True Stories of the World

[Pina]

Whale explodes in Taiwanese city

A dead sperm whale has exploded while being delivered to a research centre near the southwestern city of Tainan.

Passers-by and cars were soaked in blood and body parts were sprayed over a road after the bursting of the whale, which was being carried on a trailer.

The whale had died earlier on a beach and had been collected so its remains could be used for educational purposes.

A marine biologist blamed the explosion on pressure from gases building up in the mammal as it began to decompose.

The whale attracted a lot of onlookers both before and after it exploded.

Several parked cars and pedestrians got covered in blood when it exploded.

Residents and shop owners wore masks while trying to clean up the spilt blood and entrails.

"What a stinking mess. This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful," said one resident.

Professor Wang Chien-ping, of the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, had ordered the whale to be moved to the Shi-Tsao Natural Preserve after his own institution refused to allow a post-mortem examination on its own premises.

Record find

He said that the animal had been close to death when it was found on a beach and had died by the time help arrived.

"Because of the natural decomposing process, a lot of gases accumulated, and when the pressure build-up was too great, the whale's belly exploded."

However he said despite the explosion, enough of the whale remained to allow for an examination by marine biologists.

Professor Wang said initial observation showed the whale to be an older bull and that its weight of 50 tonnes and 17 metre-length made it the largest whale ever recorded in Taiwan.

Reports say because of the whale's size, it took 13 hours, three large lifting cranes and 50 workers to get the whale loaded on the trailer truck for its final trip.


Witnesses said there was "a stinking mess" after the explosion

[Paulo]

Sooner or later, women are going to figure out how to seize power - and when that happens, let's pray for mercy. After all, they are the stronger gender. Contrary to popular myth, it is men who are the weaker sex. Consider the evidence:

We don't live as long as women.

Our brains are less well formed and shrink at a faster rate than women's as we age.

Proportionately, we are more likely than women to suffer from catastrophic illnesses such as heart disease, strokes, ulcers, and liver failure.

Men are more likely to carry sexually transmitted diseases (which they pass on to their unsuspecting wives and girlfriends).

Men's major body systems - our circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and excretory functions - are all likely to break down long before women's.

Only our reproductive system - the ability to produce sperm - lasts longer than a woman's ability to produce eggs, but our delivery system peters out years before a woman discovers the benefits of enjoying a warm bath and good novel.

Men are unable to give birth, to keep the species going.

Men lose their hair.

Men lose their minds (we're four times more likely to attempt suicide than women).

Men are three times more likely to die in an accident than women.

Men are just not as smart as women: girls generally score higher than boys on the elementary school tests - and face it, we don't get any smarter with age.

Source: Stupid White Men by Michael Moore

[Paulo]

In 270 Roman physician and priest Valentinus sent a yellow crocus to a blind girl with the message: 'From your Valentine'. It was the world's first Valentine.

[Paulo]

Piranha drama on the Thames

A startling discovery was made on 18 February when Environment Agency fisheries officers were called to identify a very unusual fish, dropped on to the decks of a boat on the Thames.

A native of the River Amazon in South America, the 10cm Red Bellied Piranha is suspected to have been dropped by a passing seagull.

“The Thames is now home to over 119 different species of fish, so the Fisheries Officers were not unduly surprised,” said Tom Cousins, Environment Agency Fisheries Officer. “It was very fresh and had obviously only just died. You could clearly see the marks made by the seagull’s beak on its back.”<br>
The discovery was made on board the Thames Bubbler, which was moored at Halfway Reach in Dagenham. Ironically the vessel, which is owned by Thames Water, is an oxygenation vessel, dedicated to keeping fish and aquatic life alive.

The identification was confirmed by the Curator of the London Aquarium, Paul Hale, who said ‘It is definitely a Red Bellied Piranha, but it would not survive in the low temperatures of the Thames, and we imagine that it was probably released and then floated to the surface where it was picked up by one of the every hungry seagulls and deposited onto the boat.’<br>
‘Piranhas are generally nervous and not the ferocious killers people think they are. They prey on weak and injured animals, including fish, birds and mammals, as well as carrion,’ he continued.

Piranhas could not survive in temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius for more than a few days whilst the water temperature in the River Thames is currently closer to 10 degrees. The deliberate release of such a fish into the river is therefore not only illegal, but cruel.

Owners of aquarium fish are reminded that it is an offence to release any non-native species into the wild under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 also requires the Environment Agency’s written consent to release fish into any inland water.


More information:

The Thames Estuary now supports over 119 species of fish, is an important marine nursery ground and plays a major part in supporting North Sea stocks. There are recreational fisheries for a range of species, a commercial eel fishery below Tower Bridge and one for sole below Mucking. A list of fish species found in the river to date is available from Thames Region of the Environment Agency.
The ‘Thames Bubbler’ and her sister vessel ‘Thames Vitality’ are owned and operated by Thames Water PLC. They are dedicated mobile oxygenation barges that pump oxygen into the river during periods of poor water quality. They are operated under Environment Agency supervision.


Source: Environment Agency News, 19.02.04

[Paulo]

World's oldest man dies at 114

By Emma Ross-Thomas

MADRID (Reuters) - A retired Spanish shoemaker born in the same year as Adolf Hitler and officially the world's oldest man has died at his home at the age of 114, his family says.

Guinness World Records recognised Joan Riudavets Moll as the world's oldest man following the death of Japan's Yukichi Chuganji, also 114, in September.

Riudavets, who attributed his longevity to a life of moderation, was born on December 15, 1889 -- the year Hitler and Charlie Chaplin were born and the year the Eiffel Tower was completed.

He had been retired for half a century.

He died at home in Es Migjorn Gran on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Menorca on Friday night, a police spokesman there said.

"I spoke to him a few days ago and he had all his faculties," the spokesman said on Saturday. "He spoke and reasoned perfectly well without any problems. It was a natural death; he had not been ill."

Riudavets' grandson said he was still taking walks at the end of his life and was always surrounded by friends.

"He nearly always had people around him and he had a great gift for words," his eldest grandson, Pablo, told Reuters. "There were a lot of anecdotes."

Riudavets, who joined the family shoe-making business and retired in 1954, lived to see huge advances in medicine and science, but he never stopped marvelling at inventions like the aeroplane -- first flown when he was a teenager -- and electricity.

"The aeroplane was something incredible, but the most important change was electricity -- without doubt, it changed everything," the Guinness Web site quoted him as saying.

He attributed his long life to doing everything in moderation, including smoking "but not too much". He used to sleep up to 14 hours a day but also enjoyed playing football and the guitar.

Trini Pinto Alvarez, who lives in the village, said: "He was a shoemaker, he worked hard, had a good life... Everybody knew him. When he had birthdays, the village threw fiestas."

[Paulo]

Puzzle over three-headed frog

Children in a nursery were shocked when they spotted a three-headed frog hopping in their garden.

The creature - which has six legs - has stunned a BBC wildlife expert who said it could be an early warning of environmental problems.

Laura Pepper, from the Green Umbrella nursery in Weston-super-Mare, said: "We thought it was three frogs huddled together at first.

"It is very strange. The children couldn't believe it."


Mike Dilger, from the BBC Natural History Unit, said: "I have never seen anything like this.

"Frogs are primitive animals - so the occasional extra toe is not that unusual. But this is very unusual."

All the creature's eyes and legs appear to function normally, but it is not known whether it eats using all three of its mouths.

The amphibian was kept in a container for several hours but hopped away later while nursery staff were showing it to curious parents.