Thank you all

I know it has been awhile, but thank you all for being patient with me. I have now biked 500 miles and have legs with bruises, blisters and sunburns to prove it. I just wish I had legs of steel.

• A 5.9 foot (1.8 meter) black-headed python was found inside a 10th floor toilet in a Darwin, Australia apartment. The animal was most likely a runaway pet. Reptile catcher Chris Peberdy said, "When I saw it I was pretty shocked. . . . There is no possible other way it could have got there than through the toilet. I had to give him a wash because he was wet and a bit smelly." Source
• Raymundo Flores, a chef at the Brooklyn restaurant Junior's Restaurant was arrested for stealing lobster tails. He was hiding the tails in his pants and wrapped to his legs with bandages. Source
• Seven young artist from Berlin are living in the Museum of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv with lice in their hair. They are wearing plastic shower caps to prevent spreading the lice to others. Twenty-three year old artist Vincent Grunwald describes it this way: "The idea is that we live in the museum as their guests, and at the same time we are hosting lice on our heads." Some criticize the exhibit and claim it is referencing the Holocaust, but the artists deny this. Source.
• Federal Judge Eduardo Robreno fined HTFC CEO Aaron Wider and his lawyer Joseph R. Ziccardi $29,000 for inappropriate court behavior. Wider used 73 variations of the "F word" in 12 hours. When asked to open a specific file so questions could be asked about it, Wider responded, "I'm taking a break. F-k him. You open up the document. You want me to look at something, you get the document out. Earn your f-ing money, a-hole. Isn't the law wonderful?" Source
• Familiar with Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird? Here are some excerpts from his list on things that used to be weird, but are now too common for him to publish in his column: " an old, widely-advertised phone-sex number is reassigned to a church/charity . . .political candidate dies but still wins the election . . .family thinks he's dead, but he's not and attends his own funeral . . .shoots himself while supposedly demonstrating gun safety . . . gasoline thieves check quantity in tank by using a match or lighter to peer inside . . . local election ends in tie, settled (by law) by coin flip or draw of cards . . .bank robber hails taxi or municipal bus for getaway . . . criminal on the lam goes on national tv talk show and mentions that he's wanted . . .unlabeled urn with loved one's ashes mistakenly stolen or sold at yard sale . . .judges punish young people by forcing them to listen to [classical or polka or etc.] music . . .elderly citizen trying to convince bureaucrat that, contrary to records, he's not really dead . . .elderly motorist makes wrong turn, gets lost for days." Source

Herring, Einstein, Clinton, Poets and Numbers

• Herrings break wind to communicate and help form nightly protective shoals. Ben Wilson, a marine biologist says, "We know [herring] have excellent hearing but little about what they actually use it for. . . . It turns out that herring make unusual farting sounds at night." The fish gulp air from the surface which they store in their swim bladders. The herring expel the air from an opening next to their anus and produce a high-pitched raspberry sound. Source.
• Yoda's appearance is based on Albert Einstein. Source.
• In his time as president, Bill Clinton only sent two e-mails. One was an e-mail to astronaut John Glenn aboard the space shuttle. The other was not really an e-mail, but a test to see if Clinton "knew how to push the button on an e-mail." His staff sent 39,999,998 e-mails. Source.
• Dr Kaufman,an assistant professor of psychology at California State University, researched 1,987 deaths of writers. He found that, "[o]n average, poets lived 62 years, playwrights 63 years, novelists 66 years, and non-fiction writers lived 68 years. . . . [But} poets produce twice as much of their lifetime output in their 20s as novelists do." Source.
  
• The Piraha of the Amazon only have tree words for numbers: one, two and many. Peter Gordon, the psychologist at Columbia University in New York City, tried the following experiment. ""Gordon . . . sat opposite an individual and laid out a random number of familiar objects, including batteries, sticks and nuts, in a row. The Pirahã were supposed to respond by laying out the same number of objects from their own pile.For one, two and three objects, members of the tribe consistently matched Gordon’s pile correctly. But for four and five and up to ten, they could only match it approximately, deviating more from the correct number as the row got longer. The Pirahã also failed to remember whether a box they had been shown seconds ago had four or five fish drawn on the top. When Gordon’s colleagues tapped on the floor three times, the Pirahã were able to imitate this precisely, but failed to mimic strings of four or five taps." Source.

A bit of everything

In Barboursville, West Virginia, when 12-year-old Megan Templeton picked up a seedless watermelon in a bin at Walmart, she was stung by an inch-long scorpion. She is fine. Source.


14-year-old Sam Hawthorne slept walked into the teeth of a dead, souvenir shark on his bedroom wall. The shark teeth embedded themselves into Sam's cheek for 15 minutes, but he survived with only a small scar.
My favorite part is the highly misleading article title: "Shark Attacks Boy in his Bedroom!" and the sentences: " The teenager survived a terrifying ordeal when he was bitten in the face by one of the killer beasts – in his own bedroom. . . . Jaws struck in the middle of the night at the family home." Source
As of posting this, the home-video of a laughing Swedish baby has over 50 million views on Youtube. The video can be seen here.
Michael Agger sorted through 57,840 comments on the video, dividing them into the following categories: armchair pediatricians, drugs, actual analysis, good wisecracks, the horror, sounds like, predictions, sell-out advice, look-at-me, mean, religious and insane.
Michael condenses all 57,840 comments into: "cute, cute, cute, evil, spam, I think the baby is ugly, How can you think that!, cute, cute, I want to have a baby, cute, baby is high, look at my videos, cute, just like my kid, cute, LOL, cute, cute, etc., etc." Source.
P.S. I will be on vacation this week, but I have programed a post for the 30th and the 3rd.

Today on my Google homepage

Yosuke, an African gray parrot in Japan, flew out of his cage and got lost. Yosuke spent a night at a police station were he remained quiet. After a few days with a veterinarian, Yosuke announced he was "Mr. Yosuke Nakamura" and provided his full home address. When returned to his family, the Nakamuras revealed that they had been teaching Yosuke his full name and address for two years. Source.

The Wall Street Burger Shoppe raised the price of its hamburger from $150 to $175. Co-owner Heather Tierney explains it this way, “Wall Street has good days and bad days. We wanted to have the everyday burger (for $4) ... and then something special if you really have a good day on Wall Street." The burger contains "[k]obe beef patty, lots of black truffles, seared foie gras, aged Gruyere cheese, wild mushrooms and flecks of gold leaf on a brioche bun."
While I find this excessive, I did a post called Hungry and Broke which makes this hamburger look like a bargain. One example: a $14,000 diamond-studded tea bag. Source

On May 17th, a political rally was held in Russia. The Moscow Times describes the event as "The first meeting . . . of a 'National Assembly' organized by the Other Russia opposition coalition featur[ing] calls for a strong challenge to the current government." The Moscow Times continues, "A couple of pro-Kremlin Young Russia activists added to the commotion at the event by launching [several] plastic phallus on propellers, which were knocked out of the air by security guards."
To watch a video of the commotion, click here.
Source. Source.

Speaking of Women. . .

Traditionally, the majority of drug testing on mice has been on male mice. This is due to the hormones of the female mice influencing test results. Sherry Martz, PhD is director of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences. She explains: "A mouse's menstrual cycle is just four to six days long. . . You have to test each mouse to see where she is." This process is delicately described as "a little like performing a tiny PAP smear."

Source: Now you will have to take this with a bit of faith in me because I could not find this article/information on the Internet. But I happened to stumble across this and could not pass it up. If you pick up "O The Opera Magazine" September 2007, Volume 8, Number 9 and turn to page 214, you will find this information in the article titled: "Of Mice and Women."

Hissssssss

For eighty dollars, you can buy a "Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroach Brooch" from clothing-store Black Chandelier. This live cockroach has Austrian Swarovski crystal on its non-sensitive hood and is worn on a leash. The "jewelry" lives about one year, doubles as a pet and comes with care instructions.
Inventor Jared Gold says, "Design without humor is pretentious and soul crushing. . . You kind of bond with the little buddy. They like the warmth and they tickle you. Everyone has a good time."

A random topic

• With six and a half tons per square inch of biting force, sharks have the strongest jaws in the world. They can bite with both their upper and lower jaw.
  
• If a shark looses a tooth, another tooth rotates forward from its rows of spare teeth.Whale sharks have approximately 300 rows of spare teeth, with hundreds of teeth in each row.
  
• In its life, a shark can use over 20,000 teeth. on average, their teeth are replaced every eight days
  
• Dried shark skin used to be used as sandpaper and non-slip grips on sword handles.
  
• In the uterus, shark embryos eat their siblings.
• One out of every 30 million people is attacked by a shark
  

Source. Source. Source.

To be a scientist!

At the University of California, scientists helped the fight against alcoholism by plying hundreds of thousands of worms with alcohol. They succeeded in finding the gene responsible for drunkenness in worms and hope this will help the study of alcoholism in people.
The alcohol seemed to affect the worms much like humans: " The drunken worms moved slower and more awkwardly than sober ones, and laid fewer eggs." However, as neurobiology professor Steven Treistman of the University of Massachusetts Medical School commented, "'Humans are a lot more complicated than the worm." Source

Penguin attack

• Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin was a species of extinct penguin that stood 5 feet 6.9 inches tall (1.7 meters) and weighed 198 pounds (90 kilograms). Fossils have been found both in Antarctica and Zealand. The more modest Icadyptes Salasi penguin stood 5 feet tall (1.5 meters) and lived in Peru. Its skull can seen at the top of the above picture. Source. Source.

Nicetown

• In 1996, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) turned their attention to the town of Fishkill. Because they believed it evoked "violent imagery of dead fish," they wanted its name changed to Fishsave. However, the town declined, pointing out that in the original Dutch, "Fishkill" is "Fish stream."
• In 2003, PETA offered $15,000 of vegetarian patties to the town of Hamburg, NY, if they changed their name to Veggieburg. PETA's reason: "The town's name conjures up visions of unhealthy patties of ground-up dead cows. . . I hope they get a little chuckle about it, and then I hope they think about it. . . Our offer is serious as a heart attack." Hamburg declined the offer.

Source

Fido?!

Artist Karl-Friedrich Lentze is planning on opening the world's first brothel for dogs. Stationed in Berlin, the brothel will charge $32 and will include Lentze's Jack Russel Tarrier acting as the door-dog. Lentze sees it as art: "It's a form of satire that criticizes society. I used to paint and create sculptures, this is just the next step."

Other artistic endeavors of his include:

• He sued the Easter Bunny for causing addiction to chocolate. Lentze said: "The Easter Bunny is a sadistic and unscrupulous offender who preys on people's sweet tooth."
  
• He got permission from the Bonn city council to be buried with a biodegradable inflated sex doll.
• He applied for a patent for his devise to straighten bananas. He explained it as: "Depending on the degree of the curve, chunks will be cut out of the banana, which will then be bound back together using biologically safe bandages.
  

Source. Source. Source. Source.

Elton! Hop!

In Canada, to win tickets to an Elton John contest, Brandy Elliott collected 38,000 grasshoppers. A local radio station started the competition when a grasshopper invasion upset Canada's farmland. Ms. Elliott's comment: "All I kept thinking is, is this enough?" She only won by 6,000 grasshoppers.
Source.

mugger angels

In Australia, muggers stole Hilda Morgenstein's purse. Inside her purse was a dead rabbit that she and her daughter were on their way to bury. Hilda said: "They saved us the trip - I told my daughter they were angels and were taking bunny to a better place."
My source.

Mike

On September 10, 1945, Mr. Lloyd Olsen chopped the head off an unnamed rooster. The next day, the same rooster was found strutting around and earned the name Mike. The Olsens fed Mike by dripping a gruel mixture down his throat and and started earning more than $4, 500 ($44,000 today) a month from exhibiting him. Enough brain stem was left on Mike to allow him to continue normally: gurgling out crows and attempting to preen. Mike gained 5 1/2 pounds and lived for 18 months. While on a national tour, Mike chocked to death on his mucus when the Olsens could not find the eyedropper they used to regularly clear his throat.
In honor of Mike, the town of Fruita, Colorado holds an annual Mike the Headless Chicken Festival. Events include a 5k "run like a chicken with your head cut off."
Don't trust me? My source is here.

eeewww

According to BBC News, you are 10 times more likely to be bit by a human than bit by a rat.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4073020.stm

octopus walking

An Indonesian octopus (top picture) wraps 6 legs around its body to disguise itself as a coconut while using its other two legs to run away from danger.

To see this phenomenon : http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/9999/rolling.mpeg

An Australian octopus uses six of its legs to disguise itself as seaweed while using its other two legs to run away from danger. Interestingly, it moves faster like this than when using all its legs.
To see this phenomenon: http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/9999/walking.mpeg

My source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7194.html

Blobfish

Behold, the blobfish that lives off Australia and Tasmania. To remain buoyant in the deep ocean, it mainly is a "gelatinous mass." Because it is slightly less dense than water, the fish floats above the sea floor and eat what floats by.
To see more interesting animals, check out http://www.alistoflists.com/animals/10-weird-as-hell-animals#comments

Cockroaches

• Ken Edwards of London ate 36 cockroaches in one minutes. His comment: "It's like having an anesthetic at the back of the throat." http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/amazing_feats/unusual_skills/most_cockroaches_eaten.aspx
• In Australia, there is an Annual Cockroach Racing Championship for Australia Day. Some participant comments: ""It's great, we've taken one of our national animals and made it into a mascot, after all they're as much a part of Australia as the koala or kangaroo and far more common." http://www.2camels.com/world-championship-cockroach-racing.php
• Also in Australia, this time at the Lizard Racing track, there stands a plaque that reads: "Cunnamulla-Eulo Festival of Opals. 'Destructo', champion racing cockroach accidentally killed at this track (24.8.1980) after winning the challenge (sic) stakes against 'Wooden Head' champion racing lizard 1980. Unveiled 23.8.81" http://www.whereintheworld.co.uk/newsite/detail.php?recordID=107
• Now for this facts: I could only find it on one website. While it is copied and pasted onto many other websites and blogs, I can't vouch for its accuracy. But even if it isn't accurate, it is amusing to think about: Rita Carlson of California raised a foot-long and almost 2-pound cockroach. Her take on it: ""Plenty of protein, and plenty of good, natural vitamins helped to make this roach into a champion. You should have seen it when I first found crawling around my kitchen." http://www.ijmc.com/archives/1998/July/26July1998.html
• Cockroaches have 18 knees, can hold their breath for 40 minutes and go a month without food and a week without water. Also, the female German cockroach only has to mate once to lay eggs for the rest of her life. http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/roaches/pg000097.html : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach