Thursday 26 January 2012

SNAKE BITE!



Post Courier, Papua New Guinea, 20/03/2011.

      Orit Fox is famous in Israel for having the biggest breasts in the Middle East. She agreed to perform a stunt with a live snake, which she fondled and licked as it writhed in and out of her cleavage.
      Unfortunately the snake unexpectedly bit Orit deeply in the left breast and refused to let go, to the astonishment of the snake's coach who was supervising the stunt. Orit was bleeding profusely and had to be transported to Hospital, where she was treated by a team specialising in snake attacked, given a tetanus shot and kept under observation.
      The snake, however, did not fare so well. The silicon in Orit's breast was toxic and despite the efforts of a veterinarian, the snake died of silicone poisoning a few hours after inflicting its bite.

Thursday 19 January 2012

HOPE


Seeds of hope for the world's rainforests

  
by Nick St Clair for earthtimes.org

      Horror stories about the deforestation that is destroying the world's rainforests on a massive scale are sadly old news. Every year enormous tracts of land the size of Cuba are lost, and at the current rate it is estimated that the world's rainforests will have completely disappeared by the end of this century.

      The madness is that this 'ecocide' not only poses a direct threat to millions of species of plants, animals and insects that inhabit the forests, but also the earth's fundamental ability to regulate rainfall and temperatures.


      But despite this bleak outlook, there is a glimmer of hope...


Hey! why can't I read the full text here?
Duplication of a site’s content has a negative effect on its popularity with Search Engines. So in the drive to provide my clients with unique, original (and entertaining) content, even though I wrote this I don't even reproduce it fully myself.





Monday 9 January 2012

EARTHQUAKE!!!


      Had another earthquake a few days ago.

      It was fairly mild and lasted less than ten seconds. It's not the first earthquake we have experienced and it wouldn't normally have much of an effect, as the epicentre was about 200 kms away and we are on top of a mountain, so by the time it reached us it had already lost most of its power.

      Except the strangest thing happened.

      Our cabina is perched on thin, wooden stilts about 5 metres above the ground and the force of the quake must have matched the natural frequency of the cabina's supports. As a result the physics of resonance made it rock from side-to-side quite violently and for some time after the quake has subsided.

I said, "I think we'll sleep outside tonight...
      I nearly spilled my beer.

      Coincidentally, at the exact same moment, a workman was cementing the foundations, primarily in preparation for the monsoon that is coming. (When the rains come, and we're talking serious rain of between 3-5 metres per year, they unleash a torrent that creates a river that flows directly under our home.)

      He looked a bit shaken himself, as he was directly underneath when the earthquake hit.

Like that's going to hold 
when the big one hits.
     Earthquakes should come as no surprise, as Costa Rica sits on one of the most dynamic fault lines on the earth.

       It lies at a point where the Carribean tectonic plate is being forced under the Pacific's Cocus plate. As a result some ocean trench quakes just off the coast of Costa Rica have been recorded at 9.0 on the Richter scale and are among the most awesome on the planet, lifting the sea floor by tens of metres in one single, dramatic movement and raising the high probability of a massive tsunami.

      Mind you, if the earth shifts with enough force to create a tsunami powerful enough to travel 300kms inland and knock the supports out from underneath a cabina, in a cloudforest, a mile up a mountain in Costa Rica...

     ... then there's gonna be a lot of spilt beer.

Thursday 5 January 2012

SWEDISH MOSQUITOS

 

The children that saved a rainforest

  By Nick St Clair for the earthtimes.org

'If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.'' 
The Dalai Lama
 
      It was just over a year ago the Copenhagen climate talks opened to fervent hopes that the world would finally come together and address the planet's most pressing environmental problems. After a great deal of posturing and rhetoric, it sadly failed to deliver even a fraction of its promises.
      Our collective shame is deepened, when you see small groups of people taking direct action, sometimes with astonishing and long lasting results. None more so than the example of the Swedish school children who were so moved by the plight of an endangered rainforest, that without further debate they made the decision to save it.
      This small group of children cut through the arguments, ignored any negativity and instead reached directly into their (and their parents' pockets) in order to raise the money necessary to keep the loggers at bay and preserve the forest...

Hey! why can't I read the full text here?
Duplication of a site’s content has a negative effect on its popularity with Search Engines. So in the drive to provide my clients with unique, original (and entertaining) content, even though I wrote this I don't even reproduce it fully myself.