Etc...

Under a full head of steam

Sometimes when one's temper gets the best of him, the best way to cool off is to take a walk. Case in point: Boon-yong Khaewprasert. He is a career policeman in Thailand - a chief investigator , in fact. And he thought he was doing well ... until his superior reassigned him to a desk job in an adjoining province, apparently because he'd ruffled some feathers locally. So when Lt. Gen. Archirawich Suwanapesat ordered him to transfer, Boonyong became furious. But how to show it without being disrespectful ? The solution: walk to his new post. The fact that it's 62 miles away didn't matter. Now, was it Archirawich's turn to be angry? Well, no. "It's good for [Boonyong] to get some exercise," he said. "As long as he reports to his new job on time, it's fine with me."

Not long ago, the California condor, one of the largest of native North American birds, was almost extinct, owing to a number of factors - among them shootings, poisonings, a low reproductive rate, and encounters with high-voltage power lines. Environmentalists have worked hard over the past 25 years to bring them back, and although the condor population is still small, encouraging progress has been made in capturing, breeding, and reintroducing them into the wild. Today, there are 118 of the birds, distinguished by their pinkish featherless heads as well as their size, just in central and southern California, Arizona, and coastal Mexico. Some other facts about the California condor:
Wingspan 9.5 ft.
Weight 18 to 31 lbs.
Length 3.5 ft. to 4.6 ft.
Number of eggs laid at a time 1
Birds remaining before recovery efforts began 22
Condors now in existence 274
'Founder' birds used to breed the current population 14
- Associated Press/ San Diego Zoo/ Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex