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| Koko |
Posted
on 02-Dec-02 09:00 AM
Farmland is not the only thing drying up in Australia's worst drought in decades.
It's pretty rough when your sex life is determined by the weather Jonh Lever, crocodile breeder. The lack of monsoon rains has stopped male crocodiles from producing sperm, breeders say.John Lever, owner of the Koorana Crocodile Farm in the eastern state of Queensland, said if the drought continued, the female crocodiles would start to reabsorb their eggs as a survival mechanism. "It's pretty rough when your sex life is determined by the weather," said Mr Lever, whose farm exports crocodile meat and skins."Thunder and lightning is the ultimate aphrodisiac for crocs." Farming in trouble The farm has about 3,000 crocodiles, and normally produces about 1,600 baby crocodiles a year. Mr Lever said he feared the birth rate could be halved this year. He said he believed the drought was likely to be affecting crocodiles in the wild as well."There's not enough climatic incentive to get the males really hot, and they're not looking for females and mating the way they should," said the crocodile breeder. Eastern Australia is experiencing its worst drought in decades, slashing agricultural production. Last week the government cut its official economic growth forecast by 0.75 percentage points to 3% for the year to June.
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| Koko |
Posted
on 02-Dec-02 09:03 AM
Couple's drive of one hour lasts 28
Found in Cleveland, man thinks it's Canton
By Karalee Miller and John Higgins
An elderly Stark County couple wandered in Northeast Ohio in their car for 28 hours before police found them driving aimlessly around a snow-shrouded Cleveland neighborhood.
Glen and Eleanor Milligan, both 78, set out from their Tuscarawas Township home around noon Friday for a relative's home in Alliance. The 32-mile trip across Stark County should have taken just under an hour.
When they failed to arrive by Friday night, their family reported them missing.
On Saturday afternoon, Cleveland police received reports of a suspicious car on the city's southeast side. ``They kept driving around the same neighborhood over and over again,'' Stark County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Maskaluk said of the couple. ``He thought he was still in Canton, Ohio.'' The couple appeared to be lost, and officers stopped them to see if they needed assistance.
The officers realized that the car's occupants were the missing Stark County residents.
The Milligans were dressed for the weather and appeared to be in good health.
They were driven to a police station to await their family, but they offered no explanation for where they had been or what they were doing.
Medics checked the couple out and found them to be in good health. It was not known if they had spent the night in their car, or whether they had something to eat and drink during their journey.
Worried family members got the call around 4:30 p.m. telling them the couple had been found, said Stark County Sheriff's Lt. Gary Shankle.
Stark deputies began the search Friday night after family members went to the couple's home and did not find them.
Deputies issued a statewide ``be on the lookout'' order for a burgundy-colored, four-door, 1985 Ford Crown Victoria. They used time between calls to search along roads and ditches.
The Milligans are now back home with family members.
Before they were found, some family members were concerned that the couple had become lost and kept driving, Shankle said. ``They said the father sometimes becomes confused when driving,'' he said.
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| Koko |
Posted
on 02-Dec-02 09:06 AM
X-rated shirt leads to uproar
By Michael Madigan
December 02, 2002
A T-SHIRT depicting Osama bin Laden and US President George W. Bush in a sex act created police attention and a flurry of lively debate at the Brisbane Markets yesterday.
The T-shirt is selling by the hundreds in Bali and widely distributed across the Internet.
It was doing a roaring trade at $22 a shirt at a stall next to the Brisbane River – until forced off the shelves after an altercation between former army intelligence officer Troy Raymond Ellis and the vendor.
The vendor, who refused to give his name, said the T-shirt was just another in a line designed to make people laugh and refused Mr Ellis's request to withdraw it from sale.
"I'm just here to make people laugh, not to make them angry" he said. "And I am selling a lot of T-shirts."
Neighbouring stall holders were unanimous in their support of the vendor, and highly critical of the media which they believed was doing a poor job in reporting the real issues affecting Australians.
"This is just typical of the dumbing down of the media in this country," said one.
Peter Hackworth of the Brisbane Markets weighed in, defending the vendor's right to sell the shirt which was covered by cardboard and not on public display.
Mr Ellis, who engaged Ms Hackworth in a debate about the shirt's international ramifications, said the shirt was inappropriate and inflammatory in the wake of the Bali bombings.
Police said they interviewed the vendor after receiving a complaint.
"We have asked him (the vendor) to take the shirt away from public viewing," a police officer said.
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| Koko |
Posted
on 02-Dec-02 09:07 AM
Brain grows in rat thigh after transplant
Agence France Presse
Tokyo, December 1
A group of Japanese scientists has transplanted the brain of a baby rat into the thigh of a grown-up rat as an experiment to see if brain tissue can survive if its blood supply is cut off for a while, local media reported on Sunday.
The scientists at the Jichi Medical School in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, removed the head of a 12-day-old rat and connected its blood vessels to those in the thigh of the adult rat, Kyodo News agency said.
It took the Japanese scientists 90 minutes to graft the rat’s brain into the thigh, but the organ survived and its neurological functions developed after the transplant.
The brain grew and the mouth of the baby rat even moved as if trying to drink milk, it said.
It is commonly believed that brain tissue dies immediately after blood supply is cut off.
The study showed the importance of keeping the room temperature low for the transplant. While an experiment carried out in a room at 29 degrees Celsius failed, another in a room at 19 degrees Celsius was successful, according to the team.
“The finding that a transplant is possible if the brains are cooled helps add a reference to brain surgery,” Nobufumi Kawai, one of the scientists, was quoted by Kyodo as saying.
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| Koko |
Posted
on 02-Dec-02 09:11 AM
NEW WORLD ORDER CRIMES
by Charles Mudede
Fathers and Sons/Northgate/Mon Oct 21/2:45 pm: This afternoon, a devoted father and his son went to a Northgate Way mosque for prayer service. At approximately 2:45 pm, the prayer service concluded, and, according to the devoted father, "the self-appointed leaders of the mosque" tried to raise money for the "Muslim Prisoners in the U.S. Defense Fund." The devoted father immediately objected to this idea for the following reasons:
1. By proclamation of an autocratic junta, the mosque was usurped from the Muslim community on January 18, 1993.
2. Since January 18, 1993, there has been no financial accountability, no audit or financial reports. The community does not know where its money goes.
3. The despotic keepers of the mosque are not the Muslim community's legitimate, democratically elected representatives.
4. The majority of the Muslim community are loyal citizens of the U.S., and do not support defending those who are under investigation for plots against their country.
Because of the above-listed reasons, the devoted father did not believe it was correct for the "leaders" of the mosque to attempt to raise money for a "suspicious and suddenly concocted title of 'Muslim Prisoners in the U.S. Defense Fund.'" As he stated his objections, a man standing nearby suddenly poked two fingers into his left eye. The devoted father immediately backed away, while several mosque members grabbed the attacker and restrained him. When the attacker realized he could not get at the devoted father, he attacked the man's mentally disabled child. The attacker grabbed the boy around the neck and started choking him. Several people again restrained the attacker, and the devoted father quickly walked out of the mosque with his disabled son. While the father headed to his vehicle, the suspect ran up to him and said, "Next time I will find you alone and break your neck!" The devoted father then left the area.
Officer Sprecher advised the distressed father on the proper procedure for obtaining an all-American protection order.
Pacific Rim Terrorism/Downtown/Sat Nov 16/10 pm: On the night of November 10, a man, whom we shall call Mr. Raoul Ruiz, walked into a downtown Kinko's and made several attempts to fax a letter to the Russian Embassy. After several failed transmissions, Mr. Ruiz became incensed and demanded assistance. An employee assisted Mr. Ruiz, and faxed his letter to the Russian Embassy and the White House. The employee chanced to read a part of the letter. It more or less stated that Mr. Ruiz wanted to work with the CCCP to return it to its former glory, and that he knew all the terrorist groups operating in the Pacific Rim.
Today, Mr. Ruiz returned and asked the employee to make business cards with the CIA logo. This time around the employee refused to help and called the police. Officer C. The subject was questioned and released from the scene.
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