Sunday, August 22, 2010

Fortean / Oddball News - 8/22/2010

Magnetic Personality...

thesun - A host of metal objects stick to human magnet Brenda Allison - making her look like a fridge door.

Brenda, 50, is thought to have a much more powerful electro-magnetic field than most people.

Coins, spanners and safety pins stay glued to the mum of one for minutes.

And her highly-charged body can also blow light bulbs, trigger car alarms and knock out shop tills.

Doctors have told account manager Brenda her magnetism may be caused by high stress levels - and have urged her to take steps to reduce them.

She said: "Metal objects appear to stay put more on my bones than muscles. It makes people laugh when I show them. I feel like a fridge covered in magnets."

Brenda, of Holloway, North London, added: "There's nothing more embarrassing than going into Sainsbury's and suddenly the tills stop working.

"I used to set off my son's battery-operated toys just by walking into his room. And I make televisions flicker and lights blow."

Electro-therapy expert Kathy Geminiani, who runs a Surrey clinic, said: "Everyone has a charge, all slightly different. It sounds like Brenda is highly-charged."

Others think she is accumulating static from surfaces like nylon carpets.

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Mysterious Bearded Antelope Photographed in Kenya


When Paolo Torchio set out across Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve a few weeks ago, it was just a typical Thursday morning for the veteran wildlife photographer, who has lived and worked in Kenya for two decades.

Torchio is intimately acquainted with the beasts that wander the nearly 600-square-mile (1500-square-kilometer) game reserve, so he was astonished to see a terrier's face poking out of the tall grass.

"I was wondering, what is this dog doing?" Torchio said. "And when it came out from the grass, that was a surprise."

“The hirsute creature that emerged was clearly not a dog. The animal had all the markings of a Thomson’s gazelle (a type of antelope) — but, like that old song from Sesame Street, one of these kids was not like the others. This animal was covered with a strange, thick coat of hair, in stark contrast to the sleek Thomson’s gazelles in its company. “The funny aspect was that it wasn’t affecting the relations with the other gazelles,” Torchio said in a phone interview. “There was no problem between her and the other one.” Torchio crept alongside the shaggy creature for 15 minutes, snapping pictures, but eventually the spooked animal sped away. The Italian photographer spent the next five days trying to find the gazelle, but to no avail.”

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Bear Mauls Caretaker to Death in Ohio

telegraph - Brent Kandra, a 24-year-old caretaker, died on Friday morning at MetroHealth medical centre, the coroner's office in Cleveland, Ohio, said. He had been taken by medical helicopter after the Thursday evening attack in Columbia township, south-west of Cleveland.

Deputies who responded said the bear had been contained in its cage without further problems.

The bear is owned by Sam Mazzola, who used to offer people the chance to pay to wrestle a black bear at the annual Cleveland Sport, Travel & Outdoor Show, the sheriff's office said. Mr Mazzola's property houses a menagerie including several bears, 20 wolves, lions and tigers. Officials said the bear in the attack south-west of Cleveland had not been used for wrestling.

The bear was out of its cage for its feeding, "which was normal for this particular bear because the caretaker and the owner had been around it so much," said James Drozdowski, the Lorain county sheriff's captain. Mr Mazzola used a fire extinguisher to force the bear back into its cage, he said.

"We don't know whether something startled the bear or what prompted the bear to get aggressive with the caretaker," Capt Drozdowski said. "We do know that it got aggressive with the caretaker and mauled him severely."

There are no plans to euthanise the bear, he said. Authorities will investigate before deciding on any criminal charges.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights group, four years ago made Mr Mazzola a focus of its national efforts to ban bear wrestling and demanded that the US Department of Agriculture take away his license to exhibit exotic animals.

Mr Mazzola said at the time that bear wrestling had been part of his business, World Animal Studios Inc., for more than 20 years and that he had no intention of stopping.

This year has seen other fatal bear attacks in the US, though typically involving animals in the wild.

A grizzly bear mauled three campers in Montana near Yellowstone National Park in late July, leaving one man dead and two people with serious injuries.


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NOTE: Duh...it's a wild animal! When these incidents occur someone always makes a comment that they are surprised or shocked it happened...Lon


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Endangered African Bird Found Wandering Residential Street


swns - Stunned Keira Ridgeway of Barnstaple, Devon, had expected to find pigeons and seagulls but came face to face with the massive exotic bird perched on the fence.

The endangered West African Crowned Crane is known as the ”national bird of Nigeria” and has beautiful black and yellow plumage. Natasha said: ”It was the last thing we expected to see in the garden. We both nearly fell over when we saw it. But he was friendly enough and just waddled about. I think it was enjoying the attention.”

The bird was later taken away by Diana Lewis, from the North Devon Animal Ambulance. She took the crane, which needs a specialist diet and lots of space, to the RSPB centre at West Hatch, near Taunton, where it will receive expert care.

Diana said the bird was probably an escaped pet and was tagged while the owner is traced. She also advised people to not stroke heron-like birds because they are liable to attempt to peck. The West African Crowned Crane makes distinctive honking noises and is found in an African region extending from Senegal to Chad.

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"Privacy in a Bag!"



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NOTE: Caution...do not wear while on a commercial flight unless you want to chance being tackled and held at gunpoint by a Sky Marshall. Lon

Fortean / Oddball News - 8/22/2010