Curious
Times No. 356
July 6, 2006
MEAT ISN’T MURDER
It’s been about a year since we heard about the efforts of
scientists to grow edible meat in a lab. At that point one researcher
told The Guardian newspaper that “right now it would be possible
to produce something like spam at an incredibly high cost.”
Well, progress can’t be stopped, and the latest news claims
that lab-grown meat that smells and tastes like ground chuck will
be available at your supermarket in just a few years. While the
technology already exists to grow the meat in small batches, the
problem is that large-scale manufacturing would cost between $1000
and $10,000 to produce a single pound of meat. However, researchers
believe this price will come down to $1 per pound by 2009 at the
current rate of research and development. Along with the ethical
benefits of no longer having to torture and slaughter millions
of animals, proponents of lab-grown meat claim that the “food”
can be genetically altered to be far healthier than animal flesh.
Sadly, the technology to create an animal-free steak is still
at least a decade away, but scientists hope that the existing
technology will satisfy the world’s demand for ground meat,
which is about half of all the the meat eaten worldwide, and a
$127 billion global market. (Wired.com)
FINALLY A BOOK YOU CAN READ WHILE YOU’RE DRIVING
It would seem that the majority of drivers in this country don’t
need help being assholes, but nevertheless a new book has been
written to do just that. “The Bad Driver’s Handbook:
Hundreds of Simple Manoeuvres to Frustrate, Annoy and Endanger
Those Around You,” includes chapters titles like this: Bribes,
Threats and Other Secrets to Getting Your License; Intimidating
Pedestrians; Making Your Car Louder; Turn Signals: Why Give Up
the Element of Surprise?; and Driving When You Can No Longer See.
URINE TROUBLE
So far the party at this year’s World Cup festivities in
Germany has come off without a hitch... except for the possibility
that Berlin’s trees could slowly drown in piss. According
to a report in the Guardian
newspaper, the huge tree-lined street where up to 700,000
soccer fans gather during each match to eat, drink, and watch
the games has only 280 portable toilets, leaving most male fans
using the trees for their pitstops. According to one biologist
”the urea sinks into the ground as ammonia. In small quantities
this is a good fertilizer, but too much acidity is bad for the
soil and could damage or even kill the trees.”
IF YOU WANT TO SEE BALLS YOU’LL HAVE TO WATCH THE GAME
While the trees in Germany are getting pissed on, the girls who
will let you piss on them for a price are also suffering. According
to the prostitutes in Berlin and Munich, the much-anticipated
rush of horny soccer fans to Germany’s brothels has failed
to materialize. “Business is pretty dead, even the regulars
stay away because of all the crowds and the hype,” said dominatrix
Karolina Leppert. As hindsight is 20/20, the sex workers now realize
that travelling all the way to Germany and forking out cash for
game tickets is already expensive enough, leaving fans with little
disposable cash for a happy ending. (Reuters)
NO
BREASTS FOR THE WICKED
While the headline “Cameroon girls battle breast ironing”
sounds like it came out of The Onion, unfortunately the practice
of breast ironing is all too real. The BBC
reports that a nationwide campaign is underway in Cameroon in
order to try to stop the practice, during which young women have
their breasts pounded with hot objects in order to make them stop
growing. According to this story, 26 percent of young girls in
Cameroon are subject to the “treatment” when they begin
puberty. The belief is that pounding down their daughter’s
breasts will protect them from the sexual advances of Cameroonian
men who believe that woman are ready for sex as soon as their
breasts begin to grow. Despite the current educational campaign
which is trying to warn mothers about the health risks of the
procedure, most mothers are eager to continue the tradition. “Breast
ironing is not a new thing” explained one woman. “I
am happy I protected my daughter. I could not stand the thought
of boys spoiling her with sex before she completed school.”
DADDY DEAREST
And if that isn’t strange enough for you, check out the news
out of Cambodia this week, where a 20-year-old man impregnated
his girlfriend for the sole purpose of using the unborn fetus
in a black magic ritual designed to render him invisible while
he carried out his life of petty crimes. Cambodian police report
that when the man’s girlfriend refused to let the three-month-old
fetus be surgically removed, he attacked her and tried to slice
her stomach open in order to retrieve the fetus. The girl was
rescued before the baby was harmed but remains in serious condition
in the hospital. “The boy who did this is an idiot,”
understated police chief Yem Chouengly. “He believes in the
ancient superstition that a mummified foetus would have made him
invisible and let him commit whatever crimes he wanted without
being caught... He didn’t care about the girl or the baby.
He just wanted power.” (Int.iol.co.za)
I-READ-IT-ON-THE-INTERNET-SO-IT-MUST-BE-TRUE FACT OF THE WEEK
There are more chickens than people in the world.
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