Funny Animals

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Think Green

USE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED.

DON'T WASTE!

2008 will be known as the year that China ruined Christmas!

NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. safety officials have recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots bead toys that contain a chemical that has caused some children to vomit and become comatose after swallowing them.
Bindeez, which were named Australia's toy of the year, contain a chemical that converts into a "date rape" drug.
Scientists have found the popular toy's coating contains a chemical that, once metabolized, converts into the toxic "date rape" drug GHB, or gamma-hydroxy butyrate, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Scott Wolfson told CNN.
"GHB is this drug that in low doses actually causes euphoria," said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. "In higher doses, it can cause people to go into a coma. It can cause seizures. It can cause something known as hypotonia, where all your muscles just become very flaccid.
"And it can cause people to become amnestic, meaning they forget everything that's about to happen to them, which is why it became a date-rape drug," Gupta said.
"So this is nasty stuff, and it appears that the chemical is actually converting into it in the body."
Read more: Toy contaminated with 'date rape' drug pulled - CNN.com

Getting the Picture

The ones we love

Couple escapes injury when falling cow hits van

A Michigan couple is lucky to be alive after their minivan was hit by a falling 900 pound cow on Sunday.

Charles Everson, Jr. and his wife Linda were driving on Highway 150 about one mile east of Manson in Chelan County when a cow fell about 200 feet off a cliff and landed on the hood of their minivan.

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"It was 'bam' - you just saw something come down and hit the hood," Everson said. He said he didn't see the animal until it hit and didn't realize what happened until after the impact.

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The Eversons were examined at Lake Chelan Community Hospital and released.

The cow was euthanized at the scene.

Rena Albertson, the owner of the cow, said the animal was named Michelle and the family had raised her from a calf.

Silence Was Golden While It Last

A grandmother who lost her voice 14 years ago has regained her speech after doctors injected her with Botox.
Phyllis Yates, 73, lost the ability to talk when she awoke one morning in 1993. Doctors struggled to find the cause until last November, when they diagnosed laryngeal dystonia, a condition that causes involuntary spasms of the vocal chord.
They decided to to inject the muscles surrounding Mrs Yates' voice box with Botox, a toxin commonly used in cosmetic surgery to fill out wrinkles. The treatment relaxed her vocal chords and gradually, after several courses, she regained the ability to speak.
Her husband, George, is delighted to hear his wife's voice again for the first time in 14 years. "It is wonderful. She always nags, but that's a woman's prerogative. I just shut my ears now," he joked. There's a news video on this page.

Belive It Or Not

Kjeragbolten

Wedged between the walls of a mountain crevice in Norway is a rock called Kjeragbolten.
The rock is often stood on by tourists for a crafty photograph while attempting not to look down at the 3000ft+ drop.
I’m assuming the sheep/goat in the picture below was a local.
The Idol Rock

This precarious little bugger is a member of the Brimham rocks family in north Yorkshire, 50 acres of strange rock formations visited regularly by members of the public. The idol rock pictured weighs 200 tons and balances on a rock a fraction of its size.

HUGS

Girl gets detention for hugging
Illinois middle school bans public displays of affection

MASCOUTAH, Ill. - Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter.
The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.
“I feel it is crazy,” said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School.
“I was just giving them a hug goodbye for the weekend,” she said.
Megan’s mother, Melissa Coulter, said the embraces weren’t even real hugs — just an arm around the shoulder and slight squeeze.
“It’s hilarious to the point of ridicule,” Coulter said. “I’m still dumbfounded that she’s having to do this.”
District Superintendent Sam McGowen said that he thinks the penalty is fair and that administrators in the school east of St. Louis were following policy in the student handbook.
It states: “Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved.”
Parents urge change in policy Coulter said she and her husband told their daughter to go ahead and serve her detentions because the only other option was a day of suspension for each skipped detention.
“We don’t agree with it, but I certainly don’t want her to get in more trouble,” Coulter said.
The couple plan to attend the next school board meeting to ask board members to consider rewording the policy or be more specific in what is considered a display of affection.
“I’m just hoping the school board will open their eyes and just realize that maybe they shouldn’t be punishing us for hugs,” Megan said.
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Hugs do amazing things.

Check out Rescuing Hug at http://www.planetdeb.net/spirit/rescue.htm

A true story.

The centenarian who has lived in the same house for 100 years

There was only one place for Dorothy Loveless to celebrate her 100th birthday: the Somerset cottage in which she was born and has lived ever since. When Miss Loveless, a shepherd’s daughter, first graced the living room of the three-bedroom house in Closworth on November 5, 1907, there was no bathroom, electricity or running water, and only a fire for heating. She added a bathroom in the 1960s and central heating ten years ago but her home is essentially unchanged. Miss Loveless occupied the cottage through two world wars, and the deaths of her parents and her siblings. She has no intention of moving. “I have had some good times and some bad times in this house, but I try to remember all the good times,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to spend my 100th birthday anywhere else.”“I just wish that all my siblings were still around and could celebrate with me but I have plenty of friends and my neighbors have all visited. I miss the noise and the laughter but at least I have the memories.” More here with photos.