Jockstrip: The world as we know it

Bear home after romantic romp

TENILLE BONOGUORE, British Columbia, July 13 (UPI) -- A lusty grizzly bear has returned to his British Columbia sanctuary from a five-week adventure that included some canoodling with the opposite sex.

Boo, a 4 1/2-year-old orphan, escaped from his 22-acre enclosure at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in search of female companionship, the Globe and Mail reported Wednesday.

The 600-pound bear broke through a 400-pound steel door and two electric fences before storming a 13-foot-high barrier.

He apparently got what he was looking for since Boo spent three of the five weeks in the company of a female bear, a Kicking Horse spokesman said.

"Yes, Boo could be a dad," spokesman Michael Dalzell told the newspaper, noting the bear returned thinner and very tired. He came back on his own accord Saturday, ate lunch and took a long nap.

But the furry lothario's romantic adventures may be soon curbed, the newspaper said. Boo has twice been lured out of the sanctuary by summer romance and his keepers are brainstorming ways to discourage a "three-peat." The obvious solution would be to neuter him, but no decision had been made and "all possibilities are being discussed," Dalzell said.

Boo's mother was killed by a poacher in 2002 and he has spent nearly his whole life in the sanctuary.

'Pirates' ship won't make it to Cleveland

CLEVELAND, July 13 (UPI) -- The ship from "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" will not make it to Cleveland's Harborfest due to flooding in New York.

The organizers did find a replacement ship in time, a replica of Christopher Columbus's Nina, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Wednesday.

The festival begins Wednesday and continues through Sunday night at North Coast Harbor.

The "Pirates" ship, named the Providence -- a replica of an early naval ship -- attempted to travel from Rhode Island to Cleveland through the Erie Canal, but it was stranded due to heavy flooding.

"We attempted everything under the sun to get them here," said Trish Rooney, director of marketing for the Great Lakes Science Center, which is producing this year's festival with the Steamship William G. Mather Museum.

The ship won't be able to make any of the other stops on the American Sail Training Association's Tall Ships Challenge, either.

Mouse infestation alleged on airplane

ST. LOUIS, July 13 (UPI) -- Aircraft overhaulers in Kansas City say an American Airlines Boeing 767 that came in for servicing in April was infested with mice.

KSDK-TV in St. Louis said a longtime employee at the overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport contacted the TV station about the problem.

"We had to take the chairs off and that's when everybody saw mice running around on the floor and one ran down one of the mechanic's arm," the employee said.

The whistleblower said workers found nests in air vents and dead mice in emergency oxygen masks. The mice ate insulation and chewed through wires, he alleged.

"If they shorted themselves and caused a fire, it would go through that cabin so fast, we could have lost some lives," he told KSDK.

The TV station said exterminators estimated that anywhere from 900 to 1,000 mice could be on the aircraft. American Airlines disputes that number, saying it found only 17 live mice.

The Federal Aviation Administration says all insulation and oxygen masks on the plane have been replaced, the cargo bins have been removed and replaced and the wiring has been inspected.

Termites struggle to rebuild post-Katrina

NEW ORLEANS, July 13 (UPI) -- A Louisiana entomologist says New Orleans termites appear to be suffering from post-Hurricane Katrina stress.

Louisiana State University entomologist Gregg Henderson said there was a 70 percent decrease in Formosan termites in New Orleans between 2005 and 2006, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

Henderson told the newspaper a drought that began in 2006 after Hurricane Rita could be one reason for this year's decrease. Multiple "termite colony drowning events," resulting from breached levees that followed Hurricane Katrina, may also be contributing to the 2006 results, he said.

Henderson said it will take a year to find out if the colonies were destroyed or if they are under stress and will return.

The decline in termites, however, does not mean that residents can let their guard down, the Times-Picayune said.

Henderson said residents rebuilding after flooding should install new termite barriers around their property, and builders should use treated lumber and install rust-proof metal termite shields on top of cinder-block piers that are used as foundation.