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Man hits girlfriend with gator in fight

PORT ORANGE, Fla. (AP) - A man hit his girlfriend with a 3-foot alligator and threw beer bottles at her during an argument in the couple’s mobile home, authorities said. David Havenner, 41, was scheduled for a bond hearing yesterday on misdemeanor charges of battery and possession of an alligator. The alligator, which Havenner had been keeping in his bathtub, was turned over to Florida wildlife officials. Nancy Monico, 39, told investigators that Havenner beat her with his fists, then grabbed the alligator and swung it at her as she tried to escape, sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson said. She said the animal hit her at least once. She also told authorities that Havenner threw empty beer bottles at her, Davidson said.

Unless the courts of Algeria have changed the pattern recently, fines levied in some courts there can be paid off in beer.

Two gallons of beer a day was part of the rations allocated to each youngster in the Children’s Hospital. of Norwich, England. This, in 1632. Not so remarkable maybe. The English historically have regarded beer as food, a little like soup. Like soup, they’ve traditionally served beer warm. .

Discover June 2000

GETTING SLOSHED ON A Saturday night may seem a uniquely human tradition, but not if physiologist Robert Dudley is to be believed. Dudley, a biologist at the University of Texas at Austin, claims the taste for alcohol runs deep in animal evolution and is shared with our close primate relatives: chimps, gorillas, and orangutans, which have a known weakness for overripe fruit.

Ripe or rotting rain forest fruits contain alcohol concentrations as high as 5 percent, says Dudley. The odor attracts birds, bats, butterflies, and elephants. Chimps and gorillas-from which our hominid ancestors split between 5 million and 7 million years ago-will roam for miles through tangled trees and creepers in search of fermenting fruit, Sugar and alcohol provide primates with precious calories, and the fruit in turn spreads its seeds far and wide.

Genes for alcohol addiction may have persisted in the human line for the same reason that those for fat accumulation have, according to Dudley’s theory. Modest amounts of alcohol are known to decrease heart disease risk and may lengthen life. Animals predisposed to a little nip would be better survivors, more likely to pass their DNA to the next generation. That genetic heritage may no longer be helpful now that alcohol, like highfat food, is available on every comer. “Alcoholism is not just another addiction,” says Dudley. “It is a by-product of our ancestral nutritional physiology. Once we better understand the mechanism, we’ll have a better shot at a cure.” -Josie Glausiusz

Rampaging elephants kill people, destroy homes

Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004

By WASBIRHUSSAIN ASSOCIATED PRESS

GAUHA TI, India - Wild elephant herds have been terrorizing India’s remote northeast, killing people, flattening houses and even guzzling local rice beer supplies, prompting villagers to retaliate against the pachyderms with firecrackers and bonfires.

With an estimated 5,000 elephants, Assam state has the largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants in India, said MC. Malakar, Assam’s Chief Wildlife Warden. The big herds, faced with shrinking forest cover and human encroachment of their corridors, venture into human settlements looking for food and attack those who try to stop them.

The wild elephants have stampeded across the region, stomping down houses and feasting on standing crops, Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam state’s forest minister, said yesterday.

Rice beer is an attraction. Workers in tea plantations in Assam make rice beer at home and store it in drums.

“There are many instances of I wild elephants guzzling the brew and returning for more,” Bordoloi said.

Wild elephants have killed at least 22 people so far this year in the state, wildlife authorities say. A rapidly shrinking habitat is the main reason for elephants killing more than 600 people in the past 15 years, the authorities say.

On Oct. 26, wild elephants guzzled rice beer kept in drums in Marongi, a village about 175 miles east of Assam’s main city of Gauhati, and then went on a rampage, trampling three people to death and wounding two others, India media reported.

Wildlife officials and villagers use firecrackers and bonfires to scare away the large herds, Bordoloi told The Associated Press. Villagers also beat on drums.

Officials also use electric fences and dig trenches, but these are meant to protect people from elephant attacks, not to scare the elephants.

In 2001, at least 19 wild elephants were poisoned to death by angry villagers, Bordoloi said. Satellite imagery showed that as many as 113,315 acres of thick forests were cleared by human encroachers in 1996-2000, leading to the breakup of traditional elephant corridors and their habitat, Bordoloi said A government ban on capturing elephants and restrictions on sending them to other states has aggravated Assam’s problem.

"In Louisiana we drink to celebrate births and drink to mourn deaths. We drink early and we drink late. We drink all day long for any reason. And an awful lot of people keep drinking in a car," said Ronnie Jones, a former state trooper who now teaches criminal law at Tulane.

AGE-OLD HANGOVER CURES FROM AROUID THE WORLD

Rome: six raw owl's eggs swallowed in quick succession

Norway: a glass of heavy cream

Switzerland: brandy \with a dash of Peppermint

Russia: heavily salted cucumber juice or black bread soaked in water

Germany: sour herring with raw onions and sour cream with a beer chaser

Puerto Rico: rubbing half a lemon under your drinking arm

Middle Ages: mixture of bitter almonds with raw eel

Jamaica: mixture of over proof rum, cream, honey

Australia: a few glasses of beer

Greece: amethyst stones in bottom of glass

Egypt: cabbage seed potions