Big Game Hunter Crushed by Elephant

A South African big game hunter died after being crushed by an elephant cow that had been shot on a game reserve in Zimbabwe at the weekend.

Theunis Botha, 51, was leading a hunt with clients when the group accidentally walked into the middle of a breeding herd of elephants at the Good Luck Farm near Hwange National Park late on Friday afternoon, Zimparks spokesman Mr Simukai Nyasha said.

Three of the elephant cows charged the hunters. Mr Botha fired a shot from his rifle but he was caught by surprise by a fourth cow that stormed them from the side, the Afrikaans news site Netwerk24 reported.One of the hunters shot the elephant after she lifted Botha with her trunk.The elephant then collapsed on top of Mr Botha, who has five children with his wife Carike Botha.

Mr Botha was a highly regarded houndsman and frequently led leopard and lion hunting safaris with his pack of dogs.

The website of his company Game Hounds Safaris says he pioneered traditional European-style “Monteria hunts” in southern Africa.

In Monteira hunts large packs of dogs are used to drive deer and boar towards hunters who then open fire on the animals.

Mr Botha was a specialist at hunting leopards with his big game hounds.

He would often travel to the United States to find wealthy customers to take part in trophy hunting in southern Africa.

Mr Botha’s body was taken to Hwange Colliery Hospital mortuary on Saturday.

Condolences poured from hunters, who mourned the death of a “world-class houndsman” after Mrs Botha announced her husband’s death on their joint Facebook page.

Mr Botha was close friends with Scott van Zyl, 44, who was killed by crocodiles while hunting in Zimbabwe last month.

Mr Van Zyl was on a hunt at the Chikwaraka camp in Zimbabwe when he disappeared on April 7.

His backpack was found on the banks of the Limpopo River days later.

DNA samples taken from contents found in the stomachs of two crocodiles that were shot during the search matched Mr Van Zyl.

Last year a tourist, Stephen Coetzee was trampled to death by a female elephant in Hwange National Park.

Mr Coetzee, from Bulawayo, was taking pictures of the animals when they charged.


Via: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/21/south-african-hunter-crushed-death-elephant/

Atlanta musician dies after collapsing on stage at concert

Authorities say a musician died after collapsing on stage during a birthday concert in his honor at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.

Bruce Hampton, a 70-year-old guitarist and singer known as the "grandfather of the jamband scene," died after collapsing Monday night at the end of the show billed as "Hampton 70: A Celebration of Col. Bruce Hampton."

Dumonder Dawson, an investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner, said Tuesday morning that the agency was notified of Hampton's death.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band, also on the lineup, posted a statement on its official Facebook page from Hampton's family saying he had died.

After Hampton collapsed, actor Billy Bob Thornton, who was on the bill with members of Widespread Panic, Phish and other musicians, took to the microphone to thank fans and say that they had to attend to something back stage.


Via: http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/atlanta-musician-dies-after-collapsing-on-stage-at-concert/ar-BBADcOI?li=BBnbfcL

Author of 'Younger Next Year' Dead at 58

Dr. Henry S. Lodge, whose series of health-advice books, “Younger Next Year,” written with his patient Chris Crowley, sold in the millions, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 58.

The cause was prostate cancer, his partner, Laura Yorke, said.

In the late 1990s, Dr. Lodge became concerned about the patients he was seeing at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where he was an internist with a specialty in geriatric medicine. Far too many in their 50s and 60s were having strokes, developing diabetes, falling down and suffering fractures.

“You take care of somebody, and you see him gaining five pounds a year and being sedentary,” he told U.S. News & World Report in 2006. “Then really awful things happen — strokes, heart attacks, and people becoming apathetic and withdrawn. It became clear to me that this was lifestyle choice. Very little of it was related to luck or genetics.”

Mr. Crowley, a retired lawyer in his 60s, was a prime example: He was 40 pounds overweight and aging poorly until Dr. Lodge put him on a regimen of regular exercise and healthy eating that returned him to his 50-year-old self.

Together the two men translated their experience into an advice book, “Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and Beyond,” published in 2004 by Workman. Alternating chapters, the authors delivered a breezy guide to better living that rested on seven rules that blend physical and spiritual disciplines. Readers were told to work out daily and stop eating junk food, but also to “connect and commit.”

Putting an evolutionary spin on diet and exercise, Dr. Lodge argued that humans remained, from the physical point of view, hunters and gatherers who thrived when in motion and surrounded by others.

The idea of resetting the biological clock proved deeply appealing to the swelling population of Americans approaching old age. The Hartford Courant called the book “a near cult item among some baby boomers, who appear to be fueling a good part of the sales through word of mouth, with one reading it, then pestering a friend to get a copy.”

“Younger Next Year” and the rest of the series, “Younger Next Year for Women: Live Like You’re 50 — Strong, Fit, Sexy — Until You’re 80 and Beyond” (2005), “Younger Next Year Journal” (2006) and “Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program” (2015), have more than two million copies in print and have been translated into 21 languages.

Henry Sears Lodge Jr., known as Harry, was born on Oct. 20, 1958, in Boston and grew up in Beverly, Mass. His father, who died two days before him, was chairman of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and the first president of the Metropolitan Center theater for the performing arts in Boston. His grandfather was Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the Massachusetts senator and ambassador to the United Nations. His mother, the former Elenita Ziegler, was a freelance writer and editor active in civic affairs.

In 1996 Dr. Lodge created New York Physicians, a multi-specialty medical group that, unusually, operates as an independent group practice but maintains an affiliation with Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. As it grew, it became an entry point for younger doctors to gain a foothold in the medical profession. He served as its chairman and chief executive until his death.

Via: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/books/henry-lodge-dead-co-author-younger-next-year.html

Man wins bet chugging bottle of tequila, dies minutes later

The tragic incident happened earlier this week in the city La Romana, in eastern Dominican Republic, and it was all captured on video by a cell phone camera.

The young man, identified as Kelvin Rafael Mejía, is first seen on his feet drinking the tequila straight from a bottle. When he is done he is handed the cash prize on a bill at a time and a few seconds later he can barely stand anymore and needs to be assisted by two men on each side.

Shortly after he collapses and never regains consciousness — he was taken to a nearby clinic where he was declared dead.

According to El Universal, the events unfolded after Mejia approached a table where a group of clients were betting money on how much tequila they could drink in a single gulp. He asked to join.

The management of the place, the Vacca Lounge, said the nightclub had no involvement in the deadly incident.

“The only contests we ever do are dance contests or costume contests, with the award of bottle of champagne or other drink,” Vacca Lounge said in a statement.

According to local media, the man was a regular patron at the place.

Via: http://nypost.com/2017/03/03/man-wins-bet-chugging-bottle-of-tequila-dies-minutes-later/

Woman Dies Caught in Clothing Drop Box

A Pennsylvania woman has died after getting her arm caught in a clothing donation drop-off box.

Northumberland County Coroner James Kelley says 56-year-old Judith Permar died from a combination of trauma injuries she sustained in the accident and hypothermia.

The coroner says the Mount Carmel woman used a step stool to reach into the bin, and her left arm became stuck when the stool collapsed. She broke left her arm and wrist and couldn’t get free.

Investigators believe she went to the drop box about 2 a.m. Sunday. She was found dead more than six hours later.

The drop box is located along a highway in Natalie, a tiny village in Mount Carmel Township. That’s about 60 miles northeast of Harrisburg.

The coroner conducted an autopsy Monday.

Via: http://nypost.com/2017/02/07/woman-dies-after-getting-arm-stuck-in-donation-box/

Man dies trying to ‘hot pot’ in Yellowstone hot spring

BILLINGS, Mont. — An Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring was looking for a place to “hot pot,” the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the park’s thermal features, officials said.

Sable Scott told investigators that she and her 23-year-old brother, Colin, left a boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser on June 7 and walked several hundred feet up a hill in search of “a place that they could potentially get into and soak,” Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress told KULR-TV in an interview.

As Sable Scott took video of her brother with her cellphone, he reached down to check the water temperature and slipped and fell into the hot pool, according to the incident report obtained by KULR through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Park officials did not release the video or a description of it.

Search and rescue rangers spotted Colin Scott’s body in the pool the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented recovery.

The next day, workers could not find any remains in the churning, acidic water, Veress said.

“In very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving,” Veress said.

The National Park Service did not issue any citations in Colin Scott’s death.

Scott was on a college graduation trip with his sister at the time of his death, which came a day after six people were cited for walking off-trail at the park’s Grand Prismatic Spring.

A week later, a tourist from China was fined $1,000 for breaking through the fragile crust in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, apparently to collect water for medicinal purposes.

Via: http://nypost.com/2016/11/15/man-dies-trying-to-hot-pot-in-yellowstone-hot-spring/

Intoxicated Woman Dies After Falling Between Two Midtown Buildings

Early Sunday morning a woman died after she accidentally fell off the roof of the Midtown apartment building where she lived. Police say that Elena Gladkikh, 27, was on the roof of 449 W 37th Street near 10th Avenue around 8:45 a.m. Sunday when she lost her balance, fell off a ledge and landed between two buildings. A police spokesperson said that the woman, whom they believe was drunk at the time, lost her balance and fell from a ledge. She fell five floors, and her body became wedged between two neighboring buildings.

The Post now reports that Gladkikh, who was a consultant for Mary Kay cosmetics, was allegedly with her boyfriend at the time. The two apparently got locked out on the roof, so she called her husband, who was in their apartment down below, to help them get back in. She fell before he arrived, and the boyfriend had to tell the husband what had happened.

The Post adds: "Gladkikh’s date told cops he met her at a restaurant where she bartended part-time. He said she was already drunk when they went to watch the sun rise on the rooftop with a six-pack of beer."

James Proctor, a porter at a nearby building, witnessed the aftermath: "When they brought her out she didn't look alive," he told the Daily News, adding she wasn't wearing any clothing besides her underwear. "The bruises she had, you could tell it was from a fall...She looked really bad." She was taken to Bellevue Hospital where she died.