Free Republic

DURANT, Okla. -- The Oklahoma State Health Department is preparing to test a 60-pound beaver for rabies after it bit a small boy outside an apartment complex in southern Oklahoma. Tammy Lane said her 5-year-old son went outside to get the family cat on Saturday. But instead of finding a feline, he was attacked by a beaver after trying to pet the animal, according to KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. "I heard screaming. I went to see what was happening. His leg was pretty bad," Lane said. She rushed her son to a local hospital and called police. "They didn't believe...

Inside a secured room at the Eagan Police headquarters is the charred and shredded evidence of a near fatal crime. There's not much left of a winter jacket, worn by a 33-year-old St. Paul man. The alleged copper thief was burned by 69,000 volts of electricity, creating a flash of light in the early morning sky. "There were also calls of a large flash of light seen from several miles away and a large boom," Eagan Officer Danielle Anselment said. Police and paramedics responded to several 911 calls of a man who was on fire at the Dakota Electric power...

Lady ducks have evolved a unique way of avoiding the unwanted advances of, er, enthusiastic suitors, according to Yale scientists. According to researchers, while male ducks have developed longer, spiraled genitalia, the females' anatomy has evolved to spiral in the opposite direction. “In species where forced copulation is common ... this coevolution results from conflict between the sexes over who is going to control fertilization,” said Yale researcher Patricia L.R. Brennan. Essentially, female ducks are able to thwart "undesirable but aggressive males" and avoid becoming pregnant because the sexes have evolved mismatched equipment. Researchers released the study this week detailing...

A Greek man dressed in animal hide was mistakenly shot dead while out hunting wild boar for a Christmas dinner.

Need help identifying the following snow tracks: This is the third time I have found some strange animal tracks on my land. I live in western pa, 25 miles from Pittsburgh in the land of murrymom. The area is rural on the edge of suburban development. These tracks I photographed (iPhone) while snow blowing. The gate is 6 to 8 feet and the single track may be a double paw print. The single track is larger than my hand. The tracks entered my property near a wood pile (breaking a five wire electric fence) and traveled over two hundred feet...

AT reader Jackpine Savage has an animated videogame enabling you to throw snowballs at Al Gore, what with all the global warming that has been falling all over the east. Play it here.

Italy's highest court of appeal affirmed the illegality of insulting someone by sticking your tongue out at them. The case brought before the Cassation Court involved a farmer whose tongue gesture was captured by a cellphone camera held by the neighbor with whom he was arguing. The farmer, Carlo O., had been convicted by a justice of the peace of insulting the neighbor, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

COME MONDAY, it is three years and counting. Three years till what? Three years until the end of the world! You didn't know that? Where have you been? Dec. 21, 2012--a Friday. That's the big day. The Mayans have supposedly predicted that this is when the end will come, and so have several other previous cultures. Why, even that old soothsayer Nostradamus is said to have determined that this date will mark the end of time. Of course, that makes me a little wary, because nobody seems to recognize Nostradamus' predictions until after they happen. After the Sept. 11, 2001,...

RICHFIELD, Minn. -- When North Dakotan Dennis McCoy gets together with his uncle Wes in his retirement high rise in Richfield, they farm at the kitchen table. "That was our first rubber-tired tractor," says Wes to Dennis as they peer at a photo of a 1938 Allis Chalmers WC. It's moments like this that have led Dennis to one of the great passions in his life: locating and restoring tractors that match the makes and models his grandfather -- Wes' dad Ed McCoy -- used on their North Dakota farm from the 1920s through the 1950s. Already he's paid for...

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian surfers told of their horror as they watched a pod of killer whales attack a large group of dolphins, throwing them into the air and leaping to catch them. Jamie Kidney said he was surfing off southern Australia's Eyre Peninsula with his friend Anton Storey when the ocean erupted into a seething mass of white water and "all hell broke loose". "(It was) just chaos, you saw monstrous amounts of white water and then dolphins go flying up in the air, a killer whale would jump out of the water, grab it and body-slam it," Kidney...

Richard Branson's new commercial spacecraft, Enterprise, will transport the musicians to just outside the Earth's atmosphere where they can enjoy about 5 minutes of weightlessness and time to play one hit song.

WELLINGTON (AFP) – Two blocks of butter have been found intact after nearly a century in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition, a report said. Television New Zealand reported that conservators found the two blocks of New Zealand butter in bags in stables attached to the expedition Hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica. The extreme cold of the polar region has preserved the hut and expedition equipment inside, but recent signs of deterioration had prompted the Antarctic Heritage Trust to launch a preservation project. The trust's Lizzie Meek said the butter...

Has anyone out there bought a bag of Sun Chips lately? The new Frito Lay eco-friendly green bag is really LOOUUUDDDD!!!! I swear it's capable of waking the dead if you so much as breath in its general direction, much less actually touch it or reach inside to get a chip. Anyone who's touched one will know what I'm talking about, since it's very noticeable and unforgettable. I guess the new green strategy is to replace landfill pollution with noise pollution instead?

State wildlife experts believe the cougar caught on tape in Champlin earlier this month is the same big cat that left tracks in the snow in Stillwater. Video of a cougar was recorded by a police squad car dash board camera Dec. 7. Two days later a cat was spotted in Vadnais Heights. December 11, cougar tracks were found in Sunrise Park in Stillwater. DNR officials believe all three sightings were of the same cat. Dan Stark with the DNR said, "I think it's likely it's the same cat. I don't expect to see more than one cougar in the...

A statue of President Barack Obama as a boy erected in a Jakarta park has been targeted in a Facebook campaign by thousands who say it should be removed.Many Indonesians are proud of the fact that Obama lived in Jakarta from 1967 to 1971 with his American mother, his Indonesian stepfather and his half-sister. He went by the name "Barry," attended the local elementary school near where his statue now stands and owned a pet monkey.

Sarah Palin is such a cold-eyed skeptic about the Copenhagen summit on climate change that it's no surprise she would call on President Obama not to attend. After all, Obama might join other leaders in acknowledging that warming is a "global challenge." He might entertain "opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." He might even explore ways to "participate in carbon-trading markets." Oh, wait. Those quotes aren't from some smug Euro-socialist manifesto. They're from an administrative order Palin signed in September 2007, as governor of Alaska, establishing a "sub-Cabinet" of top state officials to develop a strategy for dealing with climate...

Residents of Colorado Springs, Colo., have a mystery on their hands: Who came up with the idea to erect a sign reading "Welcome to Obamaville" on the site of a homeless tent camp in the city? The sign, which was visible from the Cimarron Street ramp to Interstate 25, clearly conveyed a political jab at rising unemployment under President Barack Obama, for it read in full, "Welcome to Obamaville – Colorado's fastest growing community."

Snow chains will only get you so far in some parts of the world. When you want to really rip up the backcountry, what you need is a crazily modified Subaru with cat tracks, a supercharged engine and heavy-duty suspension. Then you’ll be ready to drive right up to the pristine, snowy peaks and snowboard your way down.

When it snows in the mountains and rains in the basin, Jessica Hall thinks of the lost streams of Los Angeles. In fact, she thinks of them all the time. For the last nine years, the 41-year-old garden designer has been retracing the paths of the native creeks, streams and springs that once ran wild before they were filled in and paved for homes. In the process, Hall has come to believe that the best town planning and landscape design principles for the future may lie in understanding the habits of the watercourses of the past. Those who missed the...

Two British women attempting a world record by rowing across the Atlantic say they hope to shave a few days off the trip by completing the feat naked. Mel King, 37 and Annie Januszewski, 40, of Bristol, England, said they are hoping to row 3,000 miles from Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the West Indies in only 70 days, to beat the previous 75-day record for a two-woman team, The Sun reported Wednesday. The women, who planned to start the voyage Wednesday if the weather is favorable, said they originally planned to row for 15 hours a...

While looking for something else, I stumbled across this guy's Panoramio collection. So I provide a sampling. He's got 17 pages worth, pretty good. He does some HDR (high dynamic range) -- I think I included one of those. Enjoy. (Click 'em for full-size.)

IGOR has everything a self-respecting crocodile needs to be a good lover - he's big, he's strong and he's dashingly handsome. But the 4.62m saltie doesn't seem to know the difference between love-making and dinner. He killed his last two girlfriends.. And that was enough for the Darwin Crocodile Farm - Igor had to go. "I don't know why he attacked the girls...But it does happen..."

Memo to children — and adults for that matter — everywhere: Don’t try to emulate Flick from "A Christmas Story." Ever. Your tongue will get stuck to a metal pole when the temperature is -2. Boise fire officials were able to help a boy whose tongue was stuck to a metal fence pole... Firefighters didn't ask him his age but said he was probably 10. The boy is OK... The boy’s tongue was bleeding a little bit but there was no visible tearing. When Boise firefighters arrived, they found the boy standing by the 8 foot tall chain link fence...

