An attempt by French officials to tempt a group of 50 runaway bulls back to their pasture near Marseille by using heifers in heat has proven unsuccessful - because most of the fugitive bovines are castrated.
Bwahahaha!
The wild bunch of bulls wandered away from their enclosure near the village of Saint Remy de Provence December 7 and have resisted efforts to tempt them back. On Tuesday, local authorities fearing for the animals' safety and that of residents and tourists introduced the females into the grazing land, saying they would be the "ultimate weapon" to lure the vagrant bovines back. But Wednesday, the village's mayor, Lucien Palix, admitted that the bulls had not heeded the call to their baser nature, probably because 45 of them had been castrated.
A reflection on the general state of affairs in France.
He added that the hopeful heifers would remain in place for another few nights for lack of another plan.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/16/2004 12:28:03 PM ||
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#1
Only the French would lure castrated bulls that way.
#2
Bush should send a delegation of Texas cowboys to France. It would be a good gesture and prove to the Europeans his dedication to improving relations. Hell you have to be kidding, The Frenchies can screw anything up.
BY all accounts he should be dead, but somehow Rafer Wilson survived a two-week drinking binge to record a blood-alcohol reading more than nine times the legal .05 limit.
With an empty vodka bottle lying on the passenger seat of his beige Mazda 626, the 35-year-old crashed into a parked car on Caringbah Rd, not 200m from his Caringbah home in Sydney's south.
Police evidence tendered to court revealed a man so drunk he could not stand when ordered out of the car by police.
As Wilson made that first tentative step, his legs crumpled, he collapsed to his knees, lurched forward and smacked his head on the driver's side door, police stated.
His words were close to unintelligible but he allegedly managed to reveal he had been drinking for two weeks.
It was 4.15pm and on that day alone, October 24, 2003, he had managed to finish off one-and-a-half bottles, or 35 nips, of vodka to record a blood-alcohol reading of .462.
Experts are amazed he is alive.
Forensic toxicologist Allan Hodda from the State Government's Division of Analytical Laboratories, said it was an "incredible level" of alcohol in the blood.
"Based on a lot of medical books, he should not be alive," he said.
"There are people around who can tolerate these levels but that doesn't mean their livers are not shot."
Paul Dillon from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre said people could "die from a lot less alcohol than that".
"There are people who have died from a 10th of that amount," he said.
"This bloke had an awful lot of good luck."
Mr Dillon said it was "bizarre you could physically drink that much and not pass out".
Mr Hodda said he had seen higher readings but more often than not those people were dead.
"We've had young kids who accepted dares and have tried to swallow a bottle of rum and then collapsed and died," he said.
More than 12 months on, Wilson's case is still before the courts.
He had expected to be sentenced yesterday in Sutherland Court but the matter was held over to the Downing Centre Local Court for March 3.
Wilson pleaded guilty to the high-range drink driving charge - his second. He pleaded guilty to the same charge in 1997 and was fined $600 and was disqualified from driving for two years.
This time he faces a possible jail term.
Documents lodged with the court indicate he has put himself through an eight-week rehabilitation course since last year's crash.
NSW Police confirmed the highest recorded drink driving reading in the state was a woman who blew .572 - more than 11 times the legal .05 limit - in Orange in 2002.
Two Great White Sharks have killed a teenage surfer off a popular beach in southern Australia. The 18-year-old man was attacked after falling from a surfboard being towed behind a boat at West Beach in the city of Adelaide, authorities said. Officials said they had been unable to find any sign of the surfer or the sharks since the attack. He is the second man to be killed by sharks in Australian waters in less than a week. The surfer was being towed by three friends in a small speedboat about 300 metres (980 ft) from shore.
Also known as "trolling".
"They were just boys having a good time, the weather was perfect and they were just out doing what young lads do," rescue worker Fraser Bell told reporters. The friends on the boat witnessed the whole attack. One shark attacked the man after he fell from the surfboard and the other shark took the man's remains, Mr Bell said. The first shark was described as 5m (16.5ft) long while the other was around 4.5m (14.7ft), he added.
That's a couple of really big fish.
Despite Australia's reputation for shark attacks, there are relatively few per year in the country. A 38-year-old died after he was mauled by a shark while spearfishing off the north-east coast of Queensland state last week. The latest death is the first off an Adelaide beach for 14 years.
Sharks, why do they eat us?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/16/2004 9:27:17 AM ||
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O.K., I'll bite.
Why do sharks hate us? Because of Sharks fin soup, overfishing, (insert eco-freak rant here)...
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/16/2004 9:44 Comments ||
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#2
Ever once in a while you hear about these but I've never heard of TWO great whites attacking at once. That part just stuns me.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/16/2004 9:49 Comments ||
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#3
There was a neat story a few weeks ago about a group of Oz swimmers who could not get away from a pod of dolphins. The 'fins swam in a fairly tight circle around the people, keeping them together and sort of herding them towards shore. They did this for about 20 minutes before one of the swimmers noticed the shark fin in the distance...
#8
I guess this is what they call the circle of life. Humans eat little fish. Big fish eat humans. Little fish eat the scraps.
Seriously, though, they really need to stop being politically correct and start wiping out the shark population within a few miles of the beach. We don't tolerate land carnivores within miles of human habitation. We shouldn't make an exception for the shark, which has no natural predators.
#9
If it happened off American shores, the sharks would sue the family of the deceased due to the fact that the surfer had a high fat content, and the sharks developed a case of coronary artery disease.
John Edwards is available to take the case after Jan 3.
#11
The ocean is the wilderness. It's like the forest 300 years ago. Sharks are wild animals. You act like food, you might be eaten.
Don't play with wolves, bears, lions, sharks, et cetera.
Posted by: Me ||
12/16/2004 11:51 Comments ||
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#12
Me: The ocean is the wilderness. It's like the forest 300 years ago. Sharks are wild animals. You act like food, you might be eaten.
Don't play with wolves, bears, lions, sharks, et cetera.
I think the problem is that shark-fishing isn't permitted. The easiest way to fix this problem would be to allow commercial shark-fishing off the beaches.
#14
Mmmmm, chocolate. Now I miss living in Brussels, three blocks from two chocolate shops.
I saw a thing on one of the good science/nature channels the other night. It appears that sharks like relaxing by hanging out near the beach, just like humans do. Because the waves move oxygenated water over their gills, they don't have to move constantly as they do in deep, still ocean, and as a bonus the sun-warmed water warms their cold-blooded bodies. What would you do if, as you lay soaking up rays, a bottle of beer and a hamburger placed themselves in your hands?
For this.
The Shark took off towing the 42 foot fishing boat backwards through the water at about 7 Knots. Just like in JAWS. The boat was taking on water, the Shark would jump completely out of the water at times.
#17
zf ifn their scare you that much stay outta the water. they are get enuff fishing preshures from em asian fishermans. theren other dangerus animals in em water to. are you kill all them off as well? and how are you do that? poison the waters? thatn make fer good swimmin won't it.
#21
I've seen footage of multiple great whites feeding on the same kill. Oddly enough, the biggest one eats first. Note that this is not cooperative hunting ala lions, just a group chow down.
Mucky's right on this one ZF. There just aren't that many shark attacks to justify killing already pressured species.
#22
We're going to kill off the sharks because?? Just who is intruding in who's back yard? Do sharks hang out in back alleys to knock people over the head? These folks have been around a couple of hundred million years. We're just the next bunch of suckers to present themselves for a quick lunch.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
12/16/2004 17:57 Comments ||
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#23
ZF, like all things, sharks have their place. Some unfortunate gives his life up to remind us of that every year
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2004 18:56 Comments ||
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#24
When I'm down in NZ next week, I will stay on the beach and watch for the sharks with my binocs. Someone else can be shark bait. Sharks---Why do they love us? Cause we's so sweet n juicy!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/16/2004 22:32 Comments ||
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#30
Some places are experimenting with a mild electric field near a beach; it repels the sharks and other critters that might drown in anti-shark netting. Safer for all parties. Probably expensive.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Two Great White Sharks have killed a teenage surfer off a popular beach in southern Australia. The 18-year-old man was attacked after falling from a surfboard being towed behind a boat at West Beach in the city of Adelaide, authorities said. Officials said they had been unable to find any sign of the surfer or the sharks since the attack. He is the second man to be killed by sharks in Australian waters in less than a week. The surfer was being towed by three friends in a small speedboat about 300 metres (980 ft) from shore. 
