The Daily Drift

Damn Straight! ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 195 countries around the world daily.
 

Yeah, this is as good as it gets ... !

Today is - (there is no special celebration today) Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Guelph, Saint John's, Pikangikum, Lansing, Templeton, Ottawa, North York and York Mills, Canada

Mexico City, Mexico

Tipitapa and Managua, Nicaragua

Bogalusa, Algonquin, Rubicon and Batavia, United States

Meddellin, Colombia

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Kingston, Jamaica

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Europe

Coste De Caparica, Portugal

Crawley, London and Slough, England

Glasgow, Scotland

Brussels, Belgium

Vladivostok and Ryazan, Russia

Madrid, L'Olleria and Cadiz, Spain

Widdern and Rothe Erde, Germany

Mariehamn, Aland Islands

Cagliari, Cavallino, Conversano, Florence and Novara, Italy

Velizy-Villacoubly and Rouen, France

Stockholm and Kista, Sweden

Riga, Latvia

Ruse, Bulgaria

Zhovti Vody, Ukraine

Luqa, Malta

Tirana, Albania

Lodz, Warsaw, Katowice and Murcki, Poland

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Oslo, Norway

Dublin and Clane, Ireland

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ostrava and Prague, Czech Republic

Zurich, Switzerland

Tbilisi, Georgia

Tranbjerg, Denmark

Asia 

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Jakarta, Pamanukan, Bandung and Rengasdengklok, Indonesia

Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Shillong, New Delhi, Kottayam and Vallam, India

Doha, Qatar

Kuwait, Kuwait

Seoul, Korea

Quatre Bornes, Mauritius

Beijing, China

Beirut, Lebanon

Gaza, Palestine

Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan

Petaling Jaya, George Town and Ipoh, Malaysia

Tehran, Iran

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Africa 

Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa

Betafo, Madagascar

Kampala, Uganda

Cairo, Egypt

Casablanca and Rabat, Morocco

Douala, Cameroon

Tunis, Tunisia

Pacific

Homebush and Surrey Hills, Australia

Noumea, New Caledonia

Cebu City, Philippines

Today in History

1258		Huegu, a Mongol leader, seizes Baghdad, bringing and end to the Abbasid caliphate.
1620		Supporters of Marie de Medici, the queen mother, who has been exiled to Blois, are defeated by the king's troops at Ponts de Ce, France.
1763		The Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War. France gives up all her territories in the New World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands.
1799		Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Cairo, Egypt, for Syria, at the head of 13,000 men.
1814		Napoleon personally directs lightning strikes against enemy columns advancing toward Paris, beginning with a victory over the Russians at Champaubert.
1840		Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert.
1846		Led by religious leader Brigham Young, the first Mormons begin a long westward exodus from Nauvoo, Il., to Utah.
1863		P.T. Barnum's star midgets, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, are married.
1904		Russia and Japan declare war on each other.
1915		President Wilson blasts the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to deceive the Germans.
1939		Japanese occupy island of Hainan in French Indochina.
1941		London severs diplomatic relations with Romania.
1941		Iceland is attacked by German planes.
1942		The war halts civilian car production at Ford.
1945		B-29s hit the Tokyo area.
1955		Bell Aircraft displays a fixed-wing vertical takeoff plane.
1960		Adolph Coors, the beer brewer, is kidnapped in Golden, Colo.
1966		Protester David Miller is convicted of burning his draft card.
1979		The Metropolitan Museum announces the first major theft in 110-year history, $150,000 Greek marble head.
1986		The largest Mafia trial in history, with 474 defendants, opens in Palermo, Italy.

Non Sequitur

Did you know ...

That Montana ranks third in the number of tea party members per capita

That AOL slashes 401(k) benefits; CEO blames 2 sick babies vorn to employees

That the rich really are selfish as you think

That of the repugicans who think Benghazi is the "worst scandal" in the history of America, 39% don't know where it is

That the abortion rate is at its lowest in years

About answering questions from idiots (ahem) creationists

About dogs standing up for dogs in Sochi

The repugicans Are Setting Up Fake Websites for Democratic Candidates

by Brian Feldman

The national repugican congressional cabal appears to have set up at least 16 websites meant to appear like the official websites of Democratic candidates, spurring a debate over fair campaign tactics.

