[An Nahar] A 3-year-old Australian boy was lucky to escape uninjured after a collection of eggs he found in his yard hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes.
Reptile specialist Trish Prendergast said Friday that young wildlife enthusiast Kyle Cummings could have been killed if he had handled the eastern brown snakes -- the world's most venomous species on land after Australia's inland taipan.
Kyle found a clutch of nine eggs a few weeks ago in the grass on his family's 1.2-hectare (3-acre) property on the outskirts of the city of Townsville in Queensland state, Prendergast said. He had no idea what kind of eggs they were.
He put the eggs into a plastic takeout food container and stashed them in his bedroom closet, where his mother, Donna Sim, found them Monday. Seven had hatched, but the snakes remained trapped under the container's lid.
Pretty smart for a three-year old, actually.
The remaining two eggs were probably infertile and were rotten, Prendergast said.
"I was pretty shocked, particularly because I don't like snakes," Sim told the Townsville Bulletin newspaper.
Prendergast, who is the Townsville-based reptile coordinator of the volunteer group North Queensland Wildlife Care, was handed the container on Tuesday and released the snakes into the wild that night.
She was relieved that no one had handled the snakes.
"Their fangs are only a few millimeters long at that age, so they probably couldn't break the skin, but they're just as venomous as full-grown snakes," Prendergast said.
"If venom had got on Kyle's skin where there was a cut of if he put it in his mouth, it could have been fatal," she added.
Eastern brown snakes -- which can grow to more than 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) long -- usually stay with their eggs but sometimes leave for short periods to feed.
"He's very lucky he didn't encounter the mother while he was taking her eggs. That also could have been fatal," Prendergast said.
The snakes were 12 to 15 centimeters (5 to 6 inches) long and had probably hatched around five days before they were released, she said, adding that they were thirsty but otherwise healthy.
Australia averages around three fatal snake bites a year, and eastern browns are responsible for the majority of them.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2012 00:00 ||
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Yup, deadly.
Eggs collected need to be emptied,or they rot, he wouldn't know that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2012 9:59 Comments ||
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I had cats, (Many cats) one day i noticed Mama cat with an 18 inch snake in her mouth, quite funny she was holding her head high and both ends of the snake dragged behind(Black snake).
Then I saw other cats with snakes and wondered where they were coming from. Later I moved a 55 gallon barrel and found a dozen eggshells.
Poor things, their momma must have laid them wherever the cats wern't, but they were live bait.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2012 10:08 Comments ||
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Too bad, RJ. Black snakes are actually beneficial. Saw a 2-foot one slithering by my house last summer. (I live in a populated area, so it's unusual.) Grabbed the cat and stomped the ground, and he slithered away. Hope he ate lots of bugs on the way.
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/23/2012 10:45 Comments ||
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Hope the kid doesn't also have a funnel-web spider collection!
#5
I'm reasonably lucky on my small property(21 acres)
All I've ever seen are red-bellied black snakes, who are relatively safe. Although my son did say, if you get bit by one don't bother calling an ambulance, you'll be dead before they get there(about 15 minutes)
Very reassuring!
#7
Made 3 trips down under in the 80's and loved it completely, BUT...
Between the snakes, crocs, spiders, fish, etc. I think Ozzie is home to 75% of the worlds deadliest critters. At the zoo I went to up in Townsend they had an article on the top 10 snakes and 8 of them were indigenous. They scored it on the mega-mice scale, how many mice one normal dose would kill.
But I gotta say that the views down the beaches were breathtaking (not counting the sand or water ;^)
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... on Saturday said the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistain Moslem League -- Nawaz (PML-N) did not want to see "any change" to come in the country, adding that, both parties were colluding with one another, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives upon arriving in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Khan said the people had chosen to bowl the PPP and the PML-N out simultaneously.
The PTI chief said he would be visiting all through the province of Sindh, adding that, the country's issues could be resolved once the bane of corruption was tackled.
He said other parties were involved in acting against PTI leaders, adding that, his party would get back at those behind these acts.
Khan was referring to the PPP's offer to Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood as Punjab's next governor in the context of his political rivalry with the PTI's Jahangir Tareen.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"this is OUR shithole and we got it decorated just the way we want"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2012 11:53 Comments ||
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[LA Times] Thousands of people demonstrated outside the Indian president's residence in New Delhi on Saturday, breaching barricades and clashing with police over the brutal rape of a 23-year-old girl before authorities drove them back with sticks, tear gas and water cannons.
Public anger has been building all week since the attack last Sunday in which six men in a private bus allegedly picked up the victim, a medical student, and her 28-year-old male friend as they headed home about 9 p.m. after watching "Life of Pi" at a multiplex theater.
The pair thought they were boarding a normal commuter bus when the men, who were on a joy ride, allegedly beat them with metal rods and raped her for 30 minutes as the vehicle drove around the city and passed several police posts before dumping the pair by the side of the road. The bus had curtains and tinted windows, which are illegal but not uncommon in New Delhi.
Six men have been arrested in the case, including the bus driver, his brother, a gym instructor and a fruit seller, and face charges of kidnapping, gang rape, unnatural offenses and robbery. Three of the six have reportedly confessed.
Indian media reported that one of those held, the brother of the driver, was assaulted by other inmates at Tihar Jail before officials separated him from others at the facility.
Protesters on Saturday, the sixth and most violent day of demonstrations, chanted "We want justice" and carried signs reading "Kill the rapists!" "Hang them now" and "Stop the shame." More than 30 demonstrators and 35 police officials were injured, according to media reports, as protesters threw stones and broke the windows of a public bus.
Police said four subway stations near the government district would be closed Sunday in a bid to control crowds and keep people from the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2012 00:00 ||
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Three of the six have reportedly confessed.
bet that was fun.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2012 10:01 Comments ||
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Looks like large or massive street protests are breaking out all over India.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > INDIA'S "HINDU SPRING" IS NEXT? | INDIA RAPE PROTESTS:
"REPORTER SHOT DEAD". POLICE SAY A TV REPORTER HAS BEEN KILLED DURING PROTESTS OVER SEXUAL ATTACKS IN INDIA AS PUBLIC OUTCRY CONTINUES.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [CNN.com] NEW DELHI POLICE FIRE WATER CANNON AT INDIA RAPE PROTEST.
* SAME > [Video]ANTI-RAPE PROTESTS SPREAD OVER INDIA.
versus
* SAME > POLICE STATE INDIA.
IIUC, ONE CAN BE ARRESTED FOR FILMING OR REPORTING THE "GOOD" IN INDIA, BUT NOT FOR THE "BAD", + INDIA LIKES IT THAT WAY???
[CS Monitor] Paolo Gabriele, the pope's former major-domo, was convicted of leaking confidential documents. The Pope pardoned him after a meeting at the Vatican jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2012 00:00 ||
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But he's still in jail.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/23/2012 21:22 Comments ||
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but he's pardoned in the afterlife
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/23/2012 21:45 Comments ||
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"After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The Vatican said he couldn't continue living or working in the Vatican, but said it would find him housing and a job elsewhere soon."
[Houston.CBSLocal] A Louisiana woman ran afoul of police when she gave her neighbors an unusual holiday greeting, hanging Christmas lights in the shape of a middle finger. Assuming this to be a free country -- debatable in the past few years -- the woman has every right to be an anus. Her neighbors have every right (and in my opinion an obligation) to treat her like what she is.
Sarah Childs was in a dispute with some of her neighbors in Denham Springs, just east of Baton Rouge, so she decided to send a message with her decorations. Neighbors complained and police threatened to arrest her, so she and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana sued the city.
A judge ruled in her favor Thursday.
"I imagine it will be back up before too long," ACLU of Louisiana executive director Marjorie Esman said of the display.
Childs erected the lights on her roof last month. She has removed them twice -- once after a police officer told her she could be fined and again after another officer threatened to arrest her, her lawsuit said.
U.S. District Judge James Brady issued an order temporarily barring city officials from interfering with the display. The two-page order said the city's "continued efforts" to prevent Childs from displaying her holiday lights will violate her rights to free speech and due process. He scheduled a Jan. 7 hearing in Baton Rouge.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2012 00:00 ||
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Sounds like she wants some eggs, toilet paper and flaming bags of dog poo delivered to her.
#4
That must be it. I was afraid the yoots knew not of eggs, only of egg-like-food. Throwing a Happy Breakfast is expensive and not full-filling for a serious egg-artist.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] A 3-year-old Australian boy was lucky to escape uninjured after a collection of eggs he found in his yard hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes.
[Houston.CBSLocal] A Louisiana woman ran afoul of police when she gave her neighbors an unusual holiday greeting, hanging Christmas lights in the shape of a middle finger.
