From The Cab

Welcome to ....

2012-01-21T18:39:00.006+11:00

Like all bus drivers, taxi drivers and barbers I've got an opinion on everything and I'm not averse to shoving that opinion down the throats of anyone who's silly enough to venture in my direction.

So - now you're here - you've obviously got nothing better to do so you can check out my expert opinion on just about everything that’s ever happened in the world if you like, simply by clicking on a title to the bottom right of the sidebar menu.

If your brain's not in gear, however, you might like to browse through the photo galleries and be amazed at how many daft people there are in the world, or at the awful things we do to each other, or how dangerous it actually is to live on this planet (the galleries are at the top of the menu).

Yes, I know, it's all unbelievably fantastic, isn't it? … particularly as it won't cost you anything, except a bit of your time (which would probably be spent doing something illegal anyway).

If you want to abuse me or to claim copyright on any of the photographs (most of which, unfortunately, were received by me without credit or acknowledgment) then just e-mail me at: gemsim@excite.com and I'll either abuse you back, or adjust the acknowledgment on the photo as required.

THANKS FOR DROPPING IN

25 January 2012 - CHRISTMAS (All Things Festive)

25 January 2012 - IT TAKES ALL SORTS (Unusual People)

25 January 2012 - SIGNS OF THE TIMES (Useful Little Buggers Are Signs)

25 January 2012 - ACCIDENTS (Car Accidents)

25 January 2012 - BEFORE & AFTER (From Black To White)

25 January 2012 - DOGS (Dogs In Cars)

25 January 2012 - MAN'S INHUMANITY (Images Of The Holocaust)

15 January 2012 - OLD AGE (Oldies With Attitude)

15 January 2012 - DEATH (Dead Funny)

15 January 2012 - MISCELLANY (Random Pictures)

15 January 2012 - FOOD & DRINK (Food Oddities)

15 January 2012 - CAUGHT ON CAMERA (Caught In The Act)

15 January 2012 - MEDIA (Weird Newspaper Stories)

15 January 2012 - DID THEY MEAN THAT? (Or Weren't Their Minds On The Job?)

12 January 2012 - OH SHIT! MOMENTS (Pass The Clean Underwear)

12 January 2012 - BIG THINGS (Things That Are ... Well... BIG!)

12 January 2012 - HEALTH & WELFARE (Enormous Tumours)

9 January 2012 - ANIMALS IN ACTION (Primates)

9 January 2012 - MOTHER NATURE (Bushfires)

4 January 2012 - MAKING A STATEMENT (Naughty Posters)

4 January 2012 - FAILURES (The World's Full Of Losers)

4 January 2012 - PUBLIC TRANSPORT (Railways)

4 January 2012 - THE DEMON DRINK (The Lighter Side Of Drinking)

4 January 2012 - LOVE & MARRIAGE (Wedded Bliss)

30 December 2011 - SPORT (Bodybuilder Gregg Valentino)

30 December 2011 - PEOPLES' HOMES (Where Ordinary People Live)

30 December 2011 - LEISURE (On The Beach)

26 December 2011 - TECHNOLOGY (What Would We Do Without It?)

26 December 2011 - MOTORING (Motoring Moments)

26 December 2011 - EXTREMES (Extreme Jobs)

18 December 2011 - LAW & ORDER (Keeping The Peace)

18 December 2011 - RELIGION (Religious Moments)

13 December 2011 - WOMEN (The Gentle Sex)

13 December 2011 - GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS (Colours)

12 December 2011 - CHILDREN (The Expression Says It All)

10 December 2011 - AVIATION (Aviation Accidents)

4 December 2011 - ON THE OCEAN (A Life On The Ocean Wave)

4 December 2011 - THE WRITTEN WORD (Communicating)

4 December 2011 - ILLUSIONS (Not As It Seems)

4 December 2011 - TOWNS & CITIES (Lightning Strike in Hong Kong)

4 December 2011 - ADVERTISING - TODAY (Sex Sells)

2 December 2011 - MILITARY (Doing One's Duty - Western Style)

2 December 2011 - LOOK-ALIKES (Things That Look Like Other Things)

27 November 2011 - CRIME (Baby-Faced Terrorist)

27 November 2011 - OUT OF THIS WORLD (Our World)

25 November 2011 - BAD PARENTS (They Didn't Read The Manual)

25 November 2011 - CELEBRITIES (Bruce Willis - Now & Then)

25 November 2011 - SHOPS & RESTAURANTS (Good Food Guide)

22 November 2011 - THE ENVIRONMENT (Population 7 Billion)

18 November 2011 - INTERNET HOAXES (Enormous Russian Aircraft)

13 November 2011 - DIGITAL MISCHIEF (Photo Manipulation)

5 November 2011 - CATS (Pussy Moments)

31 October 2011 - ACCIDENT STORIES (Quick Reflexes)

31 October 2011 - DISASTERS (The 2004 Indonesian Earthquake & Tsunami)

25 October 2011 - MISHAPS (Heavy Mishaps)

22 October 2011 - TRANSPORT (Things That Need To Be Carried)

18 October 2011 - COMMUNICATION (Saucy English Postcards)

18 October 2011 - ICONIC PHOTOGRAPHS (9/11 The Attack On America)

5 October 2011 - TAKING REVENGE (The Running Of The Bulls)

5 October 2011 - OFF TO WORK (Office Notes)

5 October 2011 - LANGUAGE MANGLING ('Windows' For Aussies)

3 October 2011 - AVIATION STORIES (Aloha Airlines Flight 243)

2 October 2011 - CONSTRUCTION (Construction Cock-Ups)

21 September 2011 - ART (Ivan Lovatt)

8 September 2011 - DANGEROUS ANIMALS (Shark Encounters)

1 August 2011 - ADVERTISING - YESTERDAY (How Ads Used To Look)

24 July 2011 - ANIMAL STORIES (Chimp Mother Mourns Her Baby)

22 July 2011 - HOME HANDYMAN (Why Pay Someone, When You Can Do It Yourself?)

27 May 2011 - EDUCATION (Japanese School Bus)

27 May 2011 - ROADS & HIGHWAYS (Scenic Roads)

Man's Inhumanity - 3

2012-01-21T12:57:00.004+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3

25 January 2012

CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES

ON THIS PAGE:

Images Of The Holocaust

An emaciated 18-year-old Russian girl looks into the camera lens with haunted eyes. The photograph was taken during the liberation of Dachau in 1945.

Dachau was the first German concentration camp and was opened in 1933. More than 200,000 people were imprisoned there between 1933 and 1945, and 31,591 deaths were officially declared, mostly from disease, malnutrition and suicide.
(Eric Schwab/AFP/Getty Images)

Early every morning, in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, funeral carts collected corpses from the streets. Thousands of Jewish people died of hunger during that period, and the collected bodies were taken away each day to be cremated in deep pits.
(AFP/Getty Images)

SLAUGHTER AT MIZOCZ

A man in military uniform (either a Ukrainian auxilliary or German) shoots a Jewish woman during a mass execution in Mizocz, Ukraine, in October 1942.

1,700 people in the Mizocz ghetto had fought against Ukrainian auxiliaries and German policemen who had intended to liquidate the Jewish population.

About half the residents were able to flee or hide before the uprising was finally put down.

The captured survivors were taken to a ravine and shot.
(AP/USHMM)

(The above series of photos are housed in the Paris Holocaust Museum)

When American troops liberated prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp in 1945, many German SS guards were killed by the prisoners who then threw their bodies into the moat surrounding the camp.
(AP Photo)

A Russian survivor, liberated by the 3rd Armored Division of the U.S. First Army on April 14th, 1945, identifies a camp guard as being guilty of crimes against the prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Thuringia, Germany.
(AP Photo)

This photograph, from the Anne Frank Museum, shows the young girl in 1941. The story of Anne Frank & her diary (which was published posthumously) is well known and covers the time the Frank family hid from the German occupying forces in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944.

The family was eventually betrayed and arrested by the Germans, and were sent to various prisons and concentration camps. Anne herself, aged just 15, was sent to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, along with her sister, Margot, where they both died from typhus in March 1945, just one month before the camp was liberated by the British.
(AP Photo/Anne Frank House/Frans Dupont)

Three U.S. soldiers look at bodies stuffed into an oven in a crematorium in April of 1945. The photo was taken in an unidentified concentration camp in Germany, at the time of its liberation by the U.S. Army.
(U.S. Army/LOC)

THE THEKLA ATROCITY

In April 1945, shortly before US troops entered Leipzig, about 100 inmates of the Thekla-1 slave labour camp (a satellite of the Buchenwald concentraion camp) who worked at the nearby Erla aircraft factory were locked in a camp hut by the Germans and burned alive by incendiary bombs, which were thrown into the building. Very few escaped, but most of those who forced their way out were machine-gunned on the barbed wire by waiting soldiers.

The majority of the inmates had been marched east a few days earlier, as the Americans approached, leaving only the sick and injured behind. These were the inmates who were murdered, as can be seen by this victim's crutch, lying beside him.

Local German people were forced to go to the camp and witness the results of the atrocities carried out there.

A charred corpse lies in the dirt

A young survivor - there were only 3 of them - sitting, devastated, next to one of the burnt victims.
(Eric Schwab/AFP/Getty Images)

American soldiers record details of what they found when they entered the camp

(Photographs from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

This heap of ashes and bones is the debris from one day's killing of prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar in Germany, photographed on April 25th, 1945.
(AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)

Czeslawa Kwoka, a Polish Catholic girl aged just 14, appears in a prisoner identity photo (provided by the Auschwitz Museum), taken by Wilhelm Brasse - a prisoner himself - while he was working in the photography department at Auschwitz, the Nazi-run death camp where some 1.5 million people, most of them Jewish, died during World War II.

Czeslawa was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp with her mother in December 1942. Within three months, both were dead.

In a 2005 Polish TV documentary, Wilhelm Brasse recalled photographing the young girl:

"She was so young and so terrified. The girl didn't understand why she was there and she couldn't understand what was being said to her. So this woman Kapo (a prisoner overseer) took a stick and beat her about the face. Such a beautiful young girl, so innocent. She cried but she could do nothing. Before the photograph was taken, the girl dried her tears and wiped the blood from the cut on her lip".
(AP Photo/Auschwitz Museum)

German SS troops are forced to load victims of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp into trucks for burial on April 17th, 1945 under the supervision of armed British guards.
(AP Photo/British Official)

Following his arrest in April 1945, the commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Josef Kramer, sits manacled under guard from a British soldier. Known as "The Beast of Belsen", Kramer was convicted of war crimes and executed in December 1945.
(AP Photo)

A dead prisoner lies in a train carriage near Dachau concentration camp in May 1945.
(Eric Schwab/AFP/Getty Images)

A cattle truck loaded with dead on the rail siding at Dachau.
(AP Photo)

Over 400,000 Polish Jews were forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto from 1940 until 1943, an area of just 1.3 square miles. Starvation and disease killed an estimated 100,000, and many thousands more were shipped to concentration camps - mainly Treblinka - from within the Ghetto.

During an uprising from January to April 1943, at least 50,000 were killed, and this was followed by the total destruction of the Ghetto by the Germans. This photograph shows all that was left.

THE SCHWABMUNCHEN ATROCITY

Schwabmunchen Prison Camp - later to be known as KauferingIV - was the fourth of Dachau's 11 slave labour sub-camps.

An immense atrocity occurred there in April 1945, which echoed (albeit to a much greater degree) the atrocity at Thekla earlier in the same month.

(The story of the Thekla atrocity is posted above)

All Photographs: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Over 4,000 slave labourers, all Jews of various nationalities, were housed in Kaufering IV, and most of them died when the guards set fire to the huts in which the prisoners were sleeping. Those who tried to escape were shot.

Sprawled in an enclosure of Kaufering IV on April 28th 1945, lie the bodies of some of the Jewish slave labourers burned alive by prison guards and found by the US 12th Armored Division when they arrived at the camp.

The gutted remains of the burnt-out prison camp. In the foreground are the burned, emaciated bodies of prisoners.

The camp huts were built partially underground, in an attempt to hide them from enemy bombers, and this made them very difficult for the inmates to escape from once the fires had been started.

The large number of naked corpses in these photos are due to Schwabmunchen/Kaufering IV having been declared a Krankenlager, or 'sick camp'. Sick prisoners were not allowed clothing. Most spent their days lying naked atop the one woolen blanket they were issued.

American troops viewing a stack of burned bodies.

Pictured are two of the very few survivors. The Americans found only 12 survivors out of 4,000 inmates.

Civilians from local towns were forced to view the atrocity and to bury the burned bodies.

A camp guard from Kaufering IV, left behind by the retreating Waffen SS, and found hiding in one of the latrines. A few minutes after this photograph was taken, it was reported that one of the surviving inmates attacked him with a piece of lumber, killing him instantly.

Johann Baptist Eichelsdorfer, the Commandant of Schwabmunchen/Kaufering IV, is pictured standing amongst a pile of corpses. He was later found guilty of war crimes, sentenced to death, and hanged on May 29th 1946.

A view of peace & tranquility, with no hint of the horrors that occurred there. The site of Kaufering IV, close to Munich, is now just a gravel pit.

OTHER PAGES:

1 2 3

ALSO SEE:

The Rwandan Genocide

Man's Inhumanity To Man

Apartheid Violence

Man's Inhumanity To Animals

Health & Welfare - 2

2012-01-12T17:38:00.007+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2

12 January 2012

Enormous Tumours

This photograph released by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) shows Indian woman Lakhmani Devi with a large parotid gland tumour.
(AFP/AIIMS/Ho)

Natalie Pierre looks away from the large mass of tumours that threatened the life of her 13-year-old son Osly St. Preux in January 2009. A week after the photo was taken, surgeons at Baltimore's Union Memorial Hospital successfully removed the grapefruit-sized tumour from the Haitian boy's armpit.
(AP)

A medical technician at Belgrade's Dragisa Misovic hospital holds an 86-pound benign tumour removed from the abdomen of an anonymous 54-year-old female patient in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in April 2007.
(Reuters)

Huang Chuncai, a 32-year-old man from a remote village in China's southern province of Hunan, is photographed in January 2008, prior to surgery for the removal of 10 pounds of facial tumours caused by neurpofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system.

Huang's original tumour weighed over 50 pounds, but 28 pounds were removed during a previous operation in 2007, and he still required the remaining 12 pounds to be removed in a third, future, operation.
(Reuters)

Read about Huang Chuncai HERE

15-year old Vietnamese girl, Lai Thi Dao, waves to media at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, prior to a 10-hour operation in April 2008 to remove a 16-pound facial tumour that had been growing on her face since she was 3 years old.

The tumour - known as a Schwannoma tumour, and one of the largest ever reported - had grown so large that she was unable to eat or speak normally and there was a danger that she would suffocate. The removal of the tumour was a complete success, and doctors reported that it was very unlikely to return.

32-year-old Vietnamese man, Nguyen Duy Hai, successfully underwent a 12 hour operation in January 2012 to remove an enormous tumour from his leg. A team of eight, headed by American surgeon McKay McKinnon, undertook the task free of charge, as the patient had earlier lost part of his leg during an unsuccessful operation in 1997.

The growth began when Nguyen was only a boy, starting at the base of his spine and spreading up his back. It then travelled down his leg and around his thigh. The problem of removing it was not a simple one, with the growth having caused the tangling of blood vessels which could have ruptured during surgery. In addition, the strain on his heart from supporting a blood supply to the tumour, as well as the loss of nutrients and oxygen to the growth, meant that his body was in a weakened condition.

Mr McKinnon said he should make a good recovery, although it would be a lengthy one because of the continual risk of infection and the need for multiple skin grafts.

OTHER PAGES:

1 2

ALSO SEE:

The Emergency Room
The Lizzie Velasquez Story
The Cut-In-Half Man
Fighting Disease

Animals In Action - 4

2011-12-13T17:32:00.004+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3 4

9 January 2012

ON THIS PAGE:

Birds

Hitch-Hiker

Family outing

A large adult Eagle Owl in flight. Lingfield, Surrey, UK.
(Photo: Mark Bridger)

Shelter

Photo courtesy of John Corrigan.
More great photos like this can be seen at
STEEL CITY PRODUCTIONS

The Bluebird of unhappiness

Great Blue Heron
(Photo: Linh Dinh)

Follow my leader

Squatter

Robber

Road hogs

Fisherman

Petty thief

Watch the birdie

On a mission

A face only a mother could love

Lunch in the park

Mother hen

Favouritism

Satisfied customer

Tug o'bread

Stop your squawking

Pyramid

Money snatcher

Ambush

Who's a pretty boy then?

Let me get that for you


Thousands of starlings form a mushroom-shaped cloud over Shapwick Heath, Somerset (UK), as they prepare to roost at dusk. Flocks such as these are known as 'murmurations' (Photograph: Tim Graham)

Shower time

Unwelcome visitor

OTHER PAGES:

1 2 3 4

ALSO SEE:

Bears - Big Cats - Deer - Elephants - Horses - Pigs - Primates - Reptiles - Rodents - Snakes - Spiders - Water Animals - So How Did This Happen? (Animal Mishaps)

Technology

2011-12-10T16:10:00.004+11:00

26 December 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

What Would We Do Without It?

"Yeah, thanks, just put it down there - I'm texting"

"How am I supposed to have a conversation with all that NOISE!"

