Image backlog clearing
 

Once again, a set that is interesting but maybe not quite interesting enough for the daily imges.

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These guys are quarantined, reminding us that not only are regular livestock prone to foot and mouth, but all animals. And that includes humans. It was recently announced that if you lived in England for three months or more, between 1980-1999, you can't give blood in the US. I lived there from 1977-78 so I can still give.

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An interesting shot of an erupting volcano in Java. Just not interesting enough for IotD.

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Apparently about a hundred people mooned Bush all at once during his Euro visit. Not enough of them are shown to make it a good IotD.

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Evacuation of large areas of Florida, during forest fires, meant that these sand hill cranes were free to trot across a major highway without getting flattened.

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Another one of those "awwww" shots, this dog has adopted these cubs, and hopefully will give them a better upbringing than that chilean kid.

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Can Aibo robots be taught to play soccer? It's a better use for them than just being expensive pets.

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This is (was?) the oldest Frenchwoman. I don't remember the age; I think it was something like 116. (Don't ask me how they tell if she is still alive.)

LOL! The old lady looks like the picture of the Lizardman you put up before Tony!

Re: Image backlog clearing
 

I hope they don't try to keep the mom dog and the tiger cubs together once the tigers are grown. Tigers are apparently really unpredictable. There have been a number of cases of tigers, raised from cubs by humans, who, once they were adults, attacked, killed, and ate their human 'owners' for no obvious reason. Lions, too, have been raised from cubs, and similar incidents regarding lions do occur, but seem to be quite rare. Full grown tigers, though, are very dangerous, even if you have raised them from a cub.

I find that very interesting. There are marked psychological differences between wild animals and domesticated ones. Raising a wolf cub won't turn him into a dog. Dogs said to be descended from wolves and golden jackels, but their personalities are 'doggish' of tens of thousands of years of selective breeding by humans, in which dogs who exhibited aggressive behavior towards their owners were killed, hopefully before they could breed.

Maybe if primitive man had domesticated tigers, we'd have safe tigers today.

In a sense, we did domesticate the tiger, or soemthing similar. The domestic cat is descendent from bobcat-like animals and other small cats, who in turn came from teh same basic source as the lion. So there you are.

PS There still is no such thing as a safe cat. They are all inherently evil and, when they learn to use the can opener, they will destroy us.

actually she should be around 120+ years old. i remember reading about her a few years ago and she was already 120 then!

<rant>in this day and age i am not sure if i even WANT to live to be that age! (unless i am part cyborg by then *g*)</rant>

Not all tigers
 

I remember seeing that picture of the dog with the tigers. What is interesting is that the cat on the far right isn't a tiger, but one of the other "cats" - If I remember right, a cheetah

Well, there was Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997 at age 122. The two after her were respectively from Quebec and Pennsylvania. But the picture that I saw of Calment does not look like the woman in the picture that Tony has. Perhaps it was taken when she was...ummm...younger? ;) According to this website though--http://www.delphis.dm/mapampo.htm , the oldest woman in the world is at 126 and lives in Dominica.

The lady in the picture was Marie Bremont (Apr. 25, 1886-June 6, 2001), who was 115 years old. She was the Guinness "world's oldest person" from Nov. 2, 2000 until her death on June 6, 2001.
Yes, she was from France, and no, she was not Jeanne Calment (Feb. 21, 1875-Aug. 4, 1997) who was the Guinness world's oldest person from Feb. 14, 1991 to Aug. 4, 1997, when she died at 122. Did it ever occur to anyone that more than one "world's oldest person" could be from France? It's the wine, by the way.

As for the Dominican lady, that can has not been accepted (they don't have a birth certificate or marriage certificate). You can believe that one at your own judgment--just like you can believe in Santa Claus.

Re: Image backlog clearing
 

Reminds me of The Great Outdoors with John Candy and Dan Aykroyd.

I'm not actually certain that the old lady is in fact still alive in the picture ... looks like of like she's propped up there ...

Worlds Oldest Lady
 

Ironically enough, I'm in the middle of reading Bram Stoker's Dracula.

George Lucas at work here?