A shark killed an American tourist surfing in western Mexico, police said on Tuesday, the second fatal attack along North America’s Pacific coast in four days.

A shark bit 24-year-old San Francisco resident Adrian Ruiz in the leg on Monday, opening a 15-inch (38-cm) wound. (…) “He was rushed in a bystander’s vehicle to the military naval hospital, where he died soon after from blood loss,” the statement said.

On Friday, a 66-year-old man was attacked and killed by a shark in the ocean near San Diego in the United States, the first person to die in a shark encounter off Southern California in nearly 50 years.

Fatal shark attacks in Mexico are also uncommon. The last one was in the Caribbean in 1997, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. No one has been killed by a shark on Mexico’s Pacific coast in over 30 years.

Attacks on the Atlantic coast are more frequent, especially in Florida, which has about 25 to 30 a year. Last year, the only fatal shark attack in the world was in New Caledonia, in the southwest Pacific

{ Reuters }

A family called police to their home to report a fight and ended up being arrested on drug charges.

Police said they went to the Roehl family home on Monday after getting a call about a fight, possibly involving baseball bats.

They said that when 17-year-old Karl Roehl was showing them a large clock that had been damaged, they noticed two potted marijuana plants.

Officers said Roehl was arrested when he tried to hide the plants and that his mother, Lee Ann Roehl was arrested after ripping a plant from its pot and throwing it into the yard.

Police returned with a search warrant and said they found more pot and a growing room, so they added more charges to the mother and son and arrested the father, also on drug charges.

{ AP/WTOP | Continue reading }

related { The number of people arrested for small amounts of marijuana in New York City has increased tenfold in the past decade, making NYC the world leader in marijuana arrests }

Six-month-old male deer, 70 pounds, hanging in a 12-foot-high crotch of a maple tree
in Delaware county, New York, near the Pennsylvania border, 2002.

Hunter Gerald Inman, a stockbroker from West Nyack, NY, was at first disoriented by the sight of a deer hanging in the middle of all the white trees in front of him. Upon closer inspection, Mr. Inman estimated the deer was hanging between two branches about twelve feet or more off the ground. (…) The animal was killed by an arrow, which did go through the heart and lungs. So, it was a very good shot, whoever shot the animal made a really good shot, so that deer was dead very quickly. (…) So, there isn’t any mystery about how the deer died. It died from an arrow wound. How it got up in the tree is another story and I think Ward Stone and myself believe that somebody put it, some human, put it up there. We’re reasonably sure of that. (…) The only thing I can think of is a hoax, to play a trick. But you’d think that if someone was going to play a trick, they would have done this near a road or hunting cabin or some place where they knew it was going to be seen. But this was a place in the middle of nowhere.

{ Continue reading }

In 2003, Baltimore Gas & Electric (Canada) received a call from a customer saying: “My power is out. When you come to fix it be sure to bring a truck with a tall enough bucket to remove the deer”.

The customer service rep prudently trying to gather helpful information to help diagnose the problem asked, “What deer”? The customer replied ” There is a deer on top of one of the electric poles on Wilkes Rd about 1/2 mile west of Perimeter Rd”.

The customer service rep tried desperately to pull herself together and not laugh in front of the customer and replied, “We will dispatch someone right away to investigate the power outage. Thank you for the call”.

Upon completion of the call, the customer service rep proceeded to share the funny story with her coworkers in the office and they all had a good laugh. Until the serviceman who repaired the problem stopped by the customer service office the following day with the pictures [right]. Sure enough, the poor deer had been hit by a train and landed on top of distribution feeder pole. (…)

The issue of whether the deer was really launched atop the pole when it was struck by a train is less certain. The Canadian National Railways (CNR) maintained they received no report from any of their engineers about a train’s hitting a deer in the Headingley area, and whether a deer’s torso could have been struck with enough force to launch it 25 feet up in the air yet remain mostly undamaged (save for missing portions of its back legs) has been the subject of much debate. The general consensus was that the feat was rather improbable but technically possible, but some people speculated that the deer was indeed hit and killed by a passing train, but it was then somehow deliberately set atop the pole by local pranksters.

{ Snopes | Continue reading }

Why do whales beach themselves?

Whales are the largest marine mammals in the world — the smallest species weigh in at several tons. When whales beach themselves, they can die simply from the crushing weight of their own bodies or from overheating due to their blubber, which is needed for insulation in cold ocean waters.

Strandings are of several types, said Susan Parks, a research associate in the Environmental Acoustics program in the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State. Individual strandings often are caused by isolated incidents such as sickness, injury or old age. Said Parks, “Entanglement in fishing gear is one of the leading causes of mortality for marine mammals, many of which wash up on shore dead or injured.” The tide carries these whales into shallow water, depositing them on the beach.

Then there are multiple-species strandings, explained Parks. “This occurs when different species of marine mammals beach themselves at the same time and place, suggesting that they all died from the same cause,” she said.

Scientists have been researching possible causes of this phenomenon. One explanation involves the whale “pod” social structure. For instance, whales that travel in pods use a “strength in numbers” survival strategy, but this can backfire when the dominant whale runs aground. According to Parks, “The rest of the pod may follow a disoriented or sick whale onto shore.” Another theory is that pods may venture too close to the beach when hunting prey or evading predators and become trapped by low tides.

{ Physorg | Continue reading }

A landlord couple have been charged in San Francisco with waging a campaign of terror against their renters in a South of Market building, including cutting out the floor supports at one apartment after the tenant went to court to keep from being evicted, authorities said Wednesday.

Software engineer Kip Macy, 33, and real estate agent Nicole Macy, 32, who have addresses in Sausalito and Incline Village, Nev., were arrested Tuesday and charged with felony stalking, felony residential burglary, conspiracy and other counts in the bizarre case of apparent landlord rage.

The charges stem from tactics the Macys allegedly used after they bought a six-unit, three-story apartment building on Clementina Street for $995,000 in 2005 and started eviction proceedings against the five tenants living there.

When one of the tenants, Scott Morrow, successfully fought eviction, the couple allegedly told workers in September 2006 to cut the beams that supported his apartment’s floor. They also shut off Morrow’s electricity, cut his phone line and had workers saw a hole in his living room floor from below.

{ San Francisco Chronicle | Continue reading }

screenshot { Michael Jackson’s Thriller | watch the video }

Two Federal Way, Washington women claim they’ve been sexually assaulted by ghosts. According to a police report, the two women told officers a paranormal person has been placing sensors on their bodies and having intercourse with them at their apartment in the 28600 block of 25th Place South.

One of the women said the assault began when she lived in Kent and followed them to Federal Way. The second woman said her encounters began recently.

The maintenance man in charge of the apartment complex said the women keep calling him saying the ghosts are raping them on weekend nights. He finally told them to call police. (…)

Candid questions help Ross Allison, a ghost hunter, sort the eerie from the unstable. “A lot of times you’ll find it might be medications that they’re taking or something psychological,” Allison said. He took a walk through the apartment complex where the women say a spirit has haunted them for two years. He said he would need a psychic to check for the presence of a ghost.

{ KATU | Continue reading }

photo { birdinthehand }

A local man is actively trying to take possession of hurricane-ravaged houses – and deputies are actively trying to stop him, police said.

According to the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office, Jesse Bryant, 47, was booked with burglary and criminal trespassing after posting signs in yards of damaged houses reading “I, Jesse Bryant, take possession of this abandoned property.”

Police said he went so far as to change the locks in one house at a subdivision – effectively keeping the real owner out of his own house.

{ WDSU | Continue reading }

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure. (…)

“But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it’s become tiny or that they’ve become impotent,” said Kinshasa’s police chief.

{ Reuetrs/Yahoo | Continue reading }

artwork { Tom Wesselmann, Bedroom Painting #20, 1969 }

A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing off the southern coast of Brazil.

Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute. He was reported missing about eight hours later.

Rescuers in helicopters and small fishing boats were searching off the coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found.

{ LA Times | Continue reading | video }

{ 69-year-old central Florida woman found an 8-foot long alligator prowling in her kitchen }

{ NYC Incident Map | Gothamist }

{ Google/Street View | via StreetviewFun }

previously { A man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle }