Truckers in Thailand have been held up by hungry elephants who steal the raw sugar cane they transport.
They're not hungry. They do it for fun, excitement. They don't get the parental supervision young elephants need and they go bad.
The animals stomp onto the road and leave a trail of destruction in their wake. Truck driver Puern Meksan said: "Sometimes the whole elephant herd of six or seven [stands] middle of the road and the trucks cannot go through. Some of them try to pull sugar cane from the truck, when they cannot, they just headbutt the truck front and break the windscreen."
"Aaaaiiiieee! The Elephants of Death!"
"You ain't dead."
"The Elephants of Broken Windscreens!"
Apparently no one sings "Like a Rock" about Thai trucks.
Forest rangers have taken to closing the road to stop the robberies. But there is a sad side to the story as elephants have been killed along with thousands of birds, frogs and deer, due to the location of the highway right through the Ang Lue Nai wildlife sanctuary. Conservationists say people need to slow down and respect the wildlife. Policeman: "What did they look like?"
Driver "I dunno, they had stockings over their heads"
Just so you better appreciate that tasty Easter ham. H/t to Tim Blair
Emaciated and riddled with insect bites, two Frenchmen emerged alive yesterday after surviving seven weeks lost in the Amazonian jungle on a diet of bird-eating spiders, frogs, centipedes and turtles.
Rescue officials described as "extraordinary" the escape of Loïc Pillois and Guilhem Nayral, both 34, who got lost in the heart of French Guyana, a French overseas department bordering Brazil and Venezuela.
"I was so hungry that I even had a go at the turtle's shell and tucked into his claws," said Mr Nayral after the ordeal in which he lost almost four stone.
He was infested with worm parasites that had burrowed into his flesh and had trouble speaking and moving after swallowing venom from a poorly cooked giant spider. He was covered with bites from "poux d'agoutis" - a particularly itchy tropical flea.
His brother, Gilles, said he looked like "he'd just come out of a concentration camp". His blood pressure had plummeted and doctors said that without proper nutrition he would have died within three days. Amazingly, Mr Pillois was in reasonable health.
The jungle of French Guyana, which is virtually untouched, is teeming with animal and insect life, including numerous species that are deadly to man. These include jaguars, coral snakes, anaconda and the dyeing poison dart frog, whose secretions tip the arrows of indigenous Indians. Contact with its skin can cause paralysis and death.
French authorities had given the pair up for dead 10 days ago after three weeks of fruitless searches but their families believed they were still alive and reached Saül, the village where the men had been heading, just as their relatives resurfaced.
Armed only with a compass, a map and 12 days of food, the two friends had been dropped off on the Approuague river at the Grand Kanori rapids in the centre of French Guyana. They had planned to trek 60 miles west to Saül, population 60, a former centre of the gold rush. It is the only inhabited village for hundreds of miles except for the uncharted camps of Amazonian Indians.
But the two landscape gardeners from the Bordeaux region and the Riviera lost their bearings under the bewildering tropical canopy.
Realising they were completely lost, the walkers built a shelter and stayed put for three weeks, lighting fires in the hope of attracting attention. Several times they heard helicopters but the forest's thick canopy blocked them from view. They managed to catch two turtles, which added to their diet of centipedes, spiders, palm seeds and frogs.
"After three weeks we started walking again, three hours a day," said Mr Pillois. "It rained so much that we had a lot of trouble with marshes. We ended up stopping as Guilhem began to feel bad. Then I heard a plane and said to myself, 'We are a day or two's walk from Saül, so I'll try to get there.' "
Mr Pillois finally reached Saül on Thursday morning, emerging from the jungle on to its airfield. Four hours later, following the directions of Mr Pillois, the search party located his friend. "We found him on the ground, completely out of breath, extremely emaciated and dehydrated," said Martin André, from the gendarmerie of Cayenne, the administrative capital.
"To have found Guilhem at this place is nothing short of a miracle," said Thierry Le Guen, a doctor. "That forest is as thick as broccoli and the canopy shoots up 40 metres."
However, Mr Pillois's wife Angélique said she had never given up hope of finding her husband, an experienced trekker. "They had previously trekked around Saül with a friend who was an insect specialist. He told them that if they got lost in the forest, they could always eat certain types of larva," she said.
Doctors said that Mr Nayral would remain in hospital for several days.
For indigenous Indians, bird-eating spiders, some of which can reach half a pound in weight, are a delicacy. They cook them over a fire with their legs tied together, plunge them in hot water to remove the harpoon-like hairs, cut them up and eat the soft parts. Spider omelette is a favourite - Indians squeeze out the eggs on to a leaf and smoke them over a fire.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 19:56 ||
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It must be a terrible thing, when your natural instinct is to surrender, and you can't find anyone to surrender to.
#2
I don't doubt that a jaguar or caiman would have accepted their surrender post haste.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/08/2007 21:14 Comments ||
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For indigenous Indians, bird-eating spiders, some of which can reach half a pound in weight, are a delicacy. They cook them over a fire with their legs tied together, plunge them in hot water to remove the harpoon-like hairs, cut them up and eat the soft parts.
