Pig holds woman hostage

Large pushy pig traps Australian

A woman on the north coast of New South Wales in Australia is being held hostage in her own home by a large pig, Australian media report.
Uki woman Caroline Hayes, 63, says the pig is as big as "a Shetland pony" and that she cannot get out of her house because of its aggressive behaviour.

Ha ha, Australians. I wonder what it's like to live on a continent where all the animals are trying to kill you, all the time. At least they took care of this one:

Rangers say the pig will be captured and taken to a piggery.

In case you didn't know, a piggery is a horrible concentration camp for our porcine kin in which they spend their entire lives locked up in filthy, inadequate cells. Then they cut their throats and drain their blood, so you can eat pork chops in front of Project Runway and feel bad about your weight.

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Louis XI's pig organ

That brutal monarch, Louis XI of France, is said to have constructed, with the assistance of the Abbé de Baigne, an instrument designated a 'pig organ,' for the production of natural sounds. The master of the royal music, having made a very large and varied assortment of swine, embracing specimens of all breeds and ages, these were carefully voiced, and placed in order, according to their several tones and semitones, and so arranged that a key-board communicated with them, severally and individually, by means of rods ending in sharp spikes. In this way a player, by touching any note, could instantly sound a corresponding note in nature, and was enabled to produce at will either natural melody or harmony! The result is said to have been striking, but not very grateful to human ears.

- J. Crofts, "Colour-Music," The Gentleman's Magazine, September 1885

The abbot of Baigne, a man of great wit, and who had the art of inventing new musical instruments, being in the service of Louis XI. king of France, was ordered by that prince to get him a concert of swine's voices, thinking it impossible. The abbot was not surprised but asked money for the performance, which was immediately delivered him; and he wrought a thing as singular as ever was seen. For out of a great number of hogs, of several ages. which he got together, and placed under a tent or pavilion covered with velvet, before which he had a table of wood painted, with a certain number of keys, he made an organical instrument; and as he played upon the said keys, he, by means of little spikes, which pricked the hogs, made them cry in such order and consonance, as highly delighted the king and all his company

- I. Platt, "The Swine's Concert," A Library Of Wonders And Curiosities Found In Nature And Art, Science And Literature, 1884

My kind of guy. Shamelessly stolen from Futility Closet, my new favorite blog.

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Komodo dragons vs. everything

I don't know if you knew this, but Komodo dragons are terrifying. Having evolved on an island where there are no competing native carnivores, they're able to grow up to ten feet long and pretty much not worry about anything, ever (except logging!). They're not terribly forgiving with their food, either: "When suitable prey arrives near a dragon's ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal and go for the underside or the throat." In addition to being mildly venomous, their mouths harbor at least fifty-seven different kinds of bacteria to infect the shit out of the neck wound it just gave you. Here are some videos of Komodo dragons eating a whole pig and a live deer.

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Seven Minutes of a Snake Eating a Pig

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