Near the St. Augustine outlet, in a new KB homes subdivision.

15 foot Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake. Largest ever caught on record.

After seeing this, I did a little research, and learned the following:

One bite from a snake this large contains enough venom to kill over 40 full grown men.

The head alone is larger than the hand of a normal sized man.

This snake was probably alive when George H. W. Bush was President.

A bite from those fangs would equal being penetrated by two 1/4 inch screwdrivers.

A snake this size could easily swallow a 2 year-old child.

A snake this size has an approximately 5 and 1/2 foot accurate striking distance. (The distance for an average size Rattlesnake is about 2 feet)

Judging by the size of the snake, it is estimated to weigh over 170 pounds. How much do you weigh?

Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye.
Instead, different color rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.
As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge.

More after the break

Closer to the image, the careful placement of the thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seen.

Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew from meetings of the village committees.
The different varieties of rice plants grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces.
In the first nine years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year.
But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention.

In 2005, agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art.
A year later, organizers used computers to precisely plot planting of the four differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life.

More after the break