitten was given fluids via a drip, placed on a heat pad and fed meat.
It remained in hospital for three days after which the kitten's owners were given meat to feed their pet at home, she said. Dr Pinfold said as obligate or true carnivores, cats needed meat to survive. She said people who wanted a pet that did not eat meat should consider other animals, such as rabbits.
"Concern for animal welfare has to include a biologically-appropriate diet," she said. "You can't force your ideology on the cat. Carnivores will seek out meat and your cat is possibly more likely to go hunting and kill local native fauna if you deprive it of meat.'' Dr Pinfold said she had not come across a similar case in her 11 years as a veterinarian.
Animal News
Animal News
A new species of hero shrew is one of the strongest, sturdiest mammals in the animal kingdom.
Even gray wolves like to cool off in the summer with juicy watermelons.
An animal in a cage is not the same thing as an animal under control.
The case of a mysterious big cat seen and photographed in
Louisiana earlier this month has been closed.
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