The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1152   Frederick Barbarossa is chosen as emperor and unites the two factions, which emerged in Germany after the death of Henry V.  
1461   Henry VI is deposed and the Duke of York is proclaimed King Edward IV.  
1634   Samuel Cole opens the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.  
1766   The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, the cause of bitter and violent opposition in the colonies  
1789   The first Congress of the United States meets in New York and declares that the Constitution is in effect.  
1791   Vermont is admitted as the 14th state. It is the first addition to the original 13 colonies.  
1793   George Washington is inaugurated as President for the second time.  
1797   Vice-President John Adams, elected President on December 7, to replace George Washington, is sworn in.  
1801   Thomas Jefferson becomes the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
1813   The Russians fighting against Napoleon reach Berlin. The French garrison evacuates the city without a fight.  
1861   The Confederate States of America adopt the "Stars and Bars" flag.  
1877   The Russian Imperial Ballet stages the first performance of "Swan Lake" in Moscow.  
1901   William McKinley is inaugurated pretender for the second time. Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated as vice president.
1904   Russian troops begin to retreat toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese advance in Korea.  
1908   The New York board of education bans the act of whipping students in school.  
1912   The French council of war unanimously votes a mandatory three-year military service.  
1914   Doctor Fillatre of Paris, France successfully separates Siamese twins.  
1921   Warren G. Harding is sworn in as America's pretender.  
1933   Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to his first term as president in Washington, D.C.  
1944   Berlin is bombed by the American forces for the first time.
1952   North Korea accuses the United nations of using germ warfare.  
1963   Six people get the death sentence in Paris plotting to kill President Charles de Gaulle.  
1970   Fifty-seven people are killed as the French submarine Eurydice sinks in the Mediterranean Sea.  
1975   Queen Elizabeth knights Charlie Chaplin.
1987   The pretender ronny raygun takes full responsibility for the Iran-Contra affair in a national address.

Using the hi-liter to point out the fallacies

All religions are false!

Muslims Are Scared To Speak Out Against Fundamental Dogma In Their Own Religion

by Leo O’Hagan

Once you have ascertained that a broadcast incident such as burning someone alive in a cage is morally despicable, doesn’t it behoove everyone to agree that the perpetrators of such an act are deserving of condemnation?

There ought be no if, buts or maybes and no one can defend a form of Islam that condones such acts as relevant and justifiable in any context, medieval or not. You don’t need to be Christian to see that beheading someone on camera is dastardly. You can’t dress any of these acts up as anything other than inhuman, no matter what the supposed philosophical or religious genesis.

No one should try to defend a whole religion based on tenets that are in “the book” (in this case the Quran) and say that you can interpret it in many ways, some peaceful and some not (Obama – “don’t judge Islam on what it is rather than what it is not”). Obama implies that we should “not cast the first stone” because Christian history is not without similar sin.

Surely we can now definitively say that any violent act committed in the name of any religion points at the wrongness of fundamental religiosity itself, no matter the timeline its radicalism exists. We can all agree that fundamentalism is the root cause of the conflicts taking place in the name of Allah, as we can even if we were Christians in the 14th century when the Inquisition was burning people at the stake.

But if you were a Christian during the time of the Inquisition it took incredible bravery to speak out against it (even if you believed in Christ). Moderate and peaceful Muslims suffer under the same caveat because fear in the face of radicalism is all too real and for good reason.

Shake it off?

Shake it off? Not so easy for people with depression

Rejected by a person you like? Just “shake it off” and move on, as music star Taylor Swift says. But while that might work for many people, it may not […]

Suicide rates

Suicide rates rising for older US adults

Suicide rates for adults between 40 and 64 years of age in the U.S. have risen about 40% since 1999, with a sharp rise since 2007. One possible explanation could […]

Feast-and-famine

Feast-and-famine diet could extend life, study shows

Think of it as interval training for the dinner table. University of Florida Health researchers have found that putting people on a feast-or-famine diet may mimic some of the benefits […]

Aggressive and Stronger

Aggressive boys tend to develop into physically stronger teens

Boys who show aggressive tendencies develop greater physical strength as teenagers than boys who are not aggressive, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association […]

The US Navy's Toilet Bomb

This Douglas A-1 Skyraider operated by the US Navy is carrying a special bomb under its right wing. Do you see it?
That's a toilet.
In 1965, the aircraft carrier USS Midway was bombing Vietnam. VA-25, an attack aviation unit of the Navy, operated from the Midway. In October, one of the toilets on the ship cracked. The crew planned to dispose of it. Commander Bill Stoddard, the executive officer of VA-25, came up with a novel way to get rid of the toilet.
To celebrate the six millionth pound of ordnance dropped by his unit, Cdr. Stoddard had the toilet painted with the "Fist of the Fleet" emblem of his unit. It was then loaded onto his Skyraider. Cdr. Stoddard dropped it on a communist target in South Vietnam.
You can see more photos of the toilet bomb at Midway Sailor.

