Bizarre ball of twisted metal space junk falls from the sky into farmer's backyard

It might not be much to look at, but this ball of twisted metal has been all the way into space - and back again.

James Stirton, who found it in his backyard, was initially mystified by the object's appearance. The 20kg heap of tangled carbon fibre and steel stuck out like a sore thumb from the dry scrubland of his cattle farm in Queensland, Australia.

"I was just riding along on my bike and it was beside the road, beside a track out in the paddock," Mr Stirton said.

"I just wondered what it was so I went over and had a look at it and I figured it must have fallen from the sky because there's no tracks or traffic or anything out here."

He added: "I know a lot about sheep and cattle but I don't know much about satellites. But I would say it is a fuel cell off some stage of a rocket."

Brisbane Planetarium curator Mark Rigby was asked to examine the object, which landed in the small town of Cheepie, west of Charleville in November last year.

He said there was "no doubt" it was a helium or nitrogen tank from a rocket, probably one that had been used to blast a U.S. solar satellite into space more than 18 months ago.

"I looked at what had been coming down around that time and orbits and things like that and managed to narrow the time frame based on when the farmer found it," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"This particular object was predicted for re-entry (into the Earth's atmosphere) at 11.47am Australian Eastern Standard time on November 1, 2007, which would have put it near Indonesia.

"I don't know why, but I think it has just sort of limped on a bit and ended up in Charleville."

After checking space flight records, Mr Rigby said the rocket had likely been launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on October 26, 2006.

It was used to send up one of two Stereo satellites into orbit to study the sun.

Helium or nitrogen tanks are used to pressurise the rocket's fuel systems and also to manoeuvre the spacecraft.

Mr Rigby said falling space junk was not as uncommon as people might think.

Nasa scientists estimated last year that more than 9,000 pieces of space debris are orbiting the Earth - and the hazard will only get worse in the next few years.

Much of the debris results from explosions of satellites, especially old upper stages left in orbit with leftover fuel and high-pressure fluids inside.

"There is about 5,000 tons' worth of operational and non-operational satellites and space junk in orbit at any one time," Mr Rigby added.

"There are things like this re-entering the Earth's atmosphere every week. The predictions can be quite uncertain about where it is going to come down."

Indeed, the remote area where Mr Stirton lives, around 500miles (800km) west of the northern Queensland state capital of Brisbane, is something of a magnet for so-called "space junk".

In 1979, large parts of the Skylab space station famously fell to earth near a tiny outback town in the west of Australia.

The local council sent Nasa a ticket for littering and the U.S. President at the time, Jimmy Carter, rang a local motel to apologise.

Scientists discover biggest meteorite ever to hit Britain

It hurtled to Earth at a mind-boggling 38,000 mph and exploded on impact with the force of more than 1,000 nuclear bombs.

Anyone standing nearby would have been instantly burnt to a crisp by the scorching 200mph winds that swept across the land in its wake.

Such a terrifying spectacle would certainly have done little for the tourist industry in the tranquil Highland port of Ullapool which stood at very centre of Britain's largest ever meteorite strike. If only anybody was around to witness it.

Fortunately, it is around 1.2 billion years since the meteorite unleashed its destructive power on this starkly beautiful corner of north-west Scotland.

Yet, it is only now that scientists have finally uncovered the evidence to prove where the giant rock, which may have measured up to half a mile in diameter and left a crater eight miles wide, landed.

Academics from Aberdeen and Oxford universities are now convinced that it was a meteorite which caused highly unusual rock formations along a 30-mile stretch of coastline that draw thousands of visitors every year.

Previously, it was thought the intricate deposits of brightly coloured and rare minerals found on the Stoer peninsula were created by volcanic activity.

But after spending two years studying tiny samples of rock from the mountain Stac Fada under a microscope, geologists believe they have identified fragments of meteorite and say the centre of the crater would be where Ullapool now stands.

Ken Amor, of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences, said: "This is the most spectacular evidence for a meteorite impact within the British Isles found to date.

"If there had been human observers in Scotland 1.2 billion years ago, they would have seen quite a show.

"The massive impact of the meteorite would have melted rocks and thrown up an enormous cloud of vapour that scattered material over a large part of the region around Ullapool.

"The crater was rapidly buried by sandstone which helped to preserve the evidence.

"What we have discovered about this meteorite strike could help us to understand the ancient impacts that shaped the surface of other planets, such as Mars."

Chemical testing of the sample rocks revealed evidence of what is knowns as an "ejecta blanket". This represents debris thrown out when the huge projectile slammed into the Earth's crust.

The ejected material was scattered over a 30-mile radius and the researchers found rocks containing high levels of iridium, a key sign of meteoritic activity.

Mr Amor added: "We found more evidence when we examined the rocks under a microscope; tell-tale microscopic parallel fractures that also imply a meteorite strike."

The geologists have now published their findings in the science journal Geology.

Co-author Professor John Parnell, head of Geology & Petroleum Geology at Aberdeen University, said: "These rocks are superbly displayed on the west coast of Scotland.

"Building up the evidence has been painstaking, but has resulted in proof of the largest meteorite strike known in the British Isles."

Space rubble, including meteorites, left over from the creation of the solar system has been landing on Earth for billions of years but only 174 have been large enough to leave craters or remnants of craters that are known to exist.

The world's largest known meteorite crater is at Bredefort in South Africa's Free State Province, which measures around 190 miles across.

Scott Thackrey, a PhD student at Aberdeen University who also worked on the report, said: "If this meteorite had struck Ullapool today, then the blast would have burnt the skin off people standing in Inverness 60 miles away. And 20 seconds after impact, Aberdeen which is 160 miles away would have suffered winds up to 200mph."

But, he added: "People nowadays should feel totally safe as we know the position of all major meteorites and they will not be heading our way."

The Pregnant Husband: Transgender Man Expecting a Baby

To his neighbors, Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy are just another young happy couple living in a quiet Oregon neighborhood. But Thomas is no ordinary man: he is transgender and now … he is pregnant!
Ten years ago, when Nancy and I became a couple, the idea of us having a child was more dream than plan. I always wanted to have children. However, due to severe endometriosis 20 years ago, Nancy had to undergo a hysterectomy and is unable to carry a child. But after the success of our custom screen-printing business and a move from Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest two years ago, the timing finally seemed right. I stopped taking my bimonthly testosterone injections. It had been roughly eight years since I had my last menstrual cycle, so this wasn’t a decision that I took lightly. My body regulated itself after about four months, and I didn’t have to take any exogenous estrogen, progesterone, or fertility drugs to aid my pregnancy.

Naturally, some people are shocked:

“Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns. We have only begun experiencing opposition from people who are upset by our situation. Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Health care professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun or recognize Nancy as my wife. Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive; most of Nancy’s family doesn’t even know I’m transgender.”

I bet they do now!!!

There's something fishy about this as monster eel scares city-centre shoppers

A monster from the deep lurks in the heart of one of Britain's great cities, terrifying the unwary who catch a glimpse of it deathly eyes staring from its icy bed.

Even with its razor-sharp teeth concealed in its closed jaws, the massive conger eel has been enough to give passers-by a scare in Manchester's Arndale Centre.

But there will be no Beowulf-style quest to kill the huge creature - the job has already been done.

The 7ft, 12-stone eel has pride of place on the stall of fishmonger Steve Williams.

It took three men to lift the enormous eel - landed by fishermen off Cornwall - out of its icebox when it arrived at Whales Fish and Poultry, Mr Williams' store in the shopping centre.

He said: "In 18 years I have never seen a monster this big. A lot of customers have actually been quite frightened by it."

Conger eels approaching 18 stone in weight have been caught by commercial fisherman off Britain's shores.

They are thought to migrate to the Sargasso Sea in the sub-tropical Atlantic to breed, spawning at depths of 10,000 to 12,000 feet.

Giant stingray kills sunbathing woman by leaping onto boat and impaling her through the neck

A woman sunbathing on the deck of a boat was killed after a stingray leapt out of the water and impaled her through the neck with a poisonous barb.

Judy Zagorski, 57, was on holiday with her family on the boat when the bizarre incident happened.

It was not immediately clear if she was killed by the barb of the 6ft spotted eagle ray or whether she suffered a fatal injury when she banged her head.

The incident off the Florida Keys was reminiscent of the freak death of Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin who was killed by a different type of ray while filming on Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 2006 when its barb pierced his heart.

Spotted eagle rays can grow up to 17 feet in length and weigh up to 35 stone. They are known to occasionally jump out of the water, but are not aggressive.

"It's a bizarre accident," said Jorge Pino, an agent with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Mrs Zagorski and her familym from Michigan on an early Easter break, were aboard a boat in the Atlantic Ocean, off the city of Marathon in the Florida Keys, he said.