The websites appear at first glance as an official webpage for the candidate. But actually reading the text—which is more of a rarity online than you might think—reveals a different reality. On Arizona Democratic candidate Ann Kirkpatrick's fake page, the site reads, "Kirkpatrick is a huge embarrassment to Arizona." For Montana Democratic candidate John Lewis, the fake site flat-out says, "John Lewis is bad for Montana."
Both sites, as well as others, have disclaimers that they are funded by the NRCC at the bottom—not technically buried, but certainly not appearing before the big donate button that users can click to send money to the NRCC.
The nrcc's press secretary Daniel Scarpinato explained the tactic as such:

The idea is people who are looking for information on the candidate, one of the places we all go now is online and so this is a way for folks to find out more about the candidates and information they may not find on the candidate’s own site.

That intent seems fair! That explanation, however, fails to justify why roleplaying as an official mouthpiece for the candidate is not an underhanded way of going about it. TIME wrote that "the tactic smacks of 'spoofing' scams, whereby spammers masquerade under fake phone numbers or email addresses to win trust." In one case, the nrcc refunded a donation made in error.
The nrcc mouthpiece Andrea Bozek stated that "Democrats are behind the game in digital … They should be buying the URLs for their candidates. I think that’s a pretty basic campaign tactic.” This is a very funny statement for two reasons. The first is that digital is one of the places where Democrats clearly outdo repugicans—the Obama 2012 campaign demonstrated this. Secondly, I guess the nrcc's idea of digital innovation is to crib tactics from the guys who already own iphone9.com and avatarthemovie3.biz.
Paul S. Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center even said that the websites may violate an FEC regulation prohibiting political parties from using a candidate’s name in special projects. The small websites might fall under such an umbrella. The FEC, however, is notoriously slow in investigating such matters, and the midterm elections will almost definitely be over before they can reach a conclusion.

Domino's to Pay 61 Workers $1.28 Million For Wage Theft, Employee Exploitation

by Dylan Hock .

A New York City Domino's franchisee charged with wage theft has agreed to pay $1.28 million to 61 of its delivery workers, according to a New York Times report. Each will be granted awards ranging from just over $60,000 to $400 depending on length of employment.
.
The lawsuit accused David Melton of wage theft, through such means as having his workers pay for their own uniforms; work at a lower, tipped wage while performing untipped work; and working without a lunch break, among other infringements on workers' wages.

More

Window car crash

Security cameras caught the moment a car smashed into a supermarket in Guarapuava, Paraná, Brazil on Wednesday morning.

A lady paying for her purchases at the time of the incident seemed confused as to exactly what had happened.

According to the Civil Police the 26-year-old driver was drunk. The supermarket manager, Carlos Sauer, said: "First we heard a bang and then saw the car in the supermarket.

YouTube link.

"Was all so fast, that just looking at the pictures to get an idea of ​​what happened," Despite the damage, Mr Sauer ensured that the supermarket continued serving customers. No one was injured.

Irate residents threw local Councillor onto rubbish heap in frustration at build-up of waste

Residents in the north Indian city of Kanpur forced a local Councillor onto a rubbish heap in frustration at the build-up of mounds of waste. Manoj Yadav was accosted in Patel Nagar by a group who were angry that overflowing drains and piles of litter had not been cleared for two months. He was thrown onto the heap and held there until he promised to arrange for the authorities to attend to the area.

