Captured by the BBC's film crew for the documentary Frozen Planet, the Adelie penguin of Antartica, can be seen grabbing stones from the nest of its neighbour each time the other bird waddles off to find some more stones, totally unaware of what's happening.
Penguins in the region use stones to cover their eggs to protect them from run-off as surrounding ice melts.
Not only are the stones important for protection but they also offer more chance of a male attracting a female, something highly desired amongst a colony of 500,000 penguins.
Spending four months filming out on Ross Island, the documentary crew went to great length to record the penguin's mischievous behaviour.
Cameraman Mark Smith and director Jeff Wilson were determined to get the actual incident on film.
'They're only a foot and a half tall, so you have to get down to penguin level,' Wilson told BBC Nature. 'So poor old Mark, was crawling around and there were adelies constantly looking right down the barrel of his lens.
'It's appealing at first, but when it happens for the hundredth time as you're trying to get the shots you need, you start to lose patience.
'[The colony is] most aurally exhausting place. You're bombarded with sound.
'Adelies are like festival-goers that have had too much caffeine. They're aggressive and hyperactive.'
#1
...can be seen grabbing stones from the nest of its neighbour each time the other bird waddles off to find some more stones, totally unaware of what's happening.
It's impressive that the 'thief' is apparently capable of modeling his victim's mental state.
They're loose, all the cage doors open, and the fence "unsecured". PETA, perhaps?Or hunters...
"It's always been a fear of mine knowing (the preserve's owner) had all those animals," the neighbor said. "I have kids. I've heard a male lion roar all night."
The fences had been left unsecured Tuesday at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, in east-central Ohio, and the animals' cages were open, police said.
The deputies, who saw many other animals standing outside their cages and others that had escaped past the fencing surrounding the property, began shooting them on sight. They said there had been no reports of injuries among the public. The kook who did this probably thought they'd be humanely captured and returned to the wild - say New Jersey.
Staffers from the Columbus Zoo went to the scene, hoping to tranquilize and capture the animals. The sheriff said caretakers might put food in the animals' open cages to try to lure them back. Unless they're shot on sight, of course.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/19/2011 05:56 ||
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#1
[the owner of the preserve] had been in legal trouble, and police said he had gotten out of jail recently.
No, reeeeeeaaally?
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/19/2011 7:37 Comments ||
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#2
PETA types in Britain have long gone insanely criminal, in one instance exhuming the dead mother of one animal researcher, so the odds that one or more of them turned homicidal in the US is high.
There are only three reasons the police would make no statement about the cause of death of the owner. The first being if there was no obvious cause, the second if it was clearly a homicide under investigation, and the third if the animals had been working on him for a while before they found him.
#3
The radio just said, "possible suicide." Opens a whole new host of questions.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/19/2011 9:34 Comments ||
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#4
This happened about 15 miles from where I went to college. And this upcoming weekend is alumni weekend at the school. I did not have plans to attend this year and think I'll keep it that way.
#5
More details from Zanesville here:
Jack Hanna from the Columbus Zoo: "It's like Noah's Ark crashed in Muskingum County."
The hunt for the animals began around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday when reports were received by the sheriff's office. Sheriff Lutz said the property owner, Terry Thompson, was found dead outside and the animals were free when they arrived. Officers killed about 25 animals on the way up to the house to check on Thompson. This morning the sheriff stated Thompson had committed suicide.
Thompson was sentenced to one year and a day in prison in October 2010 for two federal counts of possessing illegal firearms and recently had been released. Thomas was charged after agents with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives served a search warrant at his home in 2008.
At that time, the ATF seized 133 weapons and a small amount of ammunition. Thompson's conviction centered on eight of those guns -- five fully automatic firearms and three short-barreled firearms without serial numbers. Thompson was former a gun dealer who did not renew his license several years ago.
The guns were discovered in a storage chest in the basement of Thompson's home the day ATF served the warrant. They had been taken from Thompson's father's home before the home was demolished two years ago.
A black bear and a wolf made it to a field near Interstate 70 along with a large mountain lion.
The sheriff's office also found two hunters in the area, but they left the area safely.
Deputies with assault rifles traveled the area in a truck to look for the animals, and the sheriff's office used its thermal imaging equipment. An Ohio Highway Patrol helicopter was unable to help because of weather.
#6
According to NPR, they've got all the animals except a wolf and a monkey. Six were tranquilizer, the rest were shot dead, because sheriffs are not issued tranquilizer guns.
