GQ: The Man Who Sailed His House. On the third day after the Japanese tsunami, after the waves had left their destruction, as rescue workers searched the ruins, news came of an almost surreal survival: Nine miles out at sea, a man had been found alone, riding on nothing but the roof of his house. [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Oct 13, 2011 -
19 comments
Saving Valentina. A group of five friends out boating on the Sea of Cortez discovered a young humpback
whale entangled in fishing net and possibly near death. After about an hour of hard work they were able to free the whale, who proceeded to put on an amazing show for her rescuers.
[Via]
posted by homunculus
on Jul 14, 2011 -
43 comments
Libya: Six injured as US team botches rescue of downed airmen. 'US forces sent into Libya to rescue two downed American airmen botched the mission by shooting and wounding friendly villagers who had come to help, witnesses have said. Libyans who went to investigate the US warplane's crash site said that a US helicopter had come in with guns firing, creating panic and wounding onlookers, some of whom had to be taken to hospital; one 20-year-old man is expected to have his leg amputated.'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword
on Mar 22, 2011 -
127 comments
You didn't much like
Raptorize and were hoping for something about real raptors (not F-22 fighters), therefore I am pleased to give you the goods on
Birds of Prey. Raptors are
birds that hunt (or scavenge) for meat, not plant life, and share several
physical traits (although they can vary in size from
miniature (pygmy) owls to
Andean condors).
Eagles and
hawks (
accipitridae), among the
largest birds of prey in the United States),
falcons (
falconidae),
condors,
harriers,
kites,
ospreys (
pandionidae),
owls (
tytonidae and
strigidae),
secretary birds (
sagittariidae) and
vultures (
cathartidae) are all raptors; all have hooked beaks,
fantastic visual
acuity and
sharp talons. The word raptor comes from the Latin
rapere (to seize),
apt description of their
hunting style. Raptor
breeders abound, as do raptor associations (quite a list at the
Global Raptor Information Network).
Rescue and
rehabilitation organizations
nurse injured raptors back to health; you can
Adopt-a-Bird, and even donate regularly to help the birds via your very own
Raptor Center Credit Card. Failing that, you can always
help others
learn more about
conservation of these
magnificent and
beautiful creatures. And if you are super keen, you can attend the
Winter Raptor Fest 2011.
[more inside]
posted by bwg
on Dec 14, 2010 -
22 comments
...and there was just rope everywhere--it went around the whales mouth, around the whale's head, across her eye, over her back wrapped around the pectoral fins, all the way down to its tail. I thought there was no hope, there was no chance, we're looking at a dead whale, the whale just doesn't know it yet--but I knew that I had to try. ...It was a very surreal moment looking down and seeing the 20 crab traps and buoys just disappear into the abyss... And just like that, the whale was gone. ...I'm spinning around, where'd she go, where'd she go ? ...Now here's where the story takes a pretty startling turn. ...Next thing I know there's this fifty ton whale coming right at me...
From about 4:00 to 14:30 in nearly 23 minutes of the segment,
Animal Blessings--in
mp3 here, all 20 megs of it. Or you can try the podcast at
RadioLab: Animal Minds. Either way, you are in for a most truly awesome anecdote. And listen to the whole program to have some back and forth science dropped on you in regards to what we think we know about what and how animals think.
[more inside]
posted by y2karl
on May 26, 2010 -
69 comments
Not for want of a glove: first person video of a skier buried, then rescued from an avalanche. He also got very lucky to be honest. In the time that he's buried, you can hear his breathing already accelerate. The ruffling noise back and forth is his chest rising and falling and the noise that his jacket makes. The intermittent whimpering noise you hear is him trying to swallow and get some air since the avalung wasn't fully in his mouth and instead just to the corner of his mouth. Avalanche at 1:19. Blue sky and view of the rescuers starts at 6:07.
posted by maudlin
on Sep 27, 2009 -
42 comments
Tigers and leopards and pumpkins, oh my! (Metacafe video, will autoplay on page load). So your little kittycat loves cantaloupe, eh? Then you should see how these rescued big cats descend upon the leftover Halloween pumpkins and assorted gourds distributed to them each year. (
via)
posted by maudlin
on May 11, 2009 -
42 comments
"Girl, he died a hero with tons of people loving him." A jack-of-all-trades worker from Florida came to Houston to help clean up in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, and was
killed while trying to save three dogs on a freeway. At first, it seemed the man, while praised as a
local hero, and receiving tons of support in death from animal lovers, would remain an unknown
loner in death as he had been in life. Then a Google search and an exchange of e-mails led one Houston woman to the man's daughter, living in Pittsburgh. The young woman had been searching for her father for thirteen years.
posted by WolfDaddy
on Oct 8, 2008 -
37 comments
Above Enemy Lines (youtube
1,
2,
3,
4,
5) is a BBC Documentary about a
RAF Chinook crew on their tour of duty in Afghanistan. Part 4 and 5 of the film deal with the crew attempting to rescue a wounded 19 year-old soldier from a combat zone.
posted by krautland
on Sep 8, 2008 -
7 comments
Are
you looking for a nice, big kitty to let into your heart?
