Bits and Bites from Around the World > Selfie idiot falls to death illegally climbing bridge in Spain

 

U.K. man falls to his death while scaling bridge

for social media content

By Michelle Butterfield  Global News

Posted October 15, 2024 1:37 pm

 2 min read

A 26-year-old British man has died after he fell from one of Spain‘s tallest bridges while creating content for his social media pages.

The man was scaling the bridge, the highest cable-stayed structure in the country, on Sunday in Talavera de la Reina, a city situated approximately 110 kilometres southwest of Madrid.

He was climbing the Castilla-La Mancha bridge alongside another content creator, 24, when he fell to his death, local authorities confirmed.

Neither man has been identified.

Macarena Muñoz, the city’s councillor for citizen security, said in a statement that climbing the 192-metre-high bridge is “totally prohibited” and something they have “reiterated on many occasions cannot be done under any circumstances.”

“As we have been able to find out, they had come to Talavera to climb the bridge and create content for social networks, which has resulted in this unfortunate and sad outcome,” the message from Muñoz added.

A police spokesperson, per Metro UK, said the man “was about 40 to 50 metres up, around a quarter of the total height of the bridge, when he fell.”

“The reason he fell is not clear and will be investigated by a local court,” they added, confirming neither man was wearing harnesses or other protection during their climb.

Local media reports that climbers and social media creators have long been drawn to the bridge, which opened in 2011, despite the ban and many warnings.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time a person has died while going to lengths to capture the perfect selfie or photograph for their social media followers.

In 2021, an influencer died while attempting to take a selfie in front of a waterfall in Hong Kong’s Ha Pak Lai park. She lost her footing and plunged into the falls’ pool below.

And in 2020, a 31-year-old woman from Kazakhstan died after falling off a high cliff while posing for a photograph in Turkey while celebrating the end of a COVID-19 lockdown.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) released study findings in 2018 that showed 259 selfie-related deaths were reported worldwide that year, most of which were attributed to “risky” behaviour.

Bits and Bites from around the World > Mad sheep kills aged owners in N.Z.; NC fools pull bear cubs out of tree for selfies

 

Aggressive sheep kills New Zealand couple,

leaving community shocked

By Michelle Butterfield  Global News

Posted April 19, 2024 1:49 pm

 1 min read

New Zealand police confirmed a ram, similar to the one pictured, was shot after officers were called to a property where two older people were found dead. Getty Images

An aggressive sheep was shot and killed after it was determined to be responsible for the deaths of an older New Zealand couple.

A man went looking for his mother and father Thursday after not hearing from them for a few days. The couple, both in their 80s, lived at a rural rented property in Waitākere, West Auckland.

When he entered the property’s paddock, he found both of his parents, Alfred Helge Hansen, 82, and Gaye Carole Hansen, 81, dead.

According to the New Zealand Herald, authorities believe the man was killed when he went out to feed the ram. His wife suffered the same fate when she went out to check on her husband.

A statement from police said they discovered the bodies around 7:30 a.m. local time. They found the ram in the paddock when they arrived.

They said another person at the scene had also “suffered a minor injury after being attacked by this ram,” and that when police arrived at the scene, “they too were confronted and approached by the ram.”

Police said they shot and killed the aggressive animal at the scene.

Dean Burrell, the nephew of one of the dead and family spokesperson, told news outlet Stuff that the couple had “both lost their lives in a tragic accident.”

“They’re good people. They’re over 80. They don’t deserve this,” he said.

“Everyone is in shock as to what’s happened. They are very upset.”

Police are investigating the deaths on behalf of the coroner “to establish the full set of circumstances around what occurred in the paddock,” and a postmortem examination will be carried out on Friday.

People caught on video trying to pull

bear cubs from tree to take selfies

By Michelle Butterfield  Global News

Posted April 19, 2024 10:55 am

 3 min read

Several people were filmed pulling a black bear cub out of a tree and trying to grab another in Asheville, 

N.C., on Tuesday.

File this under: “A good way to get yourself killed.”

An investigation is underway after a group of people (with an apparent death wish) were filmed pulling black bear cubs out of a tree in North Carolina in an effort to take a round of selfies with the baby animals.

The unsettling incident, which went down in Ashville, N.C., Tuesday afternoon, was captured by onlooker Rachel Staudt, who turned her camera to a group of six people outside an apartment complex.

The group is seen approaching a wooded area behind a fence near the building. At first, the bear cubs are obscured by the tree’s leaves, but as the group gets closer some people can be seen tugging two bear cubs from their perches, yanking them from branches.

One woman is seen holding onto a cub like a small child, while another person snaps photos.

A woman holds one of the bear cubs. Rachel Staudt via Storyful

“She’s holding it up. She’s holding a bear,” an eyewitness can be heard saying. “The other guy’s grabbing the other one.”

The woman then drops the cub and chases it as it tries to run away.

The woman chases the scared bear after dropping it. Rachel Staudt via Storyful

Authorities were notified after the incident was reported to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, local outlet WLOS reported. A special projects biologist for the commission found only one cub at the scene, which she said is currently at a rehab facility and will be released back into the wild, the outlet reported.

“We do think that the bear probably had a pretty traumatic experience,” biologist Ashley Hobbs told the outlet.

“We did follow up with the people who pulled the bear out of the tree,” she continued. “We did confront them on site that day and let them know how irresponsible and potentially deadly it could be for that cub to be separated from its mom, especially ripped out of a tree like that.”

It is never acceptable to interact with wildlife in such a way, Hobbs said, expressing her frustration over a stunt pulled for social media clout.

“It’s not uncommon to get calls this time of year about cubs being alone, but certainly, we don’t usually have people go out and start pulling them out of trees to take selfies with them,” she told the Citizen Times.

In a press release, the wildlife commission stated a bear cub bit one of the people during the interaction.

They are fortunate the mother didn't bite them, or rip their head off. Sensational stupidity! If that mama bear had returned, those fools would all be in the hospital fighting for their lives, or, perhaps making the new list of Darwin awards.

“The cub appeared to be lethargic and frightened. It looked to be favoring one of its front paws and was wet and shivering,” Hobbs said in the release.

Only one bear was located. Hobbs said it’s her hope that the other cub was reunited safely with its mom. Mama bears will often leave their cubs in a safe place while they forage for food, but if a cub is separated from its mother for too long, it could die.

Also, Hobbs said, mother bears are extremely protective of their babies and the group put themselves in a “dangerous situation.”

“I tried telling them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen so I thought recording it might help get justice for the sweet bear cub,” Staudt told the Citizen Times.

“I’m not sure how long it went on for, but far too long.”

Officials said the group of selfie-takers were given a “stern” talking to about how dangerous it is to interact with bear cubs.

Surely there is a law about mistreatment of wild animals in North Carolina.

Brains are Anti-evolutionary, Which is Good News for Some of Us

Don't shoot me if your sense of humor hasn't evolved enough to enjoy this

Nishinoshima - one of the world's newest islands

Nury Vittachi, Bangkok | Opinion 
Jakarta Post

A new island appeared off the coast of Japan — and scientists are watching it to see evolution at work.

So I was told. I was a bit dubious. Doesn’t evolution take a while? The reader who sent me the report, Sunita Chau, admitted that the only biological entity on the island of Nishinoshima so far was bird poop.

I suppose one can imagine bird poop evolving into extremely primitive live forms such as bacteria, single-celled micro-organisms and Fox News viewers, for example. She said she reckoned that nationalist politicians in some countries probably shared 99 percent of their DNA with bird poop. I think she was joking, but either way, no offence is intended to any bird poop that might be reading this.

A Wikipedia check showed that organic communities develop fast. Scientists observing Surtsey, an island that appeared suddenly in the sea near Iceland in 1963, noticed that by 1964 it had insects, by 1965 a plant and by 1998 a slug. In evolutionary terms, a slug is a long way from being a human, but in terms of intelligence, is perhaps not that far from nationalist politicians, supermodels, etc.

The pinnacle of evolution
To do my due diligence, I phoned a scientist, who castigated me for making the common assumption that human intelligence was the pinnacle of evolution. Intelligence is an ANTI-evolutionary trait, he said, quoting numerous studies. Stupidity improves efficiency (Journal of Management Studies), boosts productivity (University of Texas) and increases happiness (University of Edinburgh).

That makes sense, if you think about it. The most powerful people in human society are rock stars, builders, footballers, supermodels, stockbrokers, etc., folk whose intelligence levels are too often roughly level with that of an average novelist’s colonic microfloral bacteria.

Nishinoshima

In contrast, people who actually have big brains are writing novels or teaching math and not earning enough money to rub two coins together to keep warm, let alone marry and spread their DNA.

If humans are not evolution’s zenith, what is? One colleague nominated sharks. They do nothing at all except eat, sleep, reproduce and occasionally star in movies. (My dream schedule.)

A second said it was domestic dogs: “We feed them and clean up their poop in return for nothing but love and affection.” A third said cat-owners feed and clean up the poop of cats “in return for nothing but disdain and aloofness”. Cats win.

Whoops, wrong finger
Retreating to my inbox, I found a reader had sent a web link to a news report about a woman who accidentally shot herself when trying to take a “selfie” while holding a gun to her head. It was followed by a report about officials in India asking pet-owners to paint their dogs blue to differentiate them from wild dogs. A web-search led me to a New Scientist report that several studies showed that human intelligence was falling rather than rising.

All this could be good news for the long-term survival of the human race. So let’s all do our bit. Avoid the natural temptation to overthink things. Create balance by drastically underthinking every decision you make.

Step one is to stop worrying about what’s evolving on Nishinoshima and learn from cats. Feed me. Love me. In return, I promise disdain and aloofness.