Curious
Times No. 362
August 17, 2006
STILL
WAITING FOR THE ANTI-UGLY PILL
Leave it the Germans to try and create what has been dubbed “the
world’s first anti-stupidity” pill by Germany’s
Bild newspaper. According to this report molecular geneticists
in Berlin are working on a pill which will improve brain power.
So far, the scientists have been able to increase attentiveness
and short-term memory retention in mice and fruit flies. (Reuters)
SPICE UP YOUR BRAIN
While you wait for the anti-stupidity pill to be perfected you
can still boost your brain power simply by eating curry. Researchers
at the National University of Singapore report that tumeric, a
staple ingredient in curries, seems to inhibit the development
of Alzheimer’s in the elderly. The team found that people
who ate curry as little as once every six months performed better
on cognitive tests than those who never ate curry. (New
Scientist)
HOW NOT TO OPEN A GRENADE, LESSON 1
We return now to the “Kids, Don’t Try This At Home”
department for news from Brazil where a man died last week while
trying to open a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledge-hammer.
No word on why he was trying to open it or why he thought smashing
it with a hammer was a good idea. All we know is that the resulting
explosion killed him, sent his co-worker to the hospital with
severe burns, destroyed the workshop they were working in, and
set several cars on fire. (Reuters)
WHEN
LIFE GIVES YOU GLOBAL WARMING, BREW BEER
The
world’s first Inuit microbrewery has created the world’s
first beer using water melting off the ice covering Greenland.
The first 66,000 litres of “Greenland Beer” has hit
the Danish market and the company plans to expand into Germany
and beyond within six months. According to the brewery’s
owner, the beer tastes better since it is brewed using water that
is at least 2,000 years old and free of minerals and pollutants.
(BBC)
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, BUY ‘EM
News from America’s Heartland reports that anti-abortion
advocates have discovered a much more effective tactic for shutting
down abortion clinics than to stage protests or try to change
legislation. Instead, they simply buy clinics and shut them down.
According to LifeNews.com
abortion businesses have been purchased and shut down in Kansas,
Florida, Tennessee and Nebraska. For example, in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, the Pro-Life Majority Coalition bought the town’s
only abortion clinic and turned it into the National Memorial
for the Unborn, a “memorial for all of the babies who died
at the abortion center over the years”.
MILLION
DOLLAR BABY
A few weeks ago I wrote about James Randi and his Million Dollar
Paranormal Challenge and added this comment: "Randi changes
the requirements whenever someone with actual powers claims the
prize..." Considering the blurb was about a woman who claimed
that her
vagina could control men's minds I didn’t think anyone
would take my comments too seriously... but James Randi's indignation
has caused him to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing
my comment on his website and he now "demands" a retraction.
So here it is... Randi is correct that my statement is not 100%
factual. As far as I know he has never changed the rules of his
challenge. But the spirit of my comment remains the same. I should
have chosen my words more carefully and written this: "In
my opinion Randi has set up the rules of the challenge in such
a fashion that he will never have to pay out the prize money.
Furthermore, and again this is only my opinion, Randi is such
a hard-assed materialist that he wouldn't recognize a paranormal
event if it gave him an anal probe." By the way, it took
me less than two minutes to find almost a dozen webpages dealing
with the many problems concerning the challenge. Now to be clear,
I’m not saying that that the paranormal challenge is not
valid, I'm simply observing that if you type the words "James
Randi is a fraud" into Google you will find dozens of
websites questioning the integrity of the challenge. Feel free
to make up your own mind.
FREE
DRUGS!
News out of Malaysia claims that there is a small but growing
number of drug addicts, who, unable to get drugs due to that countries
incredibly strict anti-drug laws, have taken to sniffing fresh
cow dung in order to get high. Apparently, cow dung emits gases
such as sulphur, which give you a high similar to huffing glue.
Malaysia's National Narcotics Agency is considering legislation
to ban the sniffing of dung, as well as glue and polystyrene smoke.
"The problem is not very serious yet, but we are worried
as this method means addicts can get high for free," said
an official from the agency. (AP)
TRADING PLANETS
There’s an easy $50,000 up for grabs if your family is slightly
bizarre. The Fox network show “Trading Spouses” is searching
for a “cool” family that is into UFOs for their upcoming
season. In case you haven’t seen it, the show forces the
mothers of two extremely different families to trade places for
two weeks. For next season the show is seeking “a fun, wacky,
dynamic, outgoing family enthusiastic about UFOs.” Check
it out at Fox.com/tradingspouses
I-READ-IT-ON-THE-INTERNET-SO-IT-MUST-BE-TRUE FACT OF THE WEEK
Attractive people earn between three and five per cent more than
average looking people, while ugly people earn up to ten per cent
less than average.
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