#4
Nope. I'm expecting some smart lawyer to hit them and Stephens Media with a class action. I believe one's been filed in South Carolina already.
Even if I never get our money back it'll give me pleasure to watch them not only sink but to be a stand-out stink and a pestilence on an already stinky and pestilential legal landscape. But it'd be even better to see the lot of them sharing a room at the poorhouse.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 10:37 Comments ||
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#5
Should be sharing a cell with Bubba the bull-queen at the jailhouse.
#6
Well, they went after lots of people in their abuse of our legal system. Stevens media went right along with it. Sometimes I wish I had some fancy lawyers. I want to see righthaven impoverished. punks.
[Dawn] Dengue virus claimed seven more lives, including five women, in the provincial metropolis on Monday taking the corpse count to 262.
Some 280 new cases were reported in various public and private hospitals.
Khalida, 52, of Mughalpura, and Mussarat Bano, 53, of Sanatnagar died at Services Hospital; Amna Javaid, 36, of Krishanagar, Tanveer, 25, of Mozang at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital; Shahjahan, 42, of Thokhar Niaz Beg, and Hina, 18, of Model Town at Jinnah Hospital, and Anwari Bibi, 60, of Mughalpura at Ghurki Hospital.
Out of the 280 new cases, 52 were tested positive at Mayo Hospital, 32 at the Institute of Public Health, 26 at Jinnah, 23 at Services, 19 each at General and Ganga Ram, 18 at Children Hospital and 91 at various private hospitals.
Agriculture Secretary Arif Nadeem told the media at least 208 confirmed dengue patients -- 165 in Lahore -- were reported in Punjab during the last 24 hours.
He said dengue claimed eight lives during the last 24 hours. The eighth victim belonged to Toba Tek Singh.
The secretary said the total number of dengue patients in the province rose to 17,372, including 14,955 in Lahore.
He said some 1,228 patients were under treatment in different hospitals of the province. Of them 1,043 were admitted to Lahore hospitals.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Is this unusual for the area? Related to the massive flooding (floods equal mosquitos equal mosquito-borne disease?) Or environmental fear of mosquito control? Or economic inability to control pests of all types? Or because Mo' didn't fight dengue, nobody should?
#2
Dengue is not unusual. The ineptitude and corruption of the Pak government's "public health" program is.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 10:40 Comments ||
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#3
Pakistan has been hit with several years in a row of very heavy rains. But that's not the whole story.
Lahore is a large and ancient city, very near the border with India. It was the capitol of the kingdom of Punjab, and of others before that, well before the Moghuls conquered it in the early 11th century. It is strongly multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, has a lively arts community etc. Most of the books published in Pakistan are published in Lahore. It was run by the Sikhs for centuries - and their main temple complex at Amritsar is close by.
In other words, the Pure in Islamabad detest it, fear it and scorn it. They also can't do much about it, given that it is the second largest city in the country, over 12 million inhabitants by some estimates.
But they can make sure that civil infrastructure never quite gets the investment and attention it needs, surrounded as it is by multiple rivers into which flow the rains from major storms, the ice melt from the mountains etc. And that medical supplies often end up elsewhere.
That the minority groups find it hard to get any but the worst jobs or to live in cleaner neighborhoods goes without saying. So when dengue hits, that's who it hits.
[Nigerian Tribune] ABOUT 30 people have been killed with about 60 houses destroyed in Ugba town, headquarters of Logo Local Government Area of Benue State in a crisis in the last two days.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that the crisis, which started late on Sunday, sparked off spontaneous reactions in the early hours of Monday, when some youths turned the town into a theatre of war, maiming and killing people on sight.
The traditional ruler's house was razed while four of his relations, including his wife, were murdered by the rampaging youth.
Both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) traded blame over the crisis that has been tagged political violence.
Governor Gabriel Suswam, who addressed newsmen at the Government House, on Monday, after his visit to the area, confirmed that the traditional ruler of the community lost four relations, including his wife, while his house was also razed. The governor said he was able to visit the house of the traditional ruler and that of the first victim, whom he described as a money lender in the community, who died along with his friend.
But the state chairman of the ACN, Mr Abba Yaro, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune accused the ruling PDP of causing the crisis in the area, stating that some youths belonging to the PDP stormed the house of one of the politicians in the area and killed him and one other person.
He said that the ACN was a peace-loving party, which he said was "taking legal means to reclaim our stolen mandate."
