I got bit by a pelican this week.
Yep, you read it right … a pelican.
As I rubbed around the wound it occurred to me that this didn’t-see-that-one-coming experience is the story of my life. Any time I try to do something good, another little something creeps up behind to take a chunk out of my backside. You’d think I’d learn my lesson ….
So how exactly did I find myself dabbing a towel on my bloody calf from a pelican bite?
What coffee drinker out there hasn’t stopped at the local convenience store to grab a quick cuppa joe, only to take a sip, spit it out and exclaim “this tastes like crap!” while tossing the offending item into the nearest trash receptacle?
Piece of advice … next time, hold on to your $0.99 cup of crap because it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the world’s most expensive cat-poop-coated coffee beans.
Yep. I said cat poop. And yep, God help me, I am serious.
Every once in a while (though it seems more frequently in this oft-strange world we live in) a story comes along that, while true, seems to be the work of Hollywood writers.
Case in point: Russia’s battle plan to save earth from an asteroid collision.
In this case – unlike virtually, every single Hollywood movie (…yawn…)- it won’t be the U.S.A. that saves the day. Russian scientists have stepped forward with a (vague) plan to send a spacecraft up to bump the asteroid off course.
Continue reading Off the Edge of the Map: Russia to Arm World Against Asteroid
Just when you think the world can’t get any weirder, a story comes along to make you question absolutely everything.
Case in point: Peru’s alleged fat harvesting gang.
In mid-November Peruvian police warned the public of a gang of killers stalking people in the Peruvian jungle for three decades to harvest fat and sell it to the European cosmetics industry. Police named the gang pishtacos – based on traditional folklore of a tall, white male in a big hat who roams the countryside stealing the fat and eyes of unsuspecting travelers. According to the allegations the killers would cut off “victims’ heads, arms and legs, remove the organs, and then suspend the torsos from hooks above candles that warmed the flesh as the fat dripped into tubs below.” Police produced suspects who claimed a gallon of the human fat was worth $60,000. Sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel, right? Uber yucky….
But then the story got worse …. Within a week or two the cops’ allegations began to unravel as medical professionals and local journalists attacked the veracity of the claims.
Continue reading Off the Edge of the Map: Peru’s Fat Killers?