Residents took matters into their own hands and were removing rubbish and cleaning drains themselves, when Mr Yadav arrived on Tuesday afternoon. "Some people pushed me into the garbage heap, it was wet, and they did not let me come out of it for an hour," he said. "I thought about stripping and jumping into the drain to clean it. But some women from the area intervened and set me free."
Mr Yadav said he was sympathetic to the residents' feelings. "The sweepers would go there, but they wouldn't do any work." Piles of garbage had collected in front of people's homes and they kept growing bigger and bigger, the water from choked drains had begun to enter people's homes," he added. About 100,000 people live in the Patel Nagar area, but there are no formal arrangements to collect waste from people's homes, Mr Yadav says.

Instead, people throw their rubbish by the side of the road and a local authority truck picks it up once or twice a month and dumps it outside the city, he added. A spokesperson for the Kanpur Municipal Corporation, Rajeev Shukla, said the corporation was not responsible for the area, but that it would look into the concerns of the residents.  Mr Yadav has decided not to lodge an official complaint against those who pushed him onto the rubbish heap. "Diseases have begun to spread in Patel Nagar, five people are ill. I promised them I'll do something," he said "I can understand their anger. Also, I have to live with them."

Partygoer accused of urinating on police officer's head and face

When police arrived to break up a raucous 3:20am frat house party in Albany on Sunday, a New York man allegedly decided that it was the opportune moment to urinate directly down onto a police officer from an elevated position, according to investigators.

Responding to a disturbance call, Albany Police Department officers arrived at the property and “observed several people inside and outside of the residence consuming alcohol and causing a loud commotion,” police reported. The property is home to Pi Kappa Phi, an outlaw fraternity that is not recognized by the University at Albany due to its history of hazing.

As officers sought to “quell the disturbance,” Noah McCall, 19, “urinated off the rear staircase directly onto a uniformed police officer,” police noted. McCall’s urine fell “onto the head and face” of the officer, who subsequently received treatment at a local hospital for “bodily fluid exposure.”

McCall was quickly apprehended and charged with reckless assault on the damp patrolman (as well as possession of a fake Florida driver's license). A second partygoer, a 19-year-old college student, was arrested for possession of brass knuckles. Both defendants were released from custody following arraignment in Albany City Criminal Court.

There's a short news video here.

Motorist waiting in line of traffic given parking ticket.

A motorist who was waiting in a line of traffic in Bradford has been handed a parking ticket. Victor Hankins's car was filmed by a mobile traffic enforcement vehicle in a bus stop - while he was in a queue at a red traffic light.Mr Hankins appealed against the council's actions, which he described as an "absolute joke." Bradford Council has apologized and cancelled the penalty notice, admitting issuing the ticket was a "mistake". Mr Haskins said he consulted the Highway Code rules on waiting at bus stops before contacting the council.

He said: "I told them that I would be removing the appeal and I'd be seeing them in court and I wanted the camera operative in the court with me. At that point they overturned everything, apologized and the attitude couldn't have been more helpful and totally the opposite (from before)."
In a statement, Bradford Council said: "All images are checked before a Penalty Charge Notice is issued. In this case a mistake was made. When we find out that we have issued a penalty notice in error we cancel it and refund as appropriate. We continue to monitor and review performance regularly to ensure any errors are minimized."

French police hunt hydrangea gang

Some gardeners prefer the spiky Hydrangea paniculata; others opt for the smoother mop-head varieties such as Hydrangea macrophylla. Others, often those with yellow as opposed to green fingers, do not much care. They just like to rip off the petals of any old hydrangea – also known as hortensia – and smoke them, police in France have claimed.

Gendarme in northern France are on the trail of the "Hortensia Gang", acting on reports that dozens of the wintering plants have been stolen or severely pruned in the past few weeks. Initially sceptical that youngsters were roaming private and public gardens chopping off hydrangea heads and leaves to dry, mix with tobacco, and smoke as a cheap alternative to cannabis, police say they are now investigating. As part of their inquiries, officers spoke to local pharmacists who confirmed the hallucinogenic and euphoria-inducing effects of the hydrangea bloom, of which there are thousands of varieties.

Experts say the effect is similar to that of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in the cannabis plant. Police are looking into around 20 complaints from local gardeners as well as town halls and village mayors about disappearing flowers over the past few weeks. Captain Frédéric Evrard, spokesperson for the Nord-Pas-de-Calais regional gendarmerie, blamed economic hard times. "With the crisis we have the impression people are now turning towards natural products, because synthetic ones are more expensive. If these thefts are linked to drug use, then it's the same sort of wave as the hallucinogenic mushrooms collected in the wild," Evrard said.

The French authorities believe the hortensia habit has been imported from Germany. Bavarian public gardens are regularly pilfered for their hydrangea flowers. Before anyone rushes out to the nearest garden centre, hydrangea-smokers risk poisoning themselves, said Kurt Hostettmann, honorary professor of pharmacology at the University of Lausanne and Geneva in Switzerland. "The secondary effects of it are very bad for the health," Hostettmann said. He said the flowers could provoke stomach and respiratory problems, speed up the heart, cause dizzy spells and, if consumed in large quantities, produce hydrogen cyanide (also known as prussic acid), the base of Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the Nazi death chambers, causing a slow and painful death.

There's a news video in French here.

Random Photos

Batteries Made From Sugar

Sweet! 

The standard battery for gadgets is lithium-ion, which stores a lot of energy for its weight. But lithium is a rare Earth element with most of the deposits located in Chile, Argentina, China and Australia. This is one reason the batteries in the average laptop are so expensive.

A team at the Tokyo University of Science, led by Shinichi Komaba, have been looking at sodium-based batteries, using sodium ions as the cathode and carbon from ordinary sugar as the anode. In this form, the sodium-sucrose battery stored 20 percent more energy than one made with conventional carbon.

Sniffing Out Meth Labs With Sewage

Sniffing Out Meth Labs With Sewage

A device that can detect meth in waste waters could help law enforcement stop the cookers, as well as warn waste water treatment plants what's coming down the pipe.

Scientists find 800,000-year-old footprints in UK

 

They were a British family on a day out — almost a million years ago.

Archaeologists announced Friday that they have discovered human footprints in England that are between 800,000 and 1 million years old — the most ancient found outside Africa, and the earliest evidence of human life in northern Europe.
A team from the British Museum, London's Natural History Museum and Queen Mary college at the University of London uncovered imprints from up to five individuals in ancient estuary mud at Happisburgh on the country's eastern coast.
British Museum archaeologist Nick Ashton said the discovery — recounted in detail in the journal PLOS ONE — was "a tangible link to our earliest human relatives."
Preserved in layers of silt and sand for hundreds of millennia before being exposed by the tide last year, the prints give a vivid glimpse of some of our most ancient ancestors. They were left by a group, including at least two children and one adult male. They could have been be a family foraging on the banks of a river scientists think may be the ancient Thames, beside grasslands where bison, mammoth, hippos and rhinoceros roamed.
University of Southampton archaeology professor Clive Gamble, who was not involved in the project, said the discovery was "tremendously significant."
"It's just so tangible," he said. "This is the closest we've got to seeing the people.
"When I heard about it, it was like hearing the first line of (William Blake's hymn) 'Jerusalem' — 'And did those feet, in ancient time, walk upon England's mountains green?' Well, they walked upon its muddy estuary."
The researchers said the humans who left the footprints may have been related to Homo antecessor, or "pioneer man," whose fossilized remains have been found in Spain. That species died out about 800,000 years ago.
Ashton said the footprints are between 800,000 — "as a conservative estimate" — and 1 million years old, at least 100,000 years older than scientists' earlier estimate of the first human habitation in Britain. That's significant because 700,000 years ago, Britain had a warm, Mediterranean-style climate. The earlier period was much colder, similar to modern-day Scandinavia.
Natural History Museum archaeologist Chris Stringer said that 800,000 or 900,000 years ago Britain was "the edge of the inhabited world."
"This makes us rethink our feelings about the capacity of these early people, that they were coping with conditions somewhat colder than the present day," he said.
"Maybe they had cultural adaptations to the cold we hadn't even thought were possible 900,000 years ago. Did they wear clothing? Did they make shelters, windbreaks and so on? Could they have the use of fire that far back?" he asked.
Scientists dated the footprints by studying their geological position and from nearby fossils of long-extinct animals including mammoth, ancient horse and early vole.
John McNabb, director of the Center for the Archaeology of Human Origins at the University of Southampton — who was not part of the research team — said the use of several lines of evidence meant "the dating is pretty sound."
Once uncovered, the perishable prints were recorded using sophisticated digital photography to create 3-D images in which it's possible to discern arches of feet, and even toes.
Isabelle De Groote, a specialist in ancient human remains at Liverpool John Moores University who worked on the find, said that from the pattern of the prints, the group of early humans appeared to be "pottering around," perhaps foraging for food.
She said it wasn't too much of a stretch to call it a family.
"These individuals traveling together, it's likely that they were somehow related," she said.
Research at Happisburgh will continue, and scientists are hopeful of finding fossilized remains of the ancient humans, or evidence of their living quarters, to build up a fuller picture of their lives.
The footprint find will form part of an exhibition, "Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story," opening at the Natural History Museum next week.
The footprints themselves, which survived for almost 1 million years, won't be there. Two weeks after they were uncovered, North Sea tides had washed them away.

