Wolves Terrorize Russian Town

A ’super pack’ of wolves has been terrifying a town after leaving more than 30 horses dead in just four days.

Four hundred bloodthirsty wolves have been spotted prowling around the edges of Verkhoyansk, in Russia, attacking livestock at will.

Twenty four teams of hunters have been put together to get rid of the wolves, with a bounty of £210 for every wolf skin brought to officials.

Stepan Rozhin, an administration official for the Verkhoyansk district in Russia, said: ‘To protect the town we are creating 24 teams of armed hunters, who will patrol the neighbourhood on snowmobiles and set wolf traps.

‘But we need more people. Once the daylight increases, the hunters will start shooting predators from helicopters.’

A pack of wolves this size is unheard of, with the animals usually preferring to hunt in smaller groups of just six or seven.

The massive group is believed to be made from hundreds of packs and has left animal experts baffled

For more information, see original article.

The Toughest Buck I Have Ever Seen

The New Years Marauder Of Maine Brought To Justice

Woman Attempts To Mail Puppy

 

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis woman has been charged with animal cruelty after postal workers say she tried to mail a puppy to Atlanta in a sealed box with no air holes.

Postal Service spokesman Pete Nowacki says employees became suspicious when the box suddenly fell off the counter after the woman left the post office Jan. 25. Postal inspectors opened the priority mail parcel and found a 4-month-old poodle mix, panting hard, inside.

Police Sgt. William Palmer says without the postal workers’ intervention, the puppy would certainly have died in the airplane’s unheated and non-pressurized cargo hold. It also had no food or water.

The Star Tribune says 39-year-old Stacey Champion has been charged with animal cruelty. The dog was taken to the city’s animal control facility.

Woman Buys Novelty Grenade Only To Find Out It Is Real

 

WJXT-TV

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla.  — The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad was called to Flagler County on Monday morning to dispose of a hand grenade that had been bought at an estate sale, deputies said.

Deputies said a woman on San Pablo Court in the Hammock Beach area told them she had purchased the grenade thinking it was a novelty cigarette lighter.

She contacted the Sheriff’s Office just before 11 a.m., when she determined that it might actually be a grenade, deputies said.

Deputies said the firing pin had been pulled out of the grenade and apparently replaced. The bomb squad disposed of the grenade about 1 p.m. in an isolated area.

Maine’s Superheroes, Moving To A City Near You!

 

 

This fantastic article appeared in the Sun Journal in the Lewiston/Auburn area by Kathryn Skelton, Staff Writer. These people do exist but not in our “conventional” superhero sense.

 

Her mom thought she was doing drugs, slipping out at night, wandering the streets.

Mom didn’t realize her little girl was actually busy atoning and avenging.

As the self-styled superhero “Dreizehn” (that’s the number 13 in German), she’d slip out and look for trouble, interrupting drug deals and vehicle break-ins. Think “Kick-Ass,” but in real life. Sometimes it worked, sometimes the teenager got beaten up, badly.

Dreizehn moved to Maine from a big city outside New England a few months ago to join her similarly self-styled superhero boyfriend, “Slapjack.” Several nights a week they walk Lewiston-Auburn for hours on end as roving Good Samaritans, looking for trouble.

The streets here? Much less mean, in her limited experience.

Most nights their foot patrol means giving bottled water and granola bars to the homeless and maybe yelling at a graffiti artist, all the while costumed and armed with batons, knife-proof protective wear and brass knuckles electrified with Tasers.

Dreizehn and Slapjack are in their 20s. Their parents? They still have no clue.

“You kind of have to be a little unstable to do it,” Dreizehn said. “Going out at 2 a.m. with a mask on and thinking you’re going to save the world, it says a lot about you.”

Origin stories

They got started for different reasons. About four years ago, Slapjack said he read an article in VIBE magazine on the Real Life Superheroes movement, a worldwide community, to which they now belong, of people who dress up, assume names and do varying degrees of charity work and criminal deterrence.

Close friends of Slapjack had their home broken into. Another was hit by a drunk driver, part of Slapjack’s motivation now to hang outside bars. He calls police to report plate numbers when he sees people that he suspects have had too much to drink get behind the wheel.

“I believe in civilian patrols. The police can only be so many places at once, especially at night,” Slapjack said. “I think it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep an eye on their communities.”

He picked his code name from a favorite card game played with his grandmother.

The younger Dreizehn has been going out longer, since 2003.

“I started out, really, just bored, and didn’t want to cause trouble,” she said.

In looking to thwart mischief, there was also an element of making amends for her brother.

“He was robbing and completely destroying our family through his actions,” Dreizehn said. “It made me want to do something so nobody had to go through the pain I had to.”

She dresses to add bulk to her frame — a compressed chest, a man’s trench, men’s boots. Sometimes, in her experience, just walking up to someone is enough to make them stop whatever it is they’re doing, mainly because she appears to be a 200-plus-pound man wearing a full black and red mask with sheer white fabric eye holes.

Once on patrol, Slapjack found an unconscious man collapsed in the middle of the street and dragged him to the side of the road, potentially saving him from being run over.

But it doesn’t always go swimmingly.

“I got hit by a car,” Dreizehn said. And once, in what she believed was a meth buy, “I got ahold of what they were dealing. I ended up really taking a beating. I had my mask taken off. I managed to crawl and bite my way out of it. I had a death grip on (the meth).”

She picked her code name as a nod to her German heritage.

Why the names at all if everything’s on the up and up?

Their reasons are threefold. First, they say they don’t want their workplaces or families finding out, then worrying, questioning or demanding they give it up. Second, the couple doesn’t want to be harassed; they are, occasionally, snitches. A superhero named “Shadow Hare” began showing his face around Cincinnati too much and “the city completely turned on him,” Dreizehn said.

Lastly, putting on the costume, and wearing the name, is like becoming someone else.

“Your fear goes away,” Slapjack said.

Added his girlfriend, Dreizehn: “I wanted to be able to put a mask on so I could be somebody greater and better.”

They met through the Real Life Superheroes group. There aren’t too many others in Maine. He can name two, “The Beetle” and “Mrs. The Beetle.”

You can read more @ http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/844777

109 Useless Facts

1
Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer.

2
A duck’s quack doesn’t echo. No one knows why.

3
40 percent of McDonald’s profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

4
315 entries in Webster’s 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

5
On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

6
Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog’s heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

7
Ketchup was sold in the 1830’s as a medicine.

8
Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

9
Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

10
There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

11
Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa’s lips.

12
Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That’s the opposite of the norm.

13
The original name for the butterfly was “flutterby”!

14
By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can’t sink in quicksand.

15
Mosquito repellents don’t repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito’s sensors so they don’t know you’re there.

16
Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

17
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum.

18
Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

19
Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

20
Adolf Hitler’s mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.

21
The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

22
To escape the grip of a crocodile’s jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

23
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

24
The “pound” (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.

25
The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

26
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

27
The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

28
Dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends in “mt”.

29
It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

30
In Chinese, the KFC slogan “finger lickin’ good” comes out as “eat your fingers off”.

31
A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.

32
We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.

33
Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.

34
Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.

35
Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.

36
Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.

37
When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying “yes” in Sri Lanka.

38
There are more chickens than people in the world.

39
It’s against the law in Iceland to have a dog.

40
The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.

41
There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.

42
The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.

43
The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three Times each
morning.

44
The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the Combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.

45
The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.

46
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

47
The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

48
Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears Never stop growing.

49
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

50
A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a Few weeks.

51
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

52
The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.

53
When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.

54
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned His wife or mother because they were both deaf.

55
A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a Carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After Weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe Leaving her mentally retarded

56
“I am.” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language

57
Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking Countries because Colgate translates into the command “go hang Yourself.”

58
Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.

59
“Bookkeeper” is the only word in English language with three consecutive Double letters.

60
Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed People do.

61
The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every Letter in the English language.

62
If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line Would never end because of the rate of reproduction

63
China has more English speakers than the United States.

64
Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

65
Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

66
An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.

67
Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our Bodies.

68
Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average Man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his Lifetime.

69
According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.

70
The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenua—anatahu – a New Zealand hill.

71
If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at Approximately 4:30pm the previous day.

72
Scientists in Australia’s Parkes Observatory thought they had positive Proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a Microwave in the building.

73
Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

74
More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.

75
Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.

76
Coca-Cola was originally green.

77
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

78
The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.

79
There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

80
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

81
Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!

82
You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath.

83
It is impossible to lick your elbow.

84
People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

85
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

86
The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

87
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

88
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades – King David, Clubs – Alexander the Great, Hearts – Charlemagne, Diamonds – Julius Caesar.

89
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

90
If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

91
If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

92
If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

93
Question – This is the only food that doesn’t spoil. What is this? Ans. – Honey

94
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

95
A snail can sleep for three years.

96
All polar bears are left handed.

97
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

98
Butterflies taste with their feet.

99
Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.

100
In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

101
On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

102
Shakespeare invented the word ‘assassination’ and ‘bump’.

103
Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

104
The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

105
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

106
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

107
Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

108
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

109
Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Boobytown

For some time now I had the knowledge of a mysterious part of Maine’s varied history, this time from Lewiston. I lived almost my entire life in the tri-state region of Massachusetts so upon reading this story I never acted on actually going for an actual visit. I cannot even tell you now that I have been there, I haven’t. What I can tell is the unusual stigma attached to a village in Maine by the name of Lower Dallas.

In the mid 1800’s the prosperous city of Lewiston in Maine had an innovative and at the same time bastardy plan at the same time. The roll call for welfare was quite large during this period. The city needed a way to turn the tide of people depending on the system. Someone, I do not know who, came up with the idea with shipping them off to what is known as Lower Dallas just east of Rangely in the northwest corner of the state. These people were hard up while living in Lewiston and after the move to Lower Dallas things only got worse. Stories of people running off into the fields to eat dandelions raw were the norm. Of all of these welfare afflicted Lewstonians the most prominent family was the Bubiers thus the towns name of “Boobytown” came into being.  The Boobytowners were always known by the people of Rangely as honest and fair trading partners and always had the utmost respect for them. Sad that such a quality of people was shipped away in favor of saving a few dollars (in today’s money mush more).

Today if you can find the way to the location of Lower Dallas you will find a virtual ghost town, complete with newspapers from the period around WW 2 on the floor of some of the structures. It is in these ways that Maine is trully unique as if someone leaves the forest locks it up until later discovery. Last heard, the is only one descendant of the Bubiers still living near Boobytown, Virgil Bubier. If anyone is looking to go there I hear he is one of the best people out there with the history of the place.  It’s an understatement to say that a general feeling of paranormal activity also prevails here according to reports, which can only be imagined with the history of these people stolen from their home. I hope in the future more attention can be brought to this incident in Lewiston’s history and the whole state of Maine in general. I can only hope this article keeps alive the drive for people to find out more about it.

I want to give special credit to Art Sordillo and Yankee Magazine for this other, somewhat related article, definitely a good read.

http://www.outtakes.com/45th/45thnopics.html

Emeril To Send Fiesty Elderly Defender Saucepan Set

ELYRIA, Ohio, Feb. 27 (UPI) — TV chef Emeril Lagasse said he is sending a free cookware set to a 70-year-old Ohio woman whose pan was taken by police after she used it to fight burglars. Ellen Basinski, 70, said she was taking to her husband, Lorain County Family Court Judge David Basinski, on the phone Tuesday when the four young men — identified by police as Patrick Kostal, 18, and three juveniles ages 15, 16 and 17 — entered her Elyria home and began rifling through her purse, liquor cabinet and drawers, the (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram reported Friday. Basinski said she used her 5-quart Emeril Lagasse saucepan to hit one of the burglars before they fled with her wallet, which contained only $10. The suspects were arrested and charged with aggravated burglary, assault and theft. Lagasse told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he decided to send Basinski a new 10-piece set of nonstick cookware, which retails for about $199, after he heard that the woman’s saucepan had been admitted into evidence after she used it to fight the intruders. “I mean, it just blew my mind,” the famed chef said. “I mean, I feel terrible for her — not only about the situation she faced, but because she probably may not get that pan back. That’s not good, not good.”

Thief In Central Maine Targets Old Telephone Poles

OAKLAND, Maine, Feb. 20, 2009

(AP) Old telephone poles are being swiped right out of the ground in central Maine.

According to FairPoint Communications, about 35 poles have been cut and stolen. The thefts in the town of Oakland began last fall and stopped in the early winter but have resumed as snowbanks have retreated.

The poles had no wires attached to them and were to be removed later. They had been trimmed to 12 feet tall, and were left behind when the company put in replacement poles next to them.

FairPoint supervisor Simon Thorne said the pressure-treated poles aren’t good for burning because they contain preservatives. He speculated someone might be taking them to use for framework.