No. 457 - June 12, 2008
How to:
Eat Your Veg, Blow Things Up, Do Crime

TRICK OR TREAT?
The New York Times reports on a strange psychedelic berry that makes beer tastes like chocolate and Tabasco sauce taste like a sugary glaze. The “Miracle Fruit” (Synsepalum dulcificum, technically) is a bizarre little berry that when eaten will make your tongue perceive bitter and sour flavours as sweet and yummy for up to two hours. Some restaurants in Japan are already serving the berry alongside unappetizing low calorie desserts. The berry makes customers believe that they’re eating a deliciously decadent treat. While the berry is just beginning to make it to North America, there’s no shortage of websites which sell the magic berry as a dieter’s dream come true. “Works with alcohol, vegetables, cheese, in fact almost everything,” exclaims one online sales pitch, “it is impossible to explain how wonderful things taste.”

AFTER I KILL MY ENEMIES I LIKE TO PLANT A TREE
What to do if you love blowing things up real good but you’ve got a soft spot for the environment? Move to Germany where scientists are trying to build the world’s first environmentally friendly bomb. While traditional explosives leave a toxic mess behind after they’ve killed the people you hate, the new research is testing materials called tatrazoles which have massive explosive energy but don’t create nearly as many deadly pollutants when they detonate. (LiveScience.com)

WILL HIDE FOR FOOD
If you haven’t done your spring cleaning yet you might want to get on with it after reading this story out of Japan where a man found a 58-year-old homeless woman living in his closet. She had been there for over a year without being discovered but the man got suspicious when food started to disappear from his fridge. So he set up a hidden camera and had the images sent to his cell phone while he was at work. Sure enough, he discovered a roommate he never knew he had, called the police and had them search the home, and discovered the lady hiding in the back of one of his closets. (TokyoManga.com)

RULE 1 OF CRIME -- HAVE A GOOD GETAWAY DRIVER
A taxi driver unwittingly became the getaway driver for a thief who had broken into the cabbie’s house and stolen most of his stuff, including the food out of his freezer. The cabbie picked up the passenger in the wee hours of the morning and helped him load the taxi with appliances and electronics. "He had a lot of home appliances, so I helped him put all of his things into the cab," said the unfortunate victim. After ending his shift and driving home he realized what had happened as he found his house broken into and all his stuff gone. Fortunately he remembered where he had dropped off the crook and police arrested the man a few hours later. (Ananova)

RULE 2 OF CRIME -- DON'T NEGLECT THE STAKEOUT
A couple of burglars in Australia didn’t have any better luck last week when they broke into a pot dealers home in the middle of the night with hopes of stealing his drugs and cash. Instead they were arrested by a group of detectives who were in the middle of a drug raid at the exact same house. (News.com.au)

I GOT A ROCK
There’s finally a way to buy yourself a surprise birthday present. Head on over to The Something Store where they will send you a random item from their inventory for a mere 10 bucks. Check out what kind of crap you may or may not receive at SomethingStore.com.

ALL I EVER FIND IS ABC GUM
The lost and found department of London’s transit system handled a record 170,000 lost items last year. Along with 32,268 books, 27,946 bags and 25,802 items of clothing, the haul also included a stuffed fish, a harpoon gun, one pair of breast implants and several gas masks and inflatable dolls. While the vast majority of the items remain unclaimed the department was able to successfully reunite a bag containing two human skulls with a university professor who used them for his lectures, and were also able to find the proper owner for a suitcase containing £10,000 in cash, which turned out to belong to an old man who didn’t trust banks and carried his savings around with him at all times. (The Telegraph)

HOT WORD OF THE SUMMER
Staycation: a vacation spent at home because it’s too expensive to travel.

AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON
An Australian racehorse named “Aydee Fic” will from now on be know as “Journey On” after racing officials discovered that the previous name meant “F- You” in Arabic. "I was only having a bit of fun." said the horse’s owner. (The Courier Mail)

GOOD THING HE DIDN’T INVENT THE CONDOM
The man who designed the Pringles container back in the 1970 was so proud of the achievement that his final request was to be buried in one. Last week he finally got his wish as his family had his body cremated and the old man now rests inside a Pringles can. (Cincinnati.com)

I-READ-IT-ON-THE-INTERNET-SO-IT-MUST-BE-TRUE FACT OF THE WEEK
Two of the happiest countries on Earth -- Iceland and Switzerland -- also have some of the world's highest suicide rates .

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