British Captive John Cantlie Reports from Kobani in IS Video [ Pics / Videos ] - www.ofINTEREST.net

What does the Islamic State want?

Why aren't those of profit/gain and/or control willing to listen?

Who are the Islamic State? No really, who are they?

Please ask these questions and more, and don't STOP till you get to the real TRUTH!

Mikhael Love, IIO

British Captive John Cantlie Reports from Kobani in IS Video

The Islamic State (IS) released a video featuring British captive John Cantlie reporting from Kobani about the group’s control over the city despite Western media broadcasting the contrary.

The 5 minute, 32 second video, entitled, “Inside 'Ayn al-Islam,” was produced by the IS’ al-I’tisaam Media Foundation, and was distributed on Twitter on October 27, 2014. Cantlie, dressed in a black outfit, stands atop a building in Kobani and speaks on what he sees below him and in the distance, and claims that the IS has essentially secured victory in the city. 

He stated:

“Kobani is now being reinforced by Iraqi Kurds who are coming in through Turkey, while the mujahideen are being resupplied by the hopeless United States Air Forces, who parachuted two crates of weapons and ammunition straight into the outstretched arms of the mujahideen. Now the battle for Kobani is coming to an end. The mujahideen are just mopping up now, street to street, and building to building. You can occasionally hear erratic gunfire in the background as a result of those operations. But contrary to what the Western media would have you believe, it is not an all-out battle here now. It is nearly over. As you can hear, it is very quiet, just the occasional gunfire.

“Two-hundred thousand inhabitants of the city have been displaced because of the fighting that came here. You can see the refugee camps over my right shoulder over there in Turkey, where the inhabitants now are. But contrary to media reports, the fighting in Kobani is nearly over
“Urban warfare is as about as nasty and tough as it gets, and it’s something of a specialty of the mujahideen.”

Following is a transcript of the video:

 
0:00
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Inside 'Ayn al-Islam
0:20
[Aerial footage from "drone of the Islamic State Army"]
0:40
[John Cantlie]

Hello, I'm John Cantlie, and today we're in the city of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border. That is in fact Turkey right behind me, and we are here in the heart of the so-called PKK safe zone, which is now controlled entirely by the Islamic State. For a month now, the soldiers of the Islamic State have been besieging this key Kurdish city and, despite continual American airstrikes, which have so far cost nearly half a billion dollars in total, the mujahideen have pushed deep in the heart of the city. They now control the eastern and southern sectors.

Now, the Western media, and I can't see any of their journalists here in the city of Kobani, have been saying recently that the Islamic State are on the retreat. In the last 48 hours, hundreds of Islamic State militants have been reportedly killed in airstrikes, said the IB Times, on the 16th of October. We now we've killed several hundred of them, said John Kirby, the Pentagon official. The Islamic State is retreating from the Syrian city of Kobani, said the BBC on October the 17th, while Patrick Coburn said in The Independent that despite suffering serious losses, the Islamic State was continuing its assault on the city.

Now this is all quite a turn-around from earlier in the month, when U.S. officials were saying, and I quote: "The strategically unimportant city of Kobani was going to fall into mujahideen hands in just a matter of time. It's going to be difficult with just airpower to prevent the Islamic State from taking the town, said U.S. National Security Advisor Tony Blinken on the 10th of October.

Now, good ole John Kerry doesn't seem to think the mujahideen are retreating. He called Kobani a "horrible example of the unwillingness of people to help those who are fighting the Islamic State". Now that's a dig at Kurd-hating Turkish President Erdogan.

But the point is, from where I'm standing right now, I can see large swathes of the city, and I can even see the Turkish flag behind me, and all I've seen here in the city of Kobani is mujahideen. There are no YPG, PKK, or Peshmerga in sight. Just a large number of Islamic State mujahideen, and they are definitely not on the run. Without any safe access, there are no journalists here in the city. So the media are getting their information from Kurdish commanders and White House press secretaries, neither of whom have the slightest intention of telling the truth of what is happening here on the ground. Now, airstrikes did prevent some groups of mujahideen from using their tanks and heavy armor as they would have liked, so they are entering the city and using light weapons instead, going house to house.

Now America is very keen for Kobani to become a symbol - a symbol of victory of the coalition that is working together to defeat the Islamic State. But they now and the mujahideen also know that even with all their airpower and all their proxy troops on the ground, even this is not enough to defeat the Islamic State here in Kobani and elsewhere.

Kobani is now being reinforced by Iraqi Kurds who are coming in through Turkey, while the mujahideen are being resupplied by the hopeless United States Air Forces, who parachuted two crates of weapons and ammunition straight into the outstretched arms of the mujahideen. Now the battle for Kobani is coming to an end. The mujahideen are just mopping up now, street to street, and building to building. You can occasionally hear erratic gunfire in the background as a result of those operations. But contrary to what the Western media would have you believe, it is not an all-out battle here now. It is nearly over. As you can hear, it is very quiet, just the occasional gunfire.

Two-hundred thousand inhabitants of the city have been displaced because of the fighting that came here. You can see the refugee camps over my right shoulder over there in Turkey, where the inhabitants now are. But contrary to media reports, the fighting in Kobani is nearly over
Urban warfare is as about as nasty and tough as it gets, and it’s something of a specialty of the mujahideen.

&

From on or about 25 October, 2014

John Cantlie speaks for around six minutes in the new video

British Captive John Cantlie Speaks on Experience with Fellow Hostages, Voices Displeasure for U.S, Britain Not Negotiating with IS

In the fifth episode of the Islamic State’s (IS) video series “Lend Me Your Ears,” British captive John Cantlie discussed his experience with fellow prisoners from America and Europe, including fighters waterboarding them, and the “uncomfortable truth” about the U.S. and Britain not negotiating for their release.

The 6 minute, 30 second video was produced by the IS’ al-Furqan Media Foundation, and was distributed on Twitter on October 25, 2014. Cantlie said that the IS began a “long-term” operation to capture Westerners entering Syria in 2013 and then tried negotiating with their home countries for their release. Here, he pointed out that nationals from Denmark, Germany, and Spain were released through negotiations, but the Americans and Britons were “stonewalled” by their respective governments.

Cantlie read selections from alleged emails from prisoners’ families and the IS where the families complained about the U.S. government not helping. Cantlie remarked: “Now the recurring elements in these emails is that the U.S. government was simply doing absolutely nothing to help the families involved in this negotiation. The mujahideen told us our governments didn't care about us and we didn't believe them. They told us we were worthless and we didn't believe them. We were told we'd start to die and we didn't believe that either. The human mind has an incredibly tough capacity to self-defense in difficult situations. But it was all true. Our governments had chose not to negotiate with the Islamic State through our families and friends. And while everyone else fulfilled the conditions for release, for us, there was no deal.”

Following is a transcript of the video:

Lend Me Your Ears

Messages from the British Detainee John Cantlie

Episode 5

Hello, I'm John Cantlie, the British citizen abandoned by my own government, and a prisoner of the Islamic State for nearly two years.

In this program I'm going to reveal to you some uncomfortable truths that have so far resulted in the executions of my former cellmates. Only the American and British prisoners were left behind after months of negotiations that saw 16 other citizens from six European countries go home. How was this allowed to happen?

We have to go back to 2013 when the Islamic State launched a long-term operation to capture Westerns entering Syria, and they began the next phase of the operation: negotiating for our release with our governments through families and friends. Now, unless we tried something stupid like escaping or doing something we shouldn't, we were treated well by the Islamic State. Some of us who tried to escape were waterboarded by our captors, as Muslim prisoners are waterboarded by their American captors.

Our strange little community of prisoners had its share of problems, but apart from the odd fight, we lived together in relative harmony through uncertain times. We read books, played recreational games, and gave lectures on our specialist subjects. It wasn't a bad life.

The first to leave was my friend, Spanish journalist Marcus Marjuneris in February 2014. The mujahideen then made their first strong move by shooting one of our number, a Russian with no clean origin or story behind him. The message was clear: don't mess around when it comes to negotiations. The Europeans fell into line. Two more Spanish journalists left, then four French at the end of April, their representatives having fulfilled the conditions for their release.

But it was clear something was different for the British and Americans. While there was dialogue for everyone else, the British and Americans were stonewalled. It was completely silent. Nothing. Now we knew our countries claim to be non-negotiating when it came to situations like this, but often knew examples when they had negotiated either under the table or through a third party. Due to the size and complexity of this situation, and the number of other countries involved, we believed our governments would get us out in the end. So we waited patiently while everyone else went home to their loved ones.

Finally, we had movement in May. We made a video, wrote letters, and made a voice-recording. For us, the Islamic State were asking for the release of Muslim prisoners and their transfer to the Caliphate. It sounded very complicated, but we were the biggest group from the biggest countries. There had to be a negotiation going on. But by the time the last two Europeans left, my friends Dan from Denmark - another non-negotiating country - and Tony from Germany, it was clear to us we were in very big trouble.

Now I have here a selection of emails between the Islamic State and families back home. I don't have much on the British, so I assume there was even less discussion going on for them, so this is really all about the Americans and you'll see that really the government was doing nothing, absolutely nothing, to help families involved. I have a message here from one of the American prisoners on the 11th of June 2014:

"I would secure your sister Dr. Aafia Siddique's release if I could. It sounds like you care about her freedom. You have surely seen the news. Our government is a mess. They will not help."

There's another email here from the family of one of the American prisoners on the 17th of July 2014:

"Our government is not being helpful. We have begged them so many times already. Everyone has buried their heads in the sand. We feel we are caught in the middle between you and the U.S. government, and we are being punished. We have reached out to our government, but they have been non-responsive for some time now."

The person then goes on to say:

"We don't expect that we will get any help from our government at all, and we feel foolish for believing them."

