Free Republic

Doc McGhee has responded to Jon Bon Jovi’s recent claim that the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival was organized as part of a plea deal to keep the manager out of jail. McGhee – who represented Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Skid Row and Scorpions throughout the ‘80s – was busted in 1982 for his involvement with drug smugglers bringing tons of marijuana into America. The manager was facing up to 30 years in prison but was able to avoid jail time. In a recent interview with Conan O’Brien, Bon Jovi insisted the concert was part of the deal. “To keep...

According to Stars and Stripes, some members of the United States military have a new hobby: hunting one of the most dangerous scorpions on earth. And the hobby has become so popular that there is now a waitlist to get in on the scorpion hunts. The scorpion they are hunting is called Androctonus crassicauda, known as the Arabian fat-tailed scorpion. Although the venom of the scorpion is extremely dangerous, it is generally regarded as not aggressive towards humans; rather, members of the military hunt these creatures because they are a danger to the service dogs the military relies upon. In...

Rare spiders and scorpions are being put at risk by a growing global trade driven by the demand for exotic pets, including species so rare that scientists were previously unaware of them, a team of international researchers has warned. They said that at least 70 per cent of spiders and scorpions being sold as pets, for medicine or food have been sourced from the wild. The researchers detected more than 1,200 species available for sale in a generally legal trade. The team said they are growing in popularity as "cool" pets that take up little space but warned that harvesting...

Hundreds of people in Egypt have been stung by scorpions in recent days and hospitals are stocking anti-venom to treat them, due to bad weather that's forced the creatures from their normal habitats and closer to humans. Government officials said more than 500 people have been stung over the past three days in southern Egypt. The governor of Aswan detailed the injuries in a Facebook post a few days ago. The inclement weather has included dust storms, heavy rains, hail and flooding. It has displaced the scorpions in their natural environments. The bad weather has also damaged mud-brick houses, uprooted...

FULL TITLE: Now United Airlines passengers are being attacked by SCORPIONS! Deadly insect crawls out on flight and forces evacuation A United Airlines flight was delayed for several hours in Texas after reports of a scorpion crawling out of a passenger's clothes. Passengers say United Flight 1035 was evacuated on Thursday at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston following the scorpion sighting. The flight, which was headed for Quito, Ecuador was delayed for three hours. News of the scorpion incident got out when passengers started tweeting about the ordeal.

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized remains of a new arthropod. Yawunik kootenayi was swimming around oceans in Canada in the Cambrian period, 508 million years ago. It's thought to share a common ancestor with today's spiders and scorpions. The arthropod had four eyes and arms lined with both tiny claws to help it feed, and long antennae to sense its surroundings. The study's lead author says species today don't have limbs that function like that. "This dual function is very, very special, because it does not appear in modern forms. If you take insects as an example, they have a...

Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq have unveiled their latest terror tactic - bombs containing hundreds of live scorpions designed to spread fear among their enemies. Canisters packed with poisonous varieties of scorpion are being blasted into towns and villages, which explode on impact - scattering the scorpions and causing panic among the innocent local population.

A 10-year-old Saudi boy stunned hundreds of people attending a summer festival when he put live snakes and spiders inside his mouth and letting a Copra bite his hand. Abdul Rahman Al Shammari went on stage to give the dangerous performance to the surprised audience in the northern town of Rafha. Sabq newspaper carried several pictures of the performance showing the boy having snakes and scorpions inside his month and getting bitten by a poisonous Copra.

Female scorpions may sting more quickly to compensate for their slower running speed, new research shows. And that sluggish running, and extra female fierceness, may be a result of the extra weight they carry from pregnancy, the researchers said. "The females are heavier, and they can't sprint as fast," said study co-author Bradley Carlson, an ecologist at The Pennsylvania State University. "Heavier ones have to compensate for that by stinging more." [In Photos: Top 10 Deadliest Animals ] Top 10 Fastest Land Animals Past studies had suggested that female scorpions tended to be extra aggressive, wielding their venom-packed stingers more...

Does it ‘bug’ you?: Worm and cricket lollipops are displayed during a global ‘Pestaurant’ event sponsored by Ehrlich Pest Control at the Occidental Restaurant in Washington, DC.Though slightly uncertain, Erin Kolski pronounced the unusual fare on her plate — a burger made from ground-up grasshoppers — to be surprisingly tasty. “It’s a little crunchy. It tastes fine,” Kolski said, sounding somewhat surprised as she favorably appraised the dish at Washington’s Occidental Restaurant, a popular establishment a stone’s throw from the White House. Hers was one of many such plates served up Wednesday by chef Rodney Scruggs, who helped organize an...