"It's OK, mum won't see me under here"

Miscellany - 3

2011-12-07T11:13:00.006+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3

30 December 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

Random Pictures - 2

Excellent idea

Some bloke acting like a turkey

The horse is the one on the right

Child abuse

Nice and neat

A Zimbabwean multi-millionaire

OTHER PAGES:

1 2 3

ALSO SEE:

Random Pictures - 1
Silly Statistics

Shops & Restaurants - 4

2011-11-25T21:01:00.001+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3 4

25 November 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

Good Food Guide

I'm not sure I'd even want to see the MENU at these places

OTHER PAGES:

1 2 3 4

ALSO SEE:

Around The Shops
Shopping Shockers - 1

Shopping Shockers - 2

Motoring - 3

2011-11-16T19:17:00.004+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3

25 November 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

Topless BMW
Style Your Garage

Topless BMW

Style Your Garage

There's nothing more boring to look at than a plain old garage door. They've got very little character, and they're normally so bland and colourless that they just about go unnoticed.

There's one company, however, that's changing the face of garage doors. Style Your Garage sells large, high-quality photographic prints that can be attached to your garage door, bringing it vividly to life and making it the talking point of your suburb.

Here are some examples of the prints you can buy:

Just remember ... your garage door used to look like this:

OTHER PAGES:

1 2 3

ALSO SEE:

Motoring Moments
Useless Drivers
Roughing It

Great Garages
The Magic Roundabout
Dicing With Death

Before & After - 3

2011-11-08T19:49:00.012+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3

25 January 2012

ON THIS PAGE:

From Black To White - What a Difference a Snowfall Makes - The Fall of Sddam Hussein - Michelangelo's David

From Black To White

It must be amazing stuff - from black flab to white fab!

What a Difference a Snowfall Makes

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

See some sensational snowy weather in my posting MOTHER NATURE

The Fall of Saddam Hussein

BEFORE - Murderous Iraqi President Saddam Hussein fires shots into the air on December 31st, 2000 as he presides over a military parade in Baghdad.
(Reuters/Faleh Kheiber)

AFTER - Just three years later, on December 13th 2003 - at the culmination of the second Gulf War (or 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' as the U.S. military called it) - Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. troops near his home town of Tikrit, after being found hiding in an underground bunker. He was hanged by Iraqi authorities on December 30th 2006. (Reuters)

A photograph of Saddam Hussein's execution can be found in my posting HERE

Michelangelo's David

Michelangelo's classic statue of David - a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture - is housed at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia.

It's just as well it stays where it is, because if it ever goes on tour and gets displayed in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, David will probably go back to Florence looking like this.

BY THE WAY ...

The Grand Duke of Tuscany presented a replica of Michaelagelo's 'David' to Queen Victoria as a gift in 1857.

The statue was, of course, a little bit 'out there' (so to speak) and caused a lot of blushes for the Queen and visiting female dignitaries, so Queen Victoria found a good solution. A plaster cast of a fig leaf, half a metre high, was made in London and was hung in place with a couple of hooks in order to hide David's naughty bits, whenever the Queen was around.

The replica is now housed in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and so is the fig leaf ... which hangs in a little box at the back of the statue's plinth.

I believe that whenever the modern day Queen visits the V & A, her blushes are spared in a much more up-to-date way, as the picture below clearly shows.

OTHER PAGES:

1 2 3

ALSO SEE:

The Marlboro Man - The Changing Face Of Men - Nick Nolte - Tattoo Man - The Miracle Of Make-Up - The Touchdown Jesus - Jennifer Hawkins - Decline & Fall - Colour Change - Deep Breathing - The Google 'Street View' Car - Drug Addiction - The Girl With The Green Eyes - The Italian Lamborghini - Bath Time - Red Bull Air Race - Prison Inmate - Changing Technology - Back To The Future - The UK Riots of 2011 - 30 Years Apart - Japanese Foot Binding - Cosmetic Surgery - A Question of Balance - Up In Flames

Man's Inhumanity - 2

2011-10-27T12:51:00.013+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3

22 January 2012

CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES

ON THIS PAGE:

Man's Inhumanity To Animals

This is an 'UGG Boot' (or perhaps it should be "UGH BOOT" because it's a ridiculous looking piece of footwear). It's recently been discovered by Humane Society International that some Australian ugg boot manufacturers are using pelts from raccoon dogs - although the labels show that they're made from wool and other materials.

This is a raccoon dog

And this is a raccoon dog after it's been skinned - and still alive

Raccoon dogs are skinned alive in China. They're kept in unbelievably cruel conditions on fur farms before being beaten, hung up and skinned alive. And the Chinese government does nothing to stop it. And some Australian manufacturers are turning a blind eye to it.

Whenever I see someone walking by wearing ugg boots, I try not to laugh. Now, however, I'll be trying not to run up to them and smash them in the mouth. Naturally, the person wearing the ugg boots wouldn't be aware of the cruelty that might have gone into making their silly footwear ... but it would make me feel a whole lot better.

If you want to see one of the most disgusting videos on the internet click HERE.

It'll show you just how cruel these Chinese fur traders are. Instead of killing the animal first, they prefer to skin it alive. The animal's agony is apparent in this video, as it twists and turns as the knife goes in and its skin is torn off. It's not only horrific, but heartbreaking too.

WATCH THE VIDEO IF YOU MUST - BUT PLEASE BE AWARE OF ITS EXTREME GRAPHIC NATURE

The people at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) fight a continuous battle against those who sell - and wear - the fur from animals. Their cause is a just one, and they deserve all the support they can get.

Elephant Killer

Meet The Honourable Robert Borsak, Member of the Legislative Council, NSW Parliament, Australia - New South Wales Shooters Party.

He kills elephants.

He claims to be a voluntary 'conservation hunter' and culls animals (rather than kills them) in order to reduce their excessive numbers and to help protect farmland. An admirable pursuit, I would say, particularly as over-population of animals often leads to their starvation and death, and those numbers need to be kept to manageable levels. Many recreational hunters also claim to be conservationists, but most of the time they're talking through their hats, because it's got nothing to do with conservation - it's the THRILL of killing a wild animal that turns them on.

Take Robert Borsak, for instance. In 2007, he and his wife Cheryl, went to northern Zimbabwe to hunt elephants. On a two-week trip he killed several, including a bull elephant which he shot in the head from a distance of six paces.

Here's part of his account of this killing:

"As Tusker (the elephant) came down there was an unearthly scream as the full weight of the falling bull collapsed his heaving lungs, expelling through the trunk and sending an involuntary shiver through me. On the ground now, on bended knee the ochre coloured wet bull thrashed around with its trunk, paralysed unable to move. I reloaded as the empties flicked over my shoulder & drilled him again. As I approached I moved in quickly, not being sure at all exactly at that time what had happened. As I approached with some caution he lunged as far forward as his trunk & position allowed, trying to grab me. At this I placed two frontal brain shots into the now almost defunct bull and it was all over."

His description is almost palpably orgasmic as he writes about his killing of this animal. It's plain creepy to read it, and yet he claims he's only doing it for 'conservation' purposes. What would have been wrong with tranquilizing the animal and then euthanising it humanely, instead of putting it through the pain and terror of being hunted and shot? The answer's simple ... that wouldn't have been any fun.

So you can pull the other one, Mr Borsak. You, like many other so-called 'hunters' who kill purely for the fun of it, are sick individuals.

'Culling' animals is different to 'killing' animals. There should be no pleasure gained from either of those pursuits, but there clearly is in your case, and therefore it labels you as both a liar and a hypocrite.

But then you're also a member of parliament, so that comes naturally I suppose.

Take a look at these couple of grinning morons. They're probably from somewhere in Malaysia - although that's not definitely known - and they had an enjoyable time watching a small puppy die as they strung him up from a tree. Then they took a photograph of their handiwork.

Morons they certainly are, because they then posted the photograph on Facebook & Twitter and expected people to think how clever they were. But, following an avalanche of complaints, police in Malaysia commenced an investigation into the matter - mainly because a majority of people believed it had occurred in that country.

To date, there's been no definitive outcome, and no details of these two having been arrested, although there are varying claims around the internet to the contrary. If, however, they're caught it's to be hoped they spend a nice long time behind bars.

It would be a sort of justice, I suppose, but it would be much more fitting if they were made to face the family of the victim, such as happens in courtrooms throughout much of the world. The little puppy probably didn't have a family to speak of, so perhaps 'representatives' could be used ... say, half a dozen pit bull terriers discussing the crime with the offenders in an enclosed pen for a while.

I strongly suspect those two pieces of scum would then think twice in the future about murdering animals for the fun of it.

With spears lodged in her skull, this female African elephant is a victim of a cruel war on animals being waged in southern Kenya. She was attacked by tribesmen in the Amboselli National Park in a growing trend of violence towards native animals over pasture and water rights.This picture was released by the wildlife protection association Wildlife Direct and is dated August 2004. The elephant, known as Odile, survived the attack and later gave birth to a calf.

Elephant 'Crushing'

More Cruelty to Elephants

Elephants in Thailand have to be trained if they are to become circus performers, or if they are to provide rides for tourists, and the method for training these wild elephants has been used in Thailand and other parts of Asia for centuries.

The young elephants (between 3 and 4 years old) are taken from their mothers, and a process begins that's designed to both break the animals' spirits in order to make them domesticated, and to break their ties with their mothers. This process is called 'phajaan' or 'crush'.

The elephant is forced into a small wooden pen by being beaten with a piece of wood with nails protruding from it, as well as lengths of bamboo and bull hooks.

Once the animal is in place, it's tied with ropes so it's unable to move.

The 'phajaan' or 'crush' then begins - lasting for roughly a week.

During this time, the animal is beaten, bludgeoned, has hooks attached to its ears, and is deprived of food, water and sleep.

The infliction of pain gradually subdues the wild instincts of the animals, and they can then be used for entertaining people.

If you go to Thailand, or to any other Asian country, and you're tempted to take a ride on an elephant, or to visit a circus to see the elephants perform, you might want to remember these horrific pictures.

Some more images of man's inhumanity to animals can be found in my posting TAKING REVENGE

OTHER PAGES:

1 2 3

ALSO SEE:

Man's Inhumanity To Man
Images Of The Holocaust

Mishaps

2011-10-24T23:33:00.009+11:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2

25 October 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

Heavy Mishaps

This happened, I believe, at a museum but a remarkably similar accident occurred in Paris in 1895 at Gare Montparnasse. Take a look at the picture and read the story in my posting PUBLIC TRANSPORT/RAILWAYS

VIDEO

Runaway Cable Drum

Engine Failure

This is Canadian National locomotive number 2699. It's a 212-ton machine powered by a 183 litre, 4400 hp V16 4-stroke diesel engine.

While passing through the town of Independence, Louisiana, the locomotive experienced what is known in the trade as a "catastrophic uncontained engine failure" - which, in plain English, means it blew a bloody great piston and cylinder right through the side of the engine.

This is the cylinder pack (one of 16 that form the power source) that was ejected through the side of the engine and thrown clear of the locomotive.

The piston that was inside the cylinder travelled differently ... it flew through the air and crashed through the roof of a nearby home, where it embedded itself in an interior wall.

A nice neat entry hole

Down through the ceiling

The final resting place of the piston

The Backhoe Versus The Bridge

Toppling Truck

Too Heavy To Haul

Heavy House

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Messy Mishaps
Accident Stories
Nautical Mishaps & Disasters
Natural Disasters
Aviation Mishaps & Accidents
Car & Truck Accidents
Oh Shit! Moments

Train Accidents

Religion - 2

2011-10-22T11:50:00.003+11:00

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22 October 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

Church Signs

Church signs are sometimes witty, sometimes thought-provoking and sometimes ... well, just churchy ... and not particularly inspiring for your average atheist.

The problem is that unless you actually see a church sign for yourself, you can't trust many of those that appear on the internet.

And the reason is because of sites like "says-it" which provide you with the template and generator to make up your own church signs, using your own witty brainpower, and then spreading them around to your friends. Some of these signs are very clever, and some are plain dumb, as can be seen below, but - to coin a well-known phrase - don't take every church sign you see on the internet as being the gospel truth.

Some of these may be genuine and some may not be .... God knows.

Read about the nutcases at the Westboro Baptist Church, who preach a new type of Christianity - that of hatred and intolerance. Their website is called GOD HATES FAGS which, in itself, is an indication of what these people are like.

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Rail Mary - The Coogee Apparition
Religious Moments

Making A Statement - 4

2011-10-12T19:09:00.004+11:00

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22 November 2011

CAUTION: ADULT HUMOUR

ON THIS PAGE:

Cranky Badges

If people give you the shits, wear a cranky badge

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Naughty T-Shirts
Naughty Posters

Protests, Demos & Riots
The Hypocrisy Of Extremism
Telling It Like It Is

Flipping The Bird & Other Salutes

Failures - 2

2011-10-03T22:12:00.005+11:00

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4 January 2012

ON THIS PAGE:

Losers - 2

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tries to look through binoculars which still have their lens caps on near Tel Aviv January 7th, 2003

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Losers - 1

Law & Order - 2

2011-09-23T12:17:00.002+10:00

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5 October 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

Very Fast Police Cars

Places where you don't mess with the Highway Patrol

AUSTRALIA - Holden VE Commodore

ITALY - Lamborghini Gallardo

This particular car came to a rather inglorious end - see my posting HERE

USA (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) - Chevrolet Corvette C5

SAUDI ARABIA - Lamborghini Gallardo

JAPAN - Nissan Skyline GT-R

GERMANY - Porsche 911 Carrera

ENGLAND (London) - Lamborghini Gallardo

CANADA - Jaguar 'S' Type

AUSTRIA - Porsche 911

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Civil Uprising In Egypt
Keeping The Peace
Security Blanket

Crime

Mother Nature - 6

2011-09-20T19:16:00.009+10:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3 4 5 6

9 January 2012

Other Natural Phenomena

ON THIS PAGE:

Heatwaves & Drought
Aurora Borealis
Sailing Stones
The Spectacular Caves Of 'E Cavernoso'

Heatwaves & Drought

An extreme heatwave hit Europe in the summer of 2003, when temperatures reached 38.5C (101.4°F). The Eiffel Tower was barely visible as the air around Paris became heavily polluted. More than 30,000 people died throughout Europe in what later became the continent's biggest ever natural disaster.
(Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP)

Aurora Borealis

The Northern Lights

This remarkable and brilliant aurora, arching from horion to horizon, was photographed on the Qaleraliq glacier in southern Greenland
(Photo: Juan Carlos Casado - The World At Night)

In Kiruna, Swedish Lapland's northern-most city, the northern lights - the Aurora Borealis - wrap a vivid green mantle around the sky
(KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex Features)

Sailing Stones

'Sailing Stones' refer to a geological phenomenon where rocks move in long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. They have been recorded and studied in a number of places around Racetrack Playa, Death Valley which is situated in the Mojave Desert, eastern California.

The stones move only every two or three years, and the latest study (published in 2011) claims that the movement of the stones is caused by small 'rafts' of ice that form around the rocks at night and this allows them to glide with minimal friction when struck by relatively light winds.

The phenomenon, however, remains the subject of much study.

Death Valley, apart from hosting the 'sailing stones' phenomenon, holds the record for the hottest July temperature ever recorded in the western hemisphere ... 57 degrees C (134 degrees F) on July 10th, 1913.
(Photo: Tucker Sylvestro)

The Spectacular Caves Of 'E Cavernoso'

Situated deep within the wilds of Southern Brazil, the 'E Cavernoso' caves are regarded as amongst the most spectacular in the world. The following photographs will show you what I mean. They were all originally published by National Geographic, where many more can be found.

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Interesting Cloud Formations - Mammatus Clouds - The Morning Glory Cloud - Fire Whirls - Sundogs - Earthquakes - Floods - The Eruption Of Volcano Puyehue-Cordon Caulle (June 2011) - The Eruption Of Volcano Eyjafjallajokull In Iceland (April 2010) - Cold Day In Versoix - Winter In Russia - Frost Storm In Quebec - Chilly Weather - Hurricanes, Cyclones & Tornadoes - Lightning - Bushfires - Stormy Weather

The 2009 Australian Bushfires

The 2004 Indonesian Tsunami

Celebrities - 4

2011-09-20T09:43:00.008+10:00

OTHER PAGES: 1 2 3 4


25 November 2011

ON THIS PAGE:

Now & Then

They're still celebrities ... but they've changed over the years

BRUCE WILLIS - NOW

BRUCE WILLIS - THEN

AL PACINO - NOW

AL PACINO - THEN

BILLY CRYSTAL - NOW

BILLY CRYSTAL - THEN

CARRIE FISHER - NOW


CARRIE FISHER - THEN

JACK NICHOLSON - NOW

JACK NICHOLSON - THEN

KATHLEEN TURNER - NOW

KATHLEEN TURNER - THEN

KEITH RICHARDS (The Rolling Stones) - NOW

KEITH RICHARDS (The Rolling Stones) - THEN

KELLY LE BROCK - NOW

KELLY LE BROCK - THEN

MARK HAMMILL - NOW

MARK HAMMILL - THEN

MATTHEW PERRY - NOW

MATTHEW PERRY - THEN

MELANIE GRIFFITH - NOW

MELANIE GRIFFITH - THEN

MICKEY ROURKE - NOW

MICKEY ROURKE - THEN

NICK NOLTE - NOW

NICK NOLTE - THEN

PAMELA ANDERSON - NOW

PAMELA ANDERSON - THEN

PAUL McCARTNEY - NOW

PAUL McCARTNEY - THEN

PRISCILLA PRESLEY - NOW

PRISCILLA PRESLEY - THEN

SEAN PENN - NOW

SEAN PENN - THEN

STEVEN SEAGAL - NOW

STEVEN SEAGAL - THEN

VAL KILMER - NOW

VAL KILMER - THEN

WHITNEY HOUSTON - NOW

WHITNEY HOUSTON - THEN

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When They Were Younger

As The Years Go By (Singers/Musicians)

As The Years Go By (Actors)

With & Without The Make-Up

Celebrity Homes

Celebrity Mugshots

Celebrity Make-Unders