Saw this on AOL news....http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060108052009990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

I can't believe her friends thought it was a joke!

Saw this on AOL news....http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060108052009990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

I can't believe her friends thought it was a joke!


I'll bet that left a mark..

Terrible story, but why should I care?  People die every minute, if you cried for every one of them you'd dehydrate.

OMG, Lyricboy....bwahahahahahahahaha!

As for the story, it is sad.  It said they only thought it was a joke til they saw the blood.  I don't know that I would have reacted differently.  Maybe the woman was a joker by nature.  We'll never know.

I know it's terrible when somebody dies or somedy gets grievously injured by sharks, but we have to remember THE SHARKS WERE THERE FIRST!  WE humans are encroaching on THEIR hunting territory.
What I like about sharks, as opposed to, say, crocodiles, is if you don't go in the water, they can't get you!  Not a chance of a shark bite if you just stay out of the ocean.
People argue, "But it's 94 degrees and humid!"  OK, fair enough.  Which would you rather be, hot and sticky OR an afternoon snack? Hmmmm...
:o

Terrible story, but why should I care?  People die every minute, if you cried for every one of them you'd dehydrate.


Also, I don't know why it's such big news when a person is chomped up by a shark. In the US,there is seldom a fatal attack, and only about 10 worldwide in a whole year. Do you know how many fatal venomous snake bites occur in the USA annually? 8! Ever see that on the network news.
How about scorpions world wide? Ten Thousand!!
And the biggest killer from nature? The lowly mosquito; over one million die from malaria world wide annualy. I guess we all know why..... the media needs to maintain ratings, and one of the ways to accomplish that is high drama such as people getting killed in highly dramatic and nasty ways such as being shark chomped.

Saw this on AOL news....http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060108052009990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

I can't believe her friends thought it was a joke!


I know this area quite well.  People often swim with the dolphins.  They most probably thought she was seeing dolphins and was panicking unnecessarily.  :(

Terrible story, but why should I care?  People die every minute, if you cried for every one of them you'd dehydrate.


Great attitude  :P

Also, I don't know why it's such big news when a person is chomped up by a shark. In the US,there is seldom a fatal attack, and only about 10 worldwide in a whole year. Do you know how many fatal venomous snake bites occur in the USA annually? 8! Ever see that on the network news.
How about scorpions world wide? Ten Thousand!!
And the biggest killer from nature? The lowly mosquito; over one million die from malaria world wide annualy. I guess we all know why..... the media needs to maintain ratings, and one of the ways to accomplish that is high drama such as people getting killed in highly dramatic and nasty ways such as being shark chomped.

I agree.  That's why I'm glad I live in New England where there are very few poisonous critters.  Where did you get the figure of ten thousand deaths annually from scorpion bites?  Seems a bit high.  I thought a scorpion sting could seldom kill an adult, though it hurts like sonofab!tch, young children get most of the fatal stings.  I've heard that cobras kill 2000 people a year in Sri Lanka alone.
On the Australian coasts there are plent of sharks and shark attacks, but the box jellyfish is much more dangerous.  It's got up to like 80 feet of translucent stinging tentacles.  All the jellyfish has to do is sting you and you go into shock and drown.  Then there are those sea snakes down under with the most toxic snake venom on the planet...
And of course, the only animal evil enough to spend months plotting your death is a human being!

Great attitude  :P


I know it sounds insensitive, and to an extent is.  I just don't want to fake empathy from where it doesn't exist; although of course I'd rather it not happen  :)

The story's definitely sad and nasty.

I agree.  That's why I'm glad I live in New England where there are very few poisonous critters.  Where did you get the figure of ten thousand deaths annually from scorpion bites?  Seems a bit high.


In contrast, scorpions can and frequently do kill; annual mortality worldwide may exceed 10000, second only to snakebite. In some regions, such as North ...
www.drug-monitoring.com/pt/re/tdm/fulltext.00007691-200002000-00014.htm - Similar pages

On the Australian coasts there are plenty of sharks and shark attacks, but the box jellyfish is much more dangerous.  It's got up to like 80 feet of translucent stinging tentacles.  All the jellyfish has to do is sting you and you go into shock and drown. 

A little girl was killed by a box jellyfish in North Queensland only yesterday  :\'(

I agree.  That's why I'm glad I live in New England where there are very few poisonous critters. 



A  couple of friends packed it in and moved to Florida.  Now they contend with lizards crawling up the
wall and gators patrolling the back yard.  I''ll stay right here, thank you very much  ::)

A  couple of friends packed it in and moved to Florida.  Now they contend with lizards crawling up the
wall and gators patrolling the back yard.  I''ll stay right here, thank you very much   ::)

Most lizards are small and harmless.  They're beneficial because they eat bugs and other little pests.  I just don't care for reptiles!  It's the snakes that make me nervous, especially those little coral snakes they have down there.  Corals are in the cobra family, very potent.  I did post a thread a while back on the growing problem of big monitor lizards, Burmese pythons, and Asian cobras getting set free in Florida and adapting to the subtropical climate.  People pick exotic pets that can KILL them, now that's smart!
Alligators are big and scary, but they generally don't prey on humans.  People are dumb enough to FEED gators, so the gators lose their fear of humans, and that's where most of the trouble begins!


A little girl was killed by a box jellyfish in North Queensland only yesterday  :\'(

Oh, that's terrible! 
:\'(
Another problem with jellyfish is they wash up on the shore.  Even when they're dead, jellyfish tissue can still deliver a powerful sting, so people pick up the remains saying, "Hey what's this...YOW-WOW-OW-OWEEEE!"
I remember seeing an Australian lifeguard on TV who accidentally drank jellyfish remains and survived.  Some idiotic scientist put his jellyfish samples in the same fridge where they lifeguards keep their food, furthermore, he put the remains in a soft drink bottle and didn't even put a note on it!  So the kid went and took a swig of soda...and then the horrible truth set in!  The kid said he remembers looking out at the beach and the surf and thinking, "It sure is beautiful, this is the last time I'll ever see it."  Then he lost consciousness.  Toxicologists say he survived because the poison was very diluted and deteriorated.  If that happened in America, that scientist would have his azz sued off!
:D

We have had shark attacks here on the NJ coast, but none of them has really kept anyone from going in the ocean..honestly the thing here in NJ is illegal ocean dumping and once in a while E.coli in the water near different beaches.....

We also have timber rattlesnakes and I think also copperheads.

Another problem here in Southern New Jersey is deer ticks, which one can get from hiking in or anywhere near the Pine Barrens...and mosquitos near the marshes..and those d*mn greenhead flies that bite like a bastard!

And oh yeah we have ourselves a population explosion,not people, but deer and believe it or not, bears!

We have had shark attacks here on the NJ coast, but none of them has really kept anyone from going in the ocean..honestly the thing here in NJ is illegal ocean dumping and once in a while E.coli in the water near different beaches.....

We also have timber rattlesnakes and I think also copperheads.

Another problem here in Southern New Jersey is deer ticks, which one can get from hiking in or anywhere near the Pine Barrens...and mosquitos near the marshes..and those d*mn greenhead flies that bite like a bastard!

And oh yeah we have ourselves a population explosion,not people, but deer and believe it or not, bears!

Yeah, I remember hearing about the shark attacks on the NJ coast.  We also have rattlers and copperheads in New England, heck you can find them way into Canada, just not that many.  To find a poisonous snake in my area, you'd have to go way out in the woods, you'd have to know where to look, and and you'd have spend all day stalking the thing!  Snakes are afraid of people and their population (or snake-ulation) is sparse enough around here that they don't have to move in near people.  There's plenty of mice and squirrels and birds in the woods for them to catch.
I'm leery of ticks, but there aren't that many that will dig into humans.  There was a huge problem with Lyme disease around the more southerly coasts of New England.  Lyme disease is named after Lyme, CT., after all.  The problem flares up every few years.  Folks up my way do have to pull quite a few ticks off their dogs and cats, though!

I know I have dredged this up somewhat after the fact, but I never posted in it...

I find it highly ironic that the attack occurred at a beach called.... "Amity"  :o  And we all know what movie "Amity" was the setting for  :-\\

If you don't  :o, google the following :

shark amity 1975

You don't want to get attacked by sharks? Stay out of the ocean!

Most lizards are small and harmless.  They're beneficial because they eat bugs and other little pests.  I just don't care for reptiles!  It's the snakes that make me nervous, especially those little coral snakes they have down there.  Corals are in the cobra family, very potent.  I did post a thread a while back on the growing problem of big monitor lizards, Burmese pythons, and Asian cobras getting set free in Florida and adapting to the subtropical climate.  People pick exotic pets that can KILL them, now that's smart!
Alligators are big and scary, but they generally don't prey on humans.  People are dumb enough to FEED gators, so the gators lose their fear of humans, and that's where most of the trouble begins!
Oh, that's terrible! 
:\'(
Another problem with jellyfish is they wash up on the shore.  Even when they're dead, jellyfish tissue can still deliver a powerful sting, so people pick up the remains saying, "Hey what's this...YOW-WOW-OW-OWEEEE!"
I remember seeing an Australian lifeguard on TV who accidentally drank jellyfish remains and survived.  Some idiotic scientist put his jellyfish samples in the same fridge where they lifeguards keep their food, furthermore, he put the remains in a soft drink bottle and didn't even put a note on it!  So the kid went and took a swig of soda...and then the horrible truth set in!  The kid said he remembers looking out at the beach and the surf and thinking, "It sure is beautiful, this is the last time I'll ever see it."  Then he lost consciousness.  Toxicologists say he survived because the poison was very diluted and deteriorated.  If that happened in America, that scientist would have his azz sued off!
:D
Well,that's one good reason you shouldn't filch other people's lunches and drinks!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;)