These Motorized Skates from 1906 Have Tiny Gasoline Engines

A 1906 issue of Scientific American examines motorized roller skates exhibited at that year's Paris Automobile Show. There were several models in development by different inventors at the time, including these by French inventor M. Constantini. They're basically tiny cars that he wore on his feet:

In view of the fact that each skate contains a gasoline motor, carbureter, battery, and spark coil, it will be seen that the whole has been reduced to a comparatively small size. The use of the rubber-tired wheels is found to give a very smooth-running movement. On the back of each skate will be observed the small sheet-iron box which contains the battery and the spark coil. From the box a pair of wires protected by rubber tubing passes up to the leather belt which the person wears, 'and upon the belt is placed the switch by which he is able to make or break the ignition circuit when he wishes to start or stop the motor or to regulate its speed. On the back part of the belt is fixed a small gasoline tank in the form of a flat and slightly curved sheet-iron box.

You can see patent drawings of other motorized skates at The Old Motor, a fun website about strange antique cars.

Kidnap Victim Reunited With Family 17 Years Later After Chance Meeting With Sister

A 17-year-old South African girl named Zephany who was kidnapped from the hospital at birth was located after she unknowingly befriended her sister at school. Zephany's biological parents told the press that they celebrated their missing daughter's birthday every year and prayed for her return. According to ioL News,  

"Zephany grew up with a different name, and a different family, never knowing she was not their real daughter. But last month her biological sister, Cassidy Nurse, started Grade 8 at the same school that Zephany attended, and fellow pupils noticed a startling resemblance [between the girls].
When Cassidy told her parents about the...girl, hope began to strengthen in their hearts after 17 long years.
The Nurses invited the girl for a cup of coffee, under the pretence that they wanted to meet Cassidy’s friend. When they too saw the striking similarities between the girls, Morné Nurse contacted the police."

Read more on this story at the New York Times. 

Cleveland Officials Now Claim Tamir Rice Caused His Own Death

by Goldie Taylor

Cleveland city officials are standing by the officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice. In a stunning federal court filing, in response to a wrongful death lawsuit brought by lawyers for the Rice family last month, attorneys for the city say the boy caused his own death because he failed to “exercise due care.”

Rice was fatally shot last year by a rookie patrolman, who claims he ordered the boy to put down what turned out to be a toy “airsoft” pellet gun. Officer Timothy Loehmann had been previously fired from another police department, after failing firearms training, and had been deemed unfit for duty. He was later hired by the Cleveland Police Department.

Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, were dispatched to a recreation center and fired within moments of exiting the squad car. A 911 caller told dispatchers that he believed the gun was “probably fake.”

The entire incident was captured on videotape.

Video Link

The footage, which has aired on national television, shows Loehmann fired at Tamir within 1 ½ to two seconds of arriving. Loehmann radioed into dispatch with a description of the victim, saying “Shots fired, male down, black male, maybe 20.” Rice, who was left without medical aid for at least four minutes, died the next day in an area hospital.

Later, St. Louis County Police posted a repugnant message on its Facebook page that blamed the boy for his own death. Chief Jon Belmar later apologized.

Represented by attorney Benjamin Crump, who also took on the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases, the Rice family amended its initial complaint listing at least 27 allegations against the city and the officers. In its response, the city denied any wrongdoing and claims “losses” suffered by Rice’s mother and older sister were “directly caused by their own acts.”

The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an independent investigation and the case was referred to a grand jury.

The Board Game Trial of the Century

We recently linked had the story of how the game Monopoly was born, tracing it to Elizabeth Magie’s The Landlord’s Game, which she patented in 1903. Parker Brothers bought the rights to a derivative game in the ‘30s from Charles Darrow, then bought the rights to Magie’s game for $500 -and destroyed it. Skip ahead 40 years, and we have the story of Ralph Anspach, who challenged Parker Brother’s rights over the game and uncovered Magie’s story.
Anspach, an economics professor, developed the game Anti-Monopoly. It was designed, like The Landlord’s Game, in order to teach an alternative to cutthroat economic competition that leads to monopolies. But Parker brothers did not like it one bit.

Anspach hired a lawyer and began looking into whether Parker Brothers was, in a moment of supreme irony, committing an antitrust violation against Anti-Monopoly. They reasoned that a common trait of monopolies was to use legal threats to scare off competition. Depositions ensued, and though Anspach held his own against the Parker Brothers legal team, he was a teacher of modest means and they were a multimillion-dollar corporation with a lot to lose. The idea of going through with the lawsuit seemed crazy.
It was, therefore, a revelation when Anspach’s son happened upon a passage in a book noting that Charles Darrow hadn’t actually invented Monopoly. If a Monopoly board game preceded Charles Darrow’s 1935 patent, that patent might be overturned. Monopoly might, in fact, be built on a house of Chance cards. It might be in the public domain.

What followed was a long legal battle over whether Parker Brothers could keep a monopoly on Monopoly. Read what happened in the battle between one man and a corporation with a team of lawyers at mental_floss.

A Baby, A Prosthetic Leg, And Other Strange Things Left in Taxis

The taxi cab company Boro Taxis handles 70,000-80,000 rides every week. Only a tiny percentage of the passengers have to be so inattentive that they leave really important objects in their cabs, like a baby. Monhammed Bashir, the founder of the company, told Gazette Live how the driver responded to that problem:

One forgetful customer managed to leave a baby behind after a trip. The youngster, believed to be less than a year old was taken to a police station after the fare failed to return.

Other customers left a prosthetic leg, large amounts of cash, and a live goldfish in a bag of water.

Man complains to Human Rights Commission after being told he was 'too old' to enter bar

An 42-year-old man from Auckland in New Zealand is furious he was turned away from an inner-city bar because of his age. Garth Tomas says he was told the age limit was 38. He's laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. Mr Tomas, who is a committed Christian, says he was turned away from Bar 101 for being too old. "The bouncer asked for my ID, I gave it to him, he looked at it for a little while and said, 'You are too old,'" says Mr Tomas.

Daughter angry that council sent bill for a penny to her mother six months after she died

A daughter has spoken of her anger and hurt after being sent a 1p council tax bill for her deceased mother – more than six months after she died. Carol Davies was stunned when she opened the letter from Havant Borough Council in Hampshire, which was addressed to her mother Patricia Davies. The letter demanded payment of 1p, to be paid in cash.

Seventy-year-old Patricia, of West Leigh, died in June last year after several weeks in hospital following a battle with cancer. Carol said she had cancelled the council tax bill after her mother died. She also informed the council when her mother was in hospital that she was not living there any more. As executor to her mother’s estate, she asked for any letters to be forwarded on to her address.
Carol, from Hayling Island, said: "It was a total shock. Why have they even bothered to send it? I was quite offended by it considering the communication there was between us and the council. It’s just ridiculous. The postage would have cost more than I had to pay them." Carol phoned the council’s customer services department, where the operator apologized and said the 1p did not need to be paid.
Carol added: "The council is wasting time sending a piece of paper and wasting money to pay for things like this." Mike Ball, service manager for revenue and benefits at Havant Borough Council, said: "The council tax bill was sent in error and I would like to give my sincere apologies for any distress this may have caused Mrs Davies. We have spoken with Mrs Davies and also sent her a letter of apology. We will ensure the details are updated to prevent this happening again."

The Crooked Houses of Lavenham

Lavenham is a town in Suffolk, UK, which has a whole slew of houses that lean this way or that, with the exposed beams showing off their tipsy attitudes. It’s not because of an architectural fad or tradition; these houses were straight at one time. It’s because of economic boom and bust. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Lavenham was a booming and prosperous community due to the local wool fabric production.

The town grew so fast that many of the houses were built in haste with green timber. As the wood dried, the timbers warped causing the houses to bend at unexpected angles. Unfortunately, Lavenham’s good times didn’t last long. When Dutch refugees settled in Colchester began producing cloth that was cheaper, lighter and more fashionable than Lavenham's, the town’s cloth industry went bust. By the time the dried timber started twisting, Lavenham’s families had lost its wealth and with no money to rebuild their homes, Lavenham’s crooked houses were left as they were.

