Better check that pulse again:
"S. African in morgue for hours awakens" Associated Press / July 26, 2011
JOHANNESBURG - A South African man awoke to find himself in a morgue fridge - nearly a day after his family thought he had died, a health official said yesterday.
Health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the man awoke Sunday afternoon, 21 hours after his family called in an undertaker who sent him to the morgue after an asthma attack.
Morgue owner Ayanda Maqolo said he sent his driver to collect the body shortly after the family reported the death. Maqolo estimated the man’s age at 80.
“When he got there, the driver examined the body, checked his pulse, looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing,’’ Maqolo said.
But a day after staff put the body into a locked refrigerated compartment, morgue workers heard someone shouting for help. They thought it was a ghost, the morgue owner said.
“I couldn’t believe it!’’ Maqolo said. “I was also scared. But they are my employees and I had to show them I wasn’t scared, so I called the police.’’ After police arrived, the group entered the morgue together.
He said the man was pale when they pulled him out. “He asked, ‘How did I get here?’ ’’
The man’s family was informed that he was alive and are happy to have him home, Maqolo said.
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Also see: For Mandela, a happy 93d birthday
"African penguins to be tracked in wild" July 16, 2011|Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG - South African scientists are fitting young penguins raised by humans with satellite transmitters so they can track them once released into the wild, hoping to gather information that might lead to new breeding colonies of the endangered birds.
Researchers used tape and glue to attach a transmitter the size of a matchbox to a 10-week-old African penguin yesterday. The 6.6-pound bird named Richie will be given a week to get used to swimming in a pool with the 1-ounce device before he is released into the ocean from the southern tip of Africa. The first penguin in the project was released last month, and in all, five are to be released over a few months.
The African penguin, endearingly awkward on land and a gracefully efficient hunter in the water, is found only in southern Africa.
The numbers of African penguins have plummeted from up to 4 million in the early 1900s to 60,000 as of the last census in 2010, said Venessa Strauss of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds....
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