Stinky corpse flower blooms again at Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A large rainforest plant known as a corpse flower because of its awful smell is blooming again at an Ohio State University greenhouse, and there's more excitement because another corpse flower there is expected to open soon.

A 6-foot titan arum opened Tuesday to release its rotting-flesh smell two years after it first flowered. A second corpse flower opened briefly at the greenhouse last May, and a third is expected to open in seven to 10 days.

Despite extended visiting hours, visitors have little time to catch a whiff because the rare blooms sometimes last only a day or less.

Spokeswoman Sandi Rutkowski says having three or four blooms within three years is lucky but also is a tribute to the skill of cultivators at the greenhouse.

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' Naked rambler ' of the United Kingdom again arrested for nudity,

London (AP) — A British man who has spent most of the past decade — and nude in prison — was back behind bars Friday after they defied an order to cover.

Stephen Gough, known as the "Naked Rambler", was arrested Thursday as he left a court in Southampton, southern England, wearing only stockings, boots and a backpack.

A judge had imposed only an order that must "wear enough in public to cover at least his genitals and buttocks."

The 54-year-old former Royal Marine appeared at the same Court Friday and was ordered held until a hearing on March 25.

Since 2003 Gough has completed two nudes walk the length of Britain, with frequent interruptions for arrests, court appearances and jail.

Lawyer accuses Roger Trencher said Friday that Gough "caused much offense nationally and has used a considerable amount of police time in England, Wales and Scotland."

Gough said he believes nudity is a human right. Defense lawyer Jeffrey Norie-Mille told the Court that Gough "believes it is his right to not wear clothes and go about its normal business in such a State of undress."

There is no law in Britain against public nudity. However, there are laws against indecent exposure or behavior likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress."

Gough served longer sentences to appear naked in public places, including courts and an airplane.

He could face up to five years in prison for violating the no-nudity, known as an antisocial behaviour order.

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Aquarium fights to get disabled turtle swimming again

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
KOBE, Japan (Reuters) - Life looked grim for Yu, a loggerhead turtle, when she washed up in a Japanese fishing net five years ago, her front flippers shredded after a brutal encounter with a shark.

Now keepers at an aquarium in the western Japanese city of Kobe are looking for a high-tech solution that will allow the 25-year-old turtle to swim normally again after years of labor and 27 models of prosthetic fins behind them without achieving their goal.

Yu, weighing 103 kg (227 pounds) and 82 cm (32 inches) long, first came to the attention of keepers at the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe after she was rushed there from a port on the southern island of Shikoku in 2008.

"She was in a really bad way. More than half her fins were gone and she was bleeding, her body covered with shark bites," said Naoki Kamezaki, the park's director general.

After nursing the loggerhead - an endangered species - back to health, keepers enlisted the help of researchers and a local prosthetics-maker to get her swimming again.

Early versions of prosthetic flippers caused her pain or fell off quickly, and with money short, Kamezaki said he sometimes felt like packing it in.

"There have been times I wanted to give up and just fix her up the best we can and throw her back in," he told Reuters. "Then if luck's on her side she'll be fine, if not, she'll get eaten and that's just life. The way of nature, I suppose."

The latest version - made of rubber and fixed together with a material used in diving wetsuits - was unveiled on February 11 and proclaimed a success, with Yu swimming smoothly around her tank.

But on Friday, one flipper slipped out as soon as she hit the water, forcing keepers back to the laboratory again.

Though Kamezaki admits that it's unlikely Yu will ever live a normal turtle life, he still has hopes.

"My dream for her is that one day she can use her prosthetic fins to swim to the surface, walk about, and dig a proper hole to lay her eggs in," Kamezaki said.

"When her children hatch, well, I just feel that would make all the trauma in her life worthwhile."

(Reporting by Ruairidh Villar, writing by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Great white shark hanging out near the NC coast again

HATTERAS, N.C. (AP) — A 16-foot great white shark named Mary Lee is among those who like calling North Carolina home.

Ocearch shark's Tracker has kept track of 3,500 pounds Mary Lee because she was put in September off Cape Cod, Massachusetts on Wednesday, she was off the Outer Banks.

So far, she has traveled up and down the East Coast, including Florida, where they arrived at 200 metres of Jacksonville Beach a few weeks ago. In December, he entered the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina Southeast before travelling south.

Businessman and Adventure Show producer Chris Fisher says tens of thousands of people are following trips by Mary Lee on-line.

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