The Daily Drift

That is why we always put out the truth ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
 

Zero Point Zero ... !

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Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Montevideo, Uruguay

Escelon, Coudersport, Tukwila, Hollis, Fairborn, Novato, Big Bear City and Belle Mina, United States

Sioux Lookout, Woodbridge, Saint John's, Britannia, Mississauga, Thunder Bay, Montreal, Byward Market, Vancouver, Pikangikum, Halifax and Hamilton, Canada

Santiago, Chile

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Managua, Nicaragua

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Medellin, Colombia

Europe

Zagreb, Croatia

Paris, Roubaix and Rouen, France

Muenchen, Hamburg, Berlin, Sulzbach and Zwickau, Germany

Ourense, Teo and Madrid, Spain

Zurich, Switzerland

Dublin, Ireland

Bucharest and Miroslava, Romania

London and Northampton, England

Ivrea, Bari and Padova, Italy

Budapest, Hungary

Kista and Ystad, Sweden

Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Saint Petersburg, Russia

Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey

Oslo, Sandsli, Arendel and Bergen, Norway

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Horsholm, Denmark

Reykjavik, Iceland

Zhovti Vody, L'Viv and Kiev, Ukraine

Nokia, Finland

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Asia

Beirut, Lebanon

Quetta and Lahore, Pakistan

Kuantan, Puchong and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Pondicherry, New Delhi, Powai, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, Gurgaon, Shillong, Mumbai, Kolkata and Patna, India

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Tehran and Yasuj, Iran

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Colombo, Sri lanka

Phatthaya, Thailand

Amman, Jordan

Kuwait, Kuwait

Gaza, Palestine

Africa

Ikeja, Nigeria

Tunis, Tunisia

Cape Town, South Africa

Dakar, Senegal

Pacific

Cebu City, Manila and Las Pinas, Philippines

Homebush and Sydney, Australia

Today in History

79		The city of Pompeii is buried by eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
1512		Michelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is exhibited for the first time.
1582		Maurice of Nassau, the son of William of Orange, becomes the governor of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht.
1755		A great earthquake at Lisbon, Portugal, kills over 50,000 people.
1765		The Stamp Act goes into effect in the British colonies.
1861		Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, 50 year-veteran and leader of the U.S. Army at the onset of the Civil War, retires. General George McClellan is appointed general-in-chief of the Union armies.
1866		Wild woman of the west Myra Maybelle Shirley (Belle Starr) marries James C. Reed in Collins County, Texas.
1869		Louis Riel seizes Fort Garry, Winnipeg, during the Red River Rebellion.
1911		Italian planes perform the first aerial bombing on Tanguira oasis in Libya.
1923		Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company buys the rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles.
1924		Legendary Oklahoma marshal Bill Tilghman, 71, is gunned down by a drunk in Cromwell, Oklahoma.
1936		Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini announces the Rome-Berlin axis after Count Ciano's visit to Germany.
1936		The Rodeo Cowboy's Association is founded.
1943		American troops invade Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
1945		John H. Johnson publishes the first issue of Ebony magazine.
1950		Two members of a Puerto Rican nationalist movement attempt to assassinate President Harry S Truman.
1951		Algerian National Liberation Front begins guerrilla warfare against the French.
1967		The first issue of Rolling Stone hits the streets.
1968		President Lyndon B. Johnson calls a halt to bombing in Vietnam, hoping this will lead to progress at the Paris peace talks.
1968		The Motion Picture Association of America officially introduces its rating system to indicate age-appropriateness of film content.
1973		Leon Jaworski appointed as new Watergate Special  Prosecutor.
1981		Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
1982		Honda opens a plant in Marysville, Ohio, becoming the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the US.
2000		Serbia joins the United Nations.

Non Sequitur

America's Mood Map

For a country that features the word United so prominently in its name, the U.S. is a pretty fractious place. The country splinters along fault lines of income, education, religion, race, hyphenated origin, age and politics. Then there's temperament. People are coarse or courtly, traditionalist or rebel, amped up or laid-back. And it's no secret that a lot of that seems to be determined by - or at least associated with - where one lives.

