Cocoa

A New Zealand swimmer got into difficulty when a friendly dolphin stopped her returning to shore.

The woman had been swimming with the dolphin, called Moko, at Mahia Beach on the North Island. But the playful dolphin did not want the fun to end.

People at a nearby cafe eventually heard her cries for help, and rowed out to her rescue.

She was found, exhausted and extremely cold, clinging to a buoy. She said the dolphin had meant no harm.

The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, was wearing a wetsuit. But even that eventually failed to protect her from the winter cold.

~ BBC News

read comments (0)

Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday.

Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state plowed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the plows.

“They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains,” Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar’s remote Banke Bazaar town.

“This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily.”

India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.

~ Reuters

read comments (0)

It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains–that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant.

~ Department of Clinical Psychology, Liverpool University

read comments (0)

Colombia has called off the hunt to kill a drug lord’s escaped hippo and will instead try to relocate the beast after its mate was shot dead by order of the government, sparking outrage from animal rights groups.

The giant animals were imported from Africa by late cocaine king Pablo Escobar and put in his zoo. They escaped in 2006 to live in the wild near the Magdalena river in northern Colombia, causing concerns about local public safety.

Colombia was shocked on Friday when photographs were published of the dead hippo, named “Pepe”, and by news that the hunt was still on for his mate, “Matilda,” who gave birth to a calf in the wild.

Bogota-based beer company Bavaria, owned by SABMiller, offered to bring in animal protection experts from South Africa and Tanzania to find the best way to care for the surviving hippo and her calf.

“We have accepted Bavaria’s offer. The hunt is off,” a spokeswoman for Colombia’s Environment Ministry told Reuters on Wednesday. “The idea is to relocate the animals.”

~ Reuters

read comments (0)

German police had to rescue a 20-year-old man from a train station suitcase locker after he shut himself in for fun and began to suffocate.

After a night out drinking with friends, squeezing into the locker had seemed like an amusing idea to the man, police in the southwestern city of Ludwigshafen said Friday.

But the laughter faded when he started to run out of oxygen and his companions couldn’t open the locker. Police broke open the door and dragged the groggy man to safety.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh, editing by Paul Casciato)

~ Reuters

read comments (0)

A man has been ordered to pay 1,950 euro to the owner of an amusement arcade for striking a punch-bag after it swung back and hit him on the jaw.

Paul Kelly, 23, of Lisanisk in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, admitted hitting the bag and damaging it in a fit of anger after it struck him.

His lawyer said the blow had caused damage to the machine’s mechanism.

Carrickmacross District Court heard moments earlier Kelly thought he had won a payout for punching the bag hard.

The incident took place at a recent summer festival in the town.

~ BBC News

read comments (0)