"A large ray jumped out of the water and collided with the victim and somehow the barb penetrated some part of her body, which caused her to fall back and hit her head on some portion of the vessel," Pino said.

"We don't know exactly which one of those things caused her death."

Her father who was driving the boat " had absolutely no warning. It just happened instantaneously," Pino said.

Eagle rays are common in warm or tropical waters and are often seen near coral reefs. The spotted creatures can have two to six short, venomous barbs near the base of their whip-like tails.

The rays often swim near the water's surface and can leap out, especially when pursued, but are generally shy of humans.

"All rays leap out of the water from time to time but certainly to see one collide with a vessel is extremely unusual," Pino said.

"Rays jump to escape a predator, give birth and shake off parasites," said Lynn Gear, supervisor of fishes and reptiles at Theater of the Sea in Islamorada.

"They do not attack people."

Amazing pictures capture elephants making a gigantic snowball

They are more used to a balmy climate, but as these amazing pictures show, elephants love to play in the snow too.

Two of the massive mammals played together in the cold safari park in Ontario, Canada and even made a gigantic snowball together.

The elephants at the African Lion Safari in Hamilton, used their trunks to gather the snow and pile it high to create the massive ball of ice.

They worked hard to compact the snow and the structure was so stable that one of the safari park workers could stand on it.

The park was founded by a retired Canadian Army colonel and opened its doors to the public in 1969. From 1985 they made a concentrated effort to breed Asian elephants. And if these pictures are anything to go by, their descendants are having a ball.

via videosift.com

Seeing double: Indian baby born with four eyes, two mouths and two faces

To some she may seem an oddity, but to one Indian couple their newborn daughter is simply a God reincarnated.

Their as yet un-named four-day-old baby girl was born with two faces, two mouths and four eyes in the rural Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, 50km north east of New Delhi.

Her parents, Vinod and Susham Singh from a village called Sani, said their little girl was "a gift from God".

Excited villagers claim she is the reincarnation of the Indian God Ganesha and celebrated her arrival with clapping, cheering and offerings of gifts and money.

Doctors who delivered the baby said she appeared to be in good health, but said further tests will need to be carried out to determine any long-term health problems she may have.

They are also unable to say if she will be able to eat and function normally.

The excitement surrounding her arrival comes two years after the birth of another little girl, from the poverty stricken region of Bihar, who was born attached to her headless twin.

In a 40 hour operation, doctors successfully removed the lifeless body from Lakshmi Tatma, who was hailed as a reincarnation of Vishnu.

The extraordinary eight-limbed baby was born on the day devoted to the celebration of the four-armed Hindu deity Vishnu.

Since the operation Lakshmi has successfully taken her first steps.

Her mother Poonam Tatma said she believed her daughter was "a miracle".

Good fish! The amazing moment a man pats a Great White Shark as it breaches next to his boat

It's a little to close to the jaws of death for our comfort.

This is the amazing moment a man pats a monstrous Great White Shark off the coast of Australia after attracting it with chunks of bait.

The image was originally taken to demonstrate the powers of the Shark Shield, an electronic device designed to keep sharks away from surfers.

But after one Great White bit right through such a device, and in a separate incident a student died in a horrifying shark attack, scientists began to wonder if the devices do not repel sharks so much as they attract them.

Jarrod Stehbens, 23, was on a University diving trip when he was taken by a shark at Glenelg in Adelaide, Australia in August 2005.

At the inquest into his death, staff from Adelaide University questioned whether shark shields should be used at all.

The university was worried that the devices attracted sharks before deterring them, and posed a health risk, especially to pregnant women or anyone with heart problems.

Other stories of sharks biting through the devices have been documented.

The Shark Shield's website claims the device utilises a technologically advanced three dimensional electronic wave form to repel sharks by inducing spasms in their snouts.

The electronic waves work from about eight metres away. The closer the shark gets, the site claims, the more intolerable the spasms become.

It says the product is tried and tested and does not attract sharks but repels them.

Half-ton man's disastrous date

man who once weighed half a ton has been out on a date - but it was not quite as romantic as he hoped when the forklift truck carrying him hit an overpass.

Uribe made all the necessary arrangements - a forklift to carry him out of the house and a flatbed tow truck big enough to haul the formerly half-ton man and his bed to a party.

But even the open road wasn't big enough to handle Uribe's dream of celebrating a budding romance and his success in losing about 200kgs (440lbs).
Uribe was halfway to a picnic near his Monterrey-area home on Sunday when one of the posts holding a sun-shielding tarp over his bed hit an overpass.

Uribe's blood pressure dropped so much his doctors advised him not to go on and the celebration - being documented by about two dozen photographers and reporters from around the world - was cancelled.

"We were going to celebrate that I've been losing weight for two years and that it was my girlfriend's birthday," Uribe said in a telephone interview.

"The saddest part was that I couldn't fulfill my dream of taking my girlfriend out to eat."

Uribe says that after losing weight on a high-protein diet he started two years ago, he's down to about 360kgs (800lbs).

Last year, Uribe left his house for the first time in five years. Six people pushed his iron bed on wheels out to the street as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered to see the man who once weighed 560kgs (1,235lbs).

At the time, the 42-year-old mechanic rode through the streets of his native San Nicolas de los Garza to enjoy the sun and wave to neighbors.

Uribe weighed more than 115kgs (250lbs) as an adolescent, and he just kept growing.

Since the summer of 2002, Uribe has been bedridden, relying on his mother and friends to feed and clean him. He drew worldwide attention when he pleaded for help on national television in January 2006.

Uribe says despite the setback, he still hopes to go out with his girlfriend on June 11, when he will turn 43.

"We'll just have to plan it better," he said.

Caught on camera: The rare pygmy hippos surviving civil war in Liberia

These photographs show how rare pygmy hippos are surviving in Liberia's forests despite two civil wars that threatened to destroy their habitat, British scientists said today.

One of the most secretive large mammals on Earth, the pygmy hippo is rarely seen in the wild but was caught on camera in the west African country's only national park, Sapo, by a team led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

The hippo, which looks like a smaller version of the common hippopotamus, had been identified by ZSL's Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (Edge) programme as being in need of urgent conservation, prompting the trip to Liberia.

There are thought to be less than 3,000 of the mammals remaining in the wild in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Liberia and there are serious concerns about its survival due to habitat destruction and poaching.

But "camera traps" set up by ZSL, Flora and Fauna International (FFI) and Liberia's Forest Development Agency in a monitoring expedition funded by the People's Trust for Endangered Species captured the elusive pygmy hippo on film within three days.

The cameras will remain in place as part of a monitoring programme to produce an accurate population estimate and a conservation plan, the researchers said.

Ben Collen, ZSL research fellow said the team had headed to Liberia, which had suffered two civil wars in the last two decades, to search for the "extraordinary, mysterious creature".

"We were delighted to discover that a population still persists there, but remain highly concerned for the species, which continues to face significant threats from poaching and habitat degradation," he said.

FFI senior projects manager Africa Stephen van der Mark said: "Liberia's Upper Guinean forest ecosystem, where the pygmy hippo was photographed, is a major global conservation priority.

"Though unsustainable forestry and mining operations were especially devastating during the civil wars, they still pose a significant threat today.

"Only 10 per cent of the original Upper Guinean forest is left, of which Liberia contains about 40 per cent.

"This new sighting gives us hope that, with a concerted effort, we can still protect the area's remaining biodiversity including the charismatic pygmy hippo," he said.

Liberia's Forestry Development Authority's managing director John T Woods said he had been "pessimistic" about the existence of the pygmy hippo at Sapo, but the photos confirmed the richness of biodiversity in the Liberian forest.

Amazing picture of the moment a British teacher was attacked by a 400lb lion

This was the horrific moment a British teacher was savaged by a lion - coming within inches of death.

The big cat pounced on Kate Drew from behind and dragged her to the ground, sinking its teeth into the back of her neck.

As wardens on a Zimbabwe game reserve rushed to help, the 400lb lion kept the 28-year-old tourist firmly in its grip - but, mercifully, its jaws just missed her brain stem.

Seconds later, she was rescued, dripping with blood. The bite wounds left her needing 13 stitches.

Recalling the attack just over a month ago, Miss Drew, from Hornchurch, Essex, said she assumed she was a "goner" after the lion pounced.

As it held her down, she was even more terrified to glance up and see two more lions coming her way.

She was saved only when the wardens rushed in with sticks and wrestled the animal away.

It is thought the lion intended only to "play" with her after being attracted by her mane-like long blonde hair.

The closeness of her brush with death sank in only after Miss Drew saw these photographs of the attack, taken by a fellow traveller.

