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CUSTOMS officials in Norway say they had arrested a man who tried to illegally import 14 snakes and 10 lizards into the country by taping the reptiles to his body. The snakes, king pythons that are large in size but not venomous, were rolled up in socks and taped to the man's torso, while the geckos were found in small boxes taped to his legs. The unusual load was discovered during a body search after customs officials found a tarantula in the man's luggage.

In the world wide web and in the publishing world, there are conspiracy theories going about concerning topics from the Kennedy assassination, aliens, 9/11 being an inside job, Chariot of the gods, a book claiming that extraterrestrials influenced the ancient world, and corporate control over government. While some present some truth, some are fantastic and even fictitious. One such theory involves ancient history and a belief that we have not been alone in the universe for sometime. British Author and Green activist David Icke has compiled a series of books claiming that since the dawn of time, Earth has been...

Watch out, animals of South Florida: It's a wild world out there. There are five species of foreign snakes just waiting to eat you. More troublingly, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report released Tuesday, nonnative snakes like the Burmese python could slither their way north from the warm, humid conditions of South Florida. The big snakes threaten native species and ecosystems because they mature and reproduce quickly, travel long distances and can eat almost anything in fur, feathers or scales, experts say. The 302-page report could be a step toward a ban on importing constrictor-like snakes into the U.S.,...

After causing a major stir in Fall River, Mass., a roof-dwelling boa constrictor is now in custody, reported TV station WPRI. The snake had been spotted repeatedly on the roof of a multifamily dwelling in recent weeks, according to various news reports. Nine feet in length, it was eye-catching enough to bring onlookers and aspiring nature photographers to the neighborhood.

It's been about two months since Florida issued a virtual open season on giant invasive Burmese pythons gobbling up rabbits, birds and even small alligators throughout the Everglades. Now there's another nonnative stealthy stalker that could soon be taking up residence in the region — Africa's largest snake, the rock python. Three of these enormous constrictors that can grow to 20 feet and weigh 200 pounds have been found in the last few months in western Miami-Dade County, raising concerns that they could establish a breeding population, just like their Burmese cousins.

Amazing footage. Helps to have sound on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkeU9W6dC9s

Already squeezed by the invasion of the giant Burmese python, Florida now faces what one scientist calls one of the U.S. state's "worst nightmares. Africa's largest snake—the ill-tempered, 20-foot-long (6.1-meter-long) African rock python—is colonizing the U.S. state, new discoveries suggest.

It was only earlier this month that a Miami-Dade fire station was named the busiest in the nation. Now we are learning that the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Antivenom Unit is one of the most respected in the world. On Saturday, after a 3-year-old girl in Iraq was bitten by a saw-scaled viper, American military officials placed a call to Capt. Ernie Jillson, head of the antivenom unit as well as a military reservist. Jillson, who was tending to his lawn in Davie, consulted with doctors and told them that because their patient was a small girl they needed to administer...

HARTFORD, Conn. — Police say two pet baby snakes escaped from a 20-year-old man's pants pockets as he was driving, leading to a car crash in Hartford, Connecticut. Angel Rolon, of New Britain, allegedly lost control of his sport utility vehicle on Monday when the snakes slithered near the gas and brake pedals and he and a passenger tried to catch them.

A Taiwanese man became a sitting target for a snake, which bit his groin as sat on the toilet at his rural home, local media reported on Monday. "As soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up," the China Times said. "When he looked down, he saw the big snake." The 51-year-old man, from Nantou County, was under medical care with minor injuries, a director at Puli Christian Hospital said. "As soon as he has passed the risk of infection, he can go," the director, who declined to be named, said....

THE HILL COUNTRY — This is a tale of two snakes, both rattlesnakes, crotalus atrox, and why they got to live. One big reason they're still among the living is that they got lucky when they decided to crawl across the road as I was going by. And although they acted somewhat differently — one was extremely shy and tried only to sneak away and hide; the other was slightly more aggressive and rattled as he slid into the rocks to disappear — neither of them wanted to bite anybody, and that saved their bacon.

The sight of a severed snake's head under his broccoli made Jack Pendleton lose interest in dessert. Pendleton said he found the head, the size of the end of his thumb, while eating Sunday at the T.G.I. Friday's in Clifton Park. The chain restaurant said it regrets the appetite-killing error. Pendleton said he has no plans to sue. Pendleton said he ordered vegetables instead of fries with his chicken sandwich. When he started to eat his broccoli, he saw something gray on the plate he at first thought was a mushroom. "I start to turn it over. I see this...

2 flights canceled, but reptile expert fails to find non-venomous creaturesFour baby pythons escaped from a container aboard a passenger plane in Australia, leading to a search that forced the cancellation of two flights, the airline said Thursday. Twelve non-venomous Smitten pythons were being transported Tuesday on a flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne in the plane's cargo area in a bag inside a plastic foam box with air holes. When the flight landed, it was discovered that four snakes had escaped from the package, a Qantas spokeswoman said in a statement. A reptile expert searched for the 6-inch-long snakes...

The research could help prevent people dying New research by a Bangor university student has found that the diet of poisonous snakes affects its venom strength. Axel Barlow's discovery means that anti-venom can be developed specific to a certain snake's location or diet. His studies into saw-scaled vipers, which have evolved to eat scorpions, found that they also had venom which was more lethal to scorpions. Researchers hope the information will lead to fewer snake bite deaths. The research was done as part of a final-year paper on saw-scaled vipers by Mr Barlow. Anti-venom treatment He said the significance of...

Jeff Stafford's buddy owes him a few beers — and 41 brews would still be a bargain for the colony of bull snakes Stafford found slithering in the crawl space of friend's townhome in Westminster Sunday. The 25-year-old banker had stopped by his friend's place near Federal Boulevard and West 112th Avenue to say "hi." He was wearing flip flops. His friend, who asked to remain anonymous, was tending to a leaky pipe beneath the home, while Stafford chatted with his friend's wife. "Thirty seconds later I heard what sounded like the yelp of a small, frightened child," Stafford said...

Some 1,000 snake charmers have staged a rally in eastern India, protesting against a law that has made their profession illegal.Playing their flutes, they marched in the city of Calcutta, demanding the right to perform with live snakes.Shows featuring cobras and other snakes have been banned in India since 1991.Snake charmers say the ban threatens the survival of their way of life. Animal rights groups say it should be kept to curb the abuse of snakes.

The president-elect's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, failed to show up as expected at the Chicago presidential transition offices. Reporters, who had wanted to ask questions about contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, immediately set out on a search for him but to no avail. According to an unsubstantiated report, a MSBBC News cameraman was in the Green Room and saw Emanuel double dipping the meatballs into the sweet and sour sauce. After a few rounds, he thought the congressman looked a bit pekid. He even imagined that he heard the Obama appointee mumble, “Why, why, why?” In the mean...

Calculations by the British Federation of Herpetologists (BFH) indicate that there are now as many as eight million reptiles and amphibians being kept as pets in the UK. This compares to an estimated dog population of 6.5 million. The growth in reptile numbers is so rapid that within years they will overtake the country's nine million cats to become Britain's most popular pets. Chris Newman, chairman of the Federation, said: "There are now, without question, more pet reptiles than pet dogs in the UK. You only have to look at the way the market has grown. I have no doubt...

Police are investigating whether a satanic cult could be responsible for a series of bizarre occurrences at a Jensen Beach church...The Rev. James Moligano of St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church told WPBF News 25's Terri Parker on Friday that he has reason to believe a satanic cult is behind the recent theft of a book of prayers, the attempted theft of some communion wafers during a service and the appearance of snakes outside the church.

With the nomination of the "anointed" one, it was clear to Democrats that the economy would be a better center piece for the upcoming campaign than Iraq. Their candidate had no real national security qualifications and the surge was working. Enter Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. Always, a hound for publicity, Sen. Schumer made public a letter he wrote to the Office of Thrift Supervision in June questioning the solvency of the California based IndyMac Bank.

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Oct. 21, 2008 – As a gentle wind swept across the tops of the overgrown stalks of vegetation here, the beauty masked the field’s true nature. Beneath the stalks of reeds lies a minefield, and in the middle of the field is a creek that floods annually. Australian servicemembers Maj. David Bergman and Gunnery Sgt. Brian Lee watch the progress of a controlled burn of a field at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. The field was burned to allow de-mining operations to begin in the area and to clean out a creek vital to two local villages. U.S....

A teenage girl in Australia awoke when a snake slithered into her bed, wrapped itself around her neck and bit her on the arm. Ashlee Findlay, 16, who is afraid of snakes, spiders and centipedes, spent two hours at a hospital after the attack, the Northern Territory News reported Tuesday. The receptionist said she would be haunted by the incident. "Everyone was a bit freaked," she said.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd was spitting nails Tuesday at the Bush administration, blaming its deregulatory philosophy for fostering abuses that have put financial markets in crisis. "It's important to note that these events that we talked about are not natural disasters. They happened, in my view, because of mismanagement and deregulation that occurred on basically an eight-year-old coffee break by the administration," Dodd said during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol. The Connecticut senator briefed reporters Tuesday on what steps he is taking to address what he described as a deepening economic crisis that at...

[clip]Eating snake Who is Barack Obama? The best clues to that riddle can be gleaned from his two volumes of autobiography. He spent the first half of his life in search of a stable identity. He looked “black”. But he was the son of a white mother from Kansas and an African, rather than an African-American, father from Kenya. He spent four years in Indonesia, where he attended local schools (including a Muslim one) and ate local delicacies such as dog, grasshopper and snake, on which his stepfather fed him. He eventually ended up living with his white grandparents in...

The smallest species of snake ever discovered lives on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The new species is called Leptotyphlops carlae. It may look like a little worm, but a newly discovered creature has earned a spot in the record books: It is the smallest species of snake known on Earth.

Huckabee: Alright I'm strapped into the chair. The IV's are inserted. I'm ready for execution. Hey are those snakes in the studio? Oh I'm glad I'm not in there with them. I hate those things. Here's a better idea.. why don't you take a 45 caliber glock and blow their head off. http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Harry_Shearer/Found_Objects/FoundObjectsMikeHuckabee_549.aspx

MIDDLESBORO — Conservation officers on Thursday arrested 10 Kentuckians — including one Middlesboro pastor — and confiscated more than 125 venomous snakes. Officers expect to issue more than 700 charges following a two-year undercover investigation focused on the illegal possession, importation, buying and selling of reptiles in Kentucky. Gregory James Coots, 36, of Middlesboro was among those arrested. Coots faces more than 150 charges of illegally buying, selling and possessing wildlife. Officers seized 74 snakes from his Middlesboro home. Among them were 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff...

Quick little story showing that I’m not the only one who doesn’t listen to his owner. Thankfully for a Bridgeport, Ct police officer, neither do snakes. (Police officers in Bridgeport, Connecticut, responded Tuesday to a report of domestic disturbance. Apparently, 21-year-old Victor Rodriguez was threatening his girlfriend with his pet python. As the officers entered...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Columbia police say a man was robbed after he met a man, intending to sell him some snakes. Officers say on May 23, 20-year-old Javaris Praylow told the victim to meet him at a parking lot on School House Road. CPD spokesman Brick Lewis says the victim was trying to sell two snakes, and Praylow told the victim he would buy them. When the victim arrived at around 12:45am, Lewis says Praylow and an accomplice robbed and shot the victim with a shotgun. The victim is currently in stable condition, according to Lewis. Warrants have been...

GAINESVILLE, Fla., May 24 (UPI) -- Burmese pythons are multiplying rapidly in the Everglades and moving north in Florida and south to the Keys, a University of Florida researcher says. Frank Mazzoti said the pythons can live anywhere alligators can, which would include all of Florida and swamp areas in Georgia and Louisiana, Science Daily reported.

MIAMI (AFP) - Giant pythons capable of swallowing a dog and even an alligator are rapidly making south Florida their home, potentially threatening other southeastern states, a study said. "Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, including north Florida, Georgia and Louisiana," said Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor, in his two-year study. The pythons thriving in Florida are mostly Burmese pythons from Myanmar that were brought over as pets and then turned loose in the wild. From 2002-2005, 201 of the beasts were caught by state authorities, but in the last two...

Last week I received the following e-mail, and I felt it would be best to share my response here on the blog. Dear Mr. White, For someone considering converting to Catholicism, what questions would you put to them in order to discern whether or not they have examined their situation sufficiently? Say, a Top 10 list. Thanks. When I posted this question in our chat channel a number of folks commented that it was in fact a great question, and we started to throw out some possible answers. Here is my "Top Ten List" in response to this fine inquiry....

McLEAN, VA (NBC) - A Virginia man is recovering after finding a deadly surprise in his luggage. Andy Bacas was hospitalized after a snake he said he found in his suitcase bit the palm of his hand. Arlington County Fire and Rescue was called Bacas' home after the snake bite. Bacas, an Arlington County Public Schools coach, was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he spent the night. He is in fair condition. Bacas had just returned from a bus trip to a camp in Summerton, South Carolina with the Yorktown High School boys' crew team he coaches, and the...

An Arlington man was in stable condition yesterday in Inova Fairfax Hospital after reaching into his luggage and being bitten by a snake. Officials have not determined how the reptile — preliminarily identified as a juvenile canebrake rattlesnake — got into the luggage. The man, identified by authorities only as a coach at Yorktown High School, told fire and rescue personnel that he felt a sharp pain upon reaching into his luggage after returning from a team trip to South Carolina. Upon seeing the nearly foot-long snake, the man quickly slammed shut the luggage with the snake inside, said Chief...

DUBLIN, Texas - Another day, another bizarre world record for Jackie Bibby, the "Texas Snake Man." Bibby spent about 45 minutes in a see-through bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes Monday, fully clothed, shattering his own record by 12 snakes just in time for Guinness World Records Day, which is Thursday. A Guinness official certified the record. The snakes crawled under his arms, between his legs and anywhere else they could slither, Bibby said. None bit him. "They can go wherever they want as long as they don't start biting," Bibby said. "The key to not biting is for me to stay...

They're common in other parts of the country. But in New Jersey, the lowly corn snake and northern pine snake are rare enough to get state protection, and the ability to halt development projects in an already crowded state. The mere sight of the snakes _ common elsewhere in the country, and even kept as pets _ spurs government bureaucracy into action when it involves a piece of Garden State land slated for development. The sighting of three corn snakes caused enough additional requirements from the New Jersey Pinelands Commission that Bob Meyer recently gave up plans to develop a...

Burmese pythons are particularly popular for about $40 wholesale or just under $100 in a pet store, at about the size of a ruler. You feed a little one mice, and then rats, and then as it continues to grow in size and appetite, you offer up chickens and rabbits, the experts say. You watch your snakeling graduate in about three years to a length of 10 or 12 feet, or longer. Ultimately it can reach 20 feet, and the heavyweights tip the scales at about 300 pounds, and live to about 25 years. Their defacatory production is renowned. And...

Most people run from snakes. But some, like Chris O’Bryan, run to them. "Sometimes there’s a snake in here," O’Bryan said, checking undergrowth at Steele Creek Park. The snake had vacated, but the day was not a total loss – he bagged an elusive cave salamander moments later, which was enough for O’Bryan, who is not a snake hunter but a herpetologist, someone who studies reptiles. And he has plenty of curiosity for any he finds. Poised and precociously articulate, O’Bryan, at 18, already has years of experience – including television exposure – in the naturalism field. Herpetology is an...

Standing up for snakes BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published April 21, 1996.) A question that more and more Americans are asking, as they become increasingly fed up with crime, is: What, exactly, are the legal rights of accused snakes? Consider the case of a snake that recently ran afoul of the law in Virginia. According to a story in the Fredericksburg, Va., Free Lance-Star, written by Keith Epps and sent in by alert reader Venetia Sims, this particular snake, a four-foot Burmese python identified only as ''a Spotsylvania County snake,'' was apprehended by an...

Covering all the bases: snakes!!!!

Because he stands in the shadows of Luther and Calvin, Zwingli (1484-1531) gets overlooked often. His writings can be difficult to track down. One can go to the local bookstore and get a Calvin or Luther bio or anthology, but you’ll do a lot searching to actually get a Zwingli book. When you do read Zwingli, it becomes apparent that he was not on par with either Luther or Calvin. I’ve always wanted to read Zwingli discussing his Mariology. For the most part, the only people who seem to “care” about Zwingli’s Mariology are Roman Catholics. And really, they probably...

Summary A crucial starting point in an appraisal of the Roman Catholic church is to understand some of the unique sociological features of contemporary Catholicism. Erroneous classifications of Catholicism frequently fail to grasp the significant diversity within the church. While the church's unity is of central importance, Catholicism possesses incredible diversity — the church is anything but monolithic. This diversity is illustrated by the six major theological types of Catholics: ultratraditionalist, traditionalist, liberal, charismatic/evangelical, cultural, and popular folk. A Protestant appraisal of Catholicism should then examine the areas of genuine doctrinal agreement between Catholicism and Protestantism (especially evident in the...

I didn’t know that the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin’s daughter Bindi was such a media star. However, at a recent press conference at the National Press Club, the charming eight-year-old was asked: You’ve been doing all these interviews, right? All week long...How do reporters compare to like poisonous snakes? Bindi’s absolutely adorable response (video available here courtesy of our friend at Ms Underestimated): Um. I don’t want to offend anyone here. Okay? I really don’t want to offend anyone, but, um…Okay, so please, nobody be offended…I think I like poisonous snakes!

It sounds like something straight out of a video game: A snake collects toxin by biting a poisonous toad and uses that venom as a defense against hawks and other predators. But that is exactly what researchers say the Asian snake Rhabdophis tigrinus does, based on studies of glandular fluid from hatchlings and adult snakes on two Japanese islands. Some R. tigrinus snakes carry toxins called bufadienolides in their nuchal glands, sacks located under a ridge of skin along their upper necks. When threatened, they arch their necks, exposing the poisonous ridge to an antagonist. The clawing and biting of...

TALMEY EL'AZAR, Israel, Jan 25 (Reuters Life!) - Hold the Dead Sea salts and tea-tree oil. An Israeli health and beauty spa has introduced a new treatment to its menu -- snake massage. For 300 shekels ($70), clients at Ada Barak's spa in northern Israel can add a wild twist to their treatment by having six non-venomous but very lively serpents slither and hiss a path across their aching muscles and stiff joints. "I'm actually afraid of snakes, but the therapeutic effects are really good," customer Liz Cohen told Reuters Television as Barak let the snakes loose on her body....

In 1973, Eric Karl Swenson was ordained in the Presbyterian Church and went to work doing what he’d always dreamed of: ministering to a congregation of the Southern Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. More than 20 years later, one dream almost ended when another began. When the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta discovered in 1996 that Swenson had finally fulfilled another lifelong desire—having sex-change surgery to become a woman—it started proceedings to revoke Swenson’s ordination.At the time of her “transition,” Swenson did not resist the church’s questions nor blame its reluctance. “I had been in the closet for 30 years, learning to...

One thousand one hundred and four years ago a criminal trial took place in Italy, a trial so macabre, so gruesome, so frightful that it easily qualifies as the strangest and most terrible trial in human history. At this trial, called the Cadaver Synod, a dead pope wrenched from the grave was brought into a Rome courtroom, tried in the presence of a successor pope, found guilty, and then, in the words of Horace K. Mann's The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (1925), "subjected to the most barbarous violence." For the past several centuries the papacy...

THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY A Roman Catholic Dogma Originating with Heretics and Condemned as Heretical by 2 Popes in the 5th and 6th Centuries. The Roman Catholic doctrine of the assumption of Mary teaches that she was assumed body and soul into heaven either without dying or shortly after death. This extraordinary claim was only officially declared to be a dogma of Roman Catholic faith in 1950, though it had been believed by many for hundreds of years. To dispute this doctrine, according to Rome’s teaching, would result in the loss of salvation. The official teaching of the Assumption comes...

FAITH COMES BY HEARING--NT ON MP3 [SOLA SCRIPTURA PROVEN] By Quix with appendixes from the FCBH website Pastor Brent, of our church—DESERT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY CHURCH—has partnered with FAITH COMES BY HEARING (FCBH) to collect $25,000 to translate the NT into a South American language. The Seranon sp? people group have had written Scriptures since the late 1800’s as I recall. But the vast majority (90%?) of the population are illiterate. The organization brings together the copyright holders of at least one major Bible translation with the means and resources of translating Scripture into language groups where there is no Scripture...

BEIJING - China has come up with an earthquake prediction system which relies on the behavior of snakes, state media said on Thursday, two days after two quakes struck off neighboring Taiwan. The earthquake bureau in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi autonomous region in southern China, had developed its system using a combination of natural instinct and modern technology, the China Daily newspaper said. Experts at the bureau monitor snakes at local snake farms via video cameras linked to a broadband Internet connection. The video feed runs 24 hours per day. "Of all the creatures on Earth, snakes are perhaps...