The longer version of Al's lead-in ... I go away for a week on NATO schemes in Stuttgart and you guys go nets with press coverage!!
Seriously though, I have not got through all the threads - prolific bunch that you are, I hope and trust that your friends are well. My coldolences to the family of your German peers too.
ARIZONA DAILY STAR (Tucson) 16 September 05 Snakebite fatality prompts warning (Becky Pallack)
Public safety officials are warning Southern Arizonans to be wary of snakes, after a German tourist died from a bite earlier in the week.
Marcus Wolf, 35, was bitten Sunday in the Willcox area and drove himself to Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox, officials said Friday.
He was given antivenin and immediately was flown by helicopter to Tucson Medical Center, said Ellen Clark, a spokeswoman for Northern Cochise Community Hospital.
Wolf was unconscious when he arrived in Tucson, said Officer Lisa Peasley, a Tucson police spokeswoman. A nurse told police Wolf was suffering from severe anaphylactic shock. He died Wednesday night, Peasley said.
Wolf's parents, notified by a friend of their son's condition, were at the hospital when he died.
Officials have not said what type of snake bit Wolf or what he was doing when he was bitten. More details are not available because of medical privacy laws.
Less than 1 percent of snakebites are fatal, said Mark Murphy, a poison specialist at the University of Arizona's Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center.
The center is called about 200 to 300 snakebites every year in Southern Arizona, he said. Last year, 121 Southern Arizonans were bitten by rattlesnakes.
Details about year-to-date numbers weren't available Friday, although officials could say there have been 10 bites within Tucson city limits this year.
The last fatal snakebite in Southern Arizona happened in Sierra Vista in 2002, according to the Cochise County Medical Examiner's Office.
There are around 8,000 venomous snakebites reported each year nationwide, and usually eight to 15 are fatal, according to the poison center's Web site.
"Any time someone is bitten by a snake, they need to go to the emergency room," Murphy said, because lifesaving antivenin is available in hospitals.
There is no home treatment for a snakebite, he said. Applying ice, restricting blood flow or cutting the skin "can actually make it worse," Murphy said.
Most snakebites happen in the warm months, from March to October, said Battalion Chief Rick Flores, a Rural/ Metro Fire Department spokes-man.
Many snakebites happen when a person doesn't see a snake, he said. People working around their yards should look around rocks and into containers before reaching, he said, to avoid startling a snake.
If you do see a snake, "the best thing you can do is leave it alone," Flores said. "Oftentimes when a snake realizes it has been seen, it will relocate on its own."
Back away and move kids and pets out of the area. Contact Rural/Metro in the county or a snake-removal business in the city.
KGUN (Tucson, Arizona) 18 August 05 Tucson Man Bit By Rattlesnake (Brooke Morgan)
A man is in the hospital tonight after a rattlesnake bit him. Rural-Metro tells KGUN 9 news the snake bit a 26-year-old man on the ankle while he was working in Saguaro National Park East. Paramedics took the man to Saint Joseph's Hospital. He is expected to recover. Wildlife experts say snakes are more active this time of year.
"If you do hear the snake rattle, simply move away backwards from the direction that you came, remove any children or small pets that might be in the area, and then contact the fire department for the snake removal," said Rural/Metro's Rick Flores.
Many rattlers are out looking for food before hibernating for the winter. Here are some tips to help you avoid getting bit. Check for snakes before you reach into tall grass, flower pots and rocks. Trim landscaping to create a gap between the foliage and the ground. That way you have a better chance of seeing a snake. Avoid treatments such as cutting into the bite and trying to suck out the venom. You could do more damage. The best advice -- just call 911 as soon as possible.
http://www.kgun9.com/story.php?id=533
WTSP (Tampa Bay, Florida) 17 September 05 Professional snake handler bitten
Homestead, Florida: A professional snake handler is hospitalized in serious condition after being bitten by a Western Diamondback rattlesnake.
Miami-Dade Police say the 49-year-old man was performing an educational show yesterday for children in Homestead when the snake bit him.
The man's name has not been released.
Captain Al Cruz of the Miami-Dade Police Department Antivenin Unit says the man did not immediately seek medical attention, jeopardizing his chances for survival.
Cruz says the man was given 20 vials of antivenin serum last night.
The snake bit the man on the leg just above his boot.
Cruz says the man was wearing proper foot protection, but rattlesnakes can sense heat, so the snake struck him where it detected heat.
The handler secured the snake before it could bite anyone else.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=18934
MIAMI HERALD (Florida) 17 September 05 Poisonous rattler stuns lifelong snake-lover - Albert Killian, who started collecting snakes at age 11, was surprised when a snake bite by a venomous rattler delivered him to a hospital bed on Thursday. He thought he was immune. (Theresa Bradley)
He'd been bitten so many times, by so many snakes, he thought he was immune.
When a five-foot Western Diamondback rattler plunged its fangs into Florida City snake handler Albert Killian Thursday, he kept right on cleaning cages, limping around for three hours as his right leg swelled up like a balloon.
''He was sure that if he just waited, it would go down,'' said Bob Freer, founder of the Everglades Outpost, the nonprofit wildlife refuge where Killian cares for 100-plus, mostly venomous snakes.
Killian finally let Freer take him to Homestead Hospital around 5 p.m.
This weekend, he remains in guarded condition, confined to bed in the intensive care unit, and dosed with more than 20 vials of antivenin, an especially high amount, said Capt. Ernest Jillson of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Antivenin Bank.
Snake bite immunity is theoretically possible -- that's how antivenin antidotes work -- but rarely when the venom is self-administered.
One infamous exception: the legendary Bill Haast, the 94-year-old director of the Miami Serpentarium who has regularly injected himself with raw snake venom for years and survived more than 170 bites.
Killian, 49, is chief herpetologist at the Everglades Outpost, where he lives alone in a trailer on site, working from dawn to dusk in and around the snake house and giving regular presentations to visiting school groups.
He has worked on a series of nature films for the Discovery Channel and appeared in Animal Planet's program Miami Animal Police.
According to his biography for that show, Killian is a lifelong snake-lover, first bitten by a rattler at the tender age of 11.
Undeterred, he had collected 1,200 snakes by the age of 19.
On Thursday, Killian was doing a routine cage cleaning at the Everglades Outpost when the nearly five-foot rattlesnake lunged at him, sinking one of its fangs into his right leg just above his boot.
''The most vulnerable moment is when you're taking them out of the cage, because that's when you're startling them,'' Jillson said. ``Before you blink your eye, they've already bitten you, they're recoiled, and ready to go again.''
Rattlesnake venom, delivered directly to the bloodstream via a hollow canal in the snake's fang, starts eating away at a victim's tissue upon contact.
''If you can imagine taking your hand or your limb, stabbing it with a needle, smashing it with a hammer and holding it over a hot flame, that's what it feels like,'' said Jillson, who was himself bitten by a coral snake five years ago.
``It's deteriorating the flesh.''
Antivenin injections shoot specific antigens into the blood to neutralize that digestive process. But a vial of antivenin, like that being administered to Killian, can be as costly as $1,500 a pop.
Some 300 animals live at the Everglades Outpost, including tigers, alligators, monkeys and 100 snakes -- 95 percent of which are poisonous and non-indigenous to Florida.
Many arrive at the Outpost via the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which confiscates or finds them abandoned by pet owners in the wild.
More licensed venomous snake owners reside in Florida than any other state -- and including illegal keepers, Florida officials estimate there being as many as 1,600 venomous snake households.
That profusion ups the incidence of dangerous bites: the Miami-Dade Antivenin unit responded to 80 envenomations last year alone.
The last time anyone was bitten at the Everglades Outpost was four years ago, said director Freer.
That person was Albert Killian.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/12668548.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_local
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/metro/93741.php
Thought you were being controlled by FEMA since you were not posting anything 