Governor Suswam who was visibly disturbed by the crisis said that he personally visited the house of the slain money lender on Sunday, stressing that the divisional police officer told him that no arrest had been made in connection with the death of the money lender but that the ACN unleashed terror on the PDP members in the council area.
Ironically, both the governor and the ACN governorship candidate in the state, Professor Steve Ugba, hail from the same troubled council area.
The governor, who accused the opposition party of being behind the spate of violence in the state in recent times, vowed that his administration would leave no stone unturned to unearth the perpetrators of serial crises in the state.
The governor said that soldiers and mobile coppers had been drafted to the area and stated that normality was being restored to the area at the time he left the local government area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Retired General Prince Johnson, the third place winner in the first round of Liberia's presidential elections, has pledged support for first place candidate the incumbent President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Gen Johnson announced his move today in Monrovia following consultations with the incumbent President in the aftermath of the counting of the first round ballots on Monday.
At the end of the final count of the ballots, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf nested 44 per cent of the total ballots cast, thereby maintaining the early lead since the inception of the vote count on Tuesdays last week.
The second place winner is Counselor Winston Tubman who garnered 32.2 per cent of the votes ahead of Johnson who netted 11.8 per cent.
Announcing his decision to rally with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the runoff against Mr Tubman, the former warlord turn Senator said he was doing so "because some of her programmes were good for the country".
He added: "We will make additions and subtraction to make up for the other part of her programs that are not good so that what we want can be achieved."
The West Africa Democracy Radio quoted the former warlord as making the statement in Monrovia at the close of the first round of vote count.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Is it really time to replace Sirleaf? I lost my place in Liberia and failed to track the candidates after her first election. What are we looking at here?
#2
It's just her second election. She was part of the Tolbert administration, that Sgt. Doe displaced in 1980, so she's part of the U.S. colonists bloc (they're called Americo-Liberians, interestingly enough) even though her family's local. Doe was part of the local tribals. The grumble is that she'd promised to serve only one term if elected in 2005. And of course there are the usual charges of electoral corruption, which are likely true but counterbalanced by the same antix on the other side.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 10:49 Comments ||
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#3
Well, I like her. Harvard grad in economics.(not that I believe Harvard is worth a crap) She stabilized the country in my opinion.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Seven of the 22 opposition candidates in the October 9 presidential election met at the residence of SDF candidate John Fru Ndi to fine-tune a joint strategy to fight against any Biya victory that may be proclaimed by the Supreme Court.
The meeting that lasted eight hours brought together, besides Mr Fru Ndi, Mr Albert Dzongang of La Dynamique, Mr Bernard Achuo Muna of APF, Dr Adamu Ndam Njoya of the CDU, Edith Kah Wallah of the CPP, Jean de Dieu Momo of PADDEC and Esther Dang of BRIC.
Welcoming his colleagues in his Yaounde residence, Mr Fru Ndi called for sincerity adding that his colleagues should not negotiate their entry into government as some opposition party leaders did after the 2004 presidential election.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... the ruling CPDM party has withdrawn its request for the annulment of the presidential election results in Mezam Division which it filed at the Supreme Court.
A very reliable source at the CPDM secretariat in Tsinga, Yaounde told this news hound that the decision to withdraw the request was made "after a very acrimonious meeting" of senior members of President Paul Biya's campaign team.
The source revealed that the suit was filed by a CPDM turban without prior consultation with the hierarchy of the party led by Mr Biya.
According to our source, some school of thought in the ruling party was of the strong opinion that if the Supreme Court were to validate the request of the CPDM, this might spark off violent protests in the Northwest which may spread to other parts of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] All documents relating to the country's first ever detection of paracetamol syrup adulteration in 1992 have vanished from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), the public institution responsible for checking drug adulteration and prosecuting those committing the crime.
The disappearance of the files deals a severe blow to three relevant cases that could be pursued if evidence were available. Proceedings regarding two of the cases are currently under High Court stay orders and have been awaiting hearings for seventeen years. The other one is being proceeded with in the Dhaka Drug Court.
Documents available in court indicate clearly that the DGDA deliberately destroyed the cases. Meanwhile, ...back at the hoedown, Bob finally got to dance with Sally... people present during the 1992 drugs test recalled how proper steps regarding the matter had been bypassed since the very beginning.
The disappearance of the documents came to light after The Daily Star in November last year officially requested the DGDA for allowing access to all documents relating to drug adulteration in 1992 in compliance with the Right to Information Act.
