World’s Biggest Condom?
The Weekend that was…
The mysteries of the ocean, the lust and oddities of the sky feature in this edition of…..
The Crazy News: Quick Quotes.
UK
“We got chatting and it went a bit further. And it was every man’s dream, to be honest.”
Entrepreneur and Virgin boss Richard Branson on his joining of the ‘mile high club’ at the ripe old age of 19.
Indonesia
“It was an enormous fish. It had phosphorescent green eyes and legs. If I had pulled it up during the night, I would have been afraid and I would have thrown it back in.”
Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama on his astonishing catch of a rare coelacanth fish. Oceanic scientists want him to reconstruct his lucky haul so they can understand the species that is at least 360 million years old and was once thought to have become extinct with the dinosaurs.
Holland
“This is a playful way of asking for attention to the problem of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS.”
The director of Dutch Health Services explains the motivation behind a giant condom shaped hot air balloon drifting lazily across the sky at a music/motor cross festival in Lichtenvoorde.
UK
“It was horrifying. If I’d have known it was a great white at the time I would have panicked.”
A British woman shocked to have caught a Great White Shark on film in British waters. The British media are now in a ‘Jaws frenzy’.
Italy
“The people were offloaded because they failed to comply with safety instructions when the aircraft was taxiing. Two passengers stood up and refused to sit down.”
A spokesperson explains why three Qatari princesses were kicked off a flight from Milan after they refused to sit next to male passengers they did not know.
For the record it wasn’t a Virgin flight….
“I knew that giant condom would come in handy….”
The unlikely hero.
The most famous Chihuahua in the world is probably our friend Paris Hilton’s 3,000 Euro pet/fashion accessory Tinkerbell.
Move over Tinkerbell
But an unlikely hero has emerged to take that most famous Chihuahua spot away.
And it has the hallmarks of an epic battle of David and Goliath proportions.
A puppy Chihuahua named Zoey is being hailed as a hero after taking on an aggravated rattlesnake who threatened a 1-year-old boy in the backyard of a town in Colorado, USA.
Zoey was in her master’s back yard, July 12, in the foothills west of Loveland.
Her master, Monty Long, was sitting on his back patio watching his grandson, Booker West.
The toddler was playing by the birdbath when Zoey darted between him and a rock on the other side. The rattlesnake was on the rock.
“As soon as she went in she yipped and came running back out,” Long said.
The grandfather said he ran over and grabbed the toddler, then took him out of harms way. Then, he said, he grabbed a pipe and took care of the snake.
“It was up in the position to strike again,” Long said.
Zoey still has a one inch scar from the attack.
“Her head was the size of a large grapefruit,” said Denise Long, the boy’s grandmother. “You couldn’t tell where her eyes were… just this little button that you could tell was her nose.”
The vet treated Zoey with antivenin and blood plasma. She has since recovered from the snakebite.
Denise Long said she hated to see her dog get bitten, but she’s glad it was the dog and not her grandson.
So is the toddler’s Mom. “I was terrified,” said Lynsie West. “I used to go out on my 4 Wheeler all the time and I’d see them constantly (snakes), but it never scared me as much as it does now. Oooh, it just gives me the chills.”
Monty Long said after everything settled down and the dog was treated by the vet, he had time to stop and think about what happened, and what almost happened. “That’s when the cold chills went up my neck, for about two hours.”
Long said he’ll be keeping a closer eye on his own back yard from now on.
He said this isn’t the first time there’s been a snakebite on his property.
“About four years ago a rattler bit Cherokee (his painted horse) on the nose.”
The quick thinking Long placed a hose in the horse’s nose before it swelled shut. That action, and another call to the vet, helped save the horse.
The Longs said they understand that snakes are part of the landscape where they live.
They said they’re glad that Zoey lives there too.
“She’s not your typical Chihuahua,” Denise said, “she’s not mean; she’s just a sweet little dog.”
Yipes!
One brave little puppy dog…
Let it snow! SE Australia in a freeze.
July 17, 2007
As most people in the Northern Hemisphere fry in the heat, it’s quite the opposite where I am, Down Under way.
Australia’s most highly populated area, the south east where cities like Melbourne and Sydney lie, is experiencing some of the coldest weather on record.
Sydneysiders woke up to their coldest July morning in 21 years.
Meanwhile to the south of Sydney, in the state of Victoria, roads were closed due to freezing and the city of Melbourne was hammered with high winds.
Oh, yes indeed. How exciting!
It’s not yet official, but a research team visiting the deep jungles of Papua New Guinea believe that an echidna named after British naturalist Sir David Attenborough, thought to no longer exist, is actually still alive, reports the BBC:
The month-long expedition by scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) involved travelling to parts of the mountain range, covered by thick jungle, which had remained unexplored for more than 45 years.
Jonathan Baillie, ZSL’s Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (Edge) programme manager, said: “We hope that Sir David Attenborough will be delighted to hear that his namesake species is still surviving in the wilds of the Papaun jungle.”
The creature had not been recorded since a Dutch botanist collected the only known specimen in the cloud forest of the Cyclops Mountains in 1961.
As a result, it was widely assumed that the shoe box-sized species (Zaglossus attenboroughi) was extinct.
But while the Edge team were in the area, they spoke to local tribespeople who said that they had seen the creature as recently as 2005.
The scientists also discovered “nose pokes”, holes in the ground made by the echidnas as they stuck their long noses into soil to feed.
