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Seems we have found the previously mentioned snake -- and friends:
Snakes on a plane killed
FOUR escaped pythons have caused a Qantas plane to be grounded in Melbourne after airline staff failed to find them.
The young Stimson's pythons, four of 12 in a container in the Boeing 737-800's cargo hold, apparently escaped on Tuesday during a 2½-hour flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne.
With Qantas staff unable to find the escapees among the luggage in the hold, the aircraft was removed from service and a 4pm Melbourne-to-Sydney flight was cancelled.
http://www.theage.com.au/travel/snak...0415-a7h7.html
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Village overridden on potholes
A village which decided not to fill in potholes because they helped slow motorists down has been overridden by higher authorities, officials said Thursday.
The parish council in Navestock, said holes in the roads acted as a "natural traffic calming" feature, and ignored any repairs that needed doing
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090416...s-a7ad41d.html
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Senior Member
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Anderson Cooper: "It's Hard to Talk When You're Teabagging"
Anderson Cooper had David Gergen, the director of the Center for Public Leadership, on his show last night to talk about the President's recent economic speech and what kind of response they could expect from Republicans. At the end of some serious policy talk they had this exchange:
Gergen: "They still haven't found their voice, Anderson. This happens to a minority party after it's lost a couple of bad elections, but they're searching for their voice."
Cooper: "It's hard to talk when you're teabagging."
He was, of course, referring both to the conservative anti-tax tea bagging protests and to the sex act. Cooper is the latest in a long line of cable news hosts to mock the tea baggers for their choice of terminology. Rachel Maddow had blogger Ana Marie Cox on her show last week and the pair spent an entire segment exploring the double entendres made possible by these protesters. Then David Shuster got in on the action by cracking jokes about "going nuts" and needing a "Dick Armey". Of course, not everyone finds this hilarious.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_187318.html -Kat (\__/)
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MI5 seeking real 'Q'
James Bond always went to Q to keep one step ahead of the enemy with the latest smart gadgets, and now the real-life spies of MI5 are to get their own technology mastermind.
MI5 is seeking a chief scientific adviser "to lead and co-ordinate the scientific work of the Security Service so that the service continues to be supported by excellent science and technology advice", its website said.
Applicants must have "world-class scientific expertise and credibility in relevant scientific and technology disciplines", their advertisement read.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090418...q-a7ad41d.html
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Disturbing -- If true
This child is special, an Oscar child. So, we now want 200K
Father tries to cash in on daughter's fame
By Mazher Mahmood, 19/04/2009
THE poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself-by SELLING his nine-year-old daughter.
In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news...ke-Sheikh.html
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Bus driver disciplined for frog rescue
A French bus driver working in Germany is facing the sack after stopping her double-decker to save a frog from being squashed under the wheels.
Passengers on the already 20-minute delayed bus were hopping mad when Christina Pommerel, 46, leapt from behind the wheel, rescued the frog, put it in a box and released it on the side of the road.
"I couldn't just squash it," Ms Pommerel, who has been driving buses for 13 years in the southern German city of Regensburg, told daily Die Welt. "I did my job and saved a life."
But the irate passengers took a dim view of the rescue mission and one of them complained to the bus company, which suspended the driver.
"If the bus was already late and the passengers were angry and I then picked up a frog, I would have to ask myself if I was in the wrong job," company representative Maximilian Jobst was quoted as saying by the local paper, Mittelbayerische Zeitung.
But after a media uproar and outpouring of support for the driver, the company is beginning to row back.
The frog-loving driver can resume her duties but only if she refrains from such mercy missions in future, company officials said.
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 Originally Posted by Empty Wallet  MI5 seeking real 'Q'
James Bond always went to Q to keep one step ahead of the enemy with the latest smart gadgets, and now the real-life spies of MI5 are to get their own technology mastermind.
MI5 is seeking a chief scientific adviser "to lead and co-ordinate the scientific work of the Security Service so that the service continues to be supported by excellent science and technology advice", its website said.
Applicants must have "world-class scientific expertise and credibility in relevant scientific and technology disciplines", their advertisement read. Sounds like a job (title) for me!
