Snake filmed eating pigeon in London street

Dave Fawbert spotted the boa constrictor, thought to be an abandoned pet, on High Road, Leytonstone, on Saturday morning.

The RSPCA has since taken the reptile to a wildlife centre and is appealing for information about how it may have come to be in the street.

Many described the animal as a python, but the RSPCA confirmed it is a boa constrictor.

Mr Fawbert said when he discovered the animal on the pavement between a parked car and a row of shops one passer-by screamed.

But soon a big crowd gathered, he added.

Rachel Garland, 29, from Stratford, who filmed the video, said: "It was really cool, you never see anything like that."

"I wasn't scared because it was moving so slowly and it was completely wrapped up in its pigeon. It was just trying to eat the pigeon, it wasn't taking any notice of all the people."

"This guy then picked it up by its tail as it was wrapped around the pigeon and put it in a cardboard box."

RSPCA inspector Rebecca Bedson, who removed the snake, said she was keen to find out how it came to be in such a dangerous situation+. She added: "Anything might have happened to him, he could have been run over by a car or attacked by another animal."

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Hafez - Persian poet who lauded the joys of love and wine.

Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī 

Hafez, who was a 14th-century poet in Iran, is best known for his poems that can be described as "antinomian".

Themes of his poems are the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy. In his poems, he deals with love, wine and tavern, all presenting the ecstacy and freedom from restraint, whether in actual worldly release or in the voice of the lover speaking of divine love.

His influence in the lives of Persian speakers can be found in "Hafez readings" (fāl-e hāfez, Persian: فال حافظ‎) and the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, and Persian calligraphy.

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"Gempa Bumi..." ###### "Saya merasakannya juga" ###"Earthquake..."## "I feel it too"

Gempa Bumi... Denpasar, minggu 29/07/18. Pukul 06:49 #gempa #gempabumi #gempabali #gempabumibali #earthquake #gempalombok

A post shared by sof_one_hady (@sof_one_hady) on Jul 28, 2018 at 4:01pm PDT

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Tahoe brothers survive lightning strike.

Three Tahoe-area brothers were struck by lightning while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail near Skykomish, Washington.

Three Brothers

Austin, Dylan and Garrett Murtha set out June 28 to hike the entire PCT south from the Canadian border when they began to scramble down a granite face as storm clouds approached last week, said Greg Murtha, the boys' father.

"It was a 15- to 20-minute lightning storm," he told KCRA by phone. "Austin was thrown 15 feet by the force of the strike. He was unconscious for seven minutes. My oldest son revived him ... and they hiked out 60 miles to Skykomish and the cardiologist said he was lucky as hell he survived."

Videos sent to KCRA3 by the Murtha family show red scars on Austin's leg where the lightning shredded his shorts, his hat and his poncho. A portion of his cold-weather jacket appeared to have melted.

Scars on the leg

Austin

"(My hat) exploded off my head. I don't even know," said Austin in one of the videos.

The brothers did not let the incident deter them from their quest to hike the entire 2,650-mile north to south route. The trio continued their journey after seeing a doctor who performed an EKG on Austin.

"Austin picked up the trail name 'Tone' from other hikers, because he couldn't hear anything for three days due to the ringing in his ears," Greg Murtha said.

The trio is expected to pass through the Tahoe area around Labor Day with an expected completion of the entire journey by the end of October. They are carrying camera equipment document and create a virtual reality tour of the PCT for Greg Murtha's Xplorit company.

"I got struck by lightning. I'm alive. That's a good thing right?" said Austin Murtha.

How to survive a lightning strike.

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What is that? Creature inside the cave?

INSIDE THE CAVE

Groundwater crisis by 2020

A recent NITI Aayog report on India’s water crisis, along with the performance of states in addressing the issue, presents a grim picture of the country’s hydrological scene.

Uttar Pradesh

The groundwater crisis in UP is progressively worsening, owing to unplanned urbanisation, unbridled boring, rampant exploitation of groundwater and surface water by government and private bodies, failure to replenish it through rainwater harvesting, lack of awareness among people, etc.

The state has a gross withdrawal of about 5.28 million hectares, among the highest in India.

Studies show about 660 blocks in UP are facing depleting water levels. Of those, 180 blocks in 45 districts have been clubbed as stressed (over-exploited/critical).

Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Agra, Noida, and Varanasi have all been severely affected. Besides, contamination in high concentration of fluoride, iron, arsenic, chromium, manganese and salinity is another area of concern, the report stated.

“Groundwater is like a bank account. If you keep on withdrawing without refilling, it would get exhausted forever,” V K Joshi, former Geological Survey of India director, told Business Standard.

Records show, there were about 320 ponds in Lucknow in 1912, but most of them have disappeared.

Odisha

Despite having a network of rivers, just 32 per cent of the agricultural land in Odisha has access to irrigation.

According to a latest assessment, the state has net dynamic groundwater resources of 1.669 million cubic metres.

With a Water Index score of 42 (same as Kerala), Odisha, replete with water reserves, is positioned at the bottom among the five worst performers in water resource management.

In the NITI Aayog ranking, which has 2015-16 as the base year, Odisha has slipped four notches to 13 (among non-Himalayan states), the study has found.

Bihar

In June 2009, then Public Health Engineering Minister Ashwini Choubey, after returning from Singapore, had said, “I have conceived some plans for water management. We will soon formulate our water policy and seek cooperation from Singapore for this.”

He claimed that a team of water experts would soon visit Bihar and suggest a water policy.

Choubey went on to become a Union minister, but a water policy remained elusive for Bihar.

Of Bihar’s 38 districts, 13 are arsenic- and 11 are fluoride-affected. That apart, every summer, the southern districts of Gaya, Aurangabad, Kaimur, Nawada, Jamui, Bhagalpur, and Rohtas face acute drinking water crisis.

According to government records, more than 98 per cent of construction in Patna, including government buildings, did not follow rules. Independent surveys found that the groundwater table went down by 10 metres in several parts of Patna last year.

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Exit Lionel Messi, enter Kylian Mbappe.

Teenage French striker Kylian Mbappe has been setting the World Cup alight with his searing pace and goal-scoring prowess, marking him out as a NextGen superstar of the sport.

Kylian Mbappe

Back in his hometown of Bondy, on the gritty northeast outskirts of Paris, there is immense pride at his exploits, but not that much surprise -- they always knew he'd make it big.

His father, originally from Cameroon, and his mother, a handball player from Algeria, instilled in him a drive to give back to the community, which sits between two highways amid several decayed housing projects. In France the area is often referred to dismissively by its department number -- 93.

"The fact that he comes from the 93, which is often negatively portrayed by the media, just makes us even more proud." - Mickael Ichkhanian, the former groundskeeper at the Leo Lagrande stadium, where Mbappe made his debut.

- shared from internet resource.