Across Difficult Country

A cabin fire forced a private jet carrying bands Ratt and Dokken to make an emergency landing .  The cause of the fire remains unexplained. Also unexplained: how the jet traveled through time from the year 1986. In  Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital news : [A]long with Holden III we released a large Loggerhead, “Sandy Bay” who came to us this spring quite ill but with a lot of  attitude. “Monroe,” another Loggerhead admitted last year with horrific propeller injuries to his carapace is the other rehab overachiever who joined Holden and Sandy Bay as they departed our care into the arms of Mother Ocean. Godspeed, and stay safe out there. The Tamil Nadu Emu mania has ended exactly the way everyone not an enthusiast of large flightless birds could have told you it would end, but as usual nobody ever listened.

I spend the morning in Bihar, photographing the poor and lawless state’s various large ditches. (Expect to see some of the images in my forthcoming book, Various Large Ditches of the Third World .) In the afternoon I join Bihar’s Governor Devanand Konwar for lunch. We discuss the  plans to build toilets throughout Bihar , so women and girls no longer have to “defecate in the open.” I warn him giving in to one demand only encourages women to make more demands. He insists on moving forward, saying the toilets will be installed by the year 2135, at least if everything goes according to schedule.

I get word of the Greg Mortensen scandal while visiting the Tieraufstapelung Academy, a school I founded in the poor and lawless state of Bihar which teaches wayward girls the ancient art of animal stacking . It’s sad the deceptions of a man I've never met cast doubt on my legitimate travel accounts and charity work, but that’s the world we live in now.

The Chinamen are using robots instead of costumed mascots : Thirty seven multi-functional robots, which were customized to serve the visitors of Shanghai World Expo, made their debut here Sunday. Besides dancing and singing, the 1.55-meter tall robots, shaped after the Expo mascot Haibao, could "communicate" with visitors in six languages and take photos for them... The robots have touch screens on their chests to answer inquiries on road, public service and Expo information... Shanghai World Expo mascot Haibao. Haibao is an ancient Chinese mascot. Gumby is a shameless rip-off of Haibao, not the other way around. Your never having heard of Haibao until today shows your ignorance. The deployment of robots will protect those, like Lord Tebbit and myself, who engage in pre-emptive self defense against costumed mascots from the embarrassment of inadvertently attacking a disguised woman or child. Unfortunately removing the human within also drains nearly all of the fun fro...

Lord Tebbit battles Chinese dragon ! The 78-year-old was so upset by the noise caused by a Chinese New Year celebration near his home that he ran 100 yards down the street, grabbed a drum that someone was banging, and planted a kick on the backside of a dancing dragon - without realising a boy was inside." Restaurant owner Patrick Chung, who organised the street celebration in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, said: 'A drum was being beaten outside my restaurant as part of Chinese New Year but Lord Tebbit arrived and stopped the drummer. 'He probably did not realise what was going on. He did kick the dragon. 'There was a child inside the costume and he was kicking the dragon's bottom. He ran after the dragon and kicked it. The child was upset. He did not know what was happening.' Another witness said: 'This old man came running towards the dragon on the parade. 'He grabbed the drum and cymbal being played and then started violently kicking the dragon ...

From the town of Muzzafarpur “in the poor and lawless state of Bihar” comes word of a three-month-old boy named Praveen who has been robbing bus passengers in the company of a gang of armed men: "Villagers were angered when a police team arrived with a list of accused, including the boy. " How could our little Praveen be named an accused ?" said Shakila Devi, the child's mother." The instinct of a mother to defend her precious child, no matter how horrible and guilty he is, is a powerful one, isn’t it? I almost find it touching.