Dead shark found on New York subway train

 

Commuters on board a New York subway noticed something fishy on their early morning train journey - a dead shark.
The one-and-a-half-foot long stowaway was spotted on the floor under a row of seats on a Queens-bound train around midnight.
The creature weighed between five to 10 pounds and was still wet with blood around its mouth, according to witnesses.
Passengers took photographs of the unusual find before the conductor evacuated the carriage. The train then continued to the end of the line where the shark was disposed of by a supervisor.
One commuter, identified as Mary M, told gothamist.com: "I board a car that's not terribly full and as soon as I enter, a stench hits my nose. It's not the typical urine/trash smell, it's...fishy?
"I look down to the end of the car to see a dead shark on the floor. I think I stood there for a good minute just staring, thinking 'Is this for real?!
"One of my fellow passengers remarked 'I've been riding the subway for 15 years, and this is the weirdest thing I've seen. And I've seen EVERYTHING.'"
Fellow commuter Juan Cano told CNN: "I thought it was just a plush toy or a prank. When I saw the teeth that's I knew it was real, it was no toy."
Snaps of the bizarre incident have gone viral, including one showing the shark with a cigarette in its mouth, clutching a fare card and an energy drink.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority have been unable to identify where the shark came from.
Some people have speculated that the appearance of sharks in mysterious places is a publicity stunt for the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week."
Photos of the two mysterious sharks have exploded on social media using the hashtag #sharkweek.
However the Discovery Channel denies any involvement.
Spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg told CNN: "Shark Week is all about conservation, so it deeply saddens us that someone would think that this was funny or in any way connected to our celebration of sharks."

Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/dead-shark-found-new-york-2139782#ixzz2bNTAyniI

Man finds maggots on sandwich at Atlanta airport

ATLANTA (AP) -- A restaurant says it has switched vendors after a customer found a cluster of maggots on his sandwich at Atlanta's airport.
Weekly traveler Joel Woloshuk told WSB-TV Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1895s6l ) that he bought a sandwich from Café Intermezzo and realized the white specks on top of it were maggots -- not parmesan -- when they began moving.
In a statement to WSB-TV, Café Intermezzo's president said the case was isolated and the problem could not have originated at the restaurant. He says the restaurant switched bread vendors and "not a single crumb" from the original bakery remains.
Atlanta Department of Aviation officials say they're distributing ultraviolet lights to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport restaurants so they can better inspect food shipments.
The Clayton County Board of Health says it found no citable violation at the location that it inspected.

READ MORE  : http://www.crescent-news.com/weird%20news/2013/08/08/man-finds-maggots-on-sandwich-at-atlanta-airport

'Frankenfish' hooked in Virginia a world record

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. (AP) -- A Virginia man who caught a fish known as "Frankenfish" has set a world record.
Caleb Newton hooked the 17-pound, 6-ounce northern snakehead in a creek in northern Virginia during a fishing tournament June 1. The "Frankenfish" gets its nickname because of its appearance and adaptability. The invasive species native to Asia is able to breathe air and survive in very shallow waters or mud.
The Free Lance-Star (http://bit.ly/140IvhG) reports the International Game Fish Association confirmed the record catch. It beat a snakehead caught in Japan in 2004 by 2 ounces.
Newton is a 27-year-old plumber in Spotsylvania County. He has said it only took him about a minute to get it into the boat, and the 3-foot long fish barely fit into his cooler.

Read More : http://www.crescent-news.com/weird%20news/2013/08/08/-frankenfish-hooked-in-virginia-a-world-record

A new menace to US teens: aspirating blowgun darts

In a decidedly unexpected new menace to young internet users, medical professionals are warning about an uptick in injuries from aspirated blowgun darts.
In a paper published in the Pediatrics medical journal, a group of researchers described their encounter with a 15-year-old boy who had decided to construct his own blowgun using online instructions. The hapless boy was accompanied by two other similar aspiration cases, who like him were admitted to the hospital with coughing.
More from GlobalPost: Falling TVs are injuring a growing number of US children 
As the researchers note, the young victims were not always eager to confess: although "all ultimately admitted their behavior, two were initially reluctant to admit aspirating the blowgun dart," they wrote.
"I find it concerning that this is becoming an emerging hazard," said study author D Kris Jatana to NBC of the research. "Typically we see these aspiration events in children younger than four."
Researchers said they found 20 different websites describing how to make these weapons, but none provided detailed safety instructions.

"Certainly, prompt treatment can result in good outcomes; however, serious potential complications, including death, could occur especially given the hesitance our patients showed in divulging the truth of the inciting event," the doctors wrote in the paper abstract. 
A quick Google search reveals that instructions for making your own DIY blowgun are indeed rife on the internet — tempting enough for any youngster who harbors secret dreams of wandering the Amazon jungles in search of jaguars.
Needless to say, if you do decide to try the technique pictured in the below video by "AdventuresWest," remember not to breathe in.

SOURCE : http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/130723/new-menace-us-teens-aspirating-blowgun-darts

Britain's royal baby: 10 strange facts

Royal supporter Terry Hutt sits near the media pen outside of Saint Mary's Hospital in London on July 21, 2013. There's still no sign of Britain's royal baby, even though the world's media have been camped for three weeks outside the London hospital where Prince William's wife Catherine is due to give birth.

As the "Great Kate Wait" continues, here are 10 things you might not have known about the little future monarch:
1) Genealogists say the baby will be distantly related to Dracula, the 15th century prince who inspired Bram Stoker's famous vampire. Experts have also traced the family tree back to an Islamic sultan who is believed to be descended from the Prophet Mohammed.
2) Finland has gifted William and Kate with a special 'baby box' received by all expectant mothers in the Nordic country, which includes infant clothing, bra pads and even condoms.
3) By custom, earlier royal births were witnessed by the interior minister, in order to ensure that the heir was legitimate. Luckily for Kate, this tradition ended in 1936.
4) The baby does not necessarily need to have a surname -- but if William and Kate want it to have one, they can choose between Mountbatten-Windsor, Wales and Cambridge.
5) World landmarks including Niagara Falls, Toronto's CN Tower and the fountains at London's Trafalgar Square will turn pink or blue to celebrate the birth, depending on whether it is a girl or boy.
6) The journalists camped outside Kate's hospital are almost crying with boredom after a three-week wait, but it was a different story when William was born in 1982.
His mother Princess Diana fooled the press by telling them her son was due on July 1 -- he arrived 10 days earlier, catching the newspapers completely off guard.
7) You can place your bets on everything from the baby's name to what its hair colour will be. The bookmakers' favourite names are Alexandra for a girl and George for a boy.
But you could win big if William and Kate opt for one of the unlikelier choices -- Prince Wayne, for example, has odds of 500/1.
8) The baby already has its own Wikipedia page -- "Child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge".
9) Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has knitted a kangaroo for the baby.
10) Football superstar David Beckham has suggested that the royal couple should name their baby after him. "I think they should go for David," he said in an interview this week, adding: "If it's a boy."

SOURCE : http://news.xin.msn.com/en/world/britains-royal-baby-10-strange-facts-5

The man with no memory: Navy vet wakes up, speaks only Swedish

(CNN) -- When police found the unconscious man in a Southern California Motel 6, the IDs on him said he was Michael Thomas Boatwright from Florida.

But when the man awoke at Desert Regional Medical Center a few days later, he said he'd never heard of Boatwright.

He didn't recall serving in the U.S. Navy. Or of being born in Florida.

Michael Boatwright

When doctors told him he had five tennis rackets in his hotel room, he couldn't say why.

When they showed him photos of himself with others, he didn't recognize them, or himself.

And he didn't speak a word of English.

The man said his name was Johan Ek.

And he said it in Swedish.

That was back in February.

Today, the 61-year-old man says he has come to terms with the name "Michael Boatwright," but only because doctors told him he should.

He still feels like Johan Ek from Sweden.

And he can't explain why.

The case was first reported by the Desert Sun.

Car crash leaves Australian woman with French accent

Digging in the past

Before she became a social worker at Desert Regional Medical Center, Lisa Hunt-Vasquez was an archeologist.

Those digging skills came in handy the day she met Johan Ek/Michael Boatwright.

Her mission: Help Boatwright figure out who he is.

She first contacted the military.

Among the IDs police discovered on him was one from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He'd served from 1971 to 1973 in the Navy as an aviation mechanic.

Hunt-Vasquez dug deeper.

The Asia connection

She found a website for the TRP English school in China.

Turns out Boatwright taught English there for four years, until May.

In an essay he wrote for the site, he mentioned he worked as an English instructor in Japan for 10 years, and that he was married to a Japanese woman. They have a 12-year-old son together, he wrote.

The leads looked promising.

But there was one hitch.

Photos found with Boatwright in the motel room showed a young man living in what looked like a European city, not Asia.

Hunt-Vasquez kept searching.

She came across several websites dedicated to graphic designs. Boatwright often used the screen name 'korstemplar' and listed himself as a Swede living and teaching in China.

The pieces were falling into place.

A roadblock

He had lived in Japan, married, became a father. He then moved to China.

The school in China told her he was divorced.

He lived there until May, when his visa expired and he flew to California.

But when she contacted the Japanese and Chinese consulates, neither had next-of-kin information for him, according to the Desert Sun.

Staffers called all the numbers on the phone Boatwright had with him. They either went to voice mail or no one picked up, the newspaper said.

She had hit a dead end.

His life so far

Everything Boatwright knows about his life before February 28 he knows because his social worker told him or because he read it on websites.

He told CNN he learned that in 1987 he operated a consulting company called Kultur Konsult Nykoping.

That is somewhat of a Swedish connection.

He doesn't have any independent knowledge of his life before he woke up in the hospital. He doesn't even know exactly what his consulting company did.

Boatwright told CNN he'd been a good tennis player, and the Tennis Channel had interviewed him years ago.

Perhaps, he said, he'd come to southern California for the tennis tournament season. That would certainly explain the five rackets in his hotel room.

A 'fugue state'

According to the Desert Sun, Boatwright is in a "fugue state."

People in this condition lose their sense of personal identity, according to the Cleveland Clinic. They become confused about past events and often wander far from home.

Fugue states, such as dissociative fugue, are often triggered by trauma, such as the death of a loved one or a serious accident, according to Dr. Aaron Anderson, a neurologist at Emory University School of Medicine.

Patients sometimes assume different personalities, Anderson added.

The relatively rare disorder often goes away on its own, but it can take several months.

What the future holds

Now that Boatwright's story has spread to the Swedish media, several Swedes have come forth to say they knew him in the 1980s.

Late Monday night, the Desert Sun reported it found Boatwright's sister in Louisiana.

"I haven't talked to him in years. He just disappeared," Michelle Brewer told the paper.

Learning about his life hasn't helped him much psychologically.

He still feels isolated in the hospital, so Hunt-Vasquez encouraged him to reach out to members of the local Swedish-American community.

"They said he was getting depressed because he wasn't able to communicate," said Linda Kosvic, chairman of the Vasa Order of America chapter in San Jacinto, California. "We've been trying to provide him support and make him feel more comfortable."

Members visit him in the hospital, bringing him Swedish foods.

The hospital would like to discharge Boatwright, but they have no place to send him, said Richard Ramhoff, a spokesman for Desert Regional Medical Center.

They can't send him home until they know where home is.

SOURCE : http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/16/health/amnesia-swedish/?hpt=hp_c4

Cambodia: Lost Ancient City Found In Jungle

An ancient city lost for 1,200 years has been discovered in the Cambodian jungle by archaeologists using laser scanning technology.

The city, which was linked to Cambodia's famous Angkor temples complex, was uncovered using airborne lasers which penetrated thick vegetation to provide evidence of roads, canals and buildings.
The discovery was announced in a peer-reviewed paper released early by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The lost city of Mahendraparvata was found atop Phnom Kulen mountain in Siem Reap province, about 25 miles (40km) north of the Angkor complex.
"What we have now with this instrument is just 'bang' - all of a sudden, an immediate picture of an entire city that people didn't know was there before, which is remarkable," University of Sydney archaeologist Damian Evans, the study's lead author, told Australia's The Age in a video interview from Cambodia.
"So instead of this kind of very long gradual process, you have this kind of sudden eureka moment where you bring the data up on screen the first time and there it is - this ancient city very clearly in front of you."
The laser technology, known as lidar, works by firing laser pulses from an aircraft to the ground and measuring the distance to create a detailed, three-dimensional map of the area.
It is a useful tool for archaeologists because the lasers can penetrate dense vegetation and cover swathes of ground far faster than they could be analysed on foot.
Lidar has been used to explore other archaeological sites, such as Stonehenge.

The new city was found 25 miles north of Angkor, deep in Cambodia

In April 2012, the Australian researchers loaded the equipment onto a helicopter, which spent days crisscrossing the dense forests from 800 metres above the ground.
The team then confirmed the findings with an on-foot expedition, hacking their way through thick jungle.
"We had reasonable expectations, I guess, of what we would find using the lidar data, but what we've ended up with has just blown our minds," Mr Evans told The Age.
"It's just absolutely incredible what we can see."
Even the archaeologists' local guide had no idea of the existence of many of the temple complexes discovered using the data.
The origins of the city have been dated to about 800AD, at the start of the Khmer Empire that went on to build all the Angkor temples.
At their height, around 900AD, the Hindu-worshipping Khmers ruled over most of the area that is now Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
The researchers theorise the civilisation at Mahendraparvata, like that at Angkor, eventually collapsed because of deforestation, and broken canals and reservoirs after the 15th century.
Mr Evans told the newspaper it is still not known how large Mahendraparvata was because the lidar search only covered a limited area.
"The network doesn't stop at the edge of the survey area," he said, adding that money is being raised for further research.
"Maybe what we are seeing was not the central part of the city, so there is a lot of work to be done to discover the extent of this civilisation."
With little known about the origins of the Khmers, it is hoped that exploration of the site will shed new light on how and why the civilisation flourished and then died.

SOURCE : http://news.sky.com/story/1105062/cambodia-lost-ancient-city-found-in-jungle