Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Whale leaps aboard sailing boat
Wednesday, August 20, 2003 Posted: 11:15 AM

The 10-ton humpback whale leapt out of the water onto the boat.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe...eut/index.html

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A British family's holiday was rudely interrupted when a 30-foot (9-meter) whale crashed onto their sailing boat off the east coast of Australia.

The 10-ton humpback whale leapt out of the water and pulled the rigging and mast along with it as it slid down the boat, British media reported on Wednesday.

"I was below deck when there was a hell of a crash from port as it leapt out of nowhere," said Trevor Johnson, 61, who was on the boat with his wife, two sons and a son's girlfriend.

"It's amazing that no one was hurt or killed, but it was a terrifying experience," he told The Daily Telegraph.

The 40-foot boat was 10 miles away from the shore and the radio equipment did not work. They were eventually towed to dry land after using a mobile phone to ring for help.


The family, from Coventry, chartered the £150,000 (U.S. $238,000) boat and set sail from Airlie Beach to go on a 10-day trip around the Whitsunday Islands, according to the Telegraph.

"There was a bang and a thud, and a whale came about 12 ft out of the water and slid down the side. It was shedding barnacles from its tummy and caught itself on the rigging. I was very shocked -- it was very scary," Mark Johnson told the newspaper.

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[Jolie Rouge]

Spooky, Grisly Find Near Reno, Nevada

Archaeologists think they have located the camp site used by the Donner Party more than 150 years ago. The 81 pioneers, who were headed to California in a wagon train, took an untested short cut and found themselves trapped in the Sierra Nevada range during the brutal winter of 1846-1847. Legend has it they resorted to cannibalism when they could no longer hunt or fish. Only half of the group survived.

Are the grisly tales really true?

This latest find may provide the first physical evidence that would conclusively prove whether or not the desperate pioneers ate human beings to stay alive, reports The Associated Press.

Find out what happened when more than 300 descendants of the Donner Party gathered in the Sierra Nevada in August 1996 to mark the 150th anniversary of that harsh winter of 1846-47.

Two pieces of evidence have been unearthed at the site in Alder Creek, located about 30 miles west of Reno, Nevada. The first is the campfire pit, which was found using ground-penetrating radar. The second is a bone fragment of a large mammal that contains the butcher marks of an ax. If the bone proves to be human, it would be the first bit of physical evidence of cannibalism linked to the Donner Party, reports the Reno-Gazette Journal. In addition, they plan to do DNA testing on the bone to see if the remains can be linked to the descendants of the Donner family survivors.

"This is a very exciting find," Frankye Craig, a Donner Party researcher in Reno, told AP. "Even though some people don't think that's the Donner campsite, Donner descendants have been going there since the 1960s, and they always thought it was the place. To them, Alder Creek is sacred ground, and the new research seems to prove that. I hope it triggers more investigation."

Also found at the site were a link from a woman's gold chain, bits of bottles and plates, and other artifacts dating from the 1840s.


Find out what happened when more than 300 descendants of the Donner Party gathered in the Sierra Nevada in August 1996 to mark the 150th anniversary of that harsh winter of 1846-47.

www.cnn.com/US/9608/18/donner.party/index.html

[Jolie Rouge]

San Diego Zoo's Giant Panda Gives Birth
By SETH HETTENA

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...S3&related=off

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Bai Yun, a 13-year-old giant panda, gave birth to the first of twin cubs, but researchers at the San Diego Zoo were still waiting more than 18 hours later for the second arrival.

Monitors watched around the clock but there hadn't been any sign of the second panda Wednesday morning, zoo spokesman Paul Garcia said.

Bai Yun delivered her first cub in a nest of shredded bamboo at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, said Don Lindburg, head of the zoo's panda team.

``We were all rather surprised ... including the mother,'' Lindburg said. ``She showed a real startled reaction. There was no sign of a contraction and suddenly there's this very loudly vocalizing, slithering little animal.


``She immediately leaned over, as panda mothers do, picked it up in her mouth and put it on her body.''


Research has shown female pandas who are pregnant with twins deliver the second cub anytime between 12 minutes and 12 hours after giving birth to the first, according to the zoo's Web site. Panda cubs typically weigh from 4 to 6 ounces at birth.


Typically, a mother will chose to care for only one cub, officials said.


``She's still providing proper care for the infant,'' Garcia said. ``The giant panda team is pretty pleased with her maternal instincts.''


Bai Yun gave birth to a cub in 1999 after she was artificially inseminated. Her offspring, Hua Mei, is the first U.S.-born panda to survive into adolescence.


Giant pandas are an endangered species. Fewer than 1,000 exist in the wild, all in China, and about 150 live in captivity, including panda pairs at zoos in Washington, Atlanta and Mexico City.



