Forget Hollywood. Real tragedy has beset a New Brunswick family whose two young brothers were killed by a python that escaped from the ground floor pet store, "slithered into a ventilation shaft" and upstairs into the room where the boys, aged five and seven, slept.
According to the article in the Huffington Post, the incident involving a large African rock python, which occurred in the apartment above Reptile Ocean in Campbellton, has left even reptile experts perplexed.
"It’s strange, I’m just trying to piece it together,” said facilities manager of the Ontario reptile zoo Reptilia, Lee Parker. “They don't go on killing sprees … it doesn't make sense to me."
The pythons aren't typically aggressive, though such attacks do occur. The same type of snake apparently swallowed a 10-year-old boy in Durban, South Africa back in 2002. Another three-year-old boy died after another rock python escaped from a reptile zoo in Illinois.
RCMP claim the snake in this case was between 3.5 and 4.5 metres long, weighing around 45 kg, so it was just over the legal length in the province of three metres.
But different communities have different regulations when it comes to pet reptiles. Some restrict according to length, while others ban certain types, such as pythons and boa constrictors.
"We don't recommend people keep large snakes as pets because of the potential threats," said Parker. "Burmese pythons, anacondas, boa constrictors … these are dangerous pets."
Although attacks are rare, these pet snakes get released into the wild, becoming an invasive species, as is the case right now in Florida, where there is an abundance pythons. One competition saw some 68 snakes caught and destroyed in the area.
The bottom line: if you are considering a snake as a pet, do your homework. Never handle or feed a snake unattended. Ensure you have a heavy-duty enclosure.
In New Brunswick, one family will never get their kids back. The RCMP are investigating, but so far no charges have been pressed.
Spill it: Do you think snakes should be kept as pets?
It's the pet peeve of the 21st century. You're out with a friend or colleague and they keep clutching their phone to check out a text or tweet while you're in the thralls of a perfectly good conversation.
Now that irksome habit has a name: phubbing. Inappropriate use of devices at inappropriate times and venues, such as weddings and other social settings. Snubbing via cellphone.
According to an article in the Guardian, anti-phubbing is already something of a movement, coined last month by 23-year-old Alex Haigh from Melbourne.
If phubbing gets your goat, then get involved. Download some "Stop Phubbing" posters to distribute to your favourite restaurants and haunts. You can even "Shame a Phubber" within your own social circle by "uploading an incriminating photograph to the site." And you can visit the gallery to see which celebs are notorious phubbers.
OK, so the site isn't the most serious political movement. But behind the joke is a credible message: be considerate and cognizant of your fellow human beings. Yes, even if that means not answering your phone at times like these...
Is phubbing bothersome or an inevitable sign of the times?
Those of you freaked out by GM foods, look away. On the back of an economist's controversial declaration that this food is the most nutritious and affordable going, the burger gets another look in. This time it's a beef patty like no other—made exclusively of synthetic meat.
The meat is made from the cells of a dead cow, and is the brainchild of Mark Post, a medical physiologist from the Netherlands. Yum. Before you all rush out to sink your teeth into the 5oz science experiment, consider the cost: around £250,000 ($400,000CD).
According to an article in the Independent, the 'in vitro' burger may well be the answer to the world's food crisis, which in turn translates to an global crisis since rearing cattle "could easily lead to the conversion of much of the world's remaining forests to barren, manicured pastures by the end of this century."
The Independent articles estimates that the average Briton eats about 85kg of meat a year, "which roughly translates into 33 chickens, one pig, three-quarters of a sheep and a fifth of a cow." Even for the most devout carnivore such figures are hard to swallow. Our diet clearly isn't sustainable.
While the first burger will be cooked and consumed in a live demonstration next week, scientists predict the meat won't become available in supermarkets for another five to 10 years, assuming it gains approval from food standards agencies. With its more ethical origins, though, test tube beef may even convert hardened vegetarians.
The environmental impact of using stem cell beef is obviously huge, but could you bring yourself to eat something grown in a lab?
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