The Interesting news thread

[intothewoods]

Yes, I'm glad someone posted about this. I mean, it's literotica - we don't have to talk about serious stuff, but it's been on my mind all day. She was really so brave. I can't imagine being that brave.

 

[@}-}rebecca----]

I had only just woken up, being in a Hotel room, putting on Sky News kind of grounds me. Call me an optimistic masochist, even when the cards are negatively stacked I never expect outcomes like this.Tragic.

I sort of scanned a range of media after the fact, sadly all true. I just watched an interview where she was questioned about her concern for the propensity to her own assassination on return the Pakistan and even though she ceded the risk at the same time she was quick to point out the many practical measures that were taken to impede any actual risk. Though with the top half of your body extending out of a vehicle during a motorcade one has to wonder. I had the impression from her comments that while she accepted the threat was sincere, it simply wasn't going to happen. She can't have been naive with her personal history, the touching thing I noted was her immediate concern for her bodyguards .

Perhaps some wisdom will come of this.......

 

[catalina_francisco]

Another one of those moments in time where one impulsive decision changes everything. The report I watched earlier showed the rally she attended, and her walking though the crowds to the car and they said she was not expected to make the last minute stand through the sunroof to wave to supporters but made a spur of the moment decision for one last wave....without it one has to wonder if she would still be alive...unfortunately the clock cannot be turned back.

Catalina

 

[@}-}rebecca----]

Another one of those moments in time where one impulsive decision changes everything. The report I watched earlier showed the rally she attended, and her walking though the crowds to the car and they said she was not expected to make the last minute stand through the sunroof to wave to supporters but made a spur of the moment decision for one last wave....without it one has to wonder if she would still be alive...unfortunately the clock cannot be turned back.

Catalina

I suspect it's a fairly human trait Cat.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

So one of the first news stories I catch this morning is this. Note the bolded portions, which are my contribution.

Family sues in man's mistaken death
Medical officials inadequately checked man's vital signs, family claims

The Associated Press
updated 1:19 p.m. ET, Fri., Dec. 28, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. - The family of a man who was hit by a car and mistakenly declared dead has sued over the mistake, claiming it led to injuries from which he might not recover.

Larry Green was walking across a highway in 2005 when he was hit by a car. He was put into a body bag and sent to the morgue, and the medical examiner did not notice Green was still alive until roughly 2 1/2 hours after the accident.

Green, who now lives in a nursing home in North Carolina, was hospitalized for two months with a severe head injury, broken leg and other injuries. He began some limited speaking five months after the accident.

In the lawsuit filed this month, the family claims medical officials inadequately checked his vital signs after the accident. It also alleges the medical examiner disregarded signs that Green was alive.

The [medical] examiner, J.B. Perdue, said it was not his job to determine whether Green was dead or alive.

"The medical examiner is called after death," Perdue said. "Someone else pronounced his death, and the medical examiner is called to investigate the cause and manner of that death. He does not pronounce people dead."

William Hill, an attorney representing Franklin County, did not return calls seeking comment.​

Strangely enough, I think the medical examiner is in the right in this. If he wasn't on the scene (unlike all the CSI shows, MEs don't go to "the scene of the crime" in most instances), it wouldn't have been his responsibility to determine whether the subject was dead, alive or somewhere in between. The surprising thing to me is that the ME actually got around to checking out the "body" only two and a half hours after the accident. It must have been a slow day in the Raleigh morgue.

The family probably does, however, have a pretty good case against the ambulance attendants who declared the guy dead and transported him to the morgue.

 

[Essene]

Bumpity bump bump bump...

 

[bandelero]

Their lucky day

A passenger plane crash landed at Heathrow today, BUT, there were NO deaths.....It could have ended so differently:

<quote>Witnesses said the jet missed the tops of houses by less than 200ft as the pilot wrestled to regain control, and was just 20ft off the ground as it cleared the A30. </quote>



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2008/01/17/et-heathrow-617.xml

 

[midwestyankee]

The host with the most?

And then there's this fine young dude whose party-while-the-parents-were-away got a tad out of hand. Note the calm demeanor of the news person who interviewed him: she showed remarkable restraint.

The boy, on the other hand, appears to be yet another argument for the accuracy of Darwin's work.

