Eagle Snatches Child (Student Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CE0Q904gtMI

Golden Eagle Snatches Kid

MrNuclearCat - 1 video

Published on Dec 18, 2012

A golden eagle tries to snatch a baby in Montreal! What if he got away with it!?

Un aigle royal attaque un jeune enfant sur le Mont-Royal!

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1092059/centre-nad-reassures-montrealers-no-danger-of-being-snatched-by-a-royal-eagle

[Press Release]

Canada Newswire

19 December 2012

Centre NAD reassures Montrealers: no danger of being snatched by a royal eagle

MONTREAL, Dec. 19, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - The "Golden Eagle Snatches Kid" video, uploaded to YouTube on the evening of December 18, was made by Normand Archambault, Loïc Mireault, Antoine Seigle and Félix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design.

The video shows a royal eagle snatching a young kid while he plays under the watch of his dad. The eagle then drops the kid a few feet away. Both the eagle and the kid were created in 3D animation and integrated in to the film afterwards.

The video has already received more than 1,200,000 views on YouTube and has been mentioned by dozens of media in Canada and abroad. [...]

SOURCE: Centre NAD

Claude Arsenault

Manager, Communications and Public Relations

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20130120/APC0101/301200443/Viral-video-may-sparked-bird-shootings?nclick_check=1

Appleton [WI] Post-Crescent

20 January 2013

Viral video may have sparked bird shootings

Written by Carolyn Tiry

Gannett Wisconsin Media

ANTIGO -- An online video of a hawk grabbing a baby that was revealed to be a hoax could be behind an increase in bird shootings, one wildlife rehabilitation expert says.

The Raptor Education Group, a wildlife rehabilitation center near Antigo, has taken in four hawks and two bald eagles since the video was released, Executive Director Marge Gibson said. Six birds, all of which were shot, are at least twice as many as the center usually gets in one month, she said. [...]

 

V.S. Naipaul Mistaken for Ved Mehta

Esquire, July 1988, p. 61.

Blindsided

A veteran New York journalist was convinced that Ved Mehta, the blind Indian writer, was not really blind at all. Having spotted Mehta sitting stiffly on the couch at a party at Mike Nichols's, he stationed himself in front of the man, who was stealing the cashews from a bowl of mixed nuts. The journalist waved his hands back and forth at the man, started making faces. The guests -- Renata Adler and Penelope Gilliatt among them -- were aghast. But the Indian stared straight ahead, impassive. The journalist shrugged. He had had his doubts, he announced, but was now convinced that Mehta was indeed blind.

"That may be so," replied one guest, "but that man on the couch is V.S. Naipaul."

Spy, September 1989, p. 111.

Slaves of the New Yorker

By Jennet Conant

[...] The most intense Ved skeptics are not fully convinced that anyone could produce such detailed visual passages if he were actually blind. [...] In one often-told incident, a young writer became obsessed with the notion that Ved could, in fact, see. At a literary function, the story goes, the young writer spotted a dapper Indian gentleman, walked directly over and started making extraordinary faces and obscene gestures at him. The mortified hostess, as she dragged the young writer away, asked, "What in God's name were you doing to V.S. Naipaul?" [...]

Paul Theroux, Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998),  pp. 278-9.

There was a story I never asked Vidia to verify -- didn't dare ask, because I wanted it to be true. If it was not true, it ought to have been.

Ved Mehta is a distinguished Indian writer. [...] Ved Mehta is also famously blind. A certain New Yorker doubted his blindness. Seeing Mehta at a New York party, speaking to a group of attentive people, holding court, the man decided to test it. He had always been skeptical that Mehta was totally blind, since in his writing he minutely described people's faces and wrote about the nuances of color and texture with elaborate subtlety, making precise distinctions.

The man crept over to where Mehta was sitting, and as the writer continued to speak, the doubting man began making faces at him. He leaned over and waved his hands at Ved Mehta's eyes. He thumbed his nose at Ved Mehta. He wagged his fingers in Ved Mehta's face.

Still, Mehta went on speaking, calmly and in perfectly enunciated sentences, never faltering in his expansive monologue.

The man made a last attempt: he put his own face a foot away and stuck his tongue out. But Mehta spoke without a pause, as if the man did not exist.

Realizing how wrong he had been, the man felt uncomfortable and wanted to go home. Leaving the party, he said to the hostess, "I had always thought Ved Mehta was faking his blindness, or at least exaggerating. I am now convinced that Ved Mehta is blind."

"That's not Ved Mehta," the hostess said. "It's V. S. Naipaul."

Cosmos Rays Panic

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Srinagar/Mars-attack-rumours-keep-Kashmir-sleepless/Article1-972049.aspx

Hindustan Times

12 December 2012

‘Mars attack’ rumours keep Kashmir sleepless

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times

Srinagar, December 12, 2012

12/12/12 spawned a dozen hoaxes, but the one that was most hilarious kept people in the Valley up all night and the state government busy firefighting through the day. The message, purportedly from NASA and the BBC, advised people to switch off their cellphones from 12.30 to 3.30 am on Tuesday as “cosmos rays are entering the Earth from Mars”. The message even warned people to keep away the cellphones from their body because “cosmos” rays are dangerous. [...]

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mars-as-foreign-hand-kashmir-spends-night-in-fear-of-cosmic-rays-via-phone/1044613/

The Indian Express

13 December 2012

Mars as ‘foreign hand’: Kashmir spends night infear of ‘cosmic rays’ via phone

Mir Ehsan : Srinagar

Late on Tuesday night, residents across Kashmir scrambled to switch off their mobile phones. The reason was not pesky calls but another ‘incoming’ hazard: a rumour that harmful “cosmic rays” were going to enter Earth via the phones from Mars, and set off blasts.

The government finally had to step in and make announcements on radio and television, threatening to book people spreading the rumour, to quell the panic. [...]

Three Days of Darkness Predicted

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/11/content_16007713.htm

China Daily

11 December 2012

Doomsday rumors trigger panic buying

 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - Candles and matches have almost sold out in two southwest China counties following online rumors of a coming doomsday event that some believe will bring the end of the world.

Panic buying in Shuangliu and Longchang counties, both located in Sichuan province, was stirred by rumors of "three consecutive days of darkness after December 21." [...]

Biometric Registration Kits Cause Cancer (Kenya)

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-97746/bvr-cancer-rumour-scares-voters

The Star [Kenya]

30 November 2012

BVR cancer rumour scares voters

WESONGA OCHIENG

Rumours that the BVR [Biometric voter registration] kits can cause cancer  have scared Mwakirunge slum dwellers from registering as voters, IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan has said.

He told the residents to ignore the rumours saying those spreading it want to sabotage the voters registration in the region.

Residents said the rumour, which surfaced soon after the start of the registration, has caused panic and fear.

“A rumor went round and most of them have refused to heed to the calls to register as voters. They say the machine sucks blood form their fingers and it can cause cancer,” said Rose Kazungu, a residents. [...]