Want to know which state matches your personality? Take the test.

Did you know ...

Aren't there bigger issues for native Americans than what to call Washington's football team?

About the legacy of Edward R. Murrow

Florida town named high school after KKK founder

Here's the tea party insult generator

Getting it right

High praise: Republican Senator calls Harry Reid an 'absolute asshole'

For the 16 days of the Republican shutdown of our government, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stood strong, refusing to negotiate with GOP hostage takers ... and if you needed further proof that he did the right thing, look no further than this:

Sen. Tom Coburn was clear Monday about certain Democrats he doesn’t get along with, calling Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid an “absoulte a—hole,” according to a report.

“There’s no comity with Harry Reid (D-Nev.). I think he’s an absolute a—hole,” he said.

This tells you all you need to know ...

Nevada tea party repugican: ‘Yeah, I would’ vote to bring back slavery

A repugican Nevada state assemblyman said that he would vote for legislation in favor of slavery if his constituents wanted him to. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Jim Wheeler of Gardnerville, NV was speaking to the Storey County repugican cabal when he made the remarks last August, although they are only now coming to light.

“If that’s what they wanted, I’d have to hold my nose, I’d have to bite my tongue and they’d probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah, if that’s what the citizens of the, if that’s what the constituency wants that elected me, that’s what they elected me for,” he said. “That’s what a republic is about.”

Now, Wheeler said to the Sun, “liberal operatives” are spreading the video in an effort to smear him.

Sleazy Mortgage Lenders Almost Destroy the Economy, Steal Billions and Stay Out of Prison

