Another find at Amazon. This one has to be seen to be believed (go ahead, it’s mostly SFW). I guess this is intended for people who’ve seen way too much fantasy art and want a modern version of the “traditional” chainmail bikini. And it’s not like there are any vital organs this outfit doesn’t adequately protect, right?
Filed under Weirdness
“Firing bottle rockets out of one’s own anus constitutes an ‘ultra-hazardous’ activity.”
Story here. I guess some people are just desperate to win the coveted Darwin Award. This also reinforces my longstanding belief that the most common words spoken immediately preceeding death are, “hold my beer and watch this!”
Filed under Weirdness
Even if I were to win the lottery every day for the rest of my life, I’m pretty sure I’d never be willing to spend $42,000.00 for a pen. Seriously, in what way is this pen 280,000 times better than the pens I can get at Staples for 15 cents apiece? Especially considering how often my pens get beaten up or lost out in the field.
Filed under Weirdness
It seems a man in Illinois has filed a lawsuit against Pepsi Co., claiming that he found a dead mouse in a can of Mountain Dew. The company, in response, is calling the claim a hoax. They say that their product would have dissolved the mouse carcass before he could have found it. That’s some beverage they’re making: Either it sometimes contains dead mice, or it eats away flesh. I will give Pepsi credit for either creativity or honesty (I’m not sure I want to know which), but I’m pretty sure I won’t be drinking any Mountain Dew.
Filed under Weirdness
In a move that is beyond stupid, the European Food Safety Authority has decided that sellers of water in the EU can no longer claim that their drinking water helps to protect against dehydration. So I guess that all those times I was out either surveying or excavating in the deserts of California, Nevada and Arizona, sometimes in temperatures of over 110° F, drinking lots of water didn’t help me even a little bit? What was it that kept me from dying? The sand?
A TV producer in Sacramento went out to investigate reports of wild turkeys causing problems in a residential neighborhood. When she got there, one of the turkeys apparently started acting aggressively toward her. Instead of doing the sensible thing and enjoying an early Thanksgiving dinner, she panicked and ran back to lock herself in her car. Fortunately, she also recorded the entire hilarious incident on video.
Filed under Weirdness
One of the things I’m not exactly looking forward to as I go further in archaeology is having to read papers by students who somehow managed to get in to college without ever having learned how to write. Many of the examples I’ve heard about, however, at least have comedic value. Some of the best are posted on this website (which is slightly NSFW because of language).
One of my favorites: “Latin America is a big chunk of land that has been around for centuries.” Accurate, concise, what’s not to like?
Filed under Weirdness
And some morons apparently think that it’s a violation of their human rights if the meeting rooms at a private religious college all contain Catholic symbols.
If you’re deeply offended by Christian symbols, then perhaps a school named “Catholic University” might not be the best place for you. I’m just saying.
By an interesting coincidence, while I’m here enjoying WorldCon, the UK Guardian decided to run a story about the possible outcomes of contact with extraterrestrials. The money quote is this: “‘Green’ aliens might object to the environmental damage humans have caused on Earth and wipe us out to save the planet.”
While I agree this is theoretically possible, there is no reason to consider this any more likely than aliens attacking because they object to our over protection (as they see it) of our natural environment. It’s absurd even to speculate about what might provoke hostility from a member of another human culture without knowing anything at all about that culture. It even more absurd to speculate about what might provoke an unknown extraterrestrial culture. Anything we can imagine, and probably a great many things we can’t, might be the trigger.
Seriously, is it so hard to think up legitimate reasons to protect the environment that people have to come up with silly ones?
For some reason, I’m getting a lot of spam targeting the Anthropology Quote of the Day post that I made back on the 21st. I have no idea why that particular post is so attractive to people trying to sell Viagra or beachfront property in Eastern Europe. However, it does reinforce my decision to moderate all comments.