On the Net:

www.sandiegozoo.org/index.html



08/20/03 14:14

[Jolie Rouge]

No. 1 Clue You Could Have a Heart Attack


The No. 1 clue that you could someday have a heart attack is your own bad habits--not bad genes or even bad luck.

Two new studies--one from Northwestern University and another from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation--show that most heart attack victims have at least one of the following four risk factors which are all somewhat preventable: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes. "People don't get heart disease out of the blue," lead author Dr. Philip Greenland of Northwestern told The Associated Press.

The link between those risk factors and heart disease is astounding. In the Northwestern study of 386,915 men and women ages 40 to 59, 87 percent of the participants who died of heart disease or heart attacks had one or more of those risk factors. Among those who suffered nonfatal heart attacks, the risk factors were present in 92 percent of men aged 40 to 59 and 87 percent of women in that age group, reports AP.

The separate study of 122,458 adults by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation backs up these numbers. At least one of the four major risk factors was found in 84.6 percent of women and 80.6 percent of men with heart disease including heart attacks, notes AP. Both studies were published in Wednesday's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

[Jolie Rouge]

[b]Panda porn to cure bedtime blues[/v]
June 27, 2002 Posted: 3:30 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science...nda/index.html

Giant pandas are not known for their sexual prowess.

CHENGDU, China -- China is flicking on sex videos, and not Viagra, to rouse the dreary desires of captive male giant pandas who are famously indifferent to female overtures.

As notoriously sex-shy giant pandas reach adulthood in China -- around the age of six -- they are now routinely given ringside seats to panda porn as part of their initiation rites.

When Didi turned six on Tuesday at the China Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Wolong, he sat eyes glued in front of a screen that showed a video of two giant pandas mating, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

"Didi seemed to like his gift immensely," it reported of his coming of age.

While it is not clear how far the "sex education lesson" goes into the finer details of the art of love-making, this X-rated scene is being repeated across China to pander to their basic instincts.

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base in Sichuan Province is also in on the act, showing sex education films once in the morning and again in the evening.


Giant pandas need a boost
"Through this kind of sex education, we expect to arouse the sexual instincts of giant pandas, enhance their natural mating ability and raise their reproductive capacity," said Zhang Hemin, director of the China Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.

Giant pandas, especially those in captivity, have such low sexual desires it is threatening their future, prompting workers to turn to artificial insemination to keep the endangered species going.

Only about 1,100 giant pandas still survive in the wild, along the edge of the Tibetan plateau in China.

But rather than use drugs such as Viagra to help giant pandas boost their sexual desire, centers believe sex education and physical exercise will make all the difference, says Zhang Guiquan, an official with the China Giant Panda Protection Center.

For long periods, more than 60 percent of adult male giant pandas in protection areas or zoos lack any sexual desire. Only 10 percent of them are capable of natural mating and only 30 percent of female giant pandas become pregnant and give birth.

Early results look promising. Last year, Ximeng in Wolong completed his first natural mating after a long bout of sex education. He is now a father.

And panda handlers are even more optimistic about Didi. After an intensive dose of panda porn, he is showing a stronger libido than Ximeng and is expected to mate next year.

As a result of mating and artificial insemination, the number of giant pandas in Wolong has soared to 55 from around 20 in 1998.

Chengdu, for its part, has witnessed 11 births in the last three years.

[Jolie Rouge]

4 children found shot in burning home
Wednesday, August 20, 2003 Posted: 12:20 PM EDT

Anthony Lamar Bailey, shown in this undated Detroit Police handout photo, is wanted for questioning

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/0....ap/index.html


DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- Four children ages of 1 to 12 years old were found shot -- three fatally -- in the basement of a burning home, and their father is being sought for questioning Wednesday.

The surviving child, a 9-year-old girl, was in critical condition at Sinai-Grace Hospital, police officer Christopher Cole said.

Police believe the father, Anthony Lamar Bailey, 37, fled the scene on a bicycle after the blaze started sometime before 9 p.m. Tuesday. Authorities were not calling Bailey a suspect, but urged residents to dial 911 if they see him.

Cole said neighbors reported Bailey had been raising the children and that he was in the middle of a divorce with the children's mother, who has not been seen for about a month.

Cole said it appeared the fire was set to cover up the crime, but added that further investigation will be needed to confirm that.

Tommy Samuels, 38, who was visiting his brother in the neighborhood, said he saw firefighters bring out the children's bodies. He said the firefighters tried in vain to revive one of the children, who appeared to be a girl about 2 years old.

"They tried to save that baby," he said. "They really, really, tried. They kept pounding on her and pounding on her."