New Missions for Pilotless Aircraft by W. Thomas Smith Jr. (more by this author) Posted 12/09/2009 ET Two-and-a-half years ago when I was in Iraq, I remember -- among the sound of mortars, crackling gunfire, thundering helicopters, roaring jets, and the occasional (thankfully distant) IED explosions -- the somewhat-comforting sound of the remotely piloted little reconnaissance airplanes we’ve come to know as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Comforting, I say, because I knew that as long as those UAVs were up there, bad guys on the ground (who I and others could not see) were either being watched, having their freedom-of-movement...

CLINTON, N.J. (AP) -- In a wooded area up a dirt road off an interstate highway, Jamie Cap peers down the sight of his new shotgun at a target about 40 yards away. He adjusts the angle by nudging a toggle switch, then fires. An ear-shattering report echoes off the trees and nearby cars, and Cap is pushed back a few inches by the force of the blast. He turns and nods his head - the only part of his body he can completely control....

My favorite pond has been dried up for a while but rain over last weekend took care of that. It doesn't take any time for the marsh birds to move in, when the pond is dry they have to go quite a way for fresh water.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has advised no travel Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon in southern Minnesota due to severely poor driving conditions. The much-talked about snowstorm made its arrival in southwestern Minnesota and could bring more than a foot of snow to parts of southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Tuesday night and Wednesday. WCCO-TV meteorologist Mike Augustyniak said the steady snow began falling in southwestern Minnesota Tuesday morning. Light snow had started to fall over the Twin Cities metro just after noon. The snow will continue throughout the afternoon, and an inch of snow is expected to be on...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—With growing concerns about the effects of global warming on polar bears, it's increasingly important to understand how other environmental threats, such as mercury pollution, are affecting these magnificent Arctic animals. New research led by biogeochemists Travis Horton of the University of Canterbury and Joel Blum of the University of Michigan lays the groundwork for assessing current and future effects of mercury deposition and climate change on polar bears. The study appears in the December issue of the journal Polar Research. Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but some 150 tons of it enter the environment each year...

In a particular part of Florida the White Ibis is known as the Chokoloskee Chicken. There is at least one FREEPER near Chokoloskee, they are a wild and rowdy bunch down there! North Florida FREEPERS, on the other hand, are genteel and cultivated! It's cloudy, wet and windy. Everything is hunkered down and waiting out the weather. The onshore wind has pushed the water way up in the marsh and the birds are hanging out on little islands.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A decade has passed since the federal government began releasing Mexican wolves into the wild in an effort to return the endangered animal to its historic range in the Southwest. It hasn't worked out — for the wolves, for ranchers, for conservationists or for federal biologists.

The Iditarod plans to test mushers for drugs and alcohol in March, a change many mushers have no problem with -- but one that three-time champion Lance Mackey scoffs at. "I think it's a little bit ridiculous," Mackey said Wednesday night from his home near Fairbanks after a training run. "It is a dog race, not a human race. It (using a drug) doesn't affect the outcome of the race." Mackey, a throat cancer survivor who has a medical marijuana card, admits to using marijuana on the trail and thinks his success has made some of his competitors jealous. "It...

A wayward beaver has met an untimely end, apparently run down by a car as it ambled on a Murrieta city street. The beaver, found on a densely populated stretch of Murrieta Hot Springs Road early Thursday morning, appears to have recently re-colonized Warm Springs Creek flood channel, which runs through nearby Pond Park. Time will tell if the large rodent was a lone ranger or is survived by others, but there were signs at the park that several small trees in the creek bed had been gnawed to the ground. Officer Jan Bratten, of Animal Friends of the Valleys,...

The victim told authorities she and her little brother were standing at a bus stop at South Upland Avenue and Newton Street in River Ridge about 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 13 when she noticed a "purple" car following them. The driver, a man, rolled down his window and asked the little boy for the girl's name, which the boy provided, the arrest report said. The girl, who got scared, got on the bus. The girl told authorities she noticed the car following the bus to her school, Hazel Park Elementary School, 8809 Jefferson Highway, in River Ridge, the arrest report...

MADISON — The rising level of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be fueling more than climate change. It could also be making some trees grow like crazy. That is the finding of a new study of natural stands of quaking aspen, one of North America's most important and widespread deciduous trees. The study, by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota at Morris (UMM) and published today (Dec. 4) in the journal Global Change Biology, shows that elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the past 50 years have boosted aspen growth rates by an astonishing 50...

