Tiny turtle causes taxiing plane to return to gate

A caged, 2-inch turtle traveling with a 10-year-old girl caused a crew to turn around a taxiing plane, take the girl and her sisters off the flight and tell them they couldn’t bring their pet along.

The sisters threw the animal and cage in the trash and returned to their seats crying Tuesday after AirTran Airways employees on the jetway said they couldn’t care for the turtle while their father drove to retrieve it. Two days later, however, Carley Helm was reunited with Neytiri even though at first the family thought the pet was emptied with the trash.

Carley was heading home to Milwaukee after visiting her father in Atlanta with sisters Annie, 13, and Rebecca, 22, when the flap unfolded.

Rebecca said the three were led onto the jetway and told they’d have to get rid of the baby red ear slider — named Neytiri after the princess in the movie “Avatar” — if they wanted to reboard.

“I asked, ‘What do you mean get rid of it?’ and they said throw it away,” she said. “I was very sad, and I felt bad for my littlest sister because it was her first pet and she was planning to take care of it herself.”

While the sisters say they were told to put the animal in the trash, AirTran says they chose that themselves, despite an offer to fly later at no extra charge.

AirTran company policy bars animals other than cats, dogs and household birds in the cabin, said spokesman Christopher White. White cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that says the reptiles have been known to carry salmonella bacteria.

The sisters say they made it past security screeners and an AirTran gate agent before boarding. One flight attendant told them to stow the cage under their seat, they say.

But with the flight rolling toward its takeoff, an attendant told them the turtle wasn’t allowed in the cabin.

Rebecca Helm called their father, and he began driving back to the airport. She asked an AirTran employee to make arrangements with her father to look after the pet until he could get there, but the employee refused.

“I basically had to make a really fast decision because the whole plane was being delayed,” Rebecca Helm said. The bin wasn’t very full and she thought the turtle could be found easily once her dad arrived, she said.

Rebecca twice declined the offer to take a later flight, White said.

“We don’t have the personnel or the facilities to care for people’s pets,” White said.

Rebecca asked if throwing the pet away would allow for them to get back on the flight, White said. The gate agent did not tell the sisters what to do but said they could not get on the plane with the turtle, White said.

“At no time did any AirTran Airways crew member order or suggest that they put the turtle in the trash,” he said.

Half an hour later, the sisters’ father called, saying he wanted to come look through the trash, White said. The gate agent looked, couldn’t find the turtle and assumed it had been emptied, he said.

The airline, a unit of AirTran Holdings Inc. discovered Wednesday that the ramp supervisor had rescued the turtle from the trash “out of his own compassion” and given it to another crew member, who took it home for her 5-year-old son, White said.

AirTran told that crew member the original owners wanted it back, and the airline arranged for the turtle to fly as cargo to Milwaukee on Thursday, White said.

The sisters’ mother reported what happened to animal rights group PETA, which sent a letter to AirTran demanding an investigation and disciplinary action.

For their part, Rebecca Helm says her sisters “are very happy to have the turtle back.”

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Napalm cave in Russia, Icicles of red brick

These are the consequences of the use of an alternative to napalm by Russsian army back then. It was done as a test inside of the brick houses. The temperature was so high that it made bricks to melt and form such icicles.
This abandoned Russian fortress is one of the creepiest places we’ve seen. The reason it looks this way is that the Russian army used the abandoned fortress to test the influence of Russian alternative to napalm inside of the brick houses. Due to very high temperature of napalm the bricks started melting just like ice melts in the spring forming the icicles, however these icicles are made of red brick.

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Titan: Nasa scientists discover evidence ‘that alien life exists on Saturn’s moon’

Researchers at the space agency believe they have discovered vital clues that appeared to indicate that primitive aliens could be living on the planet. Data from Nasa’s Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan, which experts say is the only moon around the planet to have a dense atmosphere.

They have discovered that life forms have been breathing in the planet’s atmosphere and also feeding on its surface’s fuel. Astronomers claim the moon is generally too cold to support even liquid water on its surface. The research has been detailed in two separate studies. The first paper, in the journal Icarus, shows that hydrogen gas flowing throughout the planet’s atmosphere disappeared at the surface. This suggested that alien forms could in fact breathe. The second paper, in the Journal of Geophysical Research, concluded that there was lack of the chemical on the surface. Scientists were then led to believe it had been possibly consumed by life. Researchers had expected sunlight interacting with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene gas. But the Cassini probe did not detect any such gas. Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at Nasa Ames Research Centre, at Moffett Field, California who led the research, said: “We suggested hydrogen consumption because it’s the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth. “If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth.” Professor John Zarnecki, of the Open University, added: “We believe the chemistry is there for life to form. It just needs heat and warmth to kick-start the process. “In four billion years’ time, when the Sun swells into a red giant, it could be paradise on Titan.” They warned, however, that there could be other explanations for the findings. But taken together, they two indicate two important conditions necessary for methane-based life to exist.

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“Drunk” Parrots in Australia

The town of Palmerston, Australia is now the unwilling host of a parrot frat party. Hundreds of lorikeets appear to be drunk: The disoriented birds are passing out cold and falling from tree branches.

Though seemingly inebriated parrots have been spotted before in Palmerston, never has the town seen this many at once. The situation concerns veterinarians, since the birds are injuring themselves, and, untreated, could die.

About eight lorikeets arrive each day to the Ark Animal Hospital, which cares for about thirty at a time. “They definitely seem like they’re drunk,” Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the hospital told the the AFP. “They fall out of trees… and they’re not so coordinated as they would normally be. They go to jump and they miss the next perch.” Hansen and colleagues nurses them to health by feeding them a “hangover” broth that includes sweet fruit.

Literally drunk parrots have appeared in other parts of the world, for example in Austria in 2006, when birds ate rotting, fermenting berries. This time the inebriated birds remain a mystery: Some locals speculate that the birds are feasting on something something alcoholic, but others fear they have caught an unknown illness.

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Frogs shuts down major Greek highway

This Wednesday, May 26, 2010 image made from video provided by ALPHA TV shows a frog hopping across a section of key northern highway near the Greek town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki. Authorities closed the highway after three car drivers skidded off the road trying to dodge the frogs. Thessaloniki traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou said the amphibians probably left a nearby lake to look for food.
“There was a carpet of frogs,” he said. Authorities closed the highway after three car drivers skidded off the road trying to dodge the frogs. No human injuries were reported.

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Octopus Steals Video Camera, Films Own Escape

While Victor Huang was trying out his shiny new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT2 in Wahine Memorial, Wellington, New Zealand, he attempted to get video of a large wild octopus. The octopus snatched the camera from his hands and swam away with it while still recording — subsequently filming a chase for the camera that lasted several minutes.

“While trying to get video of a wild octopus, it suddenly dashed towards me and rips my shiny new camera from out of my hands, then swims off, all while the camera is recording! he swam away very quickly like a naughty shoplifter. after a 5 minute chase, I placed my speargun underneath him and he quickly and curiously grabbed hold of the gun as well, giving me enough time to reach in and grab the camera from out of his mouth. I didn’t feel threatened at all during the whole ordeal. he seemed to be fixated on the shiny metallic blue digital camera. the only confusing behavior was how he dashed off with it like a thief haha. cheeky octopus.”

The above video is the chase, with the following credits: Music by Vincent Gillioz (Car Chase) and Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones (Octopus I Love You). First unit camera: Victor Huang. First unit director and second unit camera: Cheeky Octopus.

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Five-month-old cow sells for price of a Porsche

Now that’s a headline, but it’s true a cow has sold for £100,000 which is the price you will pay to drive a decent Porsche out of a car showroom.

The truth is the five month old pedigree cow has sold for the price of a decent car. The black and white Holstein has broken previously held record prices.

A cow set a British record when it sold at auction for almost £100,000 yesterday.

Willsbro Emilyann is highly valued because of her parentage from some of the most pure-bred Holsteins in the world.
The black and white Holstein, sold to farmers in Spain, is the most expensive dairy calf ever to be auctioned in Britain.

The five-month old will grow into a cow that is able to give double the milk of the average UK dairy cow and she could produce more than 50 calves through artificial breeding.

Previously the most expensive dairy cow sold in Britain was sold for just over £50,000 while beef cows have sold for more than £100,000.

The calf named, Willsbro Emilyann, is highly valued because of her parentage from some of the most pure-bred Holsteins in the world.

She should be able to produce more than 15,000 litres of milk a year, compared to 7,800 from the average UK cow.

The calf was bred through embryonic transfer, where eggs are fertilised in a laboratory and then the embryo is transferred into a cow.

Her mother, bred in the US, is worth £400,000 and her father will also be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The calf was sold by the Wills family in Wadebridge, Devon, one of the many farms in Britain now specialising in breeding dairy cattle, although cows are sold for even more in the US and Europe.

Most dairy cattle in Britain are Holstein, which are originally from Holland and give the most milk. Breeders said the calf also showed good “structure” meaning she will breed healthy calves and her udder shows she will milk well. A dairy calf would usually sell for £600 to £800.

Jon Long, livestock editor, at Farmers Weekly said the UK dairy industry may be struggling but a small number of elite farmers are increasingly using highly-bred cattle and specialising in breeding.

“I’m sure the general public will be surprised by the price but this cow has the best genetic rating in Europe if not the world,” he added.

An average dairy calf would be expected to fetch less than £1.000.

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Dead man wins mayor’s race in small Tennessee town

A dead man has been elected mayor of Tracy City, Tenn.

Carl Robin Geary died suddenly a few weeks ago. But he received 268 votes anyway in Tuesday’s nonpartisan election, beating out incumbent Barbara Brock with 85 votes in the two-candidate race.

An election administrator, Donna Basham, said Wednesday she wouldn’t speculate on why Geary won posthumously but noted his death had been widely reported at the time in this corner of southeastern Tennessee.

She says the city council will now have to appoint a mayor to the four-year term.

Brock had been appointed mayor 16 months ago when the previous mayor died. She says she thought she had done a good job but added voters wanted a return to the past.

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Croatian teenager wakes up from a coma speaking fluent German

Croatian doctors are baffled after a teenage girl who fell into a mysterious coma woke up speaking fluent German.

The parents of the 13-year-old from the southern town of Knin said their daughter had only just started studying German at school and had been trying to read German books and watch German television – but had never been that good in German.

But since waking up the teenager has been unable to speak Croatian and even refused it, but communicates only in perfect German far superior to her mastery of the language she had when she was taken ill.

Split’s KB Hospital director Dujomir Marasovic said they were still trying to find out what caused the mysterious coma and why the girl has apparently forgotten how to speak Croatian.

Marasovic added: ‘You never know when recovering from such a trauma how the brain will react. Obviously we have some theories although at the moment we are limited in what we can say because we have to respect the privacy of the patient.’

He said the condition was so unusual that numerous doctors have examined the 13-year-old including German-speaking doctors to try and get to the bottom of the mystery.

Nurse Marika Lenovic, 28, said: ‘The case has attracted a lot of interest, not just among the media but also among medical professionals.’

The girl is still being cared for at the hospital and is receiving regular visits from her family although there has reportedly been a large degree of frustration at the fact that they can no longer communicate with each other.

Hospital staff have even had to use an interpreter to translate the teenager’s words to her family although apparently when they speak to her in Croatian she does understand – but she cannot respond in anything other than German.

Psychiatric expert dr Mijo Milas who has been involved in the case said: ‘In earlier times this would have been referred to as a miracle, we prefer to think that there must be a logical explanation – its just that we haven’t found it yet.

‘There are references to cases where people who have been seriously ill and perhaps in a coma have woken up being able to speak other languages – sometimes even the Biblical languages such as that spoken in old Babylon or Egypt – at the moment though any speculation would remain just that – speculation – so it’s better to continue tests until we actually know something.’

The teenager was only in the coma for 24 hours, and it’s thought it may have been prompted by extremely high body temperature.

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Angkor Wat doomed by drought, floods, suggests tree ring study

The ancient Cambodian capital of Angkor Wat suffered decades of drought interspersed with monsoon lashings that doomed the city six centuries ago, suggests a Monday tree-ring study.

A 979-year record of tree rings taken from Vietnam’s highlands, released by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal and led by Brendan Buckley of Columbia University, finds the, “Angkor droughts were of a duration and severity that would have impacted the sprawling city’s water supply and agricultural productivity, while high-magnitude monsoon years damaged its water control infrastructure.”

Alternating effects of El Nino and La Nina conditions in the Pacific Ocean, as the northern hemisphere shifted a period of medieval warmth to the “Little Ice Age” of the 17th Century, may have whipsawed the region where Angkor Wat once stood. The “hydraulic city”, center of the Khmer empire from the 9th to the 15th Century, was built of impressive temples standing amid nearly 400 square miles of canals and reservoirs called “baray”, according to a 2009 Journal of Environmental Management study.

Many of those canals and baray appear silted up by drought, says the PNAS paper, which left them wide open for flooding from the intense monsoons of the early 15th century. “Much like the Classic Maya cities in Mesoamerica in the period of their ninth century ‘collapse’ and the implicated climate crisis, Angkor declined from a level of high complexity and regional hegemony after the droughts of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries,” says the study. ” The temple of Angkor Wat itself, however, survived as a Buddhist monastery to the present day.”

A 2005 Journal of Archaeological Science study found that a typical Angkor temple may have taken more than a century to build.

While some scholars suggest that trade interests led to the capital moving to Phnom Penh in the mega-monsoon era, the study concludes, “decades of weakened summer monsoon rainfall, punctuated by abrupt and extreme wet episodes that likely brought severe flooding that damaged flood-control infrastructure, must now be considered an additional, important, and significant stressor occurring during a period of decline. Interrelated infrastructural, economic, and geopolitical stresses had made Angkor vulnerable to climate change and limited its capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.”

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