There's a message from the family of one of the American prisoners on the 24th of July 2014:

"We are contacting people everyday. You've given us a huge mountain to climb, and we feel like a pawn in this political battle that we've been forced into. I'm taking everything you have said seriously, and I'm working as fast as I can. I need more time."

Now the recurring elements in these emails is that the U.S. government was simply doing absolutely nothing to help the families involved in this negotiation. The mujahideen told us our governments didn't care about us and we didn't believe them. They told us we were worthless and we didn't believe them. We were told we'd start to die and we didn't believe that either. The human mind has an incredibly tough capacity to self-defense in difficult situations. But it was all true. Our governments had chose not to negotiate with the Islamic State through our families and friends. And while everyone else fulfilled the conditions for release, for us, there was no deal.

Join me in the next program as we learn about a failed rescue that tried to get us out, and you'll hear about how one soldier was worth five prisoners and we were worth none.

John Cantlie was kidnapped in Syria in 2012

British Captive John Cantlie Reports from Kobani in IS Video [ Pics / Videos ] - www.ofINTEREST.net

What does the Islamic State want?

Why aren't those of profit/gain and/or control willing to listen?

Who are the Islamic State? No really, who are they?

Please ask these questions and more, and don't STOP till you get to the real TRUTH!

Mikhael Love, IIO

British Captive John Cantlie Reports from Kobani in IS Video

The Islamic State (IS) released a video featuring British captive John Cantlie reporting from Kobani about the group’s control over the city despite Western media broadcasting the contrary.

The 5 minute, 32 second video, entitled, “Inside 'Ayn al-Islam,” was produced by the IS’ al-I’tisaam Media Foundation, and was distributed on Twitter on October 27, 2014. Cantlie, dressed in a black outfit, stands atop a building in Kobani and speaks on what he sees below him and in the distance, and claims that the IS has essentially secured victory in the city. 

He stated:

“Kobani is now being reinforced by Iraqi Kurds who are coming in through Turkey, while the mujahideen are being resupplied by the hopeless United States Air Forces, who parachuted two crates of weapons and ammunition straight into the outstretched arms of the mujahideen. Now the battle for Kobani is coming to an end. The mujahideen are just mopping up now, street to street, and building to building. You can occasionally hear erratic gunfire in the background as a result of those operations. But contrary to what the Western media would have you believe, it is not an all-out battle here now. It is nearly over. As you can hear, it is very quiet, just the occasional gunfire.

“Two-hundred thousand inhabitants of the city have been displaced because of the fighting that came here. You can see the refugee camps over my right shoulder over there in Turkey, where the inhabitants now are. But contrary to media reports, the fighting in Kobani is nearly over
“Urban warfare is as about as nasty and tough as it gets, and it’s something of a specialty of the mujahideen.”

Following is a transcript of the video:

 
0:00
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Inside 'Ayn al-Islam
0:20
[Aerial footage from "drone of the Islamic State Army"]
0:40
[John Cantlie]

Hello, I'm John Cantlie, and today we're in the city of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border. That is in fact Turkey right behind me, and we are here in the heart of the so-called PKK safe zone, which is now controlled entirely by the Islamic State. For a month now, the soldiers of the Islamic State have been besieging this key Kurdish city and, despite continual American airstrikes, which have so far cost nearly half a billion dollars in total, the mujahideen have pushed deep in the heart of the city. They now control the eastern and southern sectors.

Now, the Western media, and I can't see any of their journalists here in the city of Kobani, have been saying recently that the Islamic State are on the retreat. In the last 48 hours, hundreds of Islamic State militants have been reportedly killed in airstrikes, said the IB Times, on the 16th of October. We now we've killed several hundred of them, said John Kirby, the Pentagon official. The Islamic State is retreating from the Syrian city of Kobani, said the BBC on October the 17th, while Patrick Coburn said in The Independent that despite suffering serious losses, the Islamic State was continuing its assault on the city.

Now this is all quite a turn-around from earlier in the month, when U.S. officials were saying, and I quote: "The strategically unimportant city of Kobani was going to fall into mujahideen hands in just a matter of time. It's going to be difficult with just airpower to prevent the Islamic State from taking the town, said U.S. National Security Advisor Tony Blinken on the 10th of October.

Now, good ole John Kerry doesn't seem to think the mujahideen are retreating. He called Kobani a "horrible example of the unwillingness of people to help those who are fighting the Islamic State". Now that's a dig at Kurd-hating Turkish President Erdogan.

But the point is, from where I'm standing right now, I can see large swathes of the city, and I can even see the Turkish flag behind me, and all I've seen here in the city of Kobani is mujahideen. There are no YPG, PKK, or Peshmerga in sight. Just a large number of Islamic State mujahideen, and they are definitely not on the run. Without any safe access, there are no journalists here in the city. So the media are getting their information from Kurdish commanders and White House press secretaries, neither of whom have the slightest intention of telling the truth of what is happening here on the ground. Now, airstrikes did prevent some groups of mujahideen from using their tanks and heavy armor as they would have liked, so they are entering the city and using light weapons instead, going house to house.

Now America is very keen for Kobani to become a symbol - a symbol of victory of the coalition that is working together to defeat the Islamic State. But they now and the mujahideen also know that even with all their airpower and all their proxy troops on the ground, even this is not enough to defeat the Islamic State here in Kobani and elsewhere.

Kobani is now being reinforced by Iraqi Kurds who are coming in through Turkey, while the mujahideen are being resupplied by the hopeless United States Air Forces, who parachuted two crates of weapons and ammunition straight into the outstretched arms of the mujahideen. Now the battle for Kobani is coming to an end. The mujahideen are just mopping up now, street to street, and building to building. You can occasionally hear erratic gunfire in the background as a result of those operations. But contrary to what the Western media would have you believe, it is not an all-out battle here now. It is nearly over. As you can hear, it is very quiet, just the occasional gunfire.

Two-hundred thousand inhabitants of the city have been displaced because of the fighting that came here. You can see the refugee camps over my right shoulder over there in Turkey, where the inhabitants now are. But contrary to media reports, the fighting in Kobani is nearly over
Urban warfare is as about as nasty and tough as it gets, and it’s something of a specialty of the mujahideen.

&

From on or about 25 October, 2014

John Cantlie speaks for around six minutes in the new video

British Captive John Cantlie Speaks on Experience with Fellow Hostages, Voices Displeasure for U.S, Britain Not Negotiating with IS

In the fifth episode of the Islamic State’s (IS) video series “Lend Me Your Ears,” British captive John Cantlie discussed his experience with fellow prisoners from America and Europe, including fighters waterboarding them, and the “uncomfortable truth” about the U.S. and Britain not negotiating for their release.

The 6 minute, 30 second video was produced by the IS’ al-Furqan Media Foundation, and was distributed on Twitter on October 25, 2014. Cantlie said that the IS began a “long-term” operation to capture Westerners entering Syria in 2013 and then tried negotiating with their home countries for their release. Here, he pointed out that nationals from Denmark, Germany, and Spain were released through negotiations, but the Americans and Britons were “stonewalled” by their respective governments.

Cantlie read selections from alleged emails from prisoners’ families and the IS where the families complained about the U.S. government not helping. Cantlie remarked: “Now the recurring elements in these emails is that the U.S. government was simply doing absolutely nothing to help the families involved in this negotiation. The mujahideen told us our governments didn't care about us and we didn't believe them. They told us we were worthless and we didn't believe them. We were told we'd start to die and we didn't believe that either. The human mind has an incredibly tough capacity to self-defense in difficult situations. But it was all true. Our governments had chose not to negotiate with the Islamic State through our families and friends. And while everyone else fulfilled the conditions for release, for us, there was no deal.”

Following is a transcript of the video:

Lend Me Your Ears

Messages from the British Detainee John Cantlie

Episode 5

Hello, I'm John Cantlie, the British citizen abandoned by my own government, and a prisoner of the Islamic State for nearly two years.

In this program I'm going to reveal to you some uncomfortable truths that have so far resulted in the executions of my former cellmates. Only the American and British prisoners were left behind after months of negotiations that saw 16 other citizens from six European countries go home. How was this allowed to happen?

We have to go back to 2013 when the Islamic State launched a long-term operation to capture Westerns entering Syria, and they began the next phase of the operation: negotiating for our release with our governments through families and friends. Now, unless we tried something stupid like escaping or doing something we shouldn't, we were treated well by the Islamic State. Some of us who tried to escape were waterboarded by our captors, as Muslim prisoners are waterboarded by their American captors.

Our strange little community of prisoners had its share of problems, but apart from the odd fight, we lived together in relative harmony through uncertain times. We read books, played recreational games, and gave lectures on our specialist subjects. It wasn't a bad life.

The first to leave was my friend, Spanish journalist Marcus Marjuneris in February 2014. The mujahideen then made their first strong move by shooting one of our number, a Russian with no clean origin or story behind him. The message was clear: don't mess around when it comes to negotiations. The Europeans fell into line. Two more Spanish journalists left, then four French at the end of April, their representatives having fulfilled the conditions for their release.

But it was clear something was different for the British and Americans. While there was dialogue for everyone else, the British and Americans were stonewalled. It was completely silent. Nothing. Now we knew our countries claim to be non-negotiating when it came to situations like this, but often knew examples when they had negotiated either under the table or through a third party. Due to the size and complexity of this situation, and the number of other countries involved, we believed our governments would get us out in the end. So we waited patiently while everyone else went home to their loved ones.

Finally, we had movement in May. We made a video, wrote letters, and made a voice-recording. For us, the Islamic State were asking for the release of Muslim prisoners and their transfer to the Caliphate. It sounded very complicated, but we were the biggest group from the biggest countries. There had to be a negotiation going on. But by the time the last two Europeans left, my friends Dan from Denmark - another non-negotiating country - and Tony from Germany, it was clear to us we were in very big trouble.

Now I have here a selection of emails between the Islamic State and families back home. I don't have much on the British, so I assume there was even less discussion going on for them, so this is really all about the Americans and you'll see that really the government was doing nothing, absolutely nothing, to help families involved. I have a message here from one of the American prisoners on the 11th of June 2014:

"I would secure your sister Dr. Aafia Siddique's release if I could. It sounds like you care about her freedom. You have surely seen the news. Our government is a mess. They will not help."

There's another email here from the family of one of the American prisoners on the 17th of July 2014:

"Our government is not being helpful. We have begged them so many times already. Everyone has buried their heads in the sand. We feel we are caught in the middle between you and the U.S. government, and we are being punished. We have reached out to our government, but they have been non-responsive for some time now."

The person then goes on to say:

"We don't expect that we will get any help from our government at all, and we feel foolish for believing them."

There's a message from the family of one of the American prisoners on the 24th of July 2014:

"We are contacting people everyday. You've given us a huge mountain to climb, and we feel like a pawn in this political battle that we've been forced into. I'm taking everything you have said seriously, and I'm working as fast as I can. I need more time."

Now the recurring elements in these emails is that the U.S. government was simply doing absolutely nothing to help the families involved in this negotiation. The mujahideen told us our governments didn't care about us and we didn't believe them. They told us we were worthless and we didn't believe them. We were told we'd start to die and we didn't believe that either. The human mind has an incredibly tough capacity to self-defense in difficult situations. But it was all true. Our governments had chose not to negotiate with the Islamic State through our families and friends. And while everyone else fulfilled the conditions for release, for us, there was no deal.

Join me in the next program as we learn about a failed rescue that tried to get us out, and you'll hear about how one soldier was worth five prisoners and we were worth none.

John Cantlie was kidnapped in Syria in 2012

Borneo's Mount Kinabalu, Flesh Eating, Giant Red Leech Swallows huge Blue Earthworm like Spaghetti [ VIDEO-Pics ] - www.ofINTEREST.net

Borneo's Mount Kinabalu, Flesh Eating, Giant Red Leech Devourers huge Blue Earthworm like Spaghetti

For the first time, BBC filmmakers in the forests of Borneo's Mount Kinabalu have documented the so-repulsive-it's-captivating behavior of a large, red, worm-guzzling predator as part of their upcoming new series "Wonders of the Monsoon". While the predator remains unclassified by science, the animal is known to the area's tribespeople, fittingly, as the "Giant Red Leech."

A huge 1m leech has been filmed for the first time swallowing a giant earthworm in the forests of Borneo  Photo: BBC

The Giant Red Leech is one of the biggest in the world. The specimen captured on camera was around 30cm long but experts believe they could grow larger.

They have grown so big that they no longer simply suck blood but now actively hunt giant blue worms and suck them down like spaghetti. The worm it is eating is a whopping 78cm.

The new footage shows the leech detecting a worm's trail and following the scent like a sniffer dog.

When it encounters its prey it quickly latches on and moves its lips up and down the iridescent blue body.

"It was either searching for an end to grab, or was working out whether it was too big to eat" said documentary director Paul Williams.

"When it found an end it started to suck. It was incredible."

That this ambitious leech is roughly half the length of the worm it's eating only makes the footage more impressive. 

A big thanks to Paul Williams and the Giant Red Leech for this fascinating footage – and for ruining spaghetti for everyone, forever.

 Video is via BBC documentary Wonders of the Monsoon

Wonders of the Monsoon will air on BBC 2 at 8pm on Sunday October 5th:

Series producer Paul Bradshaw said: “This is natural history set in the planet's most glorious and dramatic theatre - the lands of the monsoon. 

“It's an incredibly rich mixture of extraordinary creatures, great and small, with some of the planet’s most colourful and ancient cultures, all bound together through the story of this rampaging weather system.”

RELATED: 

Compare the end-on technique of the Giant Red Leech with the side-bite employed by this Japanese Mountain Leech:

MORE RELATED:

The ant pictured below comes from entomologist, blogger and insect photographer Alex Wild. The remarkable image of a trapjaw ant, torn asunder to reveal the wriggling, 8-inch parasitic worm living inside. (The ant, by comparison, measures about half an inch long.)

Infected Ant via Alex Wild

In the jungles of Belize last January, entomologist Alex Wild noticed something odd about the trap-jaw ants passing through his outdoor insect photography class: They all had shrunken heads and swollen abdomens. A day after making the observation, Wild and his students came upon an ant with a worm bursting out of its side. Parasites were at work. Nematode worms enter the ants as larvae and grow inside the ants' body cavity, siphoning off nutrients and distorting their hosts' natural anatomy. When the eight-inch-long nematodes are ready to mate a few weeks later, they push their way out of their half-inch-long hosts, killing them.

INFECTED

In the abdomen of a trap-jaw ant, a parasitic nematode lives off nutrients from the surrounding fluids and changes the morphology of its host.

HEALTHY

The jaws of a parasite-free worker can snap shut on prey in just 1/10,000 of a second—the fastest known mechanical action in nature.

Fun fact:
 when they're not bursting at the seams with squirming parasites, trapjaw ants are capable of clamping their mandibles shut somewhere in the range of 35 to 64 meters per second (~78–145 miles per hour). The average duration of a trap-jaw clamp is just 0.13 milliseconds, making it among the fastest predatory strikes in the animal kingdom.

Trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus brunneus

In 2006, a team led by UC Berkeley biologist Sheila Patek used high-speed videography to determine that a trap-jaw's mandibles can accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity, and exert a force powerful enough to send its body soaring through the air in a defensive maneuver known as an "escape jump" (seen above). Below is another example of a different evasive maneuver (called a "bounce defense jump") with a more horizontal trajectory, from the same study:

This video shows a trap-jaw ant (Odontomachus bauri) that fired its jaws against a hard surface and launched itself into the air (filmed at 3000 frames per second, played back at 30 frames per second).

Borneo's Mount Kinabalu, Flesh Eating, Giant Red Leech Swallows huge Blue Earthworm like Spaghetti [ VIDEO-Pics ] - www.ofINTEREST.net

Borneo's Mount Kinabalu, Flesh Eating, Giant Red Leech Devourers huge Blue Earthworm like Spaghetti

For the first time, BBC filmmakers in the forests of Borneo's Mount Kinabalu have documented the so-repulsive-it's-captivating behavior of a large, red, worm-guzzling predator as part of their upcoming new series "Wonders of the Monsoon". While the predator remains unclassified by science, the animal is known to the area's tribespeople, fittingly, as the "Giant Red Leech."

A huge 1m leech has been filmed for the first time swallowing a giant earthworm in the forests of Borneo  Photo: BBC

The Giant Red Leech is one of the biggest in the world. The specimen captured on camera was around 30cm long but experts believe they could grow larger.

They have grown so big that they no longer simply suck blood but now actively hunt giant blue worms and suck them down like spaghetti. The worm it is eating is a whopping 78cm.

The new footage shows the leech detecting a worm's trail and following the scent like a sniffer dog.

When it encounters its prey it quickly latches on and moves its lips up and down the iridescent blue body.

"It was either searching for an end to grab, or was working out whether it was too big to eat" said documentary director Paul Williams.

"When it found an end it started to suck. It was incredible."

That this ambitious leech is roughly half the length of the worm it's eating only makes the footage more impressive. 

A big thanks to Paul Williams and the Giant Red Leech for this fascinating footage – and for ruining spaghetti for everyone, forever.

 Video is via BBC documentary Wonders of the Monsoon

Wonders of the Monsoon will air on BBC 2 at 8pm on Sunday October 5th:

Series producer Paul Bradshaw said: “This is natural history set in the planet's most glorious and dramatic theatre - the lands of the monsoon. 

“It's an incredibly rich mixture of extraordinary creatures, great and small, with some of the planet’s most colourful and ancient cultures, all bound together through the story of this rampaging weather system.”

RELATED: 

Compare the end-on technique of the Giant Red Leech with the side-bite employed by this Japanese Mountain Leech:

MORE RELATED:

The ant pictured below comes from entomologist, blogger and insect photographer Alex Wild. The remarkable image of a trapjaw ant, torn asunder to reveal the wriggling, 8-inch parasitic worm living inside. (The ant, by comparison, measures about half an inch long.)

Infected Ant via Alex Wild

In the jungles of Belize last January, entomologist Alex Wild noticed something odd about the trap-jaw ants passing through his outdoor insect photography class: They all had shrunken heads and swollen abdomens. A day after making the observation, Wild and his students came upon an ant with a worm bursting out of its side. Parasites were at work. Nematode worms enter the ants as larvae and grow inside the ants' body cavity, siphoning off nutrients and distorting their hosts' natural anatomy. When the eight-inch-long nematodes are ready to mate a few weeks later, they push their way out of their half-inch-long hosts, killing them.

INFECTED

In the abdomen of a trap-jaw ant, a parasitic nematode lives off nutrients from the surrounding fluids and changes the morphology of its host.

HEALTHY

The jaws of a parasite-free worker can snap shut on prey in just 1/10,000 of a second—the fastest known mechanical action in nature.

Fun fact:
 when they're not bursting at the seams with squirming parasites, trapjaw ants are capable of clamping their mandibles shut somewhere in the range of 35 to 64 meters per second (~78–145 miles per hour). The average duration of a trap-jaw clamp is just 0.13 milliseconds, making it among the fastest predatory strikes in the animal kingdom.

Trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus brunneus

In 2006, a team led by UC Berkeley biologist Sheila Patek used high-speed videography to determine that a trap-jaw's mandibles can accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity, and exert a force powerful enough to send its body soaring through the air in a defensive maneuver known as an "escape jump" (seen above). Below is another example of a different evasive maneuver (called a "bounce defense jump") with a more horizontal trajectory, from the same study:

This video shows a trap-jaw ant (Odontomachus bauri) that fired its jaws against a hard surface and launched itself into the air (filmed at 3000 frames per second, played back at 30 frames per second).

MISSING: Hannah Elizabeth Graham, 18 student from England since Friday, 12th Sept. 2014 from about University of Virginia, Charlottesville campus [ VIDEO/Pics ] - www.ofINTEREST.net

Via

Police searching for missing UVA student, 18, release last known footage of girl as it's revealed she texted friends at 01:20 am to say she was lost on way to party near her own house 

• Hannah Elizabeth Graham, 18, was reported missing on Sunday on campus
• Texted friends at 01:20 am on Saturday to say she was lost on the way to meet them
• But according to Charlottesville police, she failed to arrive for the party
• Surveillance shows her running along a corridor the night she went missing 
• Family and friends have not heard from the second year student since 
• Her parents are from England but she lives in America on a Green Card

By James Nyeand Wills Robinson for MailOnline

Updated: 07:54 EST, 16 September 2014 

Police have released CCTV images of a University of Virginia student on the night she disappeared after failing to show up for a party after texting to say she was lost near her own home.

Authorities are desperately searching for Hannah Elizabeth Graham who was reported missing near the Charlottesville campus on Sunday.

The 18-year-old texted her friends at 1.20am on Saturday to say she was lost on the way to a party near to her home at the Camden Plaza Apartments but never arrived. 

The same friends told police she had been drinking beforehand and last night surveillance images were released by police showing her running inside her apartment block at 9.30pm on the night she went missing.

At the request of the family her address is not being made public.

Last known pictures: Police have released this CCTV footage of Hannah Elizabeth Graham, 18, on the night she disappeared after failing to show up for a party

Search: University of Virginia officials have launched a huge hunt for the missing second year student in nearby woodland. Her parents are from England and she lives in the US on a Green Card

Search: Hannah was last heard from in the vicinity of 224 14th Street in Charlottesville, just north of the UVA campus

Friends and family have not heard anything from the second year student, whose parents are from England, since and police have launched a desperate search for her in wooded areas. 

It shows what she was wearing on the night she disappeared. Police have said she was 'fairly well intoxicated', according to CBS6.

Her friend, Sophia Lamrissi-Garcia, who was partying with Hannah at one of her sorority events, told the station she had considered getting a cab home, but decided she would walk instead. 

"At that point in the night you think you’re doing the right thing walking alone but it’s not always the right decision to make", Sophia added.

Appeal: Friends and family of the student have asked anyone with any information to call UVA police

Hunt: Police in Charlottesville have announced they are seeking any information from the public as they search for Hannah Elizabeth Graham

Hannah's parents are originally from the north of England - and she has spent at least two years in the United States

Her neighbor, Sam Blum said that he is devastated and worried about her disappearance.

'I saw her on Thursday…she seemed really happy,' said Blum to WTVR. 'Downtown Charlottesville, I wouldn’t expect that.'

The search area for Hannah is being focused around 14th Street Northwest to Wertland Street, including the railroad tracks, near to the UVA campus.

That was where she sent her last text to friends explaining she was lost.

UVA President Teresa Sullivan released a statement Monday afternoon saying the university is both concerned and cooperating fully.

'The members of the University of Virginia community are united in our deep concern for a UVa student who is missing and has not been in touch with her family or friends since early Saturday morning,' said Sullivan according to the Roanoke Dispatch.

Students who didn't know Hannah said they were worried about what it means for campus security,

"I think it's real tragic when anything like this happens," said Brannon Johnson, 4th year at the university to the Roanoke Dispatch.

"It definitely questions everything in terms of safety and how everyone is going to react and move around grounds for sure."

"It kind of hit home that something like this can really happen," said Madison Baril, 1st year at the university.

'Before it was kind of more like stories and warnings, but now it's a real person that's gone.

"If you are with a group of girls, make sure you leave with a group of girls," said Baril. 'Find friends don't wander off with people you just met.'

 

Hannah, who is not a US citizen is 5'11" with blue eyes and light brown hair. She is said to live off campus

Hannah, who is not a US citizen is 5'11" with blue eyes and light brown hair. She lives off campus, is from Northern Virginia and resides in the US using a Green Card.

"As some of you may have heard, Hannah Graham is missing. She was last seen leaving Camden Plaza around 11:50 late Friday night and last heard from a little after 1am, Saturday," one post shared on Facebook states. 

'On Sunday, her friends and family realized that none of them had seen or had contact with her since Friday night and a call was placed to the Emergency Communications Center by her friends, reporting her missing,' said Lt. Ronnie Roberts, of the Charlottesville Police Department to the Daily Progress.

"Police detectives responded immediately and have been working to find Hannah since learning of her disappearance. A search using a bloodhound was conducted Sunday evening, but that search did not turn up anything useful."

Anyone with information is asked to call Charlottesville Police Department at 970-3280 or Crimestoppers at 977-4000. 

Read more: 

Police release new pictures of missing UVa student Hannah Graham | WTVR.com

MISSING: Hannah Elizabeth Graham, 18 student from England since Friday, 12th Sept. 2014 from about University of Virginia, Charlottesville campus [ VIDEO/Pics ] - www.ofINTEREST.net

Via

Police searching for missing UVA student, 18, release last known footage of girl as it's revealed she texted friends at 01:20 am to say she was lost on way to party near her own house 

• Hannah Elizabeth Graham, 18, was reported missing on Sunday on campus
• Texted friends at 01:20 am on Saturday to say she was lost on the way to meet them
• But according to Charlottesville police, she failed to arrive for the party
• Surveillance shows her running along a corridor the night she went missing 
• Family and friends have not heard from the second year student since 
• Her parents are from England but she lives in America on a Green Card

By James Nye and Wills Robinson for MailOnline

Updated: 07:54 EST, 16 September 2014 

Police have released CCTV images of a University of Virginia student on the night she disappeared after failing to show up for a party after texting to say she was lost near her own home.

Authorities are desperately searching for Hannah Elizabeth Graham who was reported missing near the Charlottesville campus on Sunday.

The 18-year-old texted her friends at 1.20am on Saturday to say she was lost on the way to a party near to her home at the Camden Plaza Apartments but never arrived. 

The same friends told police she had been drinking beforehand and last night surveillance images were released by police showing her running inside her apartment block at 9.30pm on the night she went missing.

At the request of the family her address is not being made public.

Last known pictures: Police have released this CCTV footage of Hannah Elizabeth Graham, 18, on the night she disappeared after failing to show up for a party

Search: University of Virginia officials have launched a huge hunt for the missing second year student in nearby woodland. Her parents are from England and she lives in the US on a Green Card

Search: Hannah was last heard from in the vicinity of 224 14th Street in Charlottesville, just north of the UVA campus

Friends and family have not heard anything from the second year student, whose parents are from England, since and police have launched a desperate search for her in wooded areas. 

It shows what she was wearing on the night she disappeared. Police have said she was 'fairly well intoxicated', according to CBS6.

Her friend, Sophia Lamrissi-Garcia, who was partying with Hannah at one of her sorority events, told the station she had considered getting a cab home, but decided she would walk instead. 

"At that point in the night you think you’re doing the right thing walking alone but it’s not always the right decision to make", Sophia added.

Appeal: Friends and family of the student have asked anyone with any information to call UVA police

Hunt: Police in Charlottesville have announced they are seeking any information from the public as they search for Hannah Elizabeth Graham

Hannah's parents are originally from the north of England - and she has spent at least two years in the United States

Her neighbor, Sam Blum said that he is devastated and worried about her disappearance.

'I saw her on Thursday…she seemed really happy,' said Blum to WTVR. 'Downtown Charlottesville, I wouldn’t expect that.'

The search area for Hannah is being focused around 14th Street Northwest to Wertland Street, including the railroad tracks, near to the UVA campus.

That was where she sent her last text to friends explaining she was lost.

UVA President Teresa Sullivan released a statement Monday afternoon saying the university is both concerned and cooperating fully.

'The members of the University of Virginia community are united in our deep concern for a UVa student who is missing and has not been in touch with her family or friends since early Saturday morning,' said Sullivan according to the Roanoke Dispatch.

Students who didn't know Hannah said they were worried about what it means for campus security,

"I think it's real tragic when anything like this happens," said Brannon Johnson, 4th year at the university to the Roanoke Dispatch.

"It definitely questions everything in terms of safety and how everyone is going to react and move around grounds for sure."

"It kind of hit home that something like this can really happen," said Madison Baril, 1st year at the university.

'Before it was kind of more like stories and warnings, but now it's a real person that's gone.

"If you are with a group of girls, make sure you leave with a group of girls," said Baril. 'Find friends don't wander off with people you just met.'

 

Hannah, who is not a US citizen is 5'11" with blue eyes and light brown hair. She is said to live off campus

Hannah, who is not a US citizen is 5'11" with blue eyes and light brown hair. She lives off campus, is from Northern Virginia and resides in the US using a Green Card.

"As some of you may have heard, Hannah Graham is missing. She was last seen leaving Camden Plaza around 11:50 late Friday night and last heard from a little after 1am, Saturday," one post shared on Facebook states. 

'On Sunday, her friends and family realized that none of them had seen or had contact with her since Friday night and a call was placed to the Emergency Communications Center by her friends, reporting her missing,' said Lt. Ronnie Roberts, of the Charlottesville Police Department to the Daily Progress.

"Police detectives responded immediately and have been working to find Hannah since learning of her disappearance. A search using a bloodhound was conducted Sunday evening, but that search did not turn up anything useful."

Anyone with information is asked to call Charlottesville Police Department at 970-3280 or Crimestoppers at 977-4000. 

Read more: 

Police release new pictures of missing UVa student Hannah Graham | WTVR.com