"It brings back just what a crazy experience it was," she said.

"It's quite shocking to see a picture of it."

The primary school headmistress had been working as a volunteer teacher in Tanzania since last September and was spending a few weeks travelling across Africa on a bus with other backpackers.

As part of the trip, they visited a project where lions are bred to be released back into the wild.

Tourists can pay £24 to walk with several of the big cats, which are considered tame enough to be allowed contact with humans.

Miss Drew, who is now helping at an orphanage in Peru, said: "I was a bit apprehensive, but we were just leaving and everything seemed to have gone well - until this one lion jumped at me from behind.

"I was scared enough when he pinned me to the ground, but when I looked up and saw the other two, I really thought I'd had it. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm a goner'."

Man Creates Vigilante Robot to Battle Drug Dealers

Atlanta bar owner Rufus Terrill has built an armor plated remote control robot to video tape and chase away drug dealers and other unsavory characters who are causing problems in the neighborhood.Late at night several times a week, Terrill powers up the 4-foot-tall, 300 pound device and reaches for a remote control packed with two joysticks and various knobs and switches. Standing on a nearby corner, he maneuvers the machine down the block, often to a daycare center where it accosts what Terrill says are drug dealers, vagrants and others who shouldn’t be there.He flashes the robot’s spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot’s sound system.

“I tell them they are trespassing, it’s private property, and they have to leave,” he said. “They throw bottles and cans at it. That’s when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches.”

Salad days for coleslaw wrestlers

Shaunah Gordon is covered in coleslaw after being pinned by coleslaw wrestling champion Angela Kosobud, during the double elimination event at a coleslaw wrestling contest.
The event saw women wrestling in a mixture of chopped up cabbage and oil, for a chance to win $500. As you do.

The coleslaw wrestling took place at Sopotnick's Cabbage Patch in Samsula, Florida on Wednesday. Somehow, you just knew this was going to be in Florida, didn't you?

Children saved from global sex ring

Eight British children have been rescued from sexual predators belonging to a global paedophile ring.

The youngsters, aged between six and 14, were identified from thousands of images seized in an international police operation.

Police safeguarded the victims after they were traced to addresses in the UK, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Centre said.

News of the victims came to light after a two-year investigation led by the FBI and Queensland Police in Australia concluded last week. Investigators successfully infiltrated the online newsgroup, which also had members in the United States, Australia, Canada and Germany.

A total of 22 people were arrested last week, including two men in the UK, by officers in the final act of dismantling the paedophile ring. Six further British men have already been jailed for their roles in trading and receiving pictures and videos on the network.

Paul Griffiths, who heads the victim identification team at Ceop, said the children were subjected to horrendous abuse.

He said: "In every image there is a child. These images are crime scene photos where children are being subjected to sexual abuse. This is not 'child pornography'.

"It's important to remember, too, that these children were not missing. They were located in the place where they were supposed to be safe - their own home - where their abuse was recorded and made available over the internet to satisfy sickening sexual desires of a deviant group of individuals."

As a result of the two-year operation, 400,000 images of child abuse were seized and some were passed to individual countries for investigation.

Officers in the UK used facial recognition software and painstaking detective work to identify victims from clues in each image.

Attack of the 122ft snow woman

The world's largest snowwoman has been constructed in Bethel, Maine, beating their own record for building giant snow beings.

The snowwoman - named Olympia, in honour of Maine's senior Senator, Olympia Snowe - stands an impressive 122ft 1in tall.

Bethel's previous record-breaking snowperson was the 114ft tall Angus, King of the Mountain. That snowman, built in 1999, was named after Maine's then Governor, Angus King.

What they'll do when Maine doesn't have any local politicians whose names lend themselves to snowpeople is anybody's guess.

Goat people offer goat for goat marrying man

We all remember the giddily romantic tale from two years ago of Mr Charles Tombe, the Sudanese man who was forced by village elders to marry a goat after they caught him drunkenly having sex with it.

Attentive followers of internet tales of goat-love will also recall that, tragically, the goat died in May 2007, leaving Mr Tombe as Sudan's - nay, the world's - most famous goat-widower.

Luckily for Mr Tombe, a firm is now trying to brighten up the goat side of his life once more, as they're trying to track him down and give him a replacement goat.

The goat matchmaking service is being carried out by www.buzzmygoat.com, which is a new comedy mobile messaging service. Selflessly, they're offering up one of their corporate mascots as Mr Tombe's new bride.