According to the NY Times, giant bank JPMorgan Chase is in negotiations to keep its top honchos away from potential cellies Lefty, Killer and Bubba in exchange for at least $9 billion in fines and an additional $4 billion to make things better for the trusting suckers who stumbled into Morgan’s mortgage lending departments and signed up for loans that were way higher than they could afford but were made possible by JP personnel who committed innumerable crimes in lying, forging, cheating and God knows what else to qualify the loans and exacerbate the housing bubble to the point where an entire sector of the American economy came within a whisker of collapsing.
The bank had been stubbornly holding at a total of an $11 billion fine until the Justice Department told them they were bringing criminal investigations to the fore. Oops! Is it any wonder that these slime balls want a president with scruples and his like-minded posse out of Washington?
My question would be, where’s Darrell Issa? Isn’t his ridiculous Committee on Oversight and Government Reform supposed to look into such matters? Or are Issa and his administration-hating groupie, Trey Gowdy, too busy ginning up anti-Obama BS and holding a perfectly innocent Attorney General in “Contempt of Congress?” The answer is obvious to anyone with a pulse.
In an April 2011 story, respected and often cheeky financial website, Motley Fool gave their explanation as to why so few high-level mortgage financing execs (ONE so far) end up in Graybar U. It’s supposedly because the big boys (and a few girls) were ignorant of what their underlings were doing. For the sophistication level of the ‘Fool’, it’s a rather specious argument. A flood of financial reports recording questionable billions in sudden profits cross bank president and CEO desks for months and the lawyer/business school grads from the finest universities in the land have no clue as to what’s happening in their mortgage sectors? ROTFLMAO!!!
The Motley Fool piece also touches on the Florida real estate market but misses the real crux of the story by concentrating solely on mortgage-brokers. In fact, Florida is populated by a cast of worldwide drug and financial charlatans who are buying hugely expensive luxury units in newly erected giant condos and other fancy properties purchased with ill-gotten billions under assumed LLCs to hide profits from their nefarious activities.
The real story can be found in the October 21 edition of “The Nation” magazine. Starting on page 12, there begins an 11-page tale of an extraordinarily comprehensive, well-researched updated investigative piece by Ken Silverstein on the subject of Florida real estate and those squalid amoral mongrels from the U.S. and around the globe who put filthy money in the hands of filthy enablers. It should surprise no one that ‘The Donald’ is a happy and willing recipient of probably billions of this untraceable LLC drug-money and other criminally originated fare by putting up one building of multi-million dollar units after another where the running dogs (thanks Mao and others) of capitalism and crime can hide their currency.
And you wonder why Trump is trying to deflect the kind of legal attention he deserves with his absurd “birther” BS. He knows damn well the president is legit. He just wants to fend off those who might be able to prove ‘The Donald’ is not. Let’s see your deeds Mr. Trump. “Tear down that wall of secrecy!”
Huge kudos to Silverstein. I’m always bitching about the alarming lack of investigative reporters. I’ve just discovered an A-lister. “The Nation” is another source of stories others won’t print. That’s why writing for PoliticusUSA is so enjoyable. No censorship.
This latest front-page rape of taxpayer dollars got me thinking of other members of assorted seedy covens of corruption. Banks seem to be front and center in many instances. Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS comes immediately to mind. That’s because from 2002-2007 UBS was at the epicenter in aiding millionaires and billionaires to hide billions thereby avoiding roughly $300 million a year in taxes. The UBS fine of $780 million at the time was for an action that added $380 million to the bank’s bottom line for serving as a tax-evasion haven and other mischief. UBS is not a particularly quick study. A couple of months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported the bank is liable for another fine in the neighborhood of $200 million for the same kind of sleaze with German clients that got it into trouble with the Americans.
Is it pure coincidence that the Romney’s thought UBS would be a perfectly appropriate place to park some of their millions after the fact of an international banking scandal and that giant $780 million fine? Did I mention that one-time Republican presidential candidate, Mitt, failed to disclose interest income on that account? ABC News reported that a campaign official called it a “minor discrepancy” and that might be pretty accurate as the profit was pegged at a mere $1,700; lunch money in the Romney household. Or was it JUST $1,700. The Romney account was closed in 2010, just as Swiss secrecy was forced into more transparency and UBS claimed it would be closing its offshore accounts to Americans. UBS appears to be keeping their word as they started closing off tiny accounts in 2008. Maybe they got around to Romney in 2010. The final total would be around 19,000 U.S. accounts, although I wouldn’t trust any info that came from the bank or the Mitt Romney camp any further than I could throw his Ann’s two Cadillacs.
The Swiss are still hiding around $2.2 trillion in money that pays for services denied honest taxpayers from around the world. I would suspect there are still thousands of American tax cheats who simply funnel their money in from another country.
I’ve got a file stuffed with clippings of financial and multi-national cheats. I’ll limit my examples to big banks, the worst offenders. That’s a logical outcome as Willie Sutton once famously mouthed, “Because that’s where the money is.” Researchers are convinced Sutton’s iconic quote was never uttered by the famed bank robber but it will do for our purposes. Bank of America has been accused of fraud, Goldman Sachs (banking and investment) and Citigroup have been in the soup as well. There’s also UBS’ Swiss competitor, Credit Suisse and many others. All have reached deep into their corporate pockets settling civil charges and other fiscal nastiness through fines and penalties.
Let’s face it, capitalism begets greed begets corruption. Needs a bit of tweaking, wouldn’t you agree?

The Surprising Passions Of 11 Brilliant People

Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was a passionate boxer and had a brown belt in judo? That Amelia Earhart collected stamps? Or that Thomas Jefferson played the violin? Here are the surprising passions of 11 brilliant people.

Horrible Bosses And How To Deal With Them

It's Monday morning. You're back at your desk. But instead of feeling happy and productive, your very soul is battered and disheartened as you hear the sound of your boss entering the office. Although there are lots of fantastic bosses in the world, there are some that make you want to crawl back under your duvet and hide from the world.

However, don't despair! There are ways to tackle horrible bosses - even the very difficult ones. Here's a list of the most common types of horrible bosses and some useful advice on how to handle each one.

Unfortunate Vintage Candy Wrappers

The notion that poison candy is routinely distributed to unsuspecting children on Halloween is a myth perpetrated by advice columnists Dear Abby and Ann Landers in the 1980s and '90s.