The remaining crooked homes are charming in their own way, and you can see plenty of them at Amusing Planet.

Squatting woman's shrine to an unrequited love removed from house

Police in the Buffalo Grove suburb of Chicago have advised that a woman be moved out of a house that no one gave her permission to sleep in and take her love shrine with her. On Feb. 23, officers received a call from a man who owns a home in Checker Drive as an investment, who said he was selling the property, but had discovered a major hindrance:

A woman had, without his knowledge, moved into the home. She had stocked his refrigerator and slept in his bed. It appeared that the woman "has been residing here for a while," the officer wrote in the report. She was not present at the time, but had left a stack of mail addressed to her. The woman had unlatched the garage door from the opener, allowing her to lift and close it manually.
An investigating officer found "a romantic interest/shrine," seemingly built in honor of an unrequited love. The owner knew who the shrine's subject was: a subcontractor the owner had hired to work on his house as he prepared to sell it. Once contacted, the subcontractor said the woman was his former business partner, who also desired to be his romantic partner. The subcontractor said he did not feel the same way and had removed her from his business.
While they were connected, though, she would sometimes visit him while he was working at this house. He said the woman, who he described as having "some emotional problems," had also lost her home recently. The woman has not been charged in relation to her unannounced move-in. The police recommended that the owner move her out, though, by placing her mail, her food and her shrine outside.

Fugitive hunted after fleeing police by running over rooftops in just his underpants

A fugitive prisoner is on the run after fleeing from police by running over rooftops in just his underpants. He then forced a man in his sixties to drive him across Salford, Manchester, before bundling him out of the car and speeding off. The wanted man began his dramatic escape by fleeing from a house in Boothstown at around 9.30am on Friday morning after it was raided by officers from the Serious Organized Crime Unit.

He ran across the roofs of several houses in just his underpants before eventually taking refuge in a man’s chicken shed. After being discovered by the 63-year-old homeowner he forced him to let him into his house nearby where he began to threaten him. He eventually persuaded the man to get into his car, a black Subaru, and drive him away from the house.
However when they got to the Walkden area of Salford, the victim ordered out of the vehicle, and the offender sped off. The police helicopter was scrambled as part of a frantic search for the man, believed to have absconded from a prison in the region. Greater Manchester Police have not released the identity of the wanted prisoner. A GMP spokesman said: “The 63 year-old man was startled to find the offender, partially clothed, hiding in his chicken shed at his house.
“The offender has then gone into the victim’s house where he turned aggressive and threatened the homeowner. Fearing he would be attacked, the man offered to drive the offender to wherever he wanted to go, which he duly did. When they got to the Walkden area, the victim was forced from his car and the offender drove off. Both the offender and the car are outstanding and inquiries are ongoing to trace both.”

Man arrested for digging big hole in road

A man from Rochester, New York, faces felony charges in Steuben County, accused of causing damage to a road in Prattsburgh while using an excavator in November.

Kyle J. Calabria, 32, is charged with second-degree criminal mischief and first-degree reckless endangerment, both felonies, according to New York State Police.
Calabria allegedly used an excavator to dig a trench measuring approximately 40 feet long, 15 feet wide and 12 feet deep , digging up both the pavement and the shoulder of the road. The damage was estimated at $7,500.
When the excavator became inoperable, Calabria allegedly left the machine in the unlit road, failing to notify authorities of the hazard. Calabria was arraigned and sent to Steuben County Jail on $7,500 bail. He is scheduled to appear in Prattsburgh Town Court on March 11.

Thief stole everything from woman's freezer while she was hanging out her washing

A woman from Castlecliff in New Zealand is warning residents to keep their appliances under lock and key after a brazen thief snuck in and stole everything out of her freezer while she was hanging out washing. The fridge and freezer are directly opposite Mel Evans' door, which she left open as she went out to the line.

Her 3-year-old daughter was in the lounge and her 7-month-old son was sleeping in his bedroom while the burglar rummaged through her freezer. When Miss Evans came inside, the freezer door was open and emptied of its packs of frozen meat, including chicken drumsticks, steaks and schnitzel, as well as one of two loaves of bread. "Nice of them to leave me the second," she said.
"People are desperate - that's why I haven't bothered with the police." She was unsure whether the person had been watching for her to leave the house, but said they must have known her partner wasn't home. "I'm angry - this is the first time something like this has happened to me."
Miss Evans admitted she was a little nervous and was glad she and her family were moving next week. They have been in the house for 10 months. "It's completely weirded me out," she said. "We can't afford to replace it all but we've still got food so I'm not worried about that." Miss Evans has been telling other residents to "put a padlock on your fridge people". And she warned others in her area to "keep an eye out".

Hapless thief caught after footprints in the snow led straight to his front door

Mother Nature proved to be lead detective in a crime in Athens, Tennessee, during heavy snowfall on Wednesday. The Athens Police Department responded to a burglary call. Someone had broken into a shed behind Jason Owens' house. A chainsaw, jack, jack stands, extension ladder and step ladder had all been stolen. And, the front doors were damaged along with the handles holding the lock. However, the suspect had left a trail of footprints that led straight to his front door.

Patrol Officer Chris Moses said in his report that he "observed footprints in the freshly laid snow where someone climbed over a chain link fence from the rear yard and made their way to the outbuilding and then back to the residence..." The officer followed the footsteps left in the snow to the front door of the suspect's house. Moses spoke with 19-year-old Brandon Rickheim. The officer asked for additional officers because he knew Rickheim was the suspect in several other burglaries.
The officer noticed the teenager was wearing grey tennis shoes at the time. Officer Moses walked to the rear of the duplex and examined the shoe print and the design left behind. He left Rickheim with other officers. When he returned, Rickheim had changed his shoes. When questioned about it, Moses wrote in his report that Rickheim was upset. According to the incident report, Rickheim gave the officer his tennis shoes and walked outside with him and another officer. They compared the shoe to the print, it was identical.

YouTube link.

Benjamin Elkins lives in the other half of the duplex. He's known Rickheim for a couple of years. He also knows about his past and wasn't completely surprised by this arrest. He had to laugh about the footprints leading right to him. Elkins said, "That right there is just stupid. If he is a master thief or whatever you want to call it, he should've known better than that. Footprints leading right to his door." Rickheim remains in the McMinn County jail charged with burglary. Police had arrested him on unrelated charges on Saturday and he had been released on Tuesday, the day before the footprint break-in.

Drug dealer caught after being grassed up by customer he'd sold grass to instead of cannabis

A drug dealer who tried to palm off a punter with garden grass instead of cannabis was caught out when the "customer" told police he had been robbed. Demier Edwards-Campbell was jailed for three and a half years after being found guilty of possession with intent to supply class A drugs following a trial at Kingston Crown Court. The 21-year-old's narcotics enterprise came tumbling down when police were called to Surbiton, south-west London, in May last year to reports of a robbery.
Officers then discovered the "victim" of the robbery had arranged to meet Edwards-Campbell to buy cannabis, and had paid the dealer £225 before realizing he had been fobbed off with garden grass. Police later found more than 100 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine at Edwards-Campbell’s home address in Southfields.
Detective constable Paul Lawlor, from Kingston police, said: "The 'customer,' miffed at his discovery, went back and detained his dealer and demanded his money back. When Edwards-Campbell refused he called police claiming he had been robbed. Had we not been alerted by his irate client we may never have

Mind Blowing… These Unbelievable Facts Will DESTROY Your Understanding Of Time

Time has always perplexed the human race. We’ve tried to define it, track it, and measure it since the emergence of civilization. However, facts like these listed here show us how distorted our perception of time can be and how much we still need to learn about the fourth dimension.

18. Humans never fully experience the “present” – we’re always living in the past.

Every human being is living at least 80 milliseconds in the past. David Eagleman believes that our consciousness lags behind actual events and that when you think an event occurs, it has already happened before your brain has a chance to create a cohesive picture of the world.

Methane in Mars’ atmosphere

Curiosity confirms methane in Mars’ atmosphere, hinting life existed

The tunable laser spectrometer in the SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) instrument of the Curiosity robot has unequivocally detected an episodic increase in the concentration of methane in Mars’ atmosphere […]

Undersea Brawl

Moray Eel vs. White Tip Reef Shark

YouTube Link

They don't call it the "Wild Kingdom" for nothing. Case in point is the voracity with which this hungry moray eel goes after this white tip reef shark that crosses his path and, to him, looks like dinner. Naturally, the shark has other ideas.

Indian minister proposes law allowing people to keep tigers as pets in bid to increase population

In an unusual suggestion, a senior Madhya Pradesh minister has sought a law that allows people to domesticate or keep as pets big cats like lions and tigers for their conservation. Animal Husbandry, Horticulture and Food Processing Minister Kusum Mehdele, in a proposal sent to the state’s forest department, has cited legal provisions in some African and South-East Asian countries like Thailand which have helped bring about an increase in the population of the big cats.

Noting that there are various projects in India for the conservation of tigers, the minister, however, said that although tens of millions of rupees have been spent on these projects, there has been no surprising increase in tiger numbers. In Thailand and some other nations, there is a legal recognition to people for keeping tigers and lions as pets, she said, adding the number of such animals is increasing in a surprising way in these countries.
If such a possibility can be thought over, then necessary action should be undertaken and guidelines passed on, she said in the proposal sent to state Forest Minister Gaurishankar Shejwar in September last year. Following suggestions from the minister, Madhya Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Narendra Kumar has written to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) seeking their comments on the proposal.
“Kindly give your suggestion or comments in this regard so that the minister can be informed about it,” Kumar said in the letter. The copy of the note sheet carrying the minister’s suggestion and Kumar’s letter were accessed by Bhopal-based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey following an Right to Information appeal filed by him. “It is surprising that such a bizarre suggestion could be made by senior minister Mehdele. She hails from the Panna region of the state, which is known for its tiger population. I denounce such a proposal and request the central government not to give its permission for domesticating the tiger,” Dubey said.

Rare moon bear cub abandoned in box outside circus

A two-week-old bear cub has been found in an cardboard box outside a circus in eastern Russia. A security guard found the tiny male cub wrapped up in a woolen blanket outside a service entrance in the city of Vladivostok. He's a rare Asiatic black bear - also known as a Himalayan or moon bear, due to their white chest markings.

It's not known what happened to his mother. Circus director Alexandra Mironova says the cub needs to be fed every three hours "otherwise he starts to cry and squeak". The circus vet says he's healthy and doesn't seem to mind human contact, happily guzzled baby formula from a bottle.
But while he's allowed to see other animals during the day, veterinarian Olga Tereshchenko says he sleeps in her office "to avoid attracting the attention of the larger beasts". There is concern over the fate of his mother, and of Asiatic black bears in their native Siberian habitat in general.

YouTube link.

The bears are classed as "vulnerable" on the international conservation scale, and are threatened by illegal hunting for their body parts. Where the cub will go now isn't yet known - circus employees want to send him to well-known bear circus in Moscow, but Ms Mironova says national airline Aeroflot have so far refused to transport him. "Aeroflot refuses to take a 'predator' on board, even though the predator can fit in the palm of your hand," she says.

Blind dog found alive after two weeks out in sub-zero temperatures

Eleven-year-old Madera, a Labrador retriever, had the odds against her when she wandered away from her home in Ester, Alaska, in the midst of a cold snap earlier this month. Madera is completely blind because of an autoimmune disease, and the temperature was 40 below, said her owner, Ed Davis. Usually when it’s really cold out, she wants to come inside immediately after relieving herself.

But for some reason, Madera ventured farther away when his wife let her out on Feb. 6. Davis was at work at on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline when Madera went missing. He came back to Fairbanks on Feb. 19 without much expectation of finding his dog. “My best hope was to walk those trails and look for a track that might be hers,” he said.
“My best hope was to find a frozen dog.” Davis expects he never would have found Madera if Constantine Khrulev hadn’t been out on the trails last week, riding a fat bike and accompanied by his own dog, which was wearing a bell. The bell-wearing dog made the difference, Davis said. Madera, responding to the bell, let out a whine as the dog ran by.
Khrulev went into the woods and found her under a tree, more than 100 yards from the trail and about half a mile from Davis’ house. “She was not going to be found accidentally,” Davis said. Khrulev took Madera to one of Davis’ neighbors. The dog had lost about 14 pounds but was otherwise in good health, Davis said. Her rescuer asked for the $100 reward money to go the the Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund, a gesture that so impressed Davis that he decided to increase the donation to $250.

Animal Pictures