The goat in question is named Daisy (a devestatingly original name for a goat) and is a British Toggenburg (which is a type of goat).

British Toggenburgs have 'excellent longevity', according to the British Toggenburg Society's website, so if the matchmaking is successful, Mr Tombe should have many years of goat bliss ahead of him.

Of course, the main problem with the plan is finding Mr Tombe, who perhaps understandably has not exactly been revelling in his goat-fame.

To those ends, the comedy-on-your-mobile people have been round to the Sudanese embassy to see if they can help. If you'd like to see how they got on, you can watch the video here.

Of course, we eagerly await the day you can download an actual goat bride via your mobile phone. Then, and only then, will technology have finally fulfilled its potential. It'd be well weapon.

Welshman decorates his house with nine thousand daffodils to mark St David's Day

A patriotic Welshman has covered his house with nine thousand daffodils for St David's Day.

John Jenkins turned his terraced house into a sea of yellow by pinning the plastic daffodils to netting on the front of his home - in honour of patron saint St David.

It took him a week to fix the nine thousand daffodils to his terraced house in Abergavenny, South Wales.
Jenkins said: "It puts a smile on the face of everyone passing by.

"I'm a patriotic Welshman and I couldn't think of anything better for marking our national day than turning my house into a field of daffs.

"Everyone feel a bit brighter when they see my house bursting out in yellow. It's amazing how it lightens people's mood and gets them smiling."
He said: "It's been cold and my hands were like blocks of ice - but the daffs show that spring is just around the corner.

"You know when you see a daffodil that winter is over - it must be the most cheerful flower in the world."

Jenkins is also hoping to raising hundreds of pounds for the Marie Curie Cancer charity with a pipe outside his house leading to a bucket so people can donate money.

The 75-year old bodybuilder who has the same amazing physique as he did at 21

Taken 54 years apart, there is little difference between these two photographs of super-fit grandfather Max Moore - apart from the grey hair and extra wrinkles.

When the 75-year-old retired ten years ago, the former award-winning bodybuilder was determined to restore his body to its physical peak.

Hours of training in the gym have turned back the clock and given Max back the muscles that won him more than a few admirers.

The pensioner, from Swindon, Wiltshire, was a physical training instructor in the RAF, putting military hopefuls through gruelling sessions in the gym.

In 1952, he was crowned Mr South-West Britain bodybuilding champion and the following year saw him come third in the Mr Britain championship.

Max, who has four children and five grandchildren, said: "I went into the RAF to do my national service in 1952 but the job of an airman wasn't for me so I asked what other roles were available.

"I trained as an instructor and it was basically my job to keep in good shape and put the recruits through their paces.

"My six-month training course was the hardest and most gruelling of my life but I had to be fit to train the troops day in, day out.

"The competitions were just a bit of fun for me but I won the regional one in 1952 and came close to winning the national one the next year."

But when, after four years, Max left the RAF, his training regime stumbled and it would be half a century before he regained the body that won over his teenage sweetheart and future wife Thelma, now 71.

Max recalls it was a trip to the swimming baths with his RAF recruits in 1952 where he first met Thelma and impressed her with his body.

He said: "I remember meeting Thelma as if it was yesterday.

"I had taken a group of recruits to the swimming baths and one of them bet me half a crown that I wouldn't have the nerve to go and talk to her.

"I walked right over to her and whipped off my top to show her my pecs. Thelma was suitably impressed and we married in 1956."

After leaving the RAF, Max worked as a salesman selling to the construction industry as well as being director of a building merchants company.

With a full-time job and a wife and four children to support, spare time for training fell by the wayside.

It wasn't until he retired in 1997 that Max had the time to get back in the gym and get back the body he craved.

He said: "I had always wanted to get back into training but never seemed to have the time.

"When I was in the RAF, it was my job to exercise but my jobs after that weren't very physical at all.

"The trigger for me to get back in the gym came in the 1990s when I saw the actor John Mills on Parkinson.

"He was in his 80s then but Michael Parkinson said that he looked 20 years younger.

"It made me think that if he could do it, so could I."

So after his retirement, aged 65, Max signed up to the JJB gym in Swindon and set about resurrecting his award-winning body of old.

Max visits the gym three times a week lifting weights and using the rowing machine.

He said: "My biggest shock when I stepped back into the gym was that all the weights had gone metric.