But historically, candy meant for young consumers has sported poisonous-sounding, WTF wrappers and packages that most self-respecting 2013 parents would be dismayed to see dumped out of their children’s trick-or-treat bags. Collectors Weekly has a slideshow featuring a number of such gag-worthy examples of unfortunate candy-wrapper branding

Mystery loaves of homemade bread found on seat of student's car found to be laced with LSD

A student at Casper College in Wyoming returned to his vehicle on Monday afternoon and found three loaves of unidentified bread on the passenger seat. That wasn't the biggest surprise.

The Casper Police Department later confirmed the bread was contaminated with the drug LSD, according to Casper College Director of Public Relations Rich Fujita. Fujita said the student contact campus security to report the mysterious loaves, which he stumbled upon at about noon.

"He had no idea where they came from," Fujita said. Campus security conducted a field test, Fujita said. After determining the bread was suspicious, it forwarded the loaves to Casper police. The police department confirmed LSD was present in the bread and has since taken over the investigation, Fujita said.

Fujita said he knew of no suspect or possible motive. He also had no information about whether the car was unlocked or a window was open at the time of the incident. The college later warned people to not eat food of unknown origin.

Mother 'kept secret baby girl hidden in trunk of car'

A mechanic has spoken of the moment he found an underfed and dehydrated baby who had been forced to live hidden in a car boot, possibly since birth. The girl, aged between 15 and 23 months, was discovered on Friday when her mother brought the car to a garage in Terrasson, in central France. One of the workers heard "bizarre noises, like moans" coming from the car boot and opened it to find the girl. Garage director Denis Latour said: "She was naked, on the side there was a crib ... and there was this unbearable smell.

"The baby girl was laying on rubbish bags at the bottom of the trunk … crying and trying to get some fresh air because not only did it smell, but it was also hermetic." Mechanic Guillaume Iguacel, who found the girl, said: "I'm still having trouble sleeping, it was a horrifying sight, seeing this little girl in her own excrement, not able to hold up her head, white as a sheet." Mr Iguacel said the girl's mother appeared to have little concern for her daughter. He said: "We were deeply shocked because she didn't find this abnormal. We told her to remove the little girl (from the boot) and give her something to drink right away."

The girl was taken to hospital where doctors said she was suffering from delayed growth and mental problems. Local prosecutor Jean-Pierre Laffite said the baby "was hidden, it seems since birth, and more seriously, she is suffering from significant (developmental) delays". The situation "defies belief", he said. The girl's mother, 45, and her 40-year-old partner were arrested and charged on Sunday with child abuse and endangering a minor. The pair face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. The mother told police she had given birth in secret and hidden the baby's existence from everyone, including her partner, the girl's father.

YouTube link.

The couple have three other children - a four-year-old girl and two boys aged nine and 10 - who were handed over to social services following their parents' arrest. The couple, who were both of Portuguese origin and both unemployed, lived in the village of Brignac, about six miles (10km) from the garage where the baby was found. Neighbors said the mother had been behaving strangely and was seen spending an unusual amount of time in the car. "We had the impression this woman lived in her car. She never left it," a neighbor identified as Pascale said. "I remember seeing her several times a week with her car parked in a lot about 200 meters from her home. The boot was always open. I was wondering what she could be doing."

Zalipie

  Poland's Painted Village

The secluded village of Zalipie in southeastern Poland is home to a charming tradition. Over a century ago the women of the village began to paint their houses: however, it was not the single, uniform color one might expect from a traditional and conservative society. The village, through the intricate and vibrant paintwork of its womenfolk, bloomed.

The Pale Blue Dot

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spaceprobe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) from Earth. The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of Carl Sagan.

YouTube link

The Sailing Stones of Death Valley

Death Valley, located in Eastern California, hosts one of the most enigmatic geological phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for decades. In Racetrack Playa are the 'sailing stones,' which seem to glide across the flat dry desert on their own, without human or animal intervention.

Although no one has actually seen the stones in action, their movement is evident in the long tracks on the ground they left through the years.

Recognize this ...