Princess Chunk, at 44 pounds, might fit the bill nicely. Just
two pounds shy of the world's record, the pudgy kitty was roaming sans collar in Voorhees, NJ and is now in good hands at the
Camden County Animal Shelter. Chunker's owners have until Saturday to claim their big pal - after that, this big quarterback of a kitty is ready for a loving home.
posted by porn in the woods
on Jul 30, 2008 -
61 comments
Saved By Jesus! Incrediable story out of the Arizona desert. I just feel really bad for the kid in all this. And wonder how both sides of the immigration debate will handle this.
posted by ShawnString
on Nov 23, 2007 -
80 comments
Fifty years ago today, the bodies of
Jean Vincendon and François Henry were finally being brought back to Chamonix. The two young mountaineers had set-off for the ascent of Mont-Blanc and found themselves blocked in an ice storm on their way down. A rescue team found them several days later, sitting on the glacier by temperatures of -30°C at 4000 meters of altitude. They were alive,
photographed even, but could not be brought down and died later on, abandoned in the wreckage of the old Sikorsky rescue helicopter which had crashed beside them. The operation fiasco caused a total reorganization of the mountain rescue service in France.
posted by rom1
on Mar 19, 2007 -
6 comments
Rescuers plan biggest search yet, using helicopters, a C-130 aircraft, infrared equipment, and scores of volunteers to search for 3 climbers trapped on Mt. Hood. But at what cost in dollars and lives? A 1998 rescue of two climbers on Mt. McKinley cost $221,818. And
Mt. Hood is no stranger to climbing accidents: in 2002, an Air Force helicopter
crashed [youtube] while trying to rescue nine climbers swept into a crevasse. Is it time to revisit the debate over who should pay for dangerous, high-profile mountain rescues?
[More inside]
posted by googly
on Dec 16, 2006 -
204 comments
Horse Rescue in the Netherlands--after a heavy storm in October, 100+ horses were standed on a small island. Here's how they were rescued.
Google video; alternate YouTube link. Warning: Vangelis music.
posted by fandango_matt
on Nov 29, 2006 -
43 comments
Allen, 24, and Brandon Day, 28, of Dallas, were in Southern California for a financial convention. They got lost Saturday west of Palm Springs after wandering off a trail during what was supposed to be a day hike. [On the third day] they discovered a campsite in a dead-end gorge. Day and Allen were elated, thinking someone there could help them find the way out. But something was wrong. A radio and flashlight were corroded. They realized the place was deserted.
``His last journal entry was one year ago to the day that we found it, which was very eerie,' Day said. ``Nobody knew where he was, nobody knew to come looking for him, so he was preparing for the end. We were looking at the words of a man who was passing.'
The
missing man was
John Donovan, who had disapeared a year earlier while hiking the pacific crest trail.
"Even in his death, he was helping people," Donovan's longtime friend, Chris Hook, said from Richmond, Virginia.
posted by 445supermag
on May 11, 2006 -
26 comments
Yesterday morning in Florida, the landing gear on a student-piloted Cessna failed to lock into place. After the plane circled for an hour, the airport president drove a Jeep underneath the plane at 80 mph while his passenger took a stick and knocked the wheels into place. And that, as they say in the business, was
caught on tape.
posted by Saucy Intruder
on Sep 17, 2005 -
48 comments
German police revive rabbit "....by breathing through a ball point pen after he passed out in a house fire.....officers opened Napoleon's mouth with a pen and breathed down it while giving the pet a cardio massage, a police spokesman said on Saturday....The officers then rushed [ the rabbit ] by police car to a vet."
posted by troutfishing
on Jul 13, 2004 -
17 comments
Maryland Rescuers Find a Kitten and Look for Justice "In an act of cruelty that recalls last year's road-rage death of a California pooch named Leo, a driver in Poolesville dropped a 10-week-old kitten into the middle of busy Route 107 on Christmas and then took off. Somehow, the animal was not hit by traffic. But in its fright, it darted toward the curb and into a storm drain. And there it likely would have died if not for the lengthy effort of several do-gooders -- one of whom crawled 30 feet through a storm pipe to grab the two-pound bundle of fur. That's an unquestionably happy ending. For chief rescuer Ellie Truman[e], though, the ending won't be complete until the man who abandoned the kitten so egregiously is identified and charged." (Even the Washington Post loves kitten stories!)
posted by Carol Anne
on Dec 29, 2001 -
7 comments
Proof that there are some brilliant teenage girls out there. This robotic rescue device was created by a couple of teenaged twin sisters, no less. Just imagine what these two will accomplish by the time they reach adulthood. The Craig sisters make excellent alternative role models to the likes of Britney and Christina. You go, girls.
posted by jonmc
on Dec 19, 2001 -
24 comments