"Back in the 1950s, they were all in pounds so the kilograms took a bit of working out.

"I do a lot of rowing and can row 2,000m in ten minutes.

"Matthew Pinsent can do that in six-and-a-half minutes but he is 40 years my junior and a professional athlete so he has a bit of an edge on me.

"I get a lot of comments from people down the gym saying they can't believe I am 75 and in such good shape.

"It took many months to get back my body but I am now 12 stone, the same as I weighed when I was in the RAF.

"I don't think my body is any different now to what it was except I have shrunk a bit.

"I was never very tall, but I used to be 5ft 7in and I'm now only 5ft 6in.

"I think Thelma is pleased as well - I like to think it reminds her of the man she fell for all those years ago."

Max cites other fit pensioners such as Clint Eastwood and Bruce Forsyth as his inspiration to stay in shape but says the secret of his success is that he hasn't abused his body.

He added: "I never smoked and I never drank and have always had a good diet.

"They say you reap what you sow so I suppose by not abusing my body over the years, I am getting the benefit in old age.

"I have muesli for breakfast and try to eat two portions of fruit every day.

"Fish is good for you so I usually eat that three times a week too.

"I think a lot of people think once you get to my age, there is not much point of challenging yourself to do something.

"But I'm living proof of what you can do, even if you are 75."

Wild monster python eats pet dog as parents fear their children will be next victims

A couple in tropical Australia today feared their children were in danger after a giant, wild, five-metre python swallowed their family dog in front of them.

And just weeks ago other snakes killed their cat and pet guinea pig.

Shocked Daniel Peric said he is now terrified of leaving his two children, aged five and seven, alone in any part of the house, after the "enormous" python ate his silky terrier-cross chihuahua on Monday night.

"Actually watching it unfold before your eyes was pretty gut wrenching," he said. "We'd had the dog about five years, so it was part of the family."

The huge snake had already devoured the pet dog before they realised what had happened: "All we could see was his back legs sticking out. There was nothing we could do to save the dog."

Mr Peric said in the weeks before, the family had found their cat's body, which looked like something had attempted to swallow it and on Sunday a smaller python had eaten their pet guinea pig.

"When it happens once, you think it's a one-off, but last night I thought 'this is serious,'" he said.

"We have ducted air-conditioning. Call it paranoia, but my big fear is that a snake will get in there and come into the house and attack the kids while they're sleeping."

Australian Venom Zoo owner Stuart Douglas took the call from the distressed Peric family on Monday night and arrived at their home in the town of Kuranda near Cairns in far north Queensland to remove the scrub python within 20 minutes.

"They were very upset but they still had the decency to call us to come and get it," Mr Douglas said.

"It was at the bottom of the veranda. They'd thrown chairs at the python to try to stop it, but it had already eaten the animal."
Mr Douglas said by the time he arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its back legs and tail.

"It only took about 30 minutes to eat the dog, but it will be digesting it for two days," he said.

Mr Douglas said pythons were amazing animals that belonged in far north Queensland but people needed to be aware that pets were potential prey.

"These pythons used to feed on wallabies but now they feed on cats and dogs in suburbia," he said. "This python actively stalked their dog."

He said if anyone saw a large snake near their home they should call someone to remove it as soon as possible."

Mr Douglas said he would wait until the python had fully digested its prey before releasing it.

Shiver me timbers... meet the parrot that needs a wooden leg

Somebody forgot to tell George that it's the pirates who are supposed to have a peg-leg, not their pet parrots.

Today, he will be fitted for a prosthetic claw to replace the one he lost in a fight with a wild animal which got into his aviary 18 months ago.

Hopefully, the procedure will mean the ten-year-old African Grey will be able to get a decent night's sleep once more.

Currently, whenever George dozes off, he loses his balance and falls off his perch, squawking "Bloody Hell!" in surprise.

The hullabaloo has also been keeping owner Sheila Weare awake at nights at her farmhouse in Crewe.

Concerned for George's wellbeing, Mrs Weare sought advice and was referred to Dr Glyn Heath.

Through Salford University, Dr Heath runs Lacerta, an animal prosthetics company, and has agreed to treat George, in what he called a "completely unique" operation in Britain.

The prosthetic claw will be attached to the perch, rather than George himself, but he will be trained to slot his injured leg in it for balance.

Glyn said: "While I've worked on dogs, rats and even a panda, George is my first bird. He's quite a challenge."