Weird News of the World Thread

[Teelie]

More like a whole country. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Japan!

I hear Japan ordered about two dozen already.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

New pasta with tomato popsicle

Japanese people claim that ice cream company Gari-Gari Kun makes the best popsicles in the world. They're about to introduce a new popsicle flavor: Pasta with tomato sauce. The tomato sauce is inside the popsicle in gelatin form. It sounds terrible but something tells me that it must taste good.

Oh Japan, where do you come up with this stuff?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

"It was the craziest thing," said Robin Sandusky, 31, who before yesterday afternoon used to be a person like you who never ate a salad with a lizard head in it. "After a few bites, I look down at my fork, and think, 'Oh, is that a piece of asparagus?' And then I saw that it had eyes, and an arm."

"Where in New York can I find this wonderful quarter lizard?" you may be wondering to yourself. Sandusky told the New York Post that she picked it out of a salad she ordered from Guy & Gallard's 240 W. 40th Street location. She paid $6 for a story she will undoubtedly get mileage out of for decades to come. What a bargain. Everybody all rush to G&G at once...now!

The Post talked to the deli manager:

"Honestly, I've never heard of something like this," a deli manager said.

"I've never even seen a lizard in New York!"
Well now you have. Or at least, you know, part of one.

The store's manager and a managing partner both told NBC 4 New York that they didn't see proof of the lizard, which means quarter lizard still may be at large, waiting to strike your kale salad and turn you into someone that various news organizations interview for a day or so.

http://nypost.com/2014/03/11/lizard-head-found-in-salad-from-midtown-deli/

You always gotta show them the proof

 

[charl_huntress]

That's gross! Encourages me to cook and eat at home.

 

[Superwoman Prime]

http://nypost.com/2014/03/11/lizard-head-found-in-salad-from-midtown-deli/

You always gotta show them the proof

Eewww. *shudder*

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

In some countries it would be considered a delicacy

 

[cherokeesam]

http://nypost.com/2014/03/11/lizard-head-found-in-salad-from-midtown-deli/

You always gotta show them the proof

RIP, Geico mascot.

 

[Teelie]

That's gross! Encourages me to cook and eat at home.

Too bad you can find that stuff in things you prepare yourself. There are always stories about finding something gross in fresh foods you get from the store or in canned goods, and so on. Best to just grow it all yourself and then blame the neighbors if you find something nasty in it.

 

[charl_huntress]

Too bad you can find that stuff in things you prepare yourself. There are always stories about finding something gross in fresh foods you get from the store or in canned goods, and so on. Best to just grow it all yourself and then blame the neighbors if you find something nasty in it.

LOL....Yeah there is definitely stuff in canned foods. Yet, you have a better opportunity to detect foul stuff if you make it.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Extremely rare albino blue marlin caught on camera for the first time

It's the unicorn of the sea. The Billfish Report is calling these photos the first ever pictures of the extremely rare albino blue marlin. The mystical creature replaces the shiny blue and silver skin of typical blue marlins for a pure white that looks so striking in the ocean.

Captain Juan Carlos Zamora with Carlos Espinoza Jimenez and Roberto Salinas on the Spanish Fly were the fisherman who snagged the all white everything blue marlin in Costa Rica (they caught and released it). But not before they got some fantastic pictures to show the world what an albino blue marlin looks like. Check them all out here. (Link Below)

http://billfishreport.com/billfish-report/rare-albino-blue-marlin/

I had no idea there was such a fish, pretty cool looking though

 

[Teelie]

That is incredibly rare and cool since most albinos don't make it to adulthood. Usually they get eaten.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Police Shut Down Street in Hunt for Man's Missing Penis

After a 40-year-old man was found by the side of the road with his penis severed and nowhere to be found, police shut down 4 lanes of traffic to search for the missing member.

The man was discovered early Thursday morning off the A66 highway in Middlesbrough, U.K., with "wounds to his groin area." He was taken to the hospital, where he remains in an induced coma.

Police still aren't sure how the man's penis came to be severed. A 22-year-old was arrested on suspicion of assault, but later released on bail.

The status of the penis is also unclear. The highway was reopened later on Thursday, but authorities haven't announced whether their search was successful.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/13/hunt-missing-penis-close-dual-carriageway

OUCH!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Health Officials Blame Hook Up Apps for Syphilis Spike

The number of syphilis cases is on the rise, and some public health officials think it's because of Grindr. Well, Grindr and Adam4Adam and, presumably, Tinder and Hinge and OkCupid. These apps all make it easier to find people to have sex with, so naturally they cause more people to get STDs, right? Not exactly.

Reality is a little bit more nuanced. The specific instance of public health officials blaming a local spike in cases of syphilis happened in Onondaga County, New York, where Syracuse is located. From 2012 to 2013, the number of syphilis cases in the county doubled, though it's worth pointing out that the number jumped from just 15 cases to 29 cases. Across the state of New York, the number of cases rose 30 percent. "It is alarming to see the number of people who use these apps," said Dr. Cynthia Morrow, Onondaga County's health commissioner, told Syracuse.com. "They are significantly contributing to the spread of sexually transmitted disease."

In New York at least, public health officials drew the correlation between the syphilis spread and apps by asking newly infected people whether they use apps like Grindr to meet sexual partners, though the latest report doesn't break out these numbers. It's inevitably pretty difficult to identify the specific person who spread the disease when people have multiple partners.

There's another detail about this story that's worth parsing. Grindr, of course, is very popular among gay men, so it reads as potentially homophobic at first to call it out as the culprit. It turns out there is data to back up this claim, though. Nearly all of the syphilis cases in New York involved men, and some 70 percent of those men say they have sex with other men. So if Grindr is the most popular app among men who like men, it seems natural to say that Grindr is contributing the rise in cases.

So are hook up apps a good way to get STDs? Well, you're certainly more likely to get an STD if you're having sex with a lot of strangers, and some hookup apps enable that. But that doesn't mean you should avoid hook up apps. They seem like a lot of fun! Just don't let them take the place of common sense and protection.

At the end of the day, there could also be another variable in play. The number of syphilis cases has been rising across the country for a few years now. It's worth wondering if something is happening with the disease itself. After all, a new CDC study says that gonorrhea is actually getting harder to fight. Are we now dealing with some sort of super syphilis? Who knows. If so, it's certainly not Grindr's fault.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index...._across_state_blamed_on_gay_dating_phone.html

I'm all for everyone enjoying a little hany panky but ya gotta be safe and ya gotta get tested folks

 

[Superwoman Prime]

That is incredibly rare and cool since most albinos don't make it to adulthood. Usually they get eaten.

I read this post out of context and thought for a moment you meant albino humans.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The World's Largest Solar Plant Is Blinding Pilots

We probably should have seen this coming. At the Ivanpah solar power plant near Las Vegas, a massive glittering field of 170,000 garage door-sized mirrors reflects sunlight. And all those mirrors are making flying near Ivanpah not so fun—or safe.

The Clark County Department of Aviation sent a letter earlier this week urging the plant's designers to do something about the glare, reports KCET. The letter included two separate complaints from August 2013, before the plant even opened.

One pilot describes flying near Ivanpah was like "looking into the sun." An air traffic controller also describes receiving constant complaints but being told, chillingly, that nothing was to be done:

Daily, during the late morning and early afternoon hours we get complaints from pilots of aircraft flying from the northeast to the southwest about the brightness of this solar farm. They usually ask us what it is because they don't know. On this particular morning, an air carrier complained about the brightness and reiterated that it was "nearly blinding." I reported this to Management and was told that they were going to do nothing about it. They then suggested that I tell the pilot to report it through the safety reporting system that they have and to report it myself. I have no idea what can be done about this situation, but being a passenger on an aircraft that flew through this airspace and saw it for myself, I would say that something needs to be done. It is extremely bright and distracting.

