- Train travel through the French Alps sounds like a lovely
way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Hopping on a remote train along a route popular with
tourists between the villages of Saint-Benoit and Annot in southeastern France
on a chilly February day would be wonderful…assuming, of course, that the train
was not struck by a massive rock tumbling from the mountains above and
derailing said train. That was the scene in the French Alps on Saturday, with
the aforementioned boulder falling hundreds of feet and striking the train. The
rock caused the train to derail killing two people and partly pushing one of
its carriages over the edge of a mountain slope, local officials said. At least
seven injuries were reported, including one characterized as serious. "An
enormous rock broke off from the mountain and hit the side of the train with
extreme force," said Charbel Aboud, deputy prefect for the region. Aboud
estimated that the boulder may have weighed as much as 20 tons. A French woman
from the region and a Russian woman who was travelling with her husband were
the two people killed in the incident, Aboud confirmed. Officials have not
determined what caused the rock to fall, but netting used in the region to
prevent rockfalls did not stop this particular rock and now investigators must
determine why. Aboud said it was the first such accident known on the line,
which runs from Nice on the coast to the Alpine town of Digne-les-Bains. Both
the remote, mountainous location of the derailment and snow on the ground
hindered rescue efforts, but emergency personnel were eventually able to reach
the train and begin tending to the wounded………
- Salmon, it seems, come pre-loaded with their own operating
system capable of directing them to ancestral feeding grounds by using the Earth's
magnetic field and an inherited internal map. Oregon State University researcher
Nathan Putman led a study into the migration patterns of juvenile Chinook
salmon and discovered that these clever fish can find their way to those
feeding grounds without any prior migration experience. Many animals use Earth's
magnetic field to orient themselves during migrations, but mostly they learn
these routes from older members of their species. Loggerhead sea turtles were
the only known animals able to inherently possess ancestral migration routes
from the moment they hatch, but Putman and his team found the same to be true
of Chinook salmon. The salmon, which hatch in freshwater streams and then swim
to the ocean to feed within the first year of their lives, inherit a sense of
direction to their families' migration routes. To confirm their theory, the
researchers tested the internal maps of hundreds of juvenile salmon by placing
individuals in test tanks. They allowed the fish 10 minutes to get acclimated,
then manipulated the magnetic field around the tank using coils with electric
currents running through them. Even after the manipulation, a significant
number of salmon oriented themselves toward the magnetic fields that exist in
their oceanic feeding grounds. "Everybody was pretty surprised that the
fish already had that ability," Putman said. "Before the fish even
hit saltwater, they already have a sense of what they should be doing if and
when they should find themselves in a certain magnetic field." Salmon and
sea turtles have little in common, so the researchers believe their findings
show that other migratory marine animals likely have this ability as well.
Having this ability on their own is vital for young Chinook salmon because adults
abandon them soon after they hatch. With their deadbeat parents not around, the
young fish must find their way on their own, swimming down the only road they’ve
ever known. Like a twister, they were born to swim alone……..
- YES! YES! YES! Someone cue the signature chant of WWE
star Daniel Bryan because there is cause to celebrate like never before. Fox has
canceled “The X Factor (Karaoke)” and better still, it’s because the godfather
of crappy reality karaoke shows has fled America’s borders to return to his
native United Kingdom. Cowell and announced that the judge and executive
producer of so many über-awful reality karaoke shows would return to the U.K.
version of the singing competition series, leaving Fox to pull the plug on its
version of the show. "I've had a fantastic time over the last 12 years, both
on The X Factor and American Idol," Cowell said in a statement. "And
apart from being lucky enough to find some amazing talent on the shows, I have
always had an incredible welcome from the American public (most of the time!).
Last year, for a number of reasons, I had to make a decision to return to the
U.K. version of The X Factor in 2014.” No need for apologies or goodbyes, ass
hat. Just get on a plane and go because God knows the United States and its
music scene will be so much better off without you. Fox's Chairman of
Entertainment Kevin Reilly stepped up to blow the requisite sunshine up
Cowell’s British arse on the way out the door, saying in the same statement
that Fox views Cowell as “more than one of the most prolific TV personalities
of our time -- he's part of our family.” Agreed, Kev. He is like a part of your
family – the obnoxious, abrasive ones you see only over the holidays and yet,
you still want to throw them out the window of a moving car within five seconds
of encountering them. “Unfortunately, there is no X Factor USA without Simon
Cowell, but we understand and support his decision to focus on the
international formats and on the next phase of his personal life,” Reilly said
in the statement. Unfortunately? There’s nothing unfortunate about this
news……..
- Public transportation is generally an unsavory place to
spend time. Rare exceptions like the well-maintained subways in London or
Toronto exist, but riding a city bus or subway is generally an ironclad recipe
for encountering urine-soaked public property, mentally unstable individuals,
crime and general filth that makes you want to don a full-body protective suit.
Residents of the tropical paradise (at least climate-wise) that is Honolulu
know this to be true thanks to both their own unfortunate experiences and a
recent photo snapped by a passenger equipped with a smartphone and a keen eye
for mass transit squalor. The photo was taken on bus 591 during its regular 94 route to Kapolei and the photo clearly
shows an infestation of cockroaches making themselves right at home like they
paid $2.50 for a ride across town. Asked to comment on the presence of roaches,
Oahu Transit Services said the roaches had been reported and the bus had
already been taken out of service to address the problem. After a full-on RAID
blast and hopefully a deep steam cleaning followed by a Lysol bath, the bus was
returned to service. Residents are questioning how this problem could have been
allowed to develop in the first place and it’s a reasonable query given OTS’
claims that every bus is cleaned after its shift on a daily basis in addition
to a more thorough cleaning every few weeks. "Once a month they do go
through a thorough cleaning. Every six months all the buses are
fumigated, so we have a regular pest control happening on the buses" said
Michelle Kennedy of Oahu Transit Services. Kennedy insisted that the company
appreciates the rider who submitted the photo and encourages other passengers
to do the same if they spot a problem. Welcoming those photos is one thing, but
doing something about it is clearly another………
- All of the ugly stereotypes mixed martial arts haters
cling to when bashing the sport were just confirmed in the most public way
possible. Thiago
Silva, a now-former UFC light heavyweight star, was fired by the organization
on Friday as he remained police custody without bond on multiple felony charges
after a court appearance in Florida. The lone piece of good news for Silva was
that Judge John Hurley reduced two charges of attempted murder to aggravated
assault with a firearm, pairing those with charges of aggravated battery with a
deadly weapon and resisting arrest without violence. MMA haters often rap the
sport for being populated by a bunch of ‘roid-raging meatheads who are amped up
on boosted testosterone and prone to violence for no real reason at all. Those
haters can now point to Thursday’s incident in which Silva allegedly confronted
his wife of 13 years, Thaysa, from his vehicle, which was outside of Pablo
Popovitch Mixed Martial Arts Academy on Thursday in Oakland Park, Fla.
According to police records, Silva pulled out a firearm and told his wife that
she had "10 seconds to bring out Pablo," or he would go into the gym
and start shooting everyone. Popovitch emerged from the school, but retreated
moments later and called 911 rather than confront an angry MMAer with a gun.
Silva and his wife separated in 2012, but he clearly still is under the
impression that she belongs to him and that Pablo needs to keep his distance.
Amazingly enough, Silva was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the incident,
which is truly surprising given the rational way in which he acted. He then fled
to his home in neighboring Fort Lauderdale, where he was arrested following a
non-violent standoff with a SWAT team. After his attorney, Scott Saul, conceded
probable cause to the aggravated assault charges, UFC released a statement
announcing that it had terminated Silva's contract. UFC president Dana White
doesn’t want a homicidal, unhinged Brazilian running around representing his
organization? Why not, Dana? Who’s going to fill Silva’s spot at UFC 171 on
March 15 in Dallas? It also didn’t help Silva’s cause that he has a string of
domestic violence allegations against him. Back on Jan. 30, he allegedly threw
his wife onto a sofa and pointed a "silver colored revolver" at her,
later jamming the gun into her mouth. He chased that with some violent text
messages on Feb. 5 in which he threatened to hire someone to kill her. Yes, MMA
critics will go to town on this one for a long, long time…….
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