GORILLA ACCIDENTALLY HANGS HIMSELF

A gorilla has died in the Prague Zoo after accidentally hanging himself with a climbing rope, zoo officials said Friday.

The zoo said in a statement that 5-year-old Tatu was found hanging with a rope around his neck Friday morning in a sleeping room. Spokesman Michal Stastny said all attempts to revive Tatu failed.

He said there were no cameras in the room and it is not clear exactly what happened.

Mammals curator Pavel Brandl said Tatu likely unbraided one of the dozens ropes the gorillas use in their pavilion for climbing and put a strand around his neck before hanging himself.

"It was an accident," Brandl said. He said the ropes are checked daily.

Brandl said another gorilla, Kamba, appeared to be trying to help Tatu when zookeepers arrived but "it's hard to say what exactly she was doing."

Director Miroslav Bobek said the death was the most tragic event at the zoo since flooding in 2002 killed more than 100 animals.

The zoo still has six gorillas, and they are among the most popular animals there. Tens of thousands of people watched Tatu's birth online on May 30, 2007.

Is that a gun in your pocket?

A woman celebrating the weekend before her 25th birthday was fatally shot Sunday when she hugged an off-duty police officer while dancing at a party, causing the officer's service weapon to fire, according to police and her mother.

Adaisha Miller would have turned 25 on Monday, according to her mother, Yolanda McNair.
The shooting happened at an outdoor social gathering about 12:30 a.m., said police Sgt. Eren Stephens. It happened on the city's west side.
According to Stephens, the woman "embraced the officer from behind, causing the holstered weapon to accidently discharge." The bullet punctured Miller's lung and hit her heart, and she died at a hospital.

Stephens said the Detroit officer will remain on administrative duties while authorities investigate the shooting and report their findings to the Wayne County prosecutor. The officer's name was not released.
"For this to happen to her, whether they want to call it freak accident or mistake in judgment, it should have never happened to my child, and there's nothing I can do to get her back," McNair told WDIV-TV.

McNair said her daughter was out to mark her upcoming birthday.
"All she wanted to do was enjoy the weekend for her birthday," the mother said. "She had every right to enjoy turning 25 and look beyond that."

The old Switcharoo!

JUNE 11--A 24-year-old Massachusetts woman who allegedly masqueraded as a teenage boy is facing federal charges for engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl who was unaware that the boyfriend she met online was actually a female.

Carissa Hads was arrested two weeks ago on a U.S. District Court complaint accusing her of coercion or enticement of a minor, a felony carrying a maximum of 30 years in prison. On Friday, Hads was ordered held without bond by a federal magistrate judge who ruled she was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Following Hads’s May 24 arrest, agents searched her front pants pocket and located a “fake, flesh-colored penis” that she apparently used during one of two prior sexual encounters with the teenage victim.

According to an affidavit sworn by an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigator, Hads--posing as a 17-year-old boy named “James Puryear Wilson”--met the teenage girl on an unnamed “social networking site” around October 2010.

“Wilson” maintained Facebook and MySpace pages that described him as a “youth pastor” living in Quincy, Massachusetts (where Hads actually resides). On Facebook, “Wilson” claimed to be the father of twins and noted that he was “looking for some people to talk to. No fake pages or pervs.”
The girl, who lives in West Virginia, is identified only as “A.L.” in the affidavit.

Hads, using the “Wilson” persona, and the girl became “involved in an internet romance” that included Hads sending the teen two cell phones “for A.L.’s use to contact ‘him.’” Along with paying the girl’s monthly cell phone bills, Hads also sent her a Kindle Fire tablet, according to the affidavit.

The teenager told investigators that she used the phones to take naked photos of herself, and that she “forwarded these pictures, some of which focused on her vagina, to ‘Wilson.’” Hads and the girl would also write in “notebooks/journals and mail them back and forth to each other so each could respond to the other’s writings.”

“Wilson” told “A.L.” that he lived in Massachusetts with his aunt, and told the girl that he also had an aunt “named Carissa Hads,” an investigator reported.

In December 2011, after communicating for 14 months, “Wilson” asked to meet “A.L.” in person. A subsequent rendezvous was arranged by the girl’s mother, who accompanied her daughter (and two other teenage girls) to meet “Wilson” at a Pennsylvania motel about 100 miles from the family’s West Virginia residence.

“Wilson,” who claimed to have flown from Massachusetts to the nearby Pittsburgh airport, stayed at the same motel “in a separate room paid for by A.L.’s mother,” according to the affidavit sworn by West Virginia State Trooper Robert Talkington.

During the group's stay at the motel, “‘Wilson’ digitally penetrated A.L.’s vagina,” Talkington charged.
Two months later, “Wilson” flew to West Virginia, and was picked up by the girl’s mother, who transported “Wilson” to her home. During that five-day stay in late-February, “Wilson” and “A.L.” “engaged in sexual intercourse,” according to the affidavit.

In a May 8 interview with law enforcement agents, the girl further described the sexual encounter in her home with “Wilson.” The teenager said that “Wilson,” who did not undress, “pulled his ‘penis’ through his unzipped pants, and held on to the base of the ‘penis’ during the sexual encounter.” The girl, who said the act was videotaped, “described the ‘penis’ as flesh-colored.”

The teenager said that “Wilson"--whom she never saw naked (or partially naked)--wore a back brace that “covered ‘his’ chest,” Talkington noted.

Hads, unaware that the girl had begun cooperating with law enforcement, was arrested last month after traveling to Pittsburgh for what she apparently thought would be a third sexual encounter with the teenage victim.The criminal probe of Hads was triggered by a tip sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The complainant alleged that “Wilson” had threatened the life of a 15-year-old girl (who is apparently an acquaintance of “A.L.”). “Wilson” reportedly threatened the teen after she told “A.L.” that she did not believe “Wilson” was “who ‘he’ said ‘he’ was,” according to the court affidavit.

The Zombie Apocalypse is here now.

A man whose face was eaten by a naked attacker in Miami is fighting for his life as authorities try to piece together just what sparked the horrific incident.
The identity of the two men remains unclear, although some reports suggest they may have been homeless men living beneath the MacArthur Causeway, which connects downtown Miami to South Beach.

The gruesome attack went down in broad daylight Saturday afternoon, authorities said. The two men are visible in surveillance video captured from a nearby building, but it is unclear if the entire horror show was recorded.

The pair of men appeared to be fighting, said Larry Vega, a Miami resident who first witnessed the nightmarish scene on an off-ramp by Biscayne Boulevard, which is near the offices of The Miami Herald newspaper.

“When I looked forward, there's a guy on top of another person, eating him up like, just tearing, tearing his face apart,” he told Local 10 News. “It’s going to take some time to forget. I never thought I would see someone else eating someone. It was really, really horrific.”
He alerted a police officer “that a homeless man was killing another person by biting and ripping his face to death.”

Vega said the cop ordered the man to stop, but he did not listen. He then drew his gun, but “the guy just stood... with pieces of flesh in his mouth and he growled,” he told WSVN 13 News.

The officer, who was not identified by police, then shot the Hannibal Lector wanna-be several times.
“Based on the information provided, our Miami police officer is a hero and saved a life,” Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police told the Miami Herald.

The victim, who lost about 75% of his face, was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital, according to WSVN 13 News. He remains in crticial condition.

“What’s happening is whenever we see that a person has taken all of his clothes off and has become violent, it’s indicative of this excited delirium that’s caused by [an] overdose of drugs,” Armando Aguilar of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police told WSVN 13 News. “What’s happening is inside their body their organs are burning up alive.
”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-fights-live-face-eaten-naked-attacker-miami-article-1.1085553#ixzz1wBawhQCo

Has the entire nation of Japan lost thier minds?

A Japanese artist cooked his own genitals and served them to five paying diners in Tokyo to cover the medical costs, in a bizarre act to raise awareness about sexual minorities.

Mao Sugiyama had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before dishing them out -- seasoned and braised -- to customers at an event hall on May 13, according to postings on his Twitter account and local police.

Diners paid 20,000 yen ($250) for the plate with a portion of genitals. Pictures published on a website appeared to show the meal came complete with mushrooms and a parsley garnish.

The painter, who is reportedly 22, said on Twitter the organ had been removed by a physician and certified to be free of infections.

The meal was prepared under the supervision of a certified cook and diners were required to sign a waiver indemnifying Sugiyama and event organisers.

In May 18 tweets, the artist said steps were taken so the act met all relevant laws, including a ban on organ sales, processing of medical waste and even food sanitation requirements.

"I receive questions from some women and men... asking 'Will there be a next time? Please host it again.' But there is only one set of male organ," he tweeted on May 16.

"Unfortunately, I have no plan for the next time."

Sugiyama, who considers himself "asexual", that is without gender, initially thought about eating the genitals himself, but decided to solicit paying customers to help pay his hospital bills for the surgery.
In an email to AFP, he confirmed the event had taken place and said it was organised to raise awareness about "sexual minorities, x-gender, asexual people". He said he was readying to publish an official account of the day.

Police in Tokyo said they knew of the episode, but added that it had not broken the law as cannibalism was not illegal in Japan.

"We are aware of the case. There was nothing (criminal) to it. It does not violate any detailed rules. There is nothing to take action about," an officer at Suginami police said.

Sugiyama sparked a firestorm of interest on April 8 with one tweet:

"[Please retweet] I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen …Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location."

On April 13, five of six diners who signed up for the $250-a-plate feast, sat down to dinner. The sixth person was a no-show.

The next day, an organizer posted a blog -- subsequently deleted -- containing pictures of the event. Images showed dozens of people who attended the event just to catch a glimpse of the rare treat.

The extra diners were served crocodile-based dishes while Sugiyama cooked up the exclusive meal.

The story went viral in Japan. Some showed even more interest, while others complained. But Calorie Lab called Japanese authorities, who deemed the banquet legal because there is no law against cannibalism in the country.

More people have brain tape worms than you think.

The number of people afflicted with brain tapeworms worldwide has been "grossly underestimated," a new study warns. The brain tapeworms, which cause a disease called neurocysticercosis, are most common in Central and South America. While the disease is rare in the US and Europe, the disease is "still frequently diagnosed" in migrant populations from the endemic areas, the study says. The researchers also estimate that in areas where the disease originated, 29 percent of epilepsy cases are caused by brain tapeworms. "Overall, 1.7 to 3 million persons are conservatively estimated to suffer from epilepsy due to NCC worldwide," the study says.




“Nobody knows exactly how many people there are with it in the United States,” the study's lead author, Theodore Nash, told Discover Magazine. Nash and other experts on the topic have been traveling through Latin America with CT scanners and blood tests to test populations for the disease, Discover reported. In a study in Peru, they found that 37 percent of the people they looked at had been infected by the tapeworm. Nash's study also shows that in Latin America, brain tapeworms may afflict up to 29 million people.
People can contract tapeworms from eating undercooked pork or from ingesting food or drink contaminated by feces from an infected person, the New York Times reported.
Nash sees a few dozen patients a year with brain tapeworms at his clinic in Maryland, Discover reported. His patients have come in paralyzed on one side of their body, unable to walk, unable to speak or partially blind. Some have had violent seizures and one went into a coma. But Nash stresses there are solutions to stopping the disease from starting, such as vaccinating pigs or giving drugs to people already infected so it won't spread. “All of this seems to be very feasible, but nobody wants to do anything about it,” he told Discover. 
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/120523/brain-tapeworms-are-more-common-previously-thought-study-warns

A man, a Zebra and a Parrot walk into this bar and...

DUBUQUE, Iowa - It sounds like the beginning of a joke. A man, a zebra, a parrot walk into a bar.

This is the guy

A Cascade man was arrested outside of a Dubuque bar on Sunday night with a pet zebra and a macaw parrot in the front seat of his truck.

Officers charged Jerald Reiter, 55, with OWI. Police reports say officers stopped him in the parking lot of the Dog House Lounge as he drove away in his truck. According to police, field sobriety tests showed Reiter had a blood alcohol level of .14. The legal limit in Iowa is .08.

Reiter tells KCRG.com that he and his girlfriend, Vickey Teters, see the animals like their kids and often take them for rides. On Sunday night, they say they took the zebra and the macaw to the bar because it often lets people bring their animals inside.

Reiter says the owner told him they were serving food that night and he couldn’t bring a zebra inside the bar. Bar owners tell KCRG.com that no animals are ever allowed inside the establishment.

At that time he went outside to put the animals in his truck and several people were in the parking lot taking pictures. He believes one of those people called police.

Reiter disputes the charges and says he realized he was too drunk to drive and was about to let a passenger in the truck to take the wheel when he was arrested.

Online records show Mr. Reiter was released from the Dubuque County Jail May 21, 2012.

 

Drunken weightlifting is not a good idea.

BRIGHTON, England -

A British man was crushed to death while attempting to lift weights in his garage.
Chris Bailey, 28, decided to go for a workout Saturday after going out drinking with his landlord until 3:00am local time in Brighton, southeastern England, the Brighton Argus reported.

Landlord Oliver Steel, 57, found his body in the garage later that day after he woke up to find the front door open.

He told the newspaper, "I found him on the bench with the bar across his chest. I tried to wake him, but I knew he was dead. I had to try and lift the weight off him, which wasn't easy because it was so heavy. I tried to resuscitate him, but he was gone."
Paramedics were initially called to the home just after noon local time Saturday. His death is being treated as unexplained. An autopsy was underway Monday.


SOURCE LINK: http://www.theargus.co.uk