Ziggy

Why 'Fake' Snow 'Doesn't Melt' - Because It's Real

After a snowstorm hit Atlanta, rumors circulated that it wasn't snow. Some said that it was fake snow, either deposited via chemtrails, or made up of psychoactive substances, or nanobots. Some viewers, especially those who have not encountered snow before, could possibly be forgiven for believing the idea had some merit.

A rash of videos showed people torching snow, only to see it not melt, leaving a black char mark on the exterior of the white stuff... as if it were synthetic, and not just made of frozen water. Fed up with these misleading videos and dumb theory, astronomer and science writer Phil Plait took a lighter to snow in Boulder, Colorado, and got a similar result.

Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve

Millions upon millions of bright blooming poppies populate California's Antelope Valley, making it appear right out of an impressionist painting. Antelope Valley is dry and barren throughout the year. But from mid-February to late May, the meadows spring into life, coloring the fields in a medley of orange, yellow, pink, and green.

Apart from poppies, other wildflowers like owl's clover, lupine, goldfield, cream cups, and coreopsis add color to the countryside. In order to maintain the park's natural state, the flower fields are not watered nor stimulated by the park service.

How To Find Our Planet's Twin

To date, most known extrasolar planets are gas giants like Jupiter or Neptune. Lacking even a solid surface, they are worlds very unlike our own planet. As the search for other Earths continue, a true Earth twin must satisfy five characteristics.

Daily Comic Relief

Four-day-old bear cub found almost frozen given medical treatment

A four-day-old bear cub, which was found two days ago frozen in the northern Turkish province of Zonguldak’s Alapli district, has been receiving treatment.

A citizen found the bear cub on the side of the road in Aydınyayla village and informed the Forestry and Water Affairs Directorate. Officials from the directorate took the cub to a zoo in Gökçebey for its protection and treatment. Forestry and Water Affairs Zonguldak Director Sezgin Örmeci said the first health inspection showed the cub’s health condition was critical, but it was rescued.
Örmeci said the bear weighed nearly 500 grams, adding, “The bear is being fed every two-three hours. We wanted to bring it together with its mother, but could not find the traces of the mother bear. The cub is planned to be moved to the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs Celal Acar Wildlife Protection and Rehabilitation Center.”

YouTube link.

Örmeci said the bear cub would be under their care for a few more days in Zonguldak and transferred to a place under the protection of a veterinary. Zoo official Tuncer Gençoğlu said the bear’s health was in good condition.

Mystery over 10ft python found dead under fallen tree in Kent

A 10ft snake found dead in the street could have suffered a fatal head injury before it was trapped under a tree in Northfleet, North Kent.

The RSPCA said examination of the Burmese python's body has raised questions about how it suffered the crush injury. Investigators are now trying to unravel the mystery of how it was killed - and who is the owner.
The snake was discovered trapped under a fallen tree by a member of the public in Wallis Park on Wednesday. The worried passer-by phoned the police before RSPCA officer Brian Milligan was called to the residential street at about 10am. Experts believe the animal had died at least 24 hours earlier - but it is not known where it came from.

An RSPCA spokesman said: "Somebody will be missing a 10ft Burmese python and we want to find out who. Further examination of the snake has led to some questions as to whether the crush injury it sustained to the head was a result of the tree or whether the injury took place prior to being placed under the tree."

Chimps provide insight into autism spectrum disorders

Chimps provide insight into autism spectrum disorders

Following another’s gaze or looking in the direction someone is […]

Man rescued dog from icy lake in daring operation

Ove Karlsen, who works as an electrician on North Sea oil platforms lowered himself into an icy Norwegian lake to save a trapped St. Bernard last month.

Karlsen edged himself out over the ice, wearing a wetsuit he had put on especially for the rescue attempt, slipped into the water to greet the suffering animal, and then coaxed it to a rope he had laid over the ice.
"I did what I had to do and actually acted on impulse," Karlsen said.

YouTube link.

He said that when wife Stine came home, telling him of the struggling dog she'd seen, he had felt compelled to go out and try and save it. After a visit to a local vet, the dog was reunited with its grateful owners.

Raccoon mistaken for pet cat attacked woman in bed

A woman from Hingham, Massachusetts was attacked by a raccoon after she reached out to pet what she thought was her cat while lying in bed on Wednesday. The 73-year-old woman was taken to the hospital with injuries to her face and fingers from fighting the animal off, Hingham Sgt. Stephen Dearth said.

A state lab is testing a sample from the raccoon, which was killed, to determine whether it had rabies. Dearth said police believe the raccoon came into the house through a cat door.  He said the woman felt the animal jump on her bed and thought it was her cat when she reached out to pet it. Dearth said the woman called police at around 10:50am after chasing the raccoon out of her bedroom and shutting the door.

While still barricaded in the room, she directed officers to a spare key that they used to enter the house and begin searching for the raccoon. A state Environmental Police officer who happened to be nearby when the call went out was able to corner the animal in the house and trap it with a net and snare. After the raccoon was killed, Animal Control Officer Leslie Badger took it to the morgue at the VCA South Shore Animal Hospital in Weymouth to remove its head, which she took to the state lab in Jamaica Plain for testing.

Hingham residents occasionally report encounters between raccoons and people or pets, but Badger said it's very rare for the animals to try to get inside a home. She said the raccoon that attacked the woman in Hingham likely either had rabies or was taken in by someone who fed it and then set it free when it got too big. "People need to understand that you can't feed these animals," Badger said. "It turns into a situation for someone else that has no idea." Dearth said the woman's cat was found unharmed. The result of the rabies testing is expected soon.

Ants Playing Chess Find New Solutions To Old Problem

Remove all the pieces from a chess board except for one knight. Then try to move the knight across all 64 squares of the board, touching each once. This so-called 'knight's tour' is very difficult to achieve for a single person, but mathematicians have calculated that there are a mind-boggling number of ways to pull it off.

Searching for new solutions to the knight's tour, University of Nottingham computer scientist Graham Kendall and a colleague turned to simulated ants. They used the ant colony optimization algorithm, a swarm intelligence technique based on the behavior of ants looking to find a path between their colony and a food source.

Giant, mysterious jellyfish found on Australian beach

‘We’re curious to know more about it’

Family in Tasmania discovers creature, which has yet to be scientifically classified

The ocean is full of surprises, and a great big, gooey surprise washed ashore recently in Australia, and turned out to be a species of jellyfish yet to be scientifically classified.
The giant, mysterious jellyfish, about five feet in diameter, was discovered on a beach in Tasmania by Josie Lim and her family.
“She and her children took this amazing photo that just boggles the mind,” Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, told BBC News.
Scientists had been aware of the species, but it’s so rare that it was never classified. Gershwin said it’s one of three new species in the lion’s mane group of sea jellies found off Tasmania. (Sea jellies are commonly referred to as jellyfish, even though they’re not fish.)
“We’re very eager to know more about it,” Gershwin said.
The world’s largest jellyfish shares the same genus—Cyanea—as the lion’s mane. Cyanea capillata is found in the North Atlantic and Arctic. Its bell can span eight feet and its tentacles can grow to about 100 feet.
According to a species profile on the Monterey Bay Aquarium website, “A Cyanea sea jelly was the murder weapon in a Sherlock Holmes mystery called ‘The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane.’
“Although the lion’s mane’s sting can be potentially fatal, most swimmers who encounter this gentle beast survive to tell the story.”
The sea jelly found by the Lims was collected for study.

Efforts continue to rescue deer with bucket stuck on its head

A deer has been spotted in western Quebec, Canada with a bucket stuck on its head, but despite days of effort, government officials and the woman who feeds it have not been able to catch the animal to save it. Last Sunday, Diane Leonardo watched deer gather at a feeder in the backyard of her home in Lac Simon, about an hour northeast of Gatineau. Then she saw one of the animals in some discomfort, as it had a bucket stuck on its head.

“My heart fell to my feet. We have 12 deer, we have deer here all the time,” said Leonardo. “It was a shock. You know immediately that he couldn’t get it off himself.” No one has been able to give the deer food or water for at least five days. Officials with Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources tried to catch the deer with a net, but failed. They came back another day and tried to tranquilize the animal, but it ran off.

Leonardo said workers gave up after two failed attempts to corner the animal on Thursday but she said they will continue. "They are my heroes," she said. The deer has returned each morning, though, and Leonardo’s husband laid out straw to lure the animal to a warm resting place. They hope officials can then catch it and take the bucket off.

YouTube link. Original news video.

The bucket is believed to have a metal handle that is stuck behind the deer’s ears. Leonardo said she feels bad and will cut handles off her buckets from now on. For now, she’s still focused on saving the deer. “It’s very cold and [deer] need calories. They need calories and he’s not been eating anything,” she said. Two teams of government workers remain in Lac Simon ready to tranquillize the deer if it shows up, and neighbors are ready to call if they see the animal. Officers do admit, however, if they can’t catch the animal, they might kill the deer out of compassion.

Animal News

Penguins Given 'Happy Pills' in Soaking Britain

Some miserable Humboldt penguins, unaccustomed to so much rain, might get a lift from an antidepressant.

Do Some Animals Get a Taste for Human Blood?

A tiger in India is reportedly eating humans. Experts say it's unlikely it will stop at nine.

Olympians Could Turn Insects Into Cannibals

Travelers to Russia and Japan could bring back home surprise stowaways: cannibalistic insects.

Prehistoric Carnivore Had 'Steak Knife' Teeth

A pre-Dino Era carnivore could literally bite off more than it could chew thanks to its serrated "steak knife" teeth.

Update: Sochi Olympics Set to Feature Killer Whales

The aquarium in Sochi has confirmed that it has acquired at least one orca from the wild as an attraction at the Olympic Games.

Young Salmon Born Knowing Migration Route

Young Pacific salmon inherit a magnetic sense of direction that brings them to their ancestor’s breeding grounds without any prior experience of traveling there.

Bumblebees Can Fly Higher Than Mount Everest

Alpine bumblebees have the ability to fly at elevations greater than Mt. Everest, scientists have found.

Dwarf Whales, Twin-Tusked Walrus Once Swam West Coast

Five million years ago, before the Ice Ages, strange mammals resided along the Pacific coast near modern San Francisco.

Animal Pictures