The Gen-X-Ray A critical examination of the world through Gen X eyes

7Apr/102

Attack of the Killer Wombat

A BLACK Saturday survivor feared for his life during a wombat mauling in Flowerdale yesterday that lasted up to half an hour and only ended when he was saved by a neighbour.

Bruce Kringle, who lost his house in the deadly blaze, was in hospital last night recovering from bites and lacerations sustained in the ferocious attack.

Early yesterday morning, Mr Kringle, 60, was walking down the steps of the caravan he is living in while his house is rebuilt when the wombat attacked.

The crazed animal bit and scratched Mr Kringle, who tried to escape but kept being knocked over.

Mr Kringle eventually lay on the animal until a neighbour, known only as Rob, heard his cries for help.

After telling Mr Kringle to move off the animal, the neighbour killed it with a blow from the back of an axe.

So now I've seen it all. I never knew it was illegal to kill rampaging marsupials.

Filed under: Nature, Weird 2 Comments

22Oct/090

Giant spider not quite extinct

From Scientific American

"It was surprising to find a giant female Nephila from South Africa in the collection …that did not match any of the described species," Matjaz Kuntner, who is now chair of the Institute of Biology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and coauthor of the paper, said in a prepared statement.

One of the largest orb-weaving spiders had remained hidden from entomologists in plain sight. The new species of giant golden orb weaver (Nephila komaci), which builds meter-wide webs, entangled a doctoral student who stumbled upon a specimen in a museum collection.

Yeech. I've never liked spiders. I've learnt to tolerate them and not kill them on sight and I accept that they are useful and beautiful creatures, but they are still unnatural and thoroughly EVIL. Any spider that can entrap a full grown student in its web is a spider that SHOULD NOT BE!