In mid-March, she was bitten by a Mohave rattlesnake just feet from her apartment while trying to save her cat. "You can feel it grip on. It's like cutting through butter. It grabbed my thumb and went down through the tendon. When it turned around it nicked me on the other side," said Wallace. The Mohave's venom put Wallace in a coma. She spent a total of nine days in the ICU and had to be readmitted to the hospital three more times. Wallace was left with no feeling in much of her hand. A few months prior Wallace told...

(snip) MCCAIN: ... just wants to spend money. Hello? He just wants to spend more money. You and I are -- remember when Ronald Reagan said the worst deal he ever made was when he sat down with the Democrats and said they would cut spending $3 and raise taxes for every $1. Guess what? They raised taxes and they didn’t cut spending. That’s why the Tea Partiers and others would – I’m not a Tea Partier -- but the fact is, we need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We couldn’t get it through the Senate as the...

On the same day that House Speaker John Boehner told Republicans to "Get your asses in line" and support his debt ceiling proposal, Sen. John McCain also blasted fellow Republicans. In a Senate floor speech laced with sarcasm and stings, the Arizona Republican aimed especially harsh fire at the tea party Wednesday. McCain said the movement is "foolish" to think a balanced budget amendment could pass before the August 2 deadline. At one point, McCain read from an op-ed in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. That article referred to activists as "tea party hobbits" – the little people who inhabit Middle-earth...

"Winds of Change" or "Blinded Eyes" - what is the song for these times? The breathless chortling of "democracy" in Egypt and the Middle East, is it really a replay of thirty years ago at the Berlin Wall? Is the song "Winds of Change" by German rock group "The Scorpions" for today? Or is a larger, more sinister movement taking place, not of "democracy", but of mob rule, directed hate-filled theocrats? Is the unrest in Madison, Wisconsin being run in the same way. I'm sure everyone here on FR has thought about all of this. The amount of suffering that...

Ancient sea scorpions included the largest and arguably most frightening bug-like creatures known to have lived on Earth, but despite their fearsome claws, these giants might actually have been creampuffs, scientists think.

A range of insect-based food products, including worm crisps, chocolate covered scorpions, and toasted ants, has been launched in Harvey Nichols' Edinburgh store. The unusual range, priced from 2.95 pounds for a packet of worm crisps to 15.95 pounds for a tin of toasted ants. The line also includes Thai green curry flavoured crickets, toffee scorpion candy, Tequila lollipops with real worms inside and civet coffee, which is made from coffee beans that are prepared for roasting by being passed through a civet cat. There is also a type of tea, which claims to have been picked by trained monkeys....

German band, The Scorpions hanging up their hats after 40 years of rock In this Feb. 21, 2009 file photo, the German rock band The Scorpions arrives for the Echo 2009 music award ceremony at Berlin, Germany. The band, known for its early 1990s hit "Wind of Change" among others, said on its Web site Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010, that "we agree we have reached the end of the road." (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File) Before Germany's current most successful rock band, Tokio Hotel, hit the charts—long before—there was The Scorpions. The German export was not only one of the most...

The Arizona bark scorpion may be small, but its sting delivers a neurotoxin that can kill or render critically ill a young child. A study in the May 14 New England Journal of Medicine finds that an antivenom drug commonly used in Mexico for such stings neutralizes the toxin, eliminates symptoms and reduces the need for sedation in children who have been stung. More than 200 children in Arizona and a handful in New Mexico become critically ill from Arizona bark scorpion stings each year, but there is no U.S.–approved remedy for the stings. Children are rushed to intensive care...

As humans living in the desert, we often find ourselves sharing our homes with native creepy crawlers like scorpions. According to the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, there are thirty different species of scorpions throughout Arizona. Only one of those, the Bark Scorpion, which can be found in Yuma, produces potentially life-threatening symptoms. "Most healthy adults can manage scorpion stings at home on their own with basic first aid," said Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center Managing Director Jude McMally. "The Bark Scorpion is only one and a half inches long and has more slender pinchers and tail segments...

BALAD — A group known as the “Scorpions,” symbolized by a scorpion holding a dagger, are successfully stinging at the heart of criminal and terrorist activities in central Iraq. The Hillah Special Weapons and Tactics team is disrupting insurgent activities throughout the province and bringing them to justice. Through a foreign internal defense partnership with Coalition Soldiers, these Iraqi Soldiers are working to rid the communities of anti-Iraqi forces that threaten the peace and prosperity for their families and countrymen. The partnership with Hillah SWAT has a long history explained a Coalition forces Soldier, “There is a lot of trust...