Through early morning fog I see

visions of the things to be

the pains that are withheld for me

I realize and I can see...

that suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

and I can take or leave it if I please.

The game of life is hard to play

I'm gonna lose it anyway

The losing card I'll someday lay

so this is all I have to say.

suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

and I can take or leave it if I please.

The sword of time will pierce our skins

It doesn't hurt when it begins

But as it works its way on in

The pain grows stronger...watch it grin.

suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

and I can take or leave it if I please.

A brave man once requested me

to answer questions that are key

is it to be or not to be

and I replied 'oh why ask me?'

suicide is painless

it brings on many changes

and I can take or leave it if I please.

...and you can do the same thing if you please......

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity....

At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

Sing Along At The Opera..

Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.

When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'

When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Car Park Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'

Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity .

PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WHERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

Some Really Interesting Trivia

If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on the right side of your mouth. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on the left side of your mouth. 

To make half a kilo of honey, bees must collect nectar from over 2 million individual flowers.

Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by 'Bayer'.

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

People in nudist colonies play volleyball more than any other sport.

Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he declined.

Astronauts can't belch - there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.

Ancient Roman, Chinese and German societies often used urine as mouthwash.

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. In the Renaissance era, it was fashion to shave them off!

Because of the speed at which Earth moves around the Sun, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.

The night of January 20 is "Saint Agnes's Eve", which is regarded as a time when a young woman dreams of her future husband.

Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros.

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it's buried in the ground for thousands of years.

Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end.

If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

Each year 2,000,000 smokers either quit smoking or die of tobacco-related diseases.

Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals.

Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.

The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.

Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent.

Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above 450

Name Your Fear

Pteronophobia- Fear of being tickled by feathers.

Pediophobia- Fear of dolls

Rectophobia- Fear of rectum or rectal diseases.

Russophobia- Fear of Russians

Sinophobia- Fear of Chinese, Chinese culture.

Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat.

Consecotaleophobia- Fear of chopsticks.

Dendrophobia- Fear of trees.

Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.

Eleutherophobia- Fear of freedom.

Epistemophobia- Fear of knowledge

Ereuthrophobia- Fear of blushing.

Euphobia- Fear of hearing good news.


Eurotophobia- Fear of female genitalia

Genuphobia- Fear of knees

Geliophobia- Fear of laughter.

Graphophobia- Fear of writing or handwriting.

Geumaphobia or Geumophobia- Fear of taste

Helminthophobia- Fear of being infested with worms.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.

Hobophobia- Fear of bums or beggars

Hylophobia- Fear of forests.

Ithyphallophobia- Fear of seeing, thinking about or having an erect penis

Japanophobia- Fear of Japanese.

Judeophobia- Fear of Jews.

Koinoniphobia- Fear of rooms

Leprophobia or Lepraphobia- Fear of leprosy.


Leukophobia- Fear of the color white.


Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body.

Linonophobia- Fear of string

Logophobia- Fear of words

Lutraphobia- Fear of otters.

Melophobia- Fear of music

Nosocomephobia- Fear of hospitals.

Oneirogmophobia- Fear of wet dreams.

Panophobia or Pantophobia- Fear of everything

Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope

Loch Ness monster-like creature spotted in Australia

Magnetic Island off Townsville, North Queensland, is abuzz after a monster-like creature was spotted in waters off Picnic Bay at the weekend. The spectacle had visitors and locals scratching their heads, with theories ranging from large birds to sunken boats.

Magnetic Island resident David "Crusty" Herron, who took this photo, said he was glad to capture the animal or object on film, and had started calling it Lost Nessie. "I looked out and saw this thing in the water and thought 'shit, it's a Loch Ness monster'," he said.

"There was this feeling of excitement on the beach, and all these people were pointing and talking about what it could be." Mr Herron said the object, which locals have nicknamed a UMOOT (unidentified marine object or thing), appeared to be moving and was about 250 to 300m from the shore.