Not all that different, in concept, from eating a lobster or crawdad, actually.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 12:07 Comments ||
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They don't get it! At least from my perspective they don't. Just becase I don't email someone the story doesn't mean I don't dig it. I am more likely to email someone the story if I think it is not time-consuming, funny, or fits them exactly, which doesn't mean I care about the story personally. I'm less likely to send someone a lesson in politics, especially if it takes a while to absorb. I'm more likely to save it for conversation later after I've had time to think about it. These kinds of things don't provoke the "Oh my! Tee hee! My friend needs to know about this!" kind of mentality. Instead I prefer to let them get their own info and we'll compare notes and we'll see what falls out.
Maybe my approach isn't the norm, but it's what I do.
Besides, who cares about what the NYT says about anything serious anyway? Except for rare occasions (like when the editor is out sick or something) they usually get things so screwed up it's laughable. If their ratios aren't the same as CNN or Fox News or whoever they think is cool, perhaps they ought to forget about writing stories about cats and start looking at the quality and understanding of their subjects and their readers.
Of course, the NYT doesn't get much anyway. And it is kind of fun watching a train wreck in slow motion.
KUWAIT CITY -- A Kuwaiti father who killed his 13-year-old daughter by slitting her throat was Saturday ruled "not responsible for his actions" and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. The court ruling, which can be appealed, was based on a report by a special medical commission which concluded that he was mentally ill.
Adnan Al Enezi, 40, blindfolded and handcuffed his daughter Asmaa in January 2005 before murdering her because he thought she was no longer a virgin. During the killing, Enezi changed the first knife for another with a sharper blade while his daughter bled and screamed in pain and as her two brothers and a sister looked on.
And did nothing.
Forensic examinations later proved that Asmaa was still a virgin.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2007 00:46 ||
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Sorta makes you wonder what he'd have to do to get convicted.
#2
Members of the more radical cults of the Muslim religion are insane and thus "not responsible for their actions." KSM, for instance, is 'innocent by reason of insanity.' Logical, right?
NEW DELHI - Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was seriously injured when his car and a truck collided in the east of the country, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported early Sunday. Mukherjee received stitches to the head but was conscious and in stable condition, West Bengal state Home Secretary P.R. Roy told PTI.
The accident occurred late Saturday as the 71-year-old Mukherjee was headed back to the eastern city of Kolkata with other leaders of the ruling Congress party from Murshidabad. A truck skidded and hit the ministers car head-on near the village of Nakashipara, the agency reported. At least four others were injured in the accident.
Looks like an accident so this is local news, not WoT.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2007 00:18 ||
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Johnny Hart, an Endicott native whose collection of cartoon cave-dwellers amused and sometimes irritated newspaper readers for almost 50 years, died at his Nineveh home on Saturday. He was 76.
Hart is survived by his wife Bobby, and two daughters. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Hart's B.C. comic strip was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide with an audience of 100 million. He lent his characters to promote many local agencies and activities, including the Broome Dusters hockey team, BC Transit, Broome County Parks and the professional golf tournament which became the B.C. Open.
B.C. participated in the nation's space program. In 1972, Hart received a public service award from NASA for outstanding contributions.
Later in his career, some of Hart's cartoons addressed religious themes -- a reflection of his own deepening Christian faith -- which dismayed some readers and delighted others.
Hart's biography at the Creators Syndicate web site said he never considered cartooning a serious profession until he graduated from Union-Endicott High School. At 19, he met Brant Parker, a young cartoonist who became a prime influence and who later became a partner in the Wizard of Id, another of Hart's comic strip creations.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/08/2007 20:10 Comments ||
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God bless him - he used his art and humor for a higher calling
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 20:40 Comments ||
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I don't think Hart ever received the attention that he was due; one of the profession's unsung heros. Way back in the late 70's (IIRC) he did a series of BC-themed safety posters for the Navy; to this day one hangs over the door in the USN RET Garage that shows BC himself pondering a low-hanging branch with a leaf on it. BC then plucks the leaf and 'TWANNN-NNG' the branch flies up and hits him. Last panel caption: "If you don't know what it does, don't fool with it."
Rest easy, sir.
#4
Agree with all of the above. He was definitely one of the best (the best being a handful). Here's hoping they re-publish some of his BC and WoI books - I lost track of mine about thirty years and a dozen moves ago.
#5
One that sticks in my mind was when Thor was showing off his new triangular wheel. He touted it as an improvement over the previous year's square model because it had "One less bump!" :-)
High school Social Studies/Military History teacher Martha Cochren removed the desks from her class before the start of the first day of school and had them returned at the end of the day by veterans to show her students who had actually earned those desks for them.
(Snopes site apparently doesn't allow copying - sorry. Follow the link and read the whole thing, certified by Snopes as TRUE.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/08/2007 11:37 ||
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Ms. Cochren is a gem - nice find, Barbara
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 12:24 Comments ||
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It's knowing people like this are out there, and that keeps me going.
#3
I would like to see this repeated in, say Seattle or San Francisco. The teacher involved would be out so fast that if you were watching, you'd catch pneumonia from the wind blast created by his/her exit.
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.
KUWAIT CITY -- A Kuwaiti father who killed his 13-year-old daughter by slitting her throat was Saturday ruled "not responsible for his actions" and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. The court ruling, which can be appealed, was based on a report by a special medical commission which concluded that he was mentally ill. 