"Samples of paracetamol syrups were collected from Shishu Hospital following a verbal order by the then Directorate of Drug Administration director general. Currently there is no record in the department on the samples collected," replied the DGDA in response to the request on March 23 this year.
Responding to a set of ten queries in the request, the DGDA said that except for Dhaka Shishu Hospital no institution had ever reported deaths of children owing to the administering of adulterated paracetamol syrup.
The report from Shishu Hospital was also verbal, said the reply.
The Daily Star retrieved documents from individuals about the drug test. Documents show the drug analysis conducted at a government owned institution under the direct supervision of government analysts and an expert consultant from the World Health Organisation (WHO) detected lethal chemical diethylene glycol in paracetamol syrups manufactured by five companies in 1992.
The test result was accurate beyond suspicion since subsequent independent testing -- undertaken in laboratories in the US and obtained by The Daily Star -- confirmed the results.
A number of doctors from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and Dhaka Shishu Hospital, involved in the matter at that time, also mentioned that deaths of children from acute renal failure following an intake of adulterated paracetamol syrup actually began in 1972 and by 1992 had killed over 2,000 children by 1992.
In December 1992, detection of the adulteration led to five cases being filed against four companies -- Adflame Pharmaceutical Ltd, Polychem Laboratories Ltd, BCI (Bangladesh) Ltd, and Rex Pharmaceutical.
The fifth company, City Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd, which was tested positive for producing adulterated paracetamol syrup, was spared prosecution for reasons unknown.
The DGDA, however, does not have any idea about the current status of any of the five cases, according to its reply. In an apparent move at self defence, the two-page letter said officials who had dealt with the issue are "either dead or already retired".
The Director General (DG) of the DGDA, Abul Kalam Azad, repeatedly insisted on his ignorance about the matter and admitted having no record protected.
Court records show that proceedings relating to one of the five cases -- one of the two filed against Adflame -- were suspended only two years into its filing, even before charges could be framed against the accused. The complainant, Abul Khair, the then drug superintendent, never appeared before the court with the seized evidence, although the court notified him five times within six months beginning from May 1994 about his appearance before it.
"The prosecution has failed to produce the seized Flamodol syrup [adulterated paracetamol syrup brand produced by Adflame]. As such charges cannot be framed. The proceedings of the case be stopped....and the accused be released," the court finally said in its order of November 2, 1994 in connection with the case.
In a recurrence after sixteen years, when another case filed against Adflame went into the trial process in 2009, Abul Khair gave a deposition in favour of the accused.
"The case was weakened with wrong documentation and specifically wrong presentation of seizure list, apparently an intentional mistake," said Public Prosecutor of Dhaka Drug Court Mahmud Hossain Jahangir regarding the case.
The allegation was substantiated by instances and the experiences of those present during the paracetamol syrup test at Essential Drug Companies Limited (EDCL), an autonomous drug manufacturing company of the government where the test took place.
"We repeatedly told the government high-ups present during the test that we wanted to properly record every step in the logbook of our company, but they said that wouldn't be necessary" said a senior EDCL official, adding, "Steps to have the total process of tests documented and recorded were deliberately avoided."
The only case which saw completion of a trial was against Rex Pharmaceutical, in which the prosecution failed to prove the adulteration charge as government drug analysts themselves raised suspicions over the authenticity of their own modalities of analyses. As a result the case was dismissed and the two accused were acquitted and released in 2003 by the Mymensingh Drug Court. The complainant, again, was Abul Khair.
The fallout is that adulteration of drugs continues to take place. In 2009 adulterated paracetamol produced by Rid Pharma reportedly killed 28 children.
"The government knows everything and sees children die," said Muhammad Ullah, an employee at Bangabhaban, who lost his one and a half year old son Tanvir Ahmed on September 16, 1990, several days after the child had been administered paracetamol syrup following a fever.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/19/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTANI NATIONALS LIVING/WORKING IN BAN [Bangladesh] ACCUSED OF BEING ISI AGENTS.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the French president, has given birth to a daughter.
The baby, was three weeks late, is rumoured to be named Dahlia, according to speculation on Twitter.
Earlier, Nicolas Sarkozy spent just half an hour with his wife in a Paris hospital. French media reported that the baby was born at 8pm local time, meaning that Mr Sarkozy missed the birth.
He rejoined mother and new baby at 11pm. Reports in France said Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was doing well.
He rushed into the Clinique de La Muette in the 16th arrondissement after his wife was admitted yesterday, then dashed out again barely 30 minutes later, boarding a plane for Frankfurt.
The baby is the first in modern history to be born to a French presidential couple in office. The president has three sons from two previous marriages, while his wife, 43, has a son from a previous relationship.
The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris [official website, in French] on Friday ordered [judgment in PDF, in French] French Internet service providers to block access to Copwatch Nord Paris I-D-F, a website designed to allow civilians to post videos of alleged police misconduct. The decision was applauded by the police union, Alliance Police Nationale (APN) [union website, in French], which argued that the website incited violence against police. Jean-Claude Delage, secretary general of the APN, said that "[t]he judges have analyzed the situation perfectly -- this site being a threat to the integrity of the police -- and made the right decision." So much for the internet in France. Does the judge actually understand how the internet works, or does he just think YouTube is on one server in the US?
#2
They don't grasp that the concept behind the internet was the much anticipated and Hollyweird portrayed Global Thermonuclear War. The idea was to 'net' communications such that even taking out various nodes of the network would still allow information to still reach those hooked to its overall structure. The only way to 'secure' a portion of the net was to detach it from the rest of the network world.
"...Islamic finance is based on the Abrahamic principles of fairness, justice and equality. Islamic finance promotes trade and forbids usury, interest and uncertainty. Compared to conventional finance, Islamic finance is more secure, more balanced and is open to all..."
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
10/19/2011 13:41 Comments ||
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#3
Wait for the Credit Union that was supplying the money to go broke as a result of this. It might, just might, be the first shot of a downward trend in real estate in Toronto, or as it's known in the rest of Canada, "The Centre Of The Universe".
OH NOES!!! I though real estate always went up in value!
Personally, I'd like to see them all go "boom" just to hear the whining. And gloat. A lot.
Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) signed an executive order Wednesday that prohibits public safety agencies from asking about a persons immigrant status or contacting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The order applies to the corrections, police and fire departments, the attorney generals office and other agencies.
It does not apply if a persons immigrant status pertains to a criminal investigation.
An Occupy Cleveland protester tells police she was raped in her tent over the weekend.
Cleveland police are investigating an alleged sexual assault incident Saturday at the Occupy Cleveland rally involving a 19-year-old female student from Parma.
According to police reports, the 19-year-old student was instructed by Occupy Cleveland personnel to share a tent with the suspect due to a shortage of tents. The suspect identified himself as Leland to the woman. The woman told police that after she had thought the suspect went to sleep in his own bed, she slept in a sleeping bag provided to her by the rally.
The student went to school Monday and told a teacher about her sexual assault incident in Public Square which is being classified as kidnapping/rape prompting the teacher to immediately contact the authorities.
#4
After seeing the types "occupying" Chicago, I'm only surprised that there hasn't been more trouble. This kind of crowd tends to attract losers. Besides, who would want to occupy Cleveland?
They aren't the woodstock generation unified by fear of Vietnam, these are selfish folks with a lot of anarchists mixed in. It's not a surprise that something like this would eventually happen. Hopefully the poor girl's trauma can lead to a bit more common sense from the occupy crowds.
#7
rjschwarz, it happened in the 60s protests too. There was a lot of pressure for women to sleep with the guys, and some of the pressure went beyond just words.
Classmate of mine was gang raped at one protest in 69.
#14
Somebody actually WANTS to go to Cleveland? If you have a brother in prison, another in a whorehouse & a third one in Cleveland, you have to get the guy out of Cleveland FIRST.
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.
Captured by the BBC's film crew for the documentary Frozen Planet, the Adelie penguin of Antartica, can be seen grabbing stones from the nest of its neighbour each time the other bird waddles off to find some more stones, totally unaware of what's happening.
[Dawn] Dengue virus claimed seven more lives, including five women, in the provincial metropolis on Monday taking the 
All documents relating to the country's first ever detection of paracetamol syrup adulteration in 1992 have vanished from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), the public institution responsible for checking drug adulteration and prosecuting those committing the crime.
The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris [official website, in French] on Friday ordered [judgment in PDF, in French] French Internet service providers to block access to Copwatch Nord Paris I-D-F, a website designed to allow civilians to post videos of alleged police misconduct. The decision was applauded by the police union, Alliance Police Nationale (APN) [union website, in French], which argued that the website incited violence against police. Jean-Claude Delage, secretary general of the APN, said that "[t]he judges have analyzed the situation perfectly -- this site being a threat to the integrity of the police -- and made the right decision."