[Jolie Rouge]

'White Herdboy' Had No White Family

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...1.htm&sc=reodd

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African youth who made headlines claiming he was kidnapped from white parents and raised as a herdboy in a black rural township was never part of a white family, a court ruled on Tuesday.

The Bronkhorstspruit magistrate's court did say the youth, known as "Happy Sindane," may have had a white father, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said.

The case of Sindane, a light-haired, pale-skinned youth believed to be about 16 years old, has gripped South Africa's media since he turned up at a police station on May 19 saying he had been kidnapped years before.

Two white families submitted to DNA tests in an effort to show he was their long-lost child, but officials later concluded he was likely to be the biological son of the black woman he claimed had abducted him.


Sindane's story hit a chord in South Africa, where race remains a highly emotional issue nine years after the end of white rule and where many people are of mixed-race.


The Bronkhorstspruit court, which has overseen the case, said Sindane had accepted its conclusions and planned to change his surname to Mzayiya, the name of the woman now believed to be his mother, SABC reported.


Sindane has become a minor celebrity in South Africa and legal arguments have broken out over companies which sought to use his image in various advertisements.


Johannesburg's Star newspaper said on Tuesday that Sindane had also been hit with a paternity claim after a woman said he was the father of a newborn baby.



08/20/03 10:32

[Jolie Rouge]

Porn Candidate Offers Date to Big Donors


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...9.htm&sc=reodd


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - No sex please -- this is politics.

Porn actress Mary Carey, one of 135 candidates running for California governor, offered on Tuesday to go on a date with anyone offering her a hefty campaign contribution. But that is it, just a date,

Carey said she would offer a dinner date to anyone giving more than $5,000 to her campaign that seeks to replace Gov. Gray Davis if he is recalled by voters on Oct. 7.

"As an independent, I don't have a large political party backing me," she said in a statement. "So I have to be creative and develop more unconventional methods of raising money."


Asked if the date could lead to a sexual encounter, campaign aide Jayson Helgeson replied: "I don't think so, that's not part of it. It's like a normal date."


Pressed to clarify what a normal date means for a woman who has appeared in both explicit lesbian and heterosexual scenes, he put the phone on hold to clarify and then responded: "No sex, no matter what."



08/20/03 10:58

[Widgetsx3]

By The Associated Press

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) - Cars on both lanes of Interstate 80 stopped to weather a swirling blizzard, but it wasn't snow. It was cash.

An eastbound armored truck somehow lost its load Tuesday night, sending money into the wind. Cars in both lanes stopped and tried to help recover the money.

The truck crew realized the money was missing near a rest stop, said Lt. Rob Hansen, a spokesman for the Iowa State Patrol.

"They knew they lost it and stopped immediately and attempted to retrieve it," Hansen said. "They don't know how or why (it was lost)."

Officers stopped three cars east of the cash spill and authorities were investigating whether the occupants had taken some of the money.

"Some folks ... attempted to benefit from the situation," Hansen said.

Hansen could not say whether the loss was part of a robbery or some other attempt to take money from the armored truck.

"To my knowledge this was the loss of property of no one's overt attempt," he said.

Hansen said the money in the area has been cleaned up.

"There is no reason for anybody to head out there," he said.

[Widgetsx3]

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Border police arrested four women trying to smuggle an unusual cargo - 420 parrots hidden in their van and on their person, news reports said.

Customs officers at the Malko Tarnovo border crossing, some 250 miles southeast of Sofia, found the exotic birds as the women tried to cross into Turkey, the daily Standart said. Between 6 and 8 inches long, some of the green birds were hidden in compartments in the van and others in special pockets sewn into the women's clothes, the report said

The smugglers expected to get $20 per bird in Turkey, where people often give a parrot as a declaration of love.

The parrots will now go to several zoos in the region, a customs official said.

[Widgetsx3]

MARSHFIELD, Wis. (AP) - In the end, it would probably have been cheaper for these stowaways to have just bought a ticket.

Thirteen vagabonds who hopped the wrong freight train, ending up here instead of their intended destination of Minneapolis, were arrested after a railroad employee alerted authorities.

The Union Pacific train stopped in snarling downtown lunchtime traffic for about 30 minutes Tuesday so police could remove the 10 men and three women from the freight.

The railroad had complained of unauthorized riders in one of its boxcars.

The riders, from various cities in several states and Canada, were taken into custody for trespassing, police said. All were cited under the city code for trespass, a $102 fine, and released.

The train had left Superior about seven hours before it stopped in Marshfield, one man said, identifying himself only as David, or "Sleepy," from New Brighton, Minn.

"We were going to Minneapolis but got on the wrong train," he said. "We'll probably all try to hitchhike out."