Tarboro, N.C. — A Tarboro woman was recovering on Thursday after being run over by a herd of deer over the weekend. Michelle Brewer said she was opening Brewer’s Fine Jewelry, 228 N. Main St., the store she co-owns with her husband, on Saturday morning when the incident occurred.

So I saw this scene, and I wondered -- can I find Ship Rock at this resolution? (Click the little picture to see the full-size 250m resolution image, which is about 5 MB, if that's a problem.) Turns out that I could. Can you? Here's Ship Rock from the ground; a place I'd like to visit someday. Likewise click for full-size. Now, here's another volcanic feature that's also in the image; on my last flight to the West Coast, I flew over it.

We didn't see the Sun until mid afternoon, it broke through pretty good them but still mostly cloudy. When the Sun gets really low the reflections on the water start to flame, and the Spartina grass turns golden. I barely caught the Little Blue Heron, they can be hard to see on a bright day. Their feathers aren't at all reflective

AN ancient bridge over the River Thames in England has sold for nearly $1.7 million at auction. The high price tag ... is down to a special act of Parliament which means the new owner can collect a tax free toll from those crossing the river. There is one drawback. Local people want to scrap the toll, saying it amounts to 'highway robbery'.

SYDNEY (AFP) – The rotting carcasses of thousands of wild camels who have died of thirst in Australia's desert Outback are polluting vital waterholes and sacred sites, according to a report. The Central Land Council, which administers Aboriginal land in the nation's arid centre, said the corpses were poisoning water supplies, describing scenes of mass carnage. "Some fall into waterholes and won't be able to get out so they'll rot within the water, others will chase the last remains of any water in these areas and start to compete with each other," the council's land management chief David Alexander told...

Just picked up a 1943 M1 Garand. What I'd like to know is...EVERYTHING about the Garand. 1. I need to know where to get ball ammo to feed it (it's a bit scarce, as far as I can tell); 2. I'd like to know the best data sheet/book on the Garand (breakdown, cleaning, greasing, etc.); 3. The best info I can get on making the weapon as accurate as possible (peep sights on the current configuration); 4. Where I'm most likely to pick up the best (and best valued!) accessories for it (slings, parts, etc). I know...I should Google all...

Tiger Woods car crash reenactment. Funny animation from Chinese TV station

A family that planned to spend winter in a woodstove-heated wall tent ...near Talkeetna with a dozen dogs gave up over the weekend, a few days after the mother was evacuated with severely frostbitten hands. The father and a teenager walked 7 miles out to civilization on Saturday, the son also suffering from frostbite. Then, authorities had to mount another difficult operation to rescue a dozen dogs ...

Maybe we could learn something from this? Did thinking like this make your enemies think twice?

SPANISH FORK, Utah – The Utah cave where a 26-year-old medical student died earlier in the week will be closed permanently and his body will not be removed. State and county officials made the announcement Friday afternoon, saying it was simply too dangerous to try to recover John Jones' body.

A Swedish man who was arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife has been cleared, after police decided she was probably killed by an elk. Ingemar Westlund, aged 68, found the dead body of his wife Agneta, 63, by a lake close to the village of Loftahammer in September 2008. He was immediately arrested and held in police custody for 10 days. Now the case has been dropped after forensic analysis found elk hair and saliva on his wife's clothes. Mr Westlund told Expressen newspaper: "My family and I have been dragged through a nightmare." His wife had last been...

Man With Sexual Fetish For Slurry Jailed A man with a sexual fetish for slurry has been jailed after breaching a restraining order banning him from a farm 27 Nov 2009 David Truscott, 40, broke into a farm, covered himself in the waste and was seen masturbating, a court heard. He was caught just weeks after he was released from a previous prison sentence for a similar offence. Truscott was arrested in the early hours of November 9 when he was found by police sitting in manure at the same farm. He was charged with breaching the terms of a...

Pictured: Squirrel Mother Goes Nuts And Attacks Dog Trying To Eat Her Baby 25th November 2009 They have a bit of a reputation for a vicious streak, but this dog certainly got more than it bargained for after pouncing on a baby squirrel it found on the ground. Moments before the hapless baby would have been torn apart, these images show its mother appearing to leap off a nearby tree and attacking the surprised dog. Barking mad: The squirrel gets ready to leap off the tree and its terrified baby is pounced on by the dog [Pic in URL] Using...

A new amphibian species can survive on land with no nostrils, lungs, or legs, say researchers who discovered the bizarre beast. The creature, found in Guyana, is part of the wormlike group of amphibians known as caecilians. Only one other caecilian species is known to live without lungs.