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The Obama Buffet of Unsavory People and Acts has added another entree!

Heart attack takes famed Montauk fisherman They called him the Monster Man. His business was the stuff of tall tales. Gear for the day might include a harpoon, buckets of blood and the patience to wait for a shark to come along and take a bite. "I was the pioneer of sport fishing for sharks," Frank Mundus, a legendary shark hunter, said in his trademark blunt style on his Web site. The Monster Man's own words sum up perfectly a life said to have inspired the movie "Jaws" and its roguish Captain Quint, played by the late Robert Shaw. Mundus...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Actor Roy Scheider, the star of such films as "Jaws" and "All That Jazz," died Sunday at 75 in Little Rock, Ark., his wife told The New York Times. Scheider, who lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y., died of complications from a staph infection, Brenda Scheider told the newspaper. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma. Scheider came to prominence in such '70s films as "Klute" and "The French Connection" -- for which he earned an Oscar nomination as Buddy Russo, the partner of police Detective Popeye Doyle, played by Gene Hackman. Scheider may have...

Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said. Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg’s 1975 breakthrough hit, about a New England...

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Visitors to Palm Beach are being advised not to go in the water because of shark sightings. Warnings posted said hundreds of bull sharks and lemon sharks have been seen swimming along the surf, the sand bar and farther out in the Atlantic Ocean. Lifeguards say the shark invasion happens a few times a year, often in March. The sharks pass by every spring while migrating to their summer homes up North. Officials first spotted the sharks Wednesday morning and said there were less by the afternoon. They're hoping there will be even fewer today.

AN abalone diver has survived a terrifying attack by a white pointer shark, which swallowed his head and shoulders before he fought free of the predator. Eric Nerhus, 41, was diving off the New South Wales south coast today when the 3m shark seized him head on, crunching on his head, shoulders and chest, he told friends later. Protected from the worst of the shark's bite by a lead-lined weight vest, the diver stabbed and clubbed at the creature's head and eyes with an abalone chisel until it spat him free. The shark's bite crushed Mr Nerhus's reinforced face mask,...

Picture: The unlucky star in a new Jaws movie The cape fur seal is an inquisitive and friendly animal Many times in the Jaws movies, viewers have shuddered at the awesome power of the Great White Shark. But this unfortunate cape fur seal got to experience those infamous teeth only once - and they were the last things it saw. In astonishing footage for the BBC's Planet Earth series, the 12ft shark is seen swallowing its victim in virtually a single gulp. Such is the impact as it blasts through the surface from the deep that both hunter and prey...

EU defence strategy snatches stability from the jaws of victory By David Rennie, in Brussels (Filed: 03/10/2006) Defence ministers from Britain and other European Union nations will today be asked to endorse a bleak vision of future European military capabilities. According to the new European Defence Agency, traditional ideas of "victory" will have to be jettisoned in favour of limited, multi-national campaigns to restore "stability" to conflict zones, with the grudging consent of an ageing, ever more casualty-averse European population. The vision of Europe in 20 years' time was drawn up at the invitation of defence ministers by the EU...

Something horrifying is happening in the waters off Brazil. Sharks are attacking surfers near the city of Recife at an unprecedented rate, scaring the locals and forcing the government to ban the sport at one of it’s most popular beaches. Over the past decade, 45 people have been attacked by bull sharks in the region, 16 were deadly. And while these attacks are not unheard of, the fact the port city had recorded only one in the 75 years prior, is perplexing. Are the sharks rebelling? Have they had enough of people overcrowding their home? Or is there something less...

On a recent Friday morning, a line of bathing-suit clad students stood beside a campus swimming pool, waiting to jump in. They had come to persuade the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill they were worthy of a college degree — which they were not, in UNC's eyes, until they could swim 50 yards and tread water for five minutes.For many, it was an annoying inconvenience, for others a moment of pride in conquering their fear of water. But the scene also was a small slice of collegiate history. This was the last swim test day at one of...

Shark Frenzy Closes Australian Beaches ASSOCIATED PRESS BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Several tourist beaches along Australia's popular Gold Coast were closed again Sunday because of a massive feeding frenzy involving more than 100 sharks, a lifeguard official said. Several beaches in Queensland state were closed for the second straight day after more than 100 hammerhead, gray nurse and whaler sharks were spotted feeding close to shore, said Sue Neil, spokeswoman for Surf Lifesaving Queensland. Neil said most swimmers were staying out of the water, but some surfers were putting themselves at risk by coming within yards of the feeding frenzy....

NEW YORK -- Peter Benchley, whose novel "Jaws" terrorized millions of swimmers even as the author himself became an advocate for the conservation of sharks, has died at age 65, his widow said Sunday. Wendy Benchley, married to the author for 41 years, said he died Saturday night at their home in Princeton, N.J. The cause of death, she said, was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and a fatal scarring of the lungs. Thanks to Benchley's 1974 novel, and Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie of the same name, the simple act of ocean swimming became synonymous with fatal horror, of still...

Fresh sightings of a monster great white shark close to North Taranaki's shoreline have prompted a warning to swimmers. The Conservation Department warning comes after two more close encounters with the shark, estimated to be six metres long. Fishermen on a charter boat got the fright of their lives when the great white swam directly under them last Friday. And two competitors in a yacht race off Port Taranaki watched in horror as the shark – its fin clearly out of the water – swam between their much smaller craft. These sightings follow numerous incidents involving a very big shark...

The Jaws of Defeat By Barry Casselman The Democratic Party today reminds me of the hunter who carefully laid a trap for a bear and when he came back the next day he forgot where he put it, stepped wrong and got caught in it, and then was himself eaten by the bear. The game trophies of this year's midterm elections and the 2008 presidential elections, both now appearing to favor the Democrats, could end up in the jaws of Democratic defeat. There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party now underway, and it is between those who...

Dec. 26, 2005 — Brian Anderson, 31, was surfing off the coast of Northern Oregon Saturday when a great white shark attacked him. As he was paddling, Anderson said he felt something grab his leg. Without thinking, he punched the big shark in the nose. "That's all I could think to do, and after I did that, it let go," Anderson said. "And I wanted to get to shore as soon as I could. The thought crossed my mind that I might not make it back in and it was just pretty hectic." Anderson credits his experience as a surfer...

High-tech electronic tags on whale sharks, the world's largest fish, have revealed how and where they find food.Researchers in Belize have tracked the sharks as they dive almost a kilometre in search of food, and find shoals of spawning fish in order to eat the eggs. A young whale shark takes a closer look at two divers The sharks grow to 20m in length, and are listed as vulnerable to extinction. The researchers believe their findings will help to plan tourism operations around whale sharks in a way that does not harm the creatures themselves. These new, unprecedented insights into...

CINDY SHEEHAN'S JUMP-THE-SHARK MOMENT?(idea by PJ-Comix, metaphor + logo by Jon Hein) by Mia T, 9.01.05 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) PLAY MOVIE THE GREAT FISH moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. The mouth was open just enough to permit a rush of water over the gills. There was little other motion: an occasional correction of the apparently aimless course by the slight raising or lowering of a pectoral fin--as a bird changes direction by dipping one wing and lifting the other. The eyes were sightless in the...

Telly bosses have come up with yet another ingenious way to torture the rich and famous - Celebrity Shark Bait. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Stephen Spielberg's seminal thriller Jaws, four brave celebrities will confront their greatest fear by coming face to face with the world's most feared predator - the great white shark. Ex-Emmerdale star Amy Nuttall, actor Richard E. Grant, comedian Ruby Wax and former Olympic hurdler Colin Jackson have signed up for the programme. They will have to pass a two day scuba diving course in preparation for their challenge before facing their moment of truth...

A swimmer has been attacked at Port St.John Beach/State Park in Florida by a shark. Beaches are closed down as of 12:30 PM EST. More to follow...

Henri Murray A young medical student is dead following a Great White shark attack reminiscent of "Jaws," the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film which premiered 30 years ago this month. Henri Murray, 22, was swallowed nearly whole yesterday while scuba diving and spear-fishing with a friend near Cape Town, South Africa. "It was incredibly fast," Dave Estment, a yachtsman who witnessed the onslaught, told the Scotsman. "The two spear fishermen were not far from the beach. Suddenly a huge shark surged from under the water taking the one diver [from his legs upwards] to his arms in its jaws." "It must...

Hundreds of blacktip and spinner sharks have reappeared off the south Florida coast, closing some beaches during the busy Spring Break season. Beaches were closed at Deerfield Beach and Delray Beach after lifeguards spotted the sharks just offshore, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday. Some of the sharks were sighted as close to shore as 20 feet, but there were no reports of attacks. George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, said the sharks are not man-eaters but have been known to bite people whose splashing hands or feet are mistaken for food....

Shark attacks British surfer off South Africa's Cape coast Mon Mar 28, 8:45 AM ET JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A British surfer was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of South Africa's main tourist destination Cape Town, a public radio station reported. SAFM radio said the 32-year-old was surfing with four friends off the Nordhoek beach when the four-metre-long (13.2-foot-) shark attacked him. It was later spotted by a group of divers at a point about 500 metres away. It said the man "sustained injuries to his lower right calf" and was in hospital in a "serious but...

The authorities in South Africa were considering last night whether to launch a hunt for the great white shark that killed an elderly woman off a Cape Town beach - the second attack on swimmers in the area this year. They were also debating whether to stop tourists feeding sharks, a practice that may have encouraged the animals to linger in the waters. This followed the death of Tyna Webb, 77, who was attacked by a great white on Monday at Sunny Cove beach in the suburb of Fish Hoek. Mrs Webb had been taking an early morning swim, which...

Back and forth, back and forth: It was almost as if the great white shark was pacing, swimming the same small circle over and over. "Territorial loops," said Matt Lundberg, a fisherman who has cashed in as an aquatic tour guide ever since the 14-foot creature showed up in shallow water here last week. The 1,700-pound female--her gender identified by her dorsal fin--swam into an estuary off Naushon Island, about 3 miles from this Cape Cod village. Marine scientists believe she drifted too close to shore and became stuck in the 20-foot-deep lagoon. The area is rich in striped bass,...

A surfer was bitten in half after losing a desperate fight for his life with two Great White sharks. Brad Smith, 29, was surfing off the Western Australian coast when a huge shark 'as wide as a car' lunged out of the water and snapped his board in half. Mr Smith's friends could only watch in horror as he fell into the sea and another of the enormous creatures moved in on him. Experts said it was almost as if they had ambushed him. The surfer lashed out with his fists to try to keep the sharks at bay as...

Fisherman reports encounter with 20-foot great white off Point DefianceBob Mottram; The News TribuneA retired aquarium worker and well-known Tacoma angler, Bob Salatino, encountered what he says was an 18- to 20-foot great white shark in Puget Sound off Tacoma's Point Defiance. Salatino worked for 20 years at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. John Rupp, the aquatic animal curator there, described him as "a knowledgeable fisherman." Salatino said Friday he encountered the shark while fishing alone for salmon Dec. 6. He was several hundred yards north of Point Defiance. "The sun was shining, no wind, the water was clear....

Fishermen Find Human Remains in Shark Mon Apr 22, 6:54 AM ET SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian fishermen have found a human skull, pelvis and arm inside a shark, prompting a police check on Monday of unsolved murder and missing persons records. Four game fishermen made the gruesome discovery (news - web sites) in a 368 kg (811 pound) tiger shark they caught on Sunday, 26 nautical miles out to sea off Lake Macquarie in New South Wales state, police said. The fishermen said they cut the shark open after they returned to shore and removed a large whale bone before...