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Two campground loops are situated in the pinewoods near Grand Lagoon. There are 176 camp sites with electricity, water, picnic tables and grills. The sites will accommodate camping units ranging in size from tents to RV’s up to 40′ in length. Dump stations are located in the campground. There are also five bath houses and one laundry facility.

http://www.ReserveAmerica.com/servlet/Partner/9045/r/campgroundDetails.do?agency=FL&parkId=281067

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Any dachshund owner knows the feisty breed rarely backs off from a challenge, but one in Russia is taking that reputation to new heights — or depths.

The dog named Boniface is learning how to scuba dive.

Owner Sergei Gorbunov, a professional diver in the Pacific Coast city of Vladivostok had a diving suit complete with helmet made for the dog and is teaching him the tricks of the trade.

In a recent demonstration, Boniface barked eagerly as Gorbunov readied the equipment and uncomplainingly endured being hung upside-down as Gorbunov fitted the suit on him.

Once underwater, he seemed to have a different outlook, emitting some high-pitched whines.

Gobunov says, “Underwater, I don’t think he experiences any stress.”

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A man was reportedly run over by his own truck after his dog put it into gear. The sheriff’s office reported that 43-year-old Christopher Bishop was checking under his Ford F-150 for oil leaks Sunday evening. He had put the running truck into neutral and left the driver’s door open. While he was under the truck, Bishop’s bulldog, Tassey, jumped into the truck and knocked the vehicle into gear. The truck rolled over the left side of Bishop’s body.

Bishop managed to get up, stop the vehicle and go into his house. After several hours of pain, Bishop finally called for help.

He was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

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AP - Thursday, April 08, 2010

Rescuers have freed a cow that spent several days trapped beneath a city street in Utah.

KSTU-TV Fox 13 reported Thursday that the cow was hoisted out of a storm drain in Kaysville after it was fitted in a harness connected to a tractor.

Animal control officers in Davis County believe the cow squeezed into the culvert several days ago and became trapped as it moved farther into the narrow storm drain system.

Holden Holt tells Fox 13 that he and his wife spotted the trapped cow Thursday morning on a walk.

Crews had to dig up part of a road before the cow was lifted out late Thursday afternoon. The cow appeared exhausted but alive.

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As the world holds it,s breath in anticipation of the Mayan Calendar date of 2012, let us dive into the realm of the revelation of this most historic premonition. As the world turns, let us also turn to reality and the conditions that point to the end of times as we know it.

The author of 2012

We will begin with the creator of the 2012 prophecy, The Maya Indians.

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD), many Maya cities reached their highest state development during the Classic period (c. 250 AD to 900 AD), and continued throughout the Post classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. At its peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world.

more at www.2012factor.com

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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Abby Sunderland, 16, who cannot legally drive a car but is two months into a quest to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone, on Tuesday will face by far her most daunting challenge yet: the rounding of Cape Horn.

While her friends back home in Southern California are savoring the pleasures of spring, Sunderland is pondering the treacherous passage between South America and Antarctica. With its mountainous, heaving seas and gale-force winds, Cape Horn is a mariners’ graveyard, regarded as the Mt. Everest of the yachting universe.

Reached this week via email the budding adventurer from Thousand Oaks claimed she was not afraid.

“I understand very well how dangerous the ocean is, and especially where I am, and I sail carefully and never forget how fast things can turn bad out here,” she responded, from a position west of southern Argentina and 700 miles from Cape Horn. “But fear would just get in the way. When things are going on, you don’t have time to be scared about it; you have to just get your head around everything and deal with it.”

If Sunderland is successful it will mark her first major milestone and the beginning of a long, easterly Southern Ocean traverse aboard a 40-foot yacht named Wild Eyes. Her voyage is controversial because of her age, but also because she’ll be entering this notoriously inhospitable stretch as the Southern Hemisphere summer fades to autumn and savagely cold and stormy weather begins to set in.

“My biggest hope is that she has he maturity to wait out any nasty weather rather than push too hard for a record and risk getting into trouble,” says Charlie Nobles, executive director of the American Sailing Assn.

Sunderland, who lives in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and embarked Jan. 23 from Marina del Rey, Calif., is one of two 16-year-old girls attempting nonstop, unassisted solo-circumnavigations, subsiding on freeze-dried food and desalinated water, while accepting only verbal or online guidance from home-based teams.

Australia’s Jessica Watson began her odyssey from Sydney last October and rounded Cape Horn on Jan. 13. Soon afterward she endured 70-knot winds that threatened to capsize her 34-foot pink sloop.

Watson, now more than 18,000 miles along and crossing the Indian Ocean, is five months older than Sunderland, so Sunderland will become the youngest if she completes her trip within five months of Watson’s ending date. (Abby’s brother Zac, who completed his voyage at 17, briefly held the distinction as being the youngest sailor to solo-circumnavigate the planet but he made several stops. England’s Mike Perham, who is slightly younger, stole that honor weeks later.)

Abby Sunderland’s trip was delayed by about two months because of boat issues. Her parents assure, however, that she’ll listen closely to weather experts and scurry to the nearest port if conditions become too harsh.

Meanwhile, the intrepid mariner is faring reasonably well. “I miss my family, and my dog, and my friends,” she wrote, adding that thoughts often turn to her 5-year-old sister, Katherine. They share a bedroom and Katherine idolizes Abby, and has not slept in the room alone since Abby’s departure.

Aside from bouts of loneliness, the eldest Sunderland daughter–one of seven children, with an eighth on the way–insists she’s relishing the experience of a lifetime. “Everything around me is so amazing, just standing out on deck is exhilarating,” she explained. “Every day there are new experiences, and they always seem better than the last; everything from squalls to gales, to just racing along.”

Her parents, on the other hand, are besieged by the same type of angst as when Zac was braving gales and encountering ghost ships carrying suspected pirates.

“I have definitely been recruiting the people in my life who pray,” said the mother, Marianne, in reference to a recent convergence of severe weather fronts that were falsely predicted to slam Wild Eyes. “But I am super-impressed with how Abby has handled everything, from the boat and its workings to the loneliness and monotony of everyday life at sea. But I’ll be glad when she has rounded the Horn and can get back up into some calmer waters.”

Abby might get to see her father before she rounds Cape Horn. Laurence Sunderland has flown to Argentina and hired a captain to take him out to try to photograph Wild Eyes before his daughter attempts the passage, but that might prove difficult as 20- to 25-knot winds and large swells are in the forecast through Tuesday.

After she gets around South America’s tip, Abby will turn to the north and attempt to outrun a building Antarctic storm. Ultimately, she’ll cross the southern Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, pass between Australia and New Zealand and cross the Pacific on a northeast course toward home.

That’s a lot of water to cover and, given her late start, perhaps a lot of icebergs to dodge as well.

– Photo of Abby Sunderland aboard her vessel, Wild Eyes, courtesy of Gizara Arts

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ap March 4,2010

A monkey that has eluded capture in the Tampa Bay area for more than a year has again escaped from Florida wildlife officials. Authorities were called to a neighborhood in St. Petersburg on Wednesday when the rhesus macaque monkey was spotted. It was twice hit with tranquilizer darts, but still got away by ducking behind a drug store and a church.

Wildlife rehabilitator Vernon Yates says the tranquilizers don’t appear to affect the animal, though officials have increased the dosage each time they’ve used the drug on the monkey.

Yates says the monkey is smart, even stopping to check traffic before crossing a busy street.

Officials didn’t say how the monkey got loose. They say it isn’t considered a threat to humans.

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Photo By AP

A man who is only 22 inches (56 centimeters) tall left his home country of Nepal on Sunday in a quest to be recognized as the world’s shortest man. Khagendra Thapa Magar is traveling to Europe to campaign for the Guinness World Record title. He applied to London-based group for a place in the record book in October, soon after turning 18, but said he has not received any response.

Magar’s family initially filed a claim when he was 14, but it was rejected because he was not an adult and there was a chance he might grow.

They say doctors in Nepal have not been able to explain why Magar is so small.

“We are going to Italy to try to record his name in the Guinness Book of World Records,” his father, Rup Bahadur Thapa Magar, told reporters in Katmandu. They plan to appear on an Italian television show to talk about his bid for the title.

Once in Italy, Magar, his father and a supporter will decide on their next destination.

His supporters saw him off from the Nepalese capital on Sunday, offering flower bouquets and garlands.

The current record is held by He Pingping of China, who is 29 inches (73 centimeters) tall.

www.animalcorner.us

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Photo By AP

A 51-year-old Ohio man has embraced the Valentine’s Day spirit faster than anyone before, giving 7,777 hugs in 24 hours for a new world record.

Jeff Ondash, who sought the squeezes under the costumed alter ego Teddy McHuggin, broke the record Saturday night outside the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

“When you hug somebody, they all walk away from each other smiling,” Ondash said. “They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away; a hug a day — it’s just fun.”

Ondash said he wanted to become the world’s hugging champion to raise money for the American Heart Association during American Heart month.

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