i thought the same thing...soemthin smells fishy and it ain't the shark bait*giggles*
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i thought the same thing...soemthin smells fishy and it ain't the shark bait*giggles*
Zoo celebrates virgin birth of Komodo dragons
Mother never even exposed to males; breakthrough raises scientists? hopes
MANCHESTER, England - A British zoo announced Wednesday the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.
In an evolutionary twist, the newborns? eight-year-old mother Flora shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.
?Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are delighted to say she is now a mum and dad,? said a delighted Kevin Buley, the zoo?s curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates.
The shells began cracking last week, after an eight-month gestation period, which culminated with the arrival on Tuesday of the fifth black and yellow colored dragon.
The dragons are between 15.5 and 17.5 inches and weigh between 3.5 and 5.3 ounces, said Buley, who leads the zoo?s expert care team.
He said the reptiles are in good health and enjoying a diet of crickets and locusts.
Evolutionary breakthrough
Other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora?s virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first time it has been documented in a Komodo dragon.
The evolutionary breakthrough could have far-reaching consequences for endangered species.
Captive breeding could ensure the survival of the world?s largest lizards, with fewer than 4,000 Komodos left in the wild.
Scientists hope the discovery will pave the way to finding other species capable of self fertilization.
While it wasn?t unusual for female dragons to lay eggs without mating, scientists understood they were witnessing something important when they realized Flora?s eggs had been fertilized.
DNA paternity tests confirmed the lack of male input, although the brood are not exact clones of their mother.
Parthenogenesis ? where eggs become embryos without male fertilization ? had only been noted once before in a Komodo dragon. Genetic tests showed that Sungai, a resident of London Zoo, was the sole parent to offspring last April.
holy crap... that's just crazy..... [img]eek.gif[/img]
i heard about this on the news today here... fuckin sicko... They were interviewing people from Wheeling on the local news, because he worked at a church there... crazy.
Priest arrested in Las Vegas church attack
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest who is accused of beating, groping and choking a soloist at his Las Vegas church was arrested Thursday in Arizona, Las Vegas police said.
The Rev. George Chaanine, 52, was taken into custody in Apache Junction, about 30 miles east of Phoenix, according to a statement.
Chaanine had been a fugitive since the alleged assault on January 26 at the Our Lady of Las Vegas parish office. A judge issued a felony warrant Tuesday charging him with attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and battery with a deadly weapon.
According to a Las Vegas police report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the woman, who works at the parish office, told investigators she was sitting at her desk when Chaanine broke a full bottle of wine over her head, grabbed her hair and dragged her down a hall toward his office.
She fought back, lost consciousness and awoke with Chaanine groping her breasts and genitals, police said. She continued fighting until Chaanine straddled her and grabbed her throat, police said.
The woman told detectives she began to pray for her life before her attacker suddenly stopped. He muttered that he was going to kill himself, told the woman to wait 15 minutes, said he would call an ambulance and left the parish office, according to the police report.
Chaanine has been suspended with pay from his position as church administrative pastor. A Diocese of Las Vegas spokeswoman said Thursday that church authorities were cooperating with the investigation.
Chaanine, a native of Lebanon, was ordained in 1996 and worked at churches in Detroit, Michigan; Youngstown, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; and Wheeling, West Virginia, before beginning work at Our Lady of Las Vegas in 2004, the diocese said.
I am dumbfounded by this...I don't even know how to respond right now...
i hear ya rog... me too... *nodding*... this next one is a story that was related to me by don... he told me about it the other day, and i googled to see if could find it, because it's been messing with my head ever since... this is some of the sickest shit... *shaking head*... people like this should be tortured, get a taste of their own medicine.. [img]frown.gif[/img]
Teens busted for animal cruelty after filming pit bulls killing cat
08:00 PM CST on Tuesday, January 30, 2007
By Taylor Timmins / 11 News
Police are preparing arrest warrants for two Angleton teens after a gruesome video of a cat being killed by a pit bull surfaced on MySpace.com.
Police said Paul Miguel, 17, and a 16-year-old accomplice will be charged with cruelty to animals, a state jail felony.
Miguel and the 16-year-old reportedly filmed an incident in which pit bulls attack and kill a cat and posted it on the popular social networking site.
Someone saw the video and notified MySpace officials, who traced the Web page to the Angleton area and contacted police.
Police said Miguel expressed no regret for the attacks, saying he did not like cats, was proud of his dog and ?got a rush? out of filming exciting things and sending them to his friends.
The SPCA took the two dogs from Miguel?s home into custody.
The cat was found in a retention pond behind the home.
You know that behavior like that can be the beginnings of something much worse... would-be killers start with small things, like ants, bugs, etc... then move up to mutilating cats or dogs... then bigger things... until they finally get to humans... i hope they take this motherfucker and keep him UNDER the jail, for as long as humanly possible, i don't care if he's a juvenille or not. Technically not in TX, apparently. Good. *crossing arms*... the longer they keep him, the longer he can't graduate onto new and more interesting things that give him a "rush".... dumb fucker.
Brazilian pries grandson from anaconda death grip
A 66-year-old Brazilian man wrestled with a 15-foot (5-metre) anaconda for nearly half an hour to free his grandson from the snake's crushing death grip, local media reported on Friday.
Matheus Pereira de Araujo, 8, would likely be dead inside the belly of the 80 pound (35 kg) anaconda if his grandfather had not heard his screams for help, zoologists said.
Anacondas, the biggest snakes in the world, live in swamps and rivers. They kill prey by asphyxiation or drowning.
When the snake struck Araujo, who lives in the world's third largest metropolis of Sao Paulo, he was playing with a cousin on Wednesday in a creek bed on his grandfather's farm 310 miles (500 km) from the city in a town called Cosmorama.
"It was very fast. I didn't have time to do anything," the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Araujo as saying. "My grandfather is a hero -- I was so afraid of dying."
Joaquim Pereira was driving home when he heard the screams of Matheus and his cousin Flavio, 8, who ran to get help.
Pereira jumped into the ravine and grappled with the snake, which started coiling around him as well.
"I started fighting the animal and tried to loosen its grip on the boy's neck but the snake was too strong," Pereira told the Bom Dia newspaper of Sao Jose do Rio Preto.
Pereira then attacked it with stones and a machete.
"I kept hitting it with the machete but it felt like a rubber tyre, it wouldn't tear," he said.
He killed it after a long struggle to free the boy, who needed 21 stitches on his chest where the snake bit him.
"It was the most terrible scene that I've seen in my life," Pereira said. "It was totally coiled around him while he was screaming that he was dying."
Senator Eduardo Suplicy said Pereira should be honoured by the Brazilian government for heroism.
holy crap! that's one huge snake... *shivers*... i HATE snakes... i fell on a big long black snake once... lol. i'll never be the same again.... i could feel i squirming under me for a second... ew. [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img]
http://bestsmileys.com/medical/7.gif So tell me Miz RA....How long have you had this fear of long squirmy...Uhmmm...snakes?