Mutant fish killing people in river
October 10, 2008 | 4 Comments
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A MUTANT fish has started killing people after feeding on human corpses dumped in a river, scientists believe.
The catfish, called a goonch, may have developed a taste for human flesh in an Indian river where bodies are dumped after funerals, The Sun reported.
Locals believe the fish has moved on from scavenging to snatching bathers who swim in the Great Kali, located along the India-Nepal border.
Biologist Jeremy Wade is investigating the creature.
“The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses. It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on remains of funeral pyres,” he said.
“There will be a few freak individuals that grow bigger than the other ones and if you throw in extra food, they will grow even bigger.”
Mr Wade said he caught one which tipped the scales at 73kg and was nearly 6ft long.
“If that got hold of you, there’d be no getting away,” he said.
An 18-year-old Nepali disappeared in the river last year, dragged down by something described as like an “elongated pig”.
But the first victim of a goonch attack was thought to have been a 17-year-old Nepalese boy.
He was killed in April 1988 as he cooled himself in the river.
Witnesses said he was suddenly pulled below the surface.
Three months later a young boy was dragged underwater as his father watched helplessly.
German Man doing well after Double Arm Transplant
October 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment
A German farmer who received the world’s first complete double arm transplant is recovering well and able to perform some basic tasks, though doctors said Wednesday it still could take up to two years before he relearns how to use his hands.
No sex is secret to long life, says 105-year-old Virgin
October 10, 2008 | 3 Comments
Over the years many a centenarian has delivered their secret for a long life.
Not smoking, daily exercise, moderate drinking, being married (and sometimes not being married) have all had their champions.
But, at the ripe old age of 105, Clara Meadmore could trump the lot: a life of celibacy.
Miss Meadmore says she has always been too busy for relationships and thought of physical intimacy as a ‘hassle’.
The former secretary, who will celebrate her birthday tomorrow, said she had no regrets about remaining a virgin and had turned down several marriage proposals.
Miss Meadmore said: ‘People have asked whether I am a homosexual and the answer is no. I have just never been interested in or fancied having sex.
‘I imagine there is a lot of hassle involved and I have always been busy doing other things. I’ve never had a boyfriend - I’ve never been bothered about relationships.’
She added: ‘When I was a girl you only had sex with your husband - and I never married.
‘I’ve always had lots of platonic friendships with men but never felt the need to go further than that or marry.
‘Everything seems so fast these days. I don’t know a lot about young people or the way they do things. I’m sure it’s very different. I made my mind up at the age of 12 never to marry and I’ve not gone back on that.’
Miss Meadmore was born in Glasgow in 1903, two years after the death of Queen Victoria. She remembers hearing about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and the outbreak of the First World War. Her family emigrated when she was seven, first to Egypt, then Canada and later New Zealand. But Miss Meadmore returned to Britain alone in her twenties and worked as a secretary and housekeeper.
She said: ‘I grew up in an era where little girls were to be seen and not heard so I had to learn to stand up for myself and earn my own living.
‘Some men don’t like that in a woman and before long I was too old to marry anyway.’
Instead of boyfriends, Miss Meadmore filled her time with reading, gardening, cooking and listening to the radio.
Yesterday her friend and former neighbour Josie Harvey, 72, said: ‘When she was a little girl she told her mother that she would never marry and for Clara no marriage meant no sex. She is fiercely independent.
‘Maybe never having a man to get under her feet has kept her young all these years. She has her hobbies and her friends and that is all she needs.
‘She has always believed in doing things her own way and that has allowed her to live a long life. Clara listens to Radio 4 all day long and knows what is going on in the world better than most people in their 30s.’
Miss Meadmore trained as a secretary and served in the Army, undertaking administrative duties in Egypt during the Second World War. She was one of the first members of the Youth Hostel Association and a keen member of the Women’s Institute.
Her only surviving family are two nieces in New Zealand who keep in touch by post.
Miss Meadmore will celebrate reaching 105 with a card from the Queen and a glass of wine with her friends at the Perran Bay nursing home in Perranporth, Cornwall.
But she is determined not to let things get out of hand. ‘I’m hardly likely to get drunk and do something silly at my age,’ she said.
Palin Look-alike wanted for Porn
October 3, 2008 | 1 Comment
US Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has caught the eye of Hollywood - as the subject of a movie definitely not for kids.
A major Los Angeles porn studio is on the hunt for a Palin look-alike to play the mother-of-five politician in an adult film.
The successful actress would earn $2535 to $3800 for the role, according to online advertisements posted on the Los Angeles webpage of sales and social networking site Craig’s List.
“Looking for a Sarah Palin look-alike for an adult film to be shot in next 10 days,” the advertisement said.
“Please send pix, stats etc.”
America’s multibillion-dollar pornography industry is centred in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley region, home to some of the major film and television studios including Warner Bros, NBC Universal and Nickelodeon.
Cop involved in NY Taser death kills himself
October 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
A NEW York police officer who ordered a Taser be fired at a distraught naked man who then fell to his death has been found dead, reports say.
A New York police official, who did not want to be named, told the Associated Press the lieutenant was found at a park in Brooklyn early yesterday, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
His family had not yet been told, the AP said.
The lieutenant had ordered another officer to shock Iman Morales, who fell nearly 3m to his death in Brooklyn last week.
Mr Morales, who was naked and poking police with a fluorescent light tube, was Tasered when he wouldn’t come down from an awning.
The lieutenant was stripped of his gun and badge after the incident last week, and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered refresher training on how to deal with emotionally disturbed people.
