Ein 47-jähriger Niederländer wurde im Urlaub in Südafrika von einer Schnauzenkobra in den Sacxk gebissen, während er auf dem Klo saß (NSFW). Er erlitt eine „Skrotalnekrose“ und musste längerfristig behandelt werden. „In Ländern, die für ihre Schlangenpopulation berüchtigt sind, spülen Sie immer die Toilette, bevor Sie sich hinsetzen“ oder reisen sie woanders hin.

A 47-year-old man received a snouted cobra (Naja annulifera) snake bite to his genitals while on holiday in South Africa. His penis and scrotum were noted to be swollen, deep purple in color, and painful on hospital admission. Scrotal necrosis was diagnosed, and he received multiple doses of a non-specific snake venom antiserum and broad-spectrum antibiotics. Although no neurological sequelae developed, he did require hemodialysis due to acute kidney injury. After stabilizing, he was repatriated to the Netherlands for further treatment and has since made a full recovery.

(via BoingBoing)

(Direktlink)

YouTuber Wayne Easton war vor zwei Jahren genau in jenem Moment am Start und hat dieses kleine Naturphänomen wir die Nachwelt festgehalten. Und das fasziniert, irgendwie. Mich zumindest.

(Direktlink)

(Direktlink, via Kottke)

(Direktlink, via CarFreiTag)

The flock, which started with six ducks in 1983, gives Vergenoegd extra points in the wine industry’s sustainability certification process as the 57-hectare vineyard now uses so little chemicals it does not need to declare them, Jacobs said.

Parading on the farm each day, the soldier-like birds are guided by a herder and can clear between half a hectare and a whole hectare a day, of the snails that are, besides fungal diseases, considered as the main threat to vines at the farm.

However, the high costs of keeping the birds are a downside. On a similar sized farm, growers could spend about 50,000 rand ($3,200) a season for pesticides, compared with 30,000 for just a month on ducks, which are kept in protective pens and are fed grain to augment their snail diet, said Jacobs.
(Reuters)

(Direktlink, via Martin)

Louis T.The Pigeon Plan is a project aiming at collecting used skateboards for children from poorer regions around South Africa. The 100 complete boards that we collected will be shipped to South Africa in January 2015, to be shared with various institutions. The Pigeon Plan will work with children’s homes, primary schools, and other social services in the townships. At each location, a crew of volunteers, skateboarders, and helping hands will provide one-week workshops, where the kids get taught the basics on a skateboard. Our goal is to share the freedom and comeradeship of skateboarding and to provide workshops that won’t be forgotten.
We will leave the boards with the institutions and are trying to find volunteers to continue the workshops on a regular, continuous basis. Skateboarding is something special and unique; no team, no special training, and only a piece of tar/concrete is needed. Rather than having old boards lying uselessly around at home, they can be put to good use. On a board we learned how to deal socially with others, to see the world differently, and express ourselves through movement; the urban jungle can become your playground. That’s what skateboarding is about for us and that is the reason why we want to share our love for skateboarding with the kids of South Africa.

Our workshops will include…
– skateboard basics (pushes/kick-turns /a few tricks)
– skateboard culture (videos/photography/art)
– carpentry (set up a Skateboard, maintenance ramps)
– the joys of social engagement (intergenerational interactions)
– fun and enjoyment

https://vimeo.com/119056464
(Direktlink | Danke, Dennis!)

Der Fotograf Marco Casino hat diese Staff Rider besucht und über das sprechen lassen, was sie antreibt. Ein sehenswertes Portrait darüber, wie junge Menschen ihr Leben zu definieren versuchen, wenn eigentlich nicht viel dafür bleibt, das tun zu können. Wurde heute zurecht mit dem 1. Preis der Kategorie „Online Short“ des 2014 World Press Photo Multimedia Contests ausgezeichnet.

The population is almost entirely made up of blacks, but strongly multiethnic: all the eleven South Africa’s official languages are spoken in the township.
The almost total majority of surfers are kids under 25. Amputations and death are really common. The Prasa Metrorail, the SA train company, is one of the foundations of their society.This connection between train and citizens remained very strong over time. The spectacular and risky act of train surfing becomes the framework to tell the Katlehong’s young people social fabric.This place has been the epicenter of the anti-apartheid’s guerrillas, and on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the facts that we all know , the situation of segregation has remained more or less unchanged in daily life.
In a context where violence , rampant poverty , abuse of alchool/drugs and infant birth/AIDS are the masters , the train surfing is configured as the search for a social redemption that will never come for the characters of this story .
Staff Riding is part of a long-term project about the township lifestyle 20 years later the struggle against apartheid.

http://vimeo.com/83486021
(Direktlink)

(Direktlink)