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Perhaps Q can be a bug lady:
Giant mechanical spiders invade Yokohama, Japan
TOKYO had Godzilla, at least on celluloid, but now the nearby port of Yokohama boasts sci-fi monsters of its own: a pair of giant metallic spiders to help it mark an anniversary.
Weighing in at 38 tonnes each, the 12m tall creatures have drawn crowds of thousands as they crawl through Japan's second city and even dip several of their eight legs into the port's murky waters.
Steered by humans perched high on their heads, the mechanical arachnids - brainchild of French performance art group La Machine - made their debut last weekend on the Yokohama waterfront, accompanied by piano music and clouds of steam blowing from their fanged mouths.
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Giant grumpy crocodiles cause plane chaos
By Tamara McLean
TWO dangerous and exceptionally grumpy Australians have been welcomed to New Zealand after testing the patience of their in-flight cabin crew.
Saltwater crocodiles Scar, from Darwin, and Goldie, from Cairns, are the first of their species to be flown across the Tasman - and the pair weren't going to take the relocation lying down.
The duo broke their head restraints mid-flight, thrashing so hard that the Hercules plane transporting them shuddered and shook.
”It got pretty exciting on board, that's for sure,” said John Dowsett, general manager of Auckland's Butterfly Creek Zoo, which the crocs now call home.
”The plane was shaking and the pilot turned to me and said ‘that's your crocs having a bit of a go'.
”We gave them drugs, a muscle relaxant to calm them down, and that seemed to work but boy, are they powerful.
”You can see why we needed the Royal New Zealand Air Force on this job.”s on a pla
The Hercules was the only aircraft deemed large and sturdy enough to transport the monster predators.
Both male, they are four metres long and weigh over half a tonne each, and are now the largest, and most dangerous carnivorous predators in New Zealand.
The pair might have been groggy and ``a bit grumpy'' on arrival in Auckland midnight on Tuesday but they have since settled into the zoo where they are soon to become the star attractions.
They form the centrepiece of a new saltwater crocodile exhibit, sponsored by Tourism NT, that will also feature several baby American alligators.
Mr Dowsett said they will live in a 32 degree billabong - "a heated Sheraton" - but they won't be cosying up together.
Their New Zealand keepers have been told to keep the pair apart in separate exhibits so they don't kill each other.
”They're extremely aggressive so you don't want them anywhere near each other,” he said.
”When you see them in the wild they've always got shreds torn off them. We don't want to see that here too.”
Despite their apparently bad tempers, Scar and Goldie are believed to have relatively stable personalities and not the “absolute craziness” displayed by some of their kind, the zoo manager said.
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Weird True Freaky
Yoga 'supergran' as flexible as ever
YOGA instructor Bette Calman may be 83, but she is still bending over backwards to spread the benefits of the ancient Indian system.
With 40 years of teaching under her belt, the Williamstown wonder is living proof that a lifetime's dedication to the healthy pursuit can keep you nimble, the Herald Sun reports.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...-13762,00.html
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Swiss voters ban nude alpine hiking
Voters in the heart of the Swiss Alps have passed legislation banning naked hiking after dozens of mostly German nudists started rambling through their picturesque region.
By a show of hands citizens of the tiny canton (state) of Appenzell Inner Rhodes voted overwhelmingly yesterday at their traditional open-air annual assembly to impose a 200 Swiss franc ($A245) fine on violators.
Only a scattering of people opposed the ban on the back-to-nature activity that took off in the previous autumn, when naked hikers - primarily Germans - started showing up in eastern Switzerland.
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Fake Popemobile charges against Ian Bryce dropped
A MAN who transformed a car into an imitation Popemobile during World Youth Day (WYD) in Sydney says the withdrawal of charges against him is a win for freedom of speech.
Ian Bryce, 59, of Rozelle, was issued with a defect notice on Miller St, North Sydney, outside a WYD event on July 12, 2008.
The notice said he had a "life size and lifelike mannequin prominently fitted to the car roof racks likely to cause distraction".
He was also charged with using a vehicle that did not comply with standards.
The imitation Popemobile was built on the top of a family sedan, complete with a dummy pope holding a big gold phone.
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McDonald's loses court bid to close down McCurry
From correspondents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Reuters
FAST-food chain McDonald's has lost a lawsuit in Malaysia after an appeals court overruled a decision that its trademark had been infringed by a local restaurant called McCurry.
"Where the learned judge, with respect, erred is to assume that McDonald's had a monopoly in the use of the prefix 'Mc' on a signage or in the conduct of business," Judge Gopal Sri Ram said, overturning a 2006 ruling in favour of McDonald's.
A three-member Appeal Court panel said there was no evidence to show that McCurry Restaurant was passing off McDonald's business as its own.
McCurry's signboard has white and gray letters on a red background and features a smiling chicken giving a thumbs-up.
Mr Ram said there was no chance that "reasonable persons" would associate McCurry with the McDonald's mark.
The McDonald's operation in Malaysia is run as franchise by prominent businessman Vincent Tan and has 185 outlets.
McCurry, by contrast, serves Indian fast food from one restaurant in Kuala Lumpur as well Malaysian dishes such as fish-head curry.
Its business name is short for "Malaysian Chicken Curry", according to its website www.mccurryrecipe.com.
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Live shark left outside office
A LIVE shark dumped on the doorstep of a country newspaper office has local police puzzled, with authorities vowing to charge the person who left it with animal cruelty.
The juvenile Port Jackson shark, which measured around 70cm, was left in darkness outside the office at Warrnambool, on the coast of southeast Victoria state.
"We arrived and poured some water on it just to see if it was still breathing and it kicked around for a little while," Constable Jarrod Dwyer said.
"I walked over to McDonald's and borrowed a bucket off them and filled it up with water, and we picked the shark up and put it inside it and then drove it down to the breakwater and released it back into the water."
Port Jackson sharks can grow up to 1.6m and typically feed on crustaceans, sea urchins, and fish.
They are nocturnal and common across Australia's southeast coast.
Constable Dwyer said the newspaper was unaware why anyone would leave a shark to die outside.
"They had no ideas of any person that wished them any harm or wished to send them any type of message, so we're a little dumbfounded," he said.
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Dad Uses YouTube To Deliver Baby At Home
A father delivered his baby when it arrived unexpectedly early - just hours after he watched chidlbirth videos on YouTube.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090501/...t-45dbed5.html
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I wonder what happened to Foibles, he seems to have started this thread and run away. Perhaps he is busy with this new nation building activity:
China's ultimatum: smoke or be fined
OFFICIALS in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reports.
The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.
Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.
"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.
The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.
China has 350 million smokers, of whom a million die of smoking-related diseases every year.
More than half of all male doctors in China smoke, but the Government is now trying harder to get them to kick the habit in order to set an example for others, state media reported recently.
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Man sets Guiness World Record by building 700,000 coffins
A 50-YEAR-OLD Austrian man has built more than 700,000 coffins over two decades, setting a world record.
Herbert Webter has built 707,335 coffins for his company, Moser, where he has worked since 1978 in the central town of St-Michael-im-Lungau.
His feat has been certified by Guinness World Records, his company said.
He will receive his certificate at a party in his honour during the International Funeral Home and Cemetery Fair in Salzburg on Saturday, Mr Moser said.
I really do not know which part is the oddest-- the number of coffins, that Guinness wouldcertify it, or this FAIR.
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An 82-year-old man in Goslar, Germany, was so annoyed at hearing the same serenade over and over that he called police to report his neighbours - only to discover the culprit was a musical greeting card on his own window sill that was intermittently being blown open just enough to play an irritating tune.
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Happy Mothers Day
Too many cooks spoil Mother's Day breakfast in bed
A Lower Templestowe woman had a Mother's Day to remember yesterday.
As she lay in bed waiting for breakfast made by her three children, their culinary skills failed to match their good intentions.
While they were cooking a special treat, the stove caught fire and spread quickly to the ceiling and roof.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/to...0510-az9z.html
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