Elephants love snow

Elephants in Canada are taking advantage of the snow in a way that may surprise you. Deep in the back woods of Rockton, outside Toronto,a project is underway. Trainers are encouraging pachyderms to get to know snow. It's unlikely this creation will end as a front-lawn snowman, but these elephant-sized snowballs are symbolic of a surprising reality: elephants love snow.

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Dolphin rescues stranded whales

A dolphin named Moko has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand.

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Dog Training

Walking the dog walking the dog

Bits of News

Vandals Release 600 Hogs
COLLINS, Iowa -- The Story County sheriff's office said Wednesday that nearly three-dozen hogs were killed or injured over the weekend near Collins.

Deputies and farmers said that what happened near Collins was not an accident.

They said that sometime late Saturday night, gates were opened and more than 600 hogs were set free from the Struthers family farm northeast of Collins. Then, they believe whoever set them free, used their vehicle to chase the hogs through nearby farm fields, hitting and killing several of them.

In all, more than 30 animals have been killed or euthanized because of the injuries they sustained, adding up to several thousand dollars in losses for the Struthers family.

A $1,500 reward is now being offered.

Deputies are following up on some clues in the case, including parts of the vehicle that were found.
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Emergency Rooms in America: A Deadly Prognosis
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
In a crowded Arizona emergency room, a 10-year old boy struggles to breathe. He is having an asthma attack.
Within 15 minutes, he is dead.
Had he not been turned away from two children’s hospitals closer to his home, he might be alive.
However, those ERs were too full to take the boy.
“The boy might be alive today if he was treated at one of the children’s hospitals instead of the ambulance being diverted to my crowded emergency department 20 to 30 minutes away,” said a doctor who formerly worked in that emergency department, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The practice of diverting ambulances from overcrowded emergency rooms has become widespread — and the delay in treatment can have fatal consequences.
Consider these overwhelming statistics:

How about a kiss?

A woman who had a great sense of humor died.

She wanted a parking meter on her grave that says "Expired."
So her nephew got her one on eBay!

Her grave is right by the road so everyone can see it and stopped for a laugh.

But I think she just wanted company.

Trans-Atlantic flight had five passengers

An airline is under fire for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers.
The Boeing 777 used 22,000 gallons of fuel to take the five from Chicago to London.
It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behavior by green lobby groups, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Friends of the Earth said it was 'obscene' to waste so much fuel flying an almost empty plane
It's estimated each passenger was responsible for 43 tons of CO2 - enough to carry a Ford Mondeo around the world five times.
An American Airlines spokesman said: "With such a small passenger load we did consider whether we could cancel the flight and re-accommodate the five remaining passengers on other flights.
"However, this would have left a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly back to the US on the same aircraft.
"We sought alternative flights for the west-bound passengers but heavy loads out of London that day meant that this was not possible."
Richard Dyer, Friends of the Earth's transport campaigner said: "Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel."
"Through no fault of their own, each passenger's carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full."