By Matt Sedensky (AP)  A growing population of huge pythons — many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big — appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study says.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically — as much as 99 percent, in some cases — in areas where pythons and other large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be lurking.

Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia, are believed to be living in the Everglades, where they thrive in the warm, humid climate. While many were apparently released by their owners, others may have escaped from pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and have been reproducing ever since.

via Pythons apparently wiping out Everglades mammals – Yahoo! News.

 January 31, 2012  Posted by at 7:18 am No Responses »
 

(DoctorTipster) A strain of avian influenza H5N1 genetically modified to be extremely contagious has been created by researcher Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands. The work was first presented at a conference dedicated to influenza, that took place in September in Malta.

Avian influenza emerged in Asia about 10 years ago. Since then there were fewer than 600 infection cases reported in humans. On the other hand, Fouchier’s genetically modified strain is extremely contagious and dangerous, killing about 50% of infected patients. The former strain did not represent a global threat, as transmission from human to human is rare. Or, at least, it was before Fouchier genetically modified it.

via Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions.

 November 28, 2011  Posted by at 8:12 pm No Responses »
 

By Paul Krassner (Huffington Post) Jim Jones, founder of the 8,000-member People’s Temple in San Francisco, once asked Margo St. James, founder of the prostitutes’ rights group, COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), how he could obtain political power.

She answered, sardonically, “Arrange for some of your women to have sex with the bigwigs.”

It was well known around City Hall that Moscone had a predilection for black women. Police almost arrested him once with a black prostitute in a car at a supermarket parking lot.

Soon after the Dan White trial, Lee Cole, an ex-Scientologist I had met in Chicago while researching the Charles Manson case, took me to see Lowell Streiker, author of The Cults Are Coming! and a deprogrammer who had counseled one-third of the Jonestown survivors. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned my theory that Jim Jones had served as a pimp at City Hall and maintained power by implied blackmail.

Dr. Streiker told me of his friend — a member of Jones’ planning commission — who had told him about the technique that People’s Temple had used on Mayor Moscone. They sent a young black female member to service him, as a gift, then called the next week about a serious problem — she had lied, said she was eighteen, when in fact she was underage, but don’t worry, we have it under control — just the way J. Edgar Hoover used to manipulate top politicians with his juicy FBI files.

So Jim Jones had taken Margo St. James’ sardonic advice after all, on how to achieve political power: “Arrange for some of your women to have sex with the bigwigs.” And he had taken it all the way to a mass suicide-murder — which occurred simultaneously with a mass demonstration by the women’s movement in San Francisco, called “Take Back the Night!”

Paul Krassner’s dialogue with Andrew Breitbart appears in the December issue of Playboy.

via Paul Krassner: Sex, Corruption and the Kool-Aid Massacre.

 November 25, 2011  Posted by at 9:21 am No Responses »
 

Jessica Kwong (SF Gate) A man who witnesses say fell while attempting to walk up a downward-moving escalator died in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday.

via Man killed on escalator at SF transit station.

 April 20, 2011  Posted by at 4:05 pm No Responses »
 

By Jeff Goodman (Bakersfield Californian) A 35-year-old Lamont man died Sunday after being stabbed in the leg by a sharp blade that was attached to a fighting bird, authorities said.

Jose Luis Ochoa was taken to Delano Regional Medical Center shortly after Tulare County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a reported cockfight near in the intersection of Avenue 24 and Road 128, about three miles north of the Kern County line and west of Highway 99.

An autopsy Wednesday revealed that the accidental death was caused by an injury to Ochoa’s right calf, according to a Kern County Sheriff’s Department news release.

via Lamont man stabbed to death by cockfighting bird – Bakersfield.com.

 February 8, 2011  Posted by at 12:36 pm No Responses »
 

"He trusts God to keep him safe," says RP2 Chute. "And I'm here just in case that doesn't work out."

By Michael M. Phillips (WSJ) SANGIN, Afghanistan — Navy Chaplain Terry Moran is steeped in the Bible and believes all of it. His assistant, Religious Programs Specialist 2nd Class Philip Chute, is steeped in the Bible and having none of it.

Together they roam this town in Taliban country, comforting the grunts while crossing swords with each other over everything from the power of angels to the wisdom of standing in clear view of enemy snipers. Lt. Moran, 48 years old, preaches about divine protection while 25-year-old RP2 Chute covers the chaplain’s back and wishes he were more attentive to the dangers of the here and now.

“He trusts God to keep him safe,” says RP2 Chute. “And I’m here just in case that doesn’t work out.”

Army chaplains represent 130 religions and denominations, including Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. The military says it’s common for assistants to be of different faiths from the chaplains they support, or of no faith at all.

“They don’t have to be religious,” says retired Navy Capt. Randy Cash, who served 30 years in the Chaplain Corps and now is its historian. “They have to be able to shoot straight.”

Read the rest: This Chaplain Is Protected By God—and by an Atheist–at War – WSJ.com.

 September 7, 2010  Posted by at 9:07 am No Responses »
 

"He trusts God to keep him safe," says RP2 Chute. "And I'm here just in case that doesn't work out."

By Michael M. Phillips (WSJ) SANGIN, Afghanistan — Navy Chaplain Terry Moran is steeped in the Bible and believes all of it. His assistant, Religious Programs Specialist 2nd Class Philip Chute, is steeped in the Bible and having none of it.

Together they roam this town in Taliban country, comforting the grunts while crossing swords with each other over everything from the power of angels to the wisdom of standing in clear view of enemy snipers. Lt. Moran, 48 years old, preaches about divine protection while 25-year-old RP2 Chute covers the chaplain’s back and wishes he were more attentive to the dangers of the here and now.

“He trusts God to keep him safe,” says RP2 Chute. “And I’m here just in case that doesn’t work out.”

Army chaplains represent 130 religions and denominations, including Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. The military says it’s common for assistants to be of different faiths from the chaplains they support, or of no faith at all.

“They don’t have to be religious,” says retired Navy Capt. Randy Cash, who served 30 years in the Chaplain Corps and now is its historian. “They have to be able to shoot straight.”

Read the rest: This Chaplain Is Protected By God—and by an Atheist–at War – WSJ.com.

 September 7, 2010  Posted by at 9:07 am No Responses »
 

By Jeff Rivenbark STATESVILLE, NC (WBTV) – A man who was with about a dozen people who were looking for a legendary “ghost train” in Iredell County was hit by a locomotive and killed early Friday morning.

Christopher Kaiser, 29, died at the scene and two more people were injured, according to Iredell County Sheriff Phillip Redmond.

“During the investigation, witnesses told deputies they were at the site in hopes of seeing a ‘ghost train’,” the Iredell County sheriff’s office said in a press release.

The sheriff said the incident coincided with the anniversary of a train wreck that occurred at the same location in 1891.

Read the rest Amateur NC ghost hunter looking for ‘ghost train’ hit and killed – WIS News 10 – Columbia, South Carolina |.

 August 28, 2010  Posted by at 1:54 pm No Responses »
 

By Jeff Rivenbark STATESVILLE, NC (WBTV) – A man who was with about a dozen people who were looking for a legendary “ghost train” in Iredell County was hit by a locomotive and killed early Friday morning.

Christopher Kaiser, 29, died at the scene and two more people were injured, according to Iredell County Sheriff Phillip Redmond.

“During the investigation, witnesses told deputies they were at the site in hopes of seeing a ‘ghost train’,” the Iredell County sheriff’s office said in a press release.

The sheriff said the incident coincided with the anniversary of a train wreck that occurred at the same location in 1891.

Read the rest Amateur NC ghost hunter looking for ‘ghost train’ hit and killed – WIS News 10 – Columbia, South Carolina |.

 August 28, 2010  Posted by at 1:54 pm No Responses »
 

By Margery A. Beck

(AP) OMAHA, Neb. – A suburban Omaha man has died after being strangled by his 9-foot, 25-pound pet boa constrictor, authorities said Thursday. Cory Byrne, 34, of Papillion died Wednesday night at a local hospital, just hours after police and paramedics pried the snake from around his neck, police said. Byrne had been showing the snake to a friend when it wrapped around his shoulders and neck and squeezed, Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov said.

Read the rest Neb. man dies after being strangled by pet snake – Yahoo! News.

 June 15, 2010  Posted by at 6:00 pm No Responses »