"There's a lot of speculation as to what it could be. Some people say it's a log or it's this or that. There's even talk that it's a dragon boat that sunk in the same area last week, but I know what a dragon boat looks like and that's not it," said Mr Herron. Conspiracy theories aside, Mr Herron believes there is "probably and possibly" a logical explanation behind the find.

The Ocean's Most Horrifying Monster

(And You've Probably Never Heard Of It)

Imagine you're a crab. You're lingering on the shoreline, the warm sun on your back, cool water in your gills. You've reached a large size, dodging the many dangers of youth. Life is going well. But today you begin to feel strange as if there is something growing inside you, and in fact, something is.

Its roots are crawling through your tissue, your gut, your brain. It's a rhizocephalan barnacle, and it's about to take you over.

The Top 10 Wackiest Names For Animal Groups

Everyone knows that a group of dogs is called a pack and that a gathering of birds is a flock, but what do you call a group or gorillas? Kangaroos? Butterflies? Official proper phrases that no one outside of nature nerds will ever use, that's what.

Scottish landowner plans to introduce wolves and bears

A millionaire landowner has pledged to push ahead with plans to introduce bears and wolves to his estate in Sutherland. Paul Lister, the heir to the MFI furniture fortune, bought Alladale Estate 10 years ago, with the goal of creating a wilderness reserve. Elk and wild boar were introduced on a trial basis to the 23,000-acre estate, but Highland cattle are the biggest animals to be found there today. His proposals to bring in wolves and bears have drawn criticism. Farmers, walkers and legal experts have all expressed their opposition to the scheme. More than 800,000 native trees have been planted, and the estate is involved in projects to protect native species including the Scottish wildcat and the red squirrel.

Mr Lister says he still has more ambitious plans. He said: "We're going to do a feasibility study on the big vision and the vision is to have a minimum area of 50,000 acres, have a fence around it, and bring back wolves and bears into that area. We'll assess the socio-economic impact that will have and also the environmental impact. The presence of these large predators really changes the landscape for the benefit of nature. We're talking about maybe two packs of 10 wolves, maybe a dozen bears. These animals create the environment. It's not humans who create the environment, it's nature." Mr Lister will need more land if his dream of creating a huge 50,000 acre enclosure is to become a reality. He may have to rely on the help of other landowners.

Drew McFarlane-Slack of the landowners' organization, Scottish Land and Estates, said: "We would support what Mr Lister is doing in terms of peatland restoration, work with red squirrels and Scottish wildcats, which are native animals. But the reintroduction of big carnivores would require great care and it'll be many years before we can get to a point where there could be a general release of these." Malcolm Combe, of the Rural Law Research Group at the University of Aberdeen, said there could be legal challenges to Mr Lister's plans. He said the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which gives everyone a right of responsible access over most of the land and inland water in Scotland, could be an issue.

Mr Combe said: "Although landowners have a certain margin of appreciation as to how to manage their land, management activities cannot unreasonably interfere with access takers exercising their rights responsibly. Given the large area involved, it seems possible that any scheme at Alladale that has the effect of restricting access to the whole area could be subjected to a legal challenge." He said the proposal could fall within the remit of zoo legislation, and also Europe's Habitats Directive. "In terms of licensing of zoos, having predator and prey in the same enclosure would introduce animal welfare issues that would need to be carefully considered," said Mr Combe. He added: "Human-management of protected species requires special consent from the European Commission. This would need careful consideration as the re-introduced grey wolf would have no natural predator in Scotland."

Attack donkeys that prevent wild dog attacks on sheep are the philosophers of the animal world

Mic McFarlane reckons his specially trained attack donkeys are the philosophers of the animal world. He has 19 feral donkeys from Central Australia he is using in a trial to guard sheep from wild dogs in the southern Riverina area of New South Wales. The Hume Livestock Health and Pest Authority pest animal ranger said he got them about two weeks ago and they were now quiet enough to handle in the yards and put a rope on.

"When they unloaded the donkeys off the truck at six o'clock on a Saturday morning I thought, 'What the hell am I doing?"' he said. "(But) they are amazing animals, they learn very quickly and respond very much like a dog. They’re remarkable animals, they’re super intelligent. They look like a horse with big ears but I’ve found it’s best to train them like they’re a dog with big ears. The thing is if they they don't want to do it, they don't do it.

"I really do believe now they are the philosophers of the animal kingdom, they will stare and look and look and look, and until they are satisfied they will not move. But I will be matching donkeys to landowners depending on their temperaments. If there is somebody who I don't like, I will give them the one that kicked me. He is named Shithead." Mr McFarlane said he first trialled a few donkeys in February which he purchased in Victoria but it was difficult to buy big numbers of them, except feral ones.

He said the property that had used the donkeys had lost about 100 sheep in the previous year but since February there had been no attacks. The donkeys are initially kept in a small yard with a small amount of sheep or goats and the area and the number of animals are slowly increased. That is until the sheep and donkeys are first class mates. "Once they have bonded that flock becomes their mob," he said. "They have a natural hate of canines. They hate them for some reason."

Thirsty koala wandered into bar

CCTV cameras at a hotel in Victoria, Australia, captured a pub crawl of a different kind when an unsuspecting patron wandered through their door.

They caught a koala making its way up the stairs of the historic Alexandra House in Hamilton, west of Melbourne.

YouTube link.

The cheeky marsupial made a beeline for the bar, managing to sneak past other patrons unnoticed.

Concerned staff used signs to try and keep it enclosed in the area, however, the koala soon broke free. Wildlife crews eventually managed to capture the thirsty marsupial before releasing him back into the wild unharmed.

Woman found drunk man asleep on top of her horse

A woman in Germany made a startling discovery as she went to prepare for a morning ride – there was someone already on her horse and he was passed out drunk on top of it having spent the night there.

The 26-year-old unnamed man had been making his way home worse for wear from a party in Bavaria, on Saturday night. Overcome with tiredness en route, he spotted a cozy stable and decided to stop off for the night.

Freezing cold, he crept into the shack and eyed up a very warm-looking horse. Perhaps out of fear of being trampled on, he dismissed sleeping next to the horse, and instead climbed on its back and nodded off.

It was not until 8.15am, when the animal's owner arrived at the stable in Landsberg to find the man slumped out across her horse, that he woke up. She rang the police, who came and took the man home.

Police seek man who pepper-sprayed woman before stealing her monkey

Police in Grand Junction, Colorado, are looking for a man who pepper-sprayed a woman, grabbed her pet monkey and ran.

Residents report sightings of “El Chupacabra”

 

An unusual animal has been spotted around the town of Picayune, Mississippi and some residents believe the creature resembles the legendary Chupacabra. The legend of “El Chupacabra” (literal translation: “goat sucker”) dates back to the 1970’s and began with reports of the animal drinking the blood of livestock.

As reported by WLOX News, Jennifer Whitfeld was with her son Justin when they saw the creature near their home and managed to capture the incident on video. Justin told WLOX, “Well it was just behind there, we were coming back from a boat trip and then, we didn’t know what it was. Well I didn’t.” Jennifer had a colorful description of what she witnessed saying, "If a zombie had a dog, it would look like that." Nearby, Amanda Denton also spotted the animal and said, "I kept looking up ‘hairless coyote,' and it kept saying ‘Chupacabra.’ And so then we have been running back and forth to the car, our cars because we didn't want the Chupacabra to get us." Caroline Cooper, a third neighbor saw the unidentified animal and reported, "My dad said that it was a ‘Squatch Dog' because he's obsessed with watching ‘Finding Bigfoot.'”
The Cooper family decided to call the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) for their expertise. Master Sergeant David Burnette said, "The way they described it to me, it’s a coyote really bad awful with mange,” adding, “It's probably sick, weak, and it’s not able to hunt on its own, so it's going to the nearest food source it can find." The animal is most likely staying alive by foraging garbage and pet food and drinking from a stream in the small town. Caleb Miller of the MDWFP said that the animal does not need to be considered a threat and advises, “They need to be aware just to leave it alone and stay away from him and just let nature take its course.”

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