"The sun was just rising over Ohiwa Harbour, the tide was encroaching on the mud flats rapidly as I made my way quietly up the Kutarere Channel to clear my flounder net," writes a reader from Rotorua. "I became aware of being overtaken bytwo dark shapes. One surfaced 4m from my boat. It was an orca followed closely by a calf. I moved further into the channel to give them a wide berth when the mother orca dived, to reappear seconds later with a stingray in its mouth. It flipped the ray, chopping off the sting and tail, it then threw it in the direction of the calf, who reappeared immediately with the stingray firmly gripped and ready to chew. What an exciting few minutes - an orca teaching its young to catch stingrays."
Pythagoras' beef with bean sprouts a problem
Dubbed "the father of vegetarianism", Greek mathematician Pythagoras is credited with popularising a meatless lifestyle. But although he subsisted solely on veges, he had no love for legumes. Pythagoras refused to eat beans, and even forbade his followers from ingesting or touching them. While we don't know whether this aversion stemmed from health or religious reasons, it may have it led to his death. According to legend, he was ambushed but refused to escape by running through a bean field. (More here )
Walter Cavanagh of Santa Clara, California, holds the Guinness Book of World Records title of "Mr Plastic Fantastic" and Money revisited his story last week. Cavanagh has 1497 valid credit cards, adding up to $1.7 million in available credit. The wild stats don't end there: His custom wallet, the world's longest, stretches 76m, weighs 17.2kg and can hold only 800 of his many cards - not that he carries them around. The Los Angeles Times reported in a 2004 profile that all but one (which he uses and pays off in full each month, giving him nearly perfect credit) are kept in a safe-deposit box. To maintain his title (which he's held since 1971, per ABC News), Cavanagh has to keep amassing cards. If a card isn't valid any more, he doesn't count it as part of his collection. (Source: newser.com)
A reader received a marketing email from Macpac this morning telling her about some of their er, sale bargains.
