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A German reptile collector has been jailed for 14 weeks and must pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine for plundering New Zealand's wild gecko and skink populations, a judge has ruled. Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, is to be deported to Germany as soon as he is released from prison, Judge Colin Doherty ordered Tuesday. Kubus was caught by wildlife officials at Christchurch International Airport on South Island in December, about to board an overseas flight with 44 geckos and skinks in a hand-sewn package concealed in his underwear. He admitted trading in exploited species without a permit and...

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.

Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, Florida, is dealing with a different sort of small ground invasion: the Nile monitor lizard. These invasive reptiles—possibly former family pets or escapees from nearby breeding facilities—occasionally lumber onto the base's tarmac to soak up the sun's rays. "When you have an airplane coming in to land or take off, and you have a 6-foot [1.8-meter] reptile laying on the runway, it causes a substantial human health and safety problem," said Parker Hall, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services. Agency employees patrol the runways on a regular basis to...

Conservation authorities have started to fight back against nonnative lizards that are slowly but surely destroying the indigenous insect population on the Ogasawara island chain. The islands, which lie 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, are known as the "Galapagos Islands of the Orient" because of the many species that can be found there and nowhere else. Even in winter, the temperature on the island chain exceeds 20 degrees in the daytime. The lizards--green anoles native to the southeastern United States--seemed to have gained the upper hand, raising fears that endemic insect species could soon become extinct. To combat the destruction...

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Bailout By Joseph Lawler on 1.13.09 In a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Stephen Moore highlighted the parallels between today's economic events and those depicted in Ayn Rand's classic Atlas Shrugged. "Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that 'Atlas Shrugged' parodied in 1957," Moore wrote. Point taken: Rand was eerily prescient in predicting the encroachment of big government during this crisis. Then again, it...

More than 7,000 live monitor lizards, almost 900 owls—plucked and plastic wrapped for easy cooking—and other wild animals were seized in two raids in a single week by Malaysian officials earlier this month. Experts on illegal wildlife trade expressed astonishment at the huge number of rare owls seized. "It's the first time we've ever seen a big shipment like this of owls," said Chris Shepherd, a senior program officer for the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. The scale of both hauls indicates that Asian wildlife smuggling is growing more sophisticated, Shepherd said..."

Hope comes in all different shapes and sizes. Today it comes in the form of a lizard. The hope? That some day I may procreate and produce Bo Jr. I know it sounds impossible, especially given that I had my nads removed, but if a 111 year old lizard can slip one by the goalie, I should be able to figure out a way to do the same.

Lizards Show Proof Of Adaptive Change By STAN FREEMAN   Italian wall lizards placed on a tiny island in the Adriatic Sea evolved over three decades to adapt to their surroundings.     AMHERST, Mass. — In 1971, five pairs of Italian wall lizards were transplanted by biologists from their home island of Pod Kopiste, in the South Adriatic Sea, to the neighboring but subtly different island of Pod Mrcaru, where none lived, as an experiment in evolution.How, if at all, would these creatures change?Largely insect eaters, the half-foot long reptiles would find themselves on an island where insects were...

AMHERST, Mass. - One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby. It was an ordinary spring day at Hampshire College, except that the rodent issuing the warning was powered by amps, not acorns.

<p>U.S. game officials seized this Fiji Island banded iguana was seized from a Long Beach, California, home.</p> <p>Jereme James, 33, of Long Beach, California, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.</p>

• He's charged, too: Police say she was seeking revenge after he abused her A West Dundee woman faces felony charges in Kane County after attacking her husband's pet lizards, killing one and severely injuring the other, authorities said Friday. A grand jury this week indicted Sara Tinsley, 37, of the 500 block of South Second Street, with one count each of cruelty to animals and aggravated cruelty to animals for allegedly throwing one of the reptiles against the wall and stabbing the other with a butcher knife. Authorities say it was an act of vengeance against her husband, who...

I was trying to put some pure acetone which I just bought for 5 dollars for 32oz into my car

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will play host to Mexico President Felipe Calderón and U.S. President George W. Bush later this summer as the three North American leaders put their heads together in a Quebec resort to discuss their ongoing plans to closely integrate the continent. Founded in 2005 by U.S. President Bush and mired in controversy after it was discovered that the three leaders were meeting in secrecy, the official purpose of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was created in an effort to secure the continent against the threat of terrorism and to enhance the security,...

CAIRO, Egypt Aug. 3 — Egyptian customs agents seized 7,000 dried lizards from a Syrian passenger Saturday, airport officials said. Ahmed Mahmoud Salem, who was about to board a plane to the Jordanian capital, Amman, said he was going to mix the lizards with honey to make an aphrodisiac.He was allowed to leave. Authorities kept the lizards in Egypt. Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

'I Ate Frogs And Lizards' Updated: 13:00, Friday April 14, 2006 A man who survived nearly three months alone in the Australian outback by eating lizards and frogs has spoken of his ordeal. Ricky Megee lost half his bodyweight during his stint in the desert, when he was forced to munch leeches and grasshoppers to stay alive. The 35-year-old was discovered looking like a "walking skeleton" by farm workers. He had set off on a 3,500-mile journey to take up a new job in Port Hedland, Western Australia, but never made it to his destination. Details of how he came...

This VIDEO is absolutely HILARIOUS. However, I can sympathize with the news man. I, too, would definitely freak out if a killer lizard attacked me.

Clip from a tv special for 5th gen member konno asami. Morning Musume faces off against a giant lizard. Click Here For Video

Inauguration day 2005 marks the beginning of the next, and even more extreme, stage of the Orwellian global state. If anyone thought the first Bush term breached the realms of insanity, they'd better hold on and strap in. The new Bush cabinet is dominated to an even greater extent by the Illuminati neocon conspirators behind 9/11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the removal of basic human freedoms. The appointment of Condoleezza Rice has ensured that the State Department will be at one with the wingnuts at the Pentagon, and Stephen Hadley, the National Security Advisor, will 'advise' whatever...

CAPE CORAL -- Gregg Klowden and Zach Reffner wage war against lizards. BIG ones. In the battle to rid Southwest Florida of the 7-foot invader known as the Nile monitor, speed is essential. "The lizards can climb a tree like a shot out of hell, swim like a fish and outrun a man," said Klowden, a University of Florida-trained biologist. "They do everything but fly." These über lizards, first spotted in Cape Coral in 1990, have taken to the Florida sun so well that they're thriving. Because the rapacious reptiles are such skilled hunters, biologists worry they will devastate endangered...

<p>When it comes to laundering cold-blooded contraband, few states top Pennsylvania.</p> <p>Dogged by lax law enforcement, weak statutes and a wink-wink attitude from the industry that sells reptiles and amphibians, Pennsylvania has become what top wildlife cops nationwide call a "black hole" state -- the place to move animals illegal for sale everywhere else.</p>