Aussie party giver interview

 

[@}-}rebecca----]

And then there's this fine young dude whose party-while-the-parents-were-away got a tad out of hand. Note the calm demeanor of the news person who interviewed him: she showed remarkable restraint.

The boy, on the other hand, appears to be yet another argument for the accuracy of Darwin's work.

Aussie party giver interview

Read this last week, what a tool that kid is : laughs : Party crashing of that magnitude is not a rare phenomena here. He'll gain 10 years and be fairly embarrassed by the way he behaved after the fact I imagine. Some 21st birthday squirming if he makes it that far.

 

[@}-}rebecca----]

North MP hot under collar at fetish mistake

Jan 20 2008 - by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m71/worldrebecca/96D38CDC-FDC3-8AEC-D18DB51B3021732D.jpg​

A NORTH MP was left red-faced last night after accidentally giving his support to National Fetish Day.

Organisers revealed Ronnie Campbell had promised to wear purple to support a day of awareness tomorrow.

But the MP for Blyth Valley, Northumberland, withdrew his backing after the Sunday Sun explained the kinky connotations of the word “fetish” which he was not aware of.

Mr Campbell revealed he thought “fetish” was just another word for “worry” instead of a description of people who get their kicks in unusual ways.

Fetishists include people who wear rubber and who indulge in bondage, sadism, and masochism.

When we told him, Mr Campbell said: “Oh my God almighty, my God, is that what a fetish is?

“I thought a fetish was a worry, like worrying about backing the right horse.”

His comments came at the end of an, at times, confusing conversation.

When we first spoke to Mr Campbell about National Fetish Day he said: “I think my secretary must have mentioned this.

“I have no problem with it and I am happy to show my support.

“I have a purple tie and a purple shirt so I will be able to wear their colours.”

We asked Mr Campbell if he had any fetishes and he said: “I must have a thousand but, hand on my heart, I couldn’t tell which is the most important one. Probably the horses.”

Realising we were speaking at cross-purposes we provided Ronnie with a definition of fetish provided by the campaign.

It said the word was a noun meaning a sexual interest in an object or a part of the body other than the sexual organs. It was then Mr Campbell withdrew his support.

Earlier the organiser of National Fetish Day 2008 explained how the MP had originally come to back the campaign.

The man, a keen member of the fetish scene in the region, is known on the circuit as Pierced Knight.

He said: “I received an email from Carol Delaney, the secretary to Ronnie Campbell, Labour MP for Blyth Valley.

“She confirmed that Mr Campbell will be supporting this national day of awareness on 21st January

“Using the tag line of “Perverts Wear Purple” those that support this day will be wearing about their person something that is purple, like a shirt, a tie, a skirt, a hair band.”

Pierced Knight said the colour purple was chosen because of its heavy use in BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism) circles.

Mr Campbell told us he was not aware of the “Perverts Wear Purple” slogan.

Pierced Knight added: “It is an irony that I as the organiser of this national event, cannot be outed as I hold a professional position that is at odds with the acceptance of people who choose to make different lifestyle choices. I am to kink what Banksy is to graffiti . . . and I’m in your back yard.”

The awareness campaign, designed to oppose pornography laws, has been heavily discussed on internet message boards including the Newcastle Munch. Munch is the internationally-recognised name for meetings of fetishists.

Link

 

[Xantu]

Jan 20 2008 - by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m71/worldrebecca/96D38CDC-FDC3-8AEC-D18DB51B3021732D.jpg​

A NORTH MP was left red-faced last night after accidentally giving his support to National Fetish Day.

Organisers revealed Ronnie Campbell had promised to wear purple to support a day of awareness tomorrow.

But the MP for Blyth Valley, Northumberland, withdrew his backing after the Sunday Sun explained the kinky connotations of the word “fetish” which he was not aware of.

Mr Campbell revealed he thought “fetish” was just another word for “worry” instead of a description of people who get their kicks in unusual ways.

Fetishists include people who wear rubber and who indulge in bondage, sadism, and masochism.

When we told him, Mr Campbell said: “Oh my God almighty, my God, is that what a fetish is?

“I thought a fetish was a worry, like worrying about backing the right horse.”

His comments came at the end of an, at times, confusing conversation.

When we first spoke to Mr Campbell about National Fetish Day he said: “I think my secretary must have mentioned this.

“I have no problem with it and I am happy to show my support.

“I have a purple tie and a purple shirt so I will be able to wear their colours.”

We asked Mr Campbell if he had any fetishes and he said: “I must have a thousand but, hand on my heart, I couldn’t tell which is the most important one. Probably the horses.”

Realising we were speaking at cross-purposes we provided Ronnie with a definition of fetish provided by the campaign.

It said the word was a noun meaning a sexual interest in an object or a part of the body other than the sexual organs. It was then Mr Campbell withdrew his support.

Earlier the organiser of National Fetish Day 2008 explained how the MP had originally come to back the campaign.

The man, a keen member of the fetish scene in the region, is known on the circuit as Pierced Knight.

He said: “I received an email from Carol Delaney, the secretary to Ronnie Campbell, Labour MP for Blyth Valley.

“She confirmed that Mr Campbell will be supporting this national day of awareness on 21st January

“Using the tag line of “Perverts Wear Purple” those that support this day will be wearing about their person something that is purple, like a shirt, a tie, a skirt, a hair band.”

Pierced Knight said the colour purple was chosen because of its heavy use in BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism) circles.

Mr Campbell told us he was not aware of the “Perverts Wear Purple” slogan.

Pierced Knight added: “It is an irony that I as the organiser of this national event, cannot be outed as I hold a professional position that is at odds with the acceptance of people who choose to make different lifestyle choices. I am to kink what Banksy is to graffiti . . . and I’m in your back yard.”

The awareness campaign, designed to oppose pornography laws, has been heavily discussed on internet message boards including the Newcastle Munch. Munch is the internationally-recognised name for meetings of fetishists.

Link

Roll on floor laughing...

 

[@}-}rebecca----]

Spanking Raises Chances of Risky, Deviant Sexual Behavior

Review found physical punishment of kids linked to unprotected, masochistic sex as adults

By Amanda Gardner
Posted 2/28/08

THURSDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have uncovered another damaging consequence of spanking: risky sexual behaviors, or even sexual deviancy, when the child grows up.

"This adds one more harmful side effect to spanking," said Murray Straus, a spanking expert who was expected to present the findings of four studies at the American Psychological Association's Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships in Bethesda, Md., on Thursday.

"I think that it's pretty powerful," said Elizabeth Gershoff, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work. "It's across several studies and across different forms of either risky or deviant sexual behavior."

Straus, who was the author of all four studies ( ahem ) , hopes the findings will raise awareness among child development experts.

"My hope is to convince my colleagues that they ought to put this in their textbooks," said Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, in Durham. "It's amazing. Something experienced by all American kids gets an average of half a page in child development textbooks, and not a single one comes to the conclusion that parents should never spank."

Even the revered Dr. Spock, who was anti-spanking, never came right out and advised parents outright not to do it, he added. Instead, Spock advised "avoiding it if you can."

A meta-analysis of spanking studies conducted by Gershoff found 93 percent agreement among studies that spanking can lead to such problems as delinquent and anti-social behavior in childhood along with aggression, criminal and anti-social behavior and spousal or child abuse as an adult.

"There's probably nothing else in child development that has 93 percent agreement in results," Straus said.

Five percent of people who have never been spanked hit their partners, versus 25 percent of those who were spanked frequently.

However, some 90 percent of U.S. parents spank toddlers, according to Straus.

The review being presented at the meeting are the first to look at the relationship of spanking to sexual behavior.

They found that spanking and other corporal punishment is associated with an increased probability of verbally and physically coercing a dating partner to have sex; risky sex such as premarital sex without using a condom; and masochistic sex such as spanking during sex.

There is a "dose response" at work here. "The more parents spank, the higher the probability of harmful side effects," Straus noted.

Of course, there's a similar dose response for smokers. But if someone reaches the age of 65 without developing lung cancer, it doesn't mean that smoking isn't harmful. It means the person was one of the lucky ones.

It's the same with spanking, Straus said. "If a person says, 'I was spanked, and I don't have any interest in bondage and discipline sex, that's correct, but it's not because spanking is OK, it's because they're one of the lucky ones."

And spanking a child once may be like picking up that first cigarette. "The trouble is, if you have a 2-year-old, you pretty soon decide you can't avoid it. The recidivism rate for whatever 'crime' you correct a 2-year-old for is about 50 percent in two hours."

"I've been researching corporal punishment for 30 years and, in the course of that time, the evidence has accumulated that it doesn't work any better than non-corporal punishment but has harmful side effects. I have come to the conclusion that parents should never, ever spank because, although it does work, it's no better than non-hitting methods that don't have harmful side effects. If there was an FDA for spanking, they'd say use an alternative that doesn't have harmful side effects."

More information

Visit the Center for Effective Discipline for other ways to discipline your child.

Link

 

[Essene]

Oh my. My sister and I found a pamphlet that my crazy MIL sent me on spanking from the '80s. I don't happen to spank my child, but the whole spanking as a gateway drug was just so hilarious. We giggled all through the pamphlet.

It was basically composed of phrases like the ones below. This one that Rebecca posted was especially interesting. "It's the same with spanking, Straus said. "If a person says, 'I was spanked, and I don't have any interest in bondage and discipline sex, that's correct, but it's not because spanking is OK, it's because they're one of the lucky ones."

 

[@}-}rebecca----]

Oh my. My sister and I found a pamphlet that my crazy MIL sent me on spanking from the '80s. I don't happen to spank my child, but the whole spanking as a gateway drug was just so hilarious. We giggled all through the pamphlet.

It was basically composed of phrases like the ones below. This one that Rebecca posted was especially interesting. "It's the same with spanking, Straus said. "If a person says, 'I was spanked, and I don't have any interest in bondage and discipline sex, that's correct, but it's not because spanking is OK, it's because they're one of the lucky ones."

: chuckles : Makes you want to redefine 'lucky' huh .

 

[Essene]

: chuckles : Makes you want to redefine 'lucky' huh .

Yes, I suppose it does.

 

[catalina_francisco]

Interesting government funded research project and outcomes...

Unveiling The Myths of Porn .


Catalina

 

[Essene]

This is just sad and disturbing:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080313/ap_on_re_us/woman_in_bathroom

Yahoo

Sheriff recommends charge in toilet case By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer
33 minutes ago



NESS CITY, Kan. - A man should be charged for allowing his girlfriend to sit on their toilet so long that her body became stuck to the seat, the sheriff said Thursday.

Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple was among authorities who discovered the woman last month living in the bathroom of a mobile home she shared with her boyfriend, Kory McFarren.

"The house was cluttered but not in shambles," he said. "The smell was overpowering — a terrible smell about the house, obviously coming from where she was at."

McFarren, 36, told police his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, 35, had a phobia about leaving the bathroom and may not have left the bathroom in two years, although he's unsure how long she was in there.

He said during that time, he brought her food, water, and clean clothes.

"The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The sheriff said that judging by the woman's condition — she had open sores on which the toilet seat would stick — it appeared she likely sat on the toilet continually for at least a month.

"She would have to be sleeping on the toilet," the sheriff said.

Whipple asked the county attorney to charge McFarren for mistreatment of a dependent adult. The prosecutor did not return phone calls seeking comment.

"The unfortunate thing is this truly is a case of two people, in my opinion, with diminished mental capacity," Whipple said.

McFarren, who works at an antique store, said he has been taking care of Babcock for the 16 years they have lived together. He insisted that he tried to coax her out of the bathroom every day. The home has a second bathroom.

McFarren said he finally called police Feb. 27 after he became worried because Babcock was acting groggy, as if she didn't know what was going on around her.

What emergency responders found when they entered the bathroom has left many in the town of about 1,500 people buzzing and authorities incredulous.

Whipple said the seat was taken off the toilet so the woman could be transported to the hospital for treatment.

Doctors at the Wichita hospital told the boyfriend an infection in her legs has damaged her nerves and may leave her in a wheelchair, he said.


So I guess that episode of "Niptuck" wasn't so far fetched...

 

[catalina_francisco]

This is just sad and disturbing:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080313/ap_on_re_us/woman_in_bathroom

Yahoo

Sheriff recommends charge in toilet case By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer
33 minutes ago



NESS CITY, Kan. - A man should be charged for allowing his girlfriend to sit on their toilet so long that her body became stuck to the seat, the sheriff said Thursday.

Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple was among authorities who discovered the woman last month living in the bathroom of a mobile home she shared with her boyfriend, Kory McFarren.

"The house was cluttered but not in shambles," he said. "The smell was overpowering — a terrible smell about the house, obviously coming from where she was at."

McFarren, 36, told police his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, 35, had a phobia about leaving the bathroom and may not have left the bathroom in two years, although he's unsure how long she was in there.

He said during that time, he brought her food, water, and clean clothes.

"The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The sheriff said that judging by the woman's condition — she had open sores on which the toilet seat would stick — it appeared she likely sat on the toilet continually for at least a month.

"She would have to be sleeping on the toilet," the sheriff said.

Whipple asked the county attorney to charge McFarren for mistreatment of a dependent adult. The prosecutor did not return phone calls seeking comment.

"The unfortunate thing is this truly is a case of two people, in my opinion, with diminished mental capacity," Whipple said.

McFarren, who works at an antique store, said he has been taking care of Babcock for the 16 years they have lived together. He insisted that he tried to coax her out of the bathroom every day. The home has a second bathroom.

McFarren said he finally called police Feb. 27 after he became worried because Babcock was acting groggy, as if she didn't know what was going on around her.

What emergency responders found when they entered the bathroom has left many in the town of about 1,500 people buzzing and authorities incredulous.

Whipple said the seat was taken off the toilet so the woman could be transported to the hospital for treatment.

Doctors at the Wichita hospital told the boyfriend an infection in her legs has damaged her nerves and may leave her in a wheelchair, he said.


So I guess that episode of "Niptuck" wasn't so far fetched...

Yes, I saw that...pretty sad really.

Catalina

 

[Essene]

2 understudies take over the Met stage By MIKE SILVERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 15, 10:30 PM ET



NEW YORK - Call it "Tristan und Isolde — und Isolde."



On a night full of surprises and considerable musical rewards, the Metropolitan Opera's revival of Wagner's epic drama about doomed lovers with a serious death wish came perilously close to being doomed itself.

The original cast looked, on paper, like a dream — heldentenor Ben Heppner repeating his acclaimed interpretation of Tristan and soprano Deborah Voigt singing Isolde for the first time at the Met.

Then Heppner came down with a virus and canceled the first four of six performances. At Monday's opening, his "cover," or understudy, John Mac Master, struggled to make it through the five-hour-long performance. So for Friday night's second outing, the Met turned to the second cover, Gary Lehman, a former baritone who had never sung the role onstage before.

But Lehman came with some good advance buzz — he had drawn favorable attention in 2005 when he stepped in at a moment's notice for Placido Domingo in the title role of Wagner's "Parsifal" at the Los Angeles Opera.

And from the moment he appeared on the Met stage, he took control of the role, with a strong presence — enhanced by his tall, relatively trim figure — and a sturdy tenor that projected well into the vast auditorium.

Still, Act 1 is not a true test for Tristan, since he has relatively little to sing. So the audience was waiting eagerly to see how he would fare in the 40-minute love duet that comprises the core of Act 2 and has brought many a tenor to grief.

And that's when the night's biggest shock arrived.

Voigt, who had struggled with both pitch and breath support during Act 1, suddenly rushed offstage just as the lovers were supposed to be settling in for a night of rapture.

James Levine kept conducting the orchestra for a minute or so even after the curtain slowly came down, and Lehman could be heard faintly singing his next lines. Then the music stopped, and a Met official came out to announce that Voigt had been taken ill but that her cover, Janice Baird, was literally waiting in the wings and would be out shortly.

Sure enough, after about 15 minutes the curtain rose again, and the audience warmly applauded the two lovers onstage together.

For opera fans with a sense of history, it was an amazing sight — two singers making unplanned Met debuts together in the lead roles of one of the most daunting operas in the repertory.

And it inevitably brought to mind another "Tristan" performance, from Dec. 28, 1959, when soprano Birgit Nilsson sang Isolde opposite three different tenors (Ramon Vinay, Karl Liebl, and Albert da Costa) — one for each act.

Both of Friday's substitutes made it through the rest of the evening with aplomb. Lehman was particularly gripping in the long soliloquies of Act 3, when the dying Tristan ruminates about his troubled life and has delirious visions of Isolde. He did transpose a few exposed high notes downward and clipped off one or two others abruptly as he tired toward the end, but for the most part he sang the role as written — no mean feat.

Baird is harder to judge because she didn't sing Act 1, when Isolde whips herself into a frenzy of outrage for her Narrative and Curse. She has a voice of considerable power, but its pieces don't always fit together. In the lower register, you can hear remnants of a former mezzo-soprano, and her high notes are gleaming and dead-on. In between she tends to sing flat, especially at lower volume. That problem marred the opening measures of the Liebestod, Isolde's rhapsodic solo that ends the opera. It flared again on her final note, at the end of the phrase "hoechste Lust" ("utmost rapture") as she expires over Tristan's corpse.

Like Lehman, she cuts a glamorous figure, and together they made the most romantic-looking couple seen onstage here in "Tristan und Isolde" in many a year. The audience rewarded them with a standing ovation and seemed in no rush to head for the aisles despite the late hour of 12:30 a.m.

The rest of the cast in the eccentric, abstract Dieter Dorn production remained intact from opening night: mezzo Michelle DeYoung sympathetic but sometimes underpowered as Brangaene, Isolde's servant; baritone Eike Wilm Schulte virtually ideal as Kurwenal, Tristan's trusted companion; and bass Matti Salminen, nearly as imposing as the cuckolded King Marke as when he made his Met debut in the role 27 years ago.

Levine and the orchestra rose to even greater heights than usual to support the night's newcomers, with a sumptuous and stirring interpretation of the score.

It turns out, according to Met general manager Peter Gelb, that Voigt had been feeling queasy all day but wanted to go on to support Lehman. She is expected to be back for Tuesday's performance. Her Tristan is still listed as TBA.

There was yet another Met debut Saturday night, when soprano Ruth Ann Swenson came down with the flu and was replaced by Ermonela Jaho as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata."

___

 

[Essene]

Giant marine life found in Antarctica

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_on_sc/antarctic_sea_life


Giant marine life found in Antarctica By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 21, 1:19 PM ET



WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.


A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

It's "exciting when you come across a new species," said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All the fish people go nuts about that — but you have to take it with a grain of salt."

The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

But beyond the discovery of new species, scientists said the survey, the most comprehensive to date in the Ross Sea, turned up other surprises.

Hanchet singled out the discovery of "fields" of sea lilies that stretched for hundreds of yards across the ocean floor.

"Some of these big meadows of sea lilies I don't think anybody has seen before," Hanchet said.

Previously only small-scale scientific samplings have been staged in the Ross Sea.

The survey was part of the International Polar Year program involving 23 countries in 11 voyages to survey marine life and habitats around Antarctica. The program hopes to set benchmarks for determining the effects of global warming on Antarctica, researchers said.

Large sea spiders, jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles, huge sea snails and starfish the size of big food platters were found during a 50-day voyage, marine scientist Don Robertson said.

Cold temperatures, a small number of predators, high levels of oxygen in the sea water and even longevity could explain the size of some specimens, said Robertson, a scientist with NIWA.

Robertson added that of the 30,000 specimens collected, hundreds might turn out to be new species.

Stefano Schiaparelli, a mollusk specialist at Italy's National Antarctic Museum in Genoa, said he thought the find would yield at least eight new mollusks.

"This is a new brick in the wall of Antarctic knowledge," Schiaparelli said.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Not sure exactly where this originates, but ... article

"It turns out the feds have been monitoring Interstate 5 for nuclear 'dirty bombs.' They do it with radiation detectors so sensitive it led to the following incident. 'Vehicle goes by at 70 miles per hour... Agent is in the median, a good 80 feet away from the traffic. Signal went off and identified an isotope [in the passing car]. The agent raced after the car, pulling it over not far from the monitoring spot.' Did he find a nuke? 'Turned out to be a cat with cancer that had undergone a radiological treatment three days earlier.'"​

 

[catalina_francisco]

Damn, this is one lucky young man!!

Catalina

 

[00Syd]

THIS is some super hero shit.

 

[Netzach]

THIS is some super hero shit.

I think I can sleep OK over this one. The glow in the dark cats have me more concerned, as does the stuff they're doing with the soy I eat.

 

[catalina_francisco]

Yikes, this is a bit scary when I think how much time I have spent in this airport this year...timing is everything.

Catalina