Friday, July 26, 2013

Just the Facts?: Pea Plant Growing in Man's Lung -- Band of Feral Cats Attack Woman -- From 'Lois & Clark' to 'Bigfoot Bounty'

Pea plant found growing in man's lung

A Massachusetts man who was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung came home with an unusual diagnosis: a pea plant was growing in his lung.

Ron Sveden had been battling emphysema for months when his condition deteriorated.

He was steeling himself for a cancer diagnosis when X-rays revealed the growth in his lung.

Doctors believe that Mr Sveden ate the pea at some point, but it "went down the wrong way" and sprouted.

"One of the first meals I had in the hospital after the surgery had peas for the vegetable. I laughed to myself and ate them," Mr Sveden told a local Boston TV reporter.

Mr Sveden said the plant was about half an inch (1.25cm) in size.

"Whether this would have gone full-term and I'd be working for the Jolly Green Giant, I don't know. I think the thing that finally dawned on me is that it wasn't the cancer," Mr Sveden said.

He is currently recovering at home with his wife Nancy, who joked that God must have a sense of humour. - BBC

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French woman attacked by feral cats

A band of wild cats pounced on a French woman this week and attacked her as she walked her pet dog. The traumatised woman was reportedly left with a gashed artery and bites to her arms and legs in what a vet said was an unprecedented assault.

Traditionally cats are meant to be solitary and docile creatures. But a band of feral French felines in the north-eastern French city of Belfort appears to have put that theory to bed.

The seemingly unprecedented attack happened around 7pm on Sunday at the edge of a wood in Belfort, in the north-eastern region Franche-Comté, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg, French news site l'Est Republicain reported.

The 31-year-old woman had apparently been out walking her pet poodle when she was set upon by half a dozen blood thirsty moggies.

The victim’s mother Josette Galliot described the mob attack.

"They scratched and bit my daughter and really went for her," Galliot told Est Republicain.

“They jumped on her and managed to knock her over. The wild cats bit her on the leg and on her arms. They even pierced an artery," she said.

Her daughter was then taken to hospital where she received precautionary rabies treatment. In a separate vehicle, the dog was transported to the local vet.

“My daughter thought it was a living nightmare,” the woman’s mother added. “She’s still traumatized today – and is bordering on depression.”

“The vet told us that, in his 20 years in the job, he had never seen such a thing. He couldn’t find a single explanation for the cats’ abnormal behaviour,” she said.

There has been speculation the heatwave may have caused the cats to be more aggressive than normal.

“We must get rid of this scourge,” continued Galliot. “There are too many cats in the neighbourhood, many of which are strays. There are also lots of children here. We don’t want it to happen again.” - Local

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Dean Cain to Host Spike TV's 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty

If Sasquatch exists, Dean Cain is on the hunt. The Lois & Clark star has signed on to host Spike TV's 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty, a new competition series that seeks to finally uncover the mythic forest creature.

In 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty, which premieres January 2014, nine teams of "lifelong Bigfoot hunters" and big game hunters travel through the Pacific Northwest and use a state-of-the-art mobile DNA lab to find Sasquatch. Each week they'll travel to a different Bigfoot "hot zone" in the U.S.

The cash prize is underwritten by Lloyd's of London. Cain will serve as "expedition leader." Besides Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the actor's credits also include hosting TBS' Ripley's Believe it or Not and competing in NBC's recent reality series Stars Earn Stripes. He also stars in VH1's Hit the Floor.

Spike TV ordered eight episodes of 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty, which comes from Original Media, producers of Swamp People. - TV Guide

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Aristocrat warns visitors after 'big cat' photographed on his estate

Baronet Sir Benjamin Slade believes that the creature has already killed foxes, an otter and some of his chickens, and he fears that it could go on to attack his prized pedigree sheep, a dog or even a guest.

The “beast” was photographed by the night porter at the 98-acre Maunsel House estate, near Bridgwater in Somerset, in the early hours of the morning about a fortnight ago.

The pictures are blurred but appear to show a large black animal with powerful haunches walking through a meadow of tall grass and wildflowers.

Sir Benjamin, 67, suggested that the creature might live on the nearby Somerset Levels and travel to his grounds overnight looking for food.

In recent months he and his staff have found piles of feathers from dead chickens and the mangled remains of a fox.

He is convinced that the picture shows a big cat, but admitted that it is not entirely clear.

He said: “They don’t exactly stand still and pose, which is the problem. It’s got a long tail and seemed to be quite big.

“Apparently these things will do 30 to 40 miles in a night. We are next to the Somerset Levels, which are 250 miles of fields and bogs where nobody lives.

“There is a possibility that this thing is bigger than a puma – it is probably quite frightening.

“We have put signs up telling people to keep their dogs in the car because there is a big cat about.

“We need this thing out of the way before it eats somebody. I’ve got a wedding business here and we are very worried about our guests – they might wander off piste and get gobbled up.”

Sir Benjamin said hunters up and down the country had contacted him asking if they could come to his estate to look for the cat.

“I might be able to sell the shooting rights if it goes on like this,” he jokes.

The next time a dead chicken or fox is found, he plans to take samples of hair and droppings from the scene and send them off for DNA analysis.

Danny Bamping, founder of the British Big Cats Society, said it was impossible to tell what the photograph shows.

“Like most pictures of big cats in Britain, it is inconclusive because there is no sense of scale and it is blurry,” he said.

“However, that is not to say that the person who took the picture did not think it was a big cat at the time.”

He noted that there have been a “substantial” number of reported sightings of big cats in Somerset in the past year.

The existence of big cats in the British countryside has been debated for decades. Most of the alleged sightings have come since the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976 made it illegal to keep untamed pets.

Some experts have suggested that this led to owners of exotic cats, such as pumas or lynx, simply releasing their animals into the countryside. - Telegraph

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