Sunday, July 20, 2008

In the News

Fishing Story
A man who was drowning in a Maine river is recovering after someone reeled him in with a fishing rod. Bob Greene of Hallowell says he heard what he thought was a bird early on Thursday as he was having his morning coffee. He then realized there was a man bobbing in the Kennebec River.He says a 911 dispatcher told him to throw something to the man. He snagged the man's shirt with a fishing lure and reeled him in. Hallowell Police Chief Eric Nason says Greene did the right thing by calling police first and not jumping into the water.
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Pilot Lets Small Plane Fly Itself
A civilian pilot left the controls of his small plane while he untangled a British Army parachutist who got tangled up in the landing gear, London's Sun newspaper reported on Saturday.
The British soldier was one of six participating in a parachuting competition at the Joint Service Parachute Center at Bad Lippspringe in Germany. The first five jumped from the plane successfully, but when the sixth — the instructor — tried to leap out and open his chute at an altitude of 3,000 feet, it only partially deployed.
The flier left his seat for about 30 seconds to reach out and cut the parachute lines that got caught on the twin propeller engine Islander's undercarriage.

Jack Russell puppy sneak attack

Conjoined barn swallows cause stir in Arkansas

It's an Arkansas bird story that at first might be hard to swallow. A pair of conjoined barn swallows, attached at the hip by skin and possibly muscle tissue, will be sent to the Smithsonian Institution for study and examination, Arkansas wildlife officials said Friday. If confirmed, officials say it could prove to be an incredibly rare find — a set of conjoined twins among birds.
"I can't even say it's one in a million — it's probably more than that," said Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. "There's just to no records of such a thing."
The birds, found by a landowner in White County earlier this week, fell out of a nest as a healthy sibling flew off to learn how to hunt with its parents, Rowe said. The birds first appeared to have only three legs, but further examination found a fourth leg tucked up underneath the skin connecting the pair.