At Ivanpah, the 170,000 mirrors shift to track the sun across the sky, focusing light onto three 45-story towers that collect the solar energy. Environmentalists and engineers had been worrying that Ivanpah could blind pilots even before the plant was built. Aside from planes, other flying objects are faring even worse in Ivanpah. The concentrated beams of sunlight fries birds who unknowingly fly through them.

As glittering and even beautiful Ivanpah looks in photos, enthusiasm for massive solar projects like this have waned, in part due to its environmental impact. California recently rejected a similar project due to concern for the birds. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen what will happen at Ivanpah.

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/sol...er-plant-a-risk-to-air-safety-say-pilots.html

I think we can all agree it is best if our pilots can see what they are doing and where they're going

 

[Breogan]

Wow that place is sprawling - https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Ivan...F-8&ei=_jsiU4f0McTrkQfbp4DIDw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ

 

[KevanG]

Is that what they based HELIOS One from Fallout New vegas on?

 

[Teelie]

Police Shut Down Street in Hunt for Man's Missing Penis

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/13/hunt-missing-penis-close-dual-carriageway

OUCH!

U.K. John Wayne Bobbitt?

Health Officials Blame Hook Up Apps for Syphilis Spike



http://www.syracuse.com/news/index...._across_state_blamed_on_gay_dating_phone.html

I'm all for everyone enjoying a little hany panky but ya gotta be safe and ya gotta get tested folks

This one sounds fishy. It's too much of a "dangers of new technology" sounding story I'm thinking will be exposed as a fraud sometime next week on Cracked's debunking column.

I read this post out of context and thought for a moment you meant albino humans.

Albinos are tasty, I don't know why it's called Soylent Green instead of Soylent White.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

UPDATE: Was the U.K. Penis-Slashing Victim Attacked by a "Gypsy Gang?"

When we last left the 40-year-old British man with a severed penis, he was in a hospital-induced coma while police searched the roadside for his missing organ. This morning, the plot thickened significantly.

The U.K. tabloid media reports the man may have been the victim of a revenge attack by a "gypsy gang," after he slept with another man's girlfriend.

The source of the rumor appears to be a local supermarket employee, who told reporters, "A few of the Asda staff have been talking and apparently it was some gypsy men doing it to another guy after they found out he had slept with one of their girlfriends. I don't know his name but that seems to be what I have heard."

The U.K.'s number one source for severed penis news, the Daily Mail, claims police searched a car at a nearby "gypsy site."

The Daily Mail also reports the victim is Kelvin 'Kelly' Hewitt, who "often stays at gypsy campsites in Middlesbrough, including Haven Travellers Site, according to his Facebook page."

Other than that circumstantial evidence and something a supermarket employee "seems to have heard," though, there's no confirmation Travellers were involved in the attack. Police haven't yet named any suspects, and Anti-Romany and Anti-Traveller racism are a pretty big deal in the U.K., so it's probably best to take these tabloid accounts with plenty of salt.

Police are reportedly waiting at Hewitt's bedside for him to wake up and explain how he was injured.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nis-cut-suspected-revenge-attack-gypsies.html

Ahh the old blame it on the gypsies routine, this story just gets crazier and crazier

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Video proof that the jellyfish apocalypse is all but upon us

The South Pacific Island of Palau is famous for its Jellyfish Lake, but this year's crop is unlike anything we've ever seen.

Yes, I know what you're thinking: Jellyfish have stingers and you'd have to be absolutely nuts to swim through swarms of them like this. But this particular species, the golden jellyfish, has been isolated in this lake for thousands of years — and without its natural predators. These jellies have subsequently lost their stingers.

The remarkable video comes via The National:

[YT]tEzF_g09mPU[/YT]

I've been hearing how these things are going to take over the ocean for a while now. From what I've read it has to do with the oxygen content of the ocean and that's what is also killing the reefs

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Yes, women can give one another HIV

It sounds like a no-brainer, but the transmission of HIV from one woman to another is very uncommon, and so usually overlooked. But the recent case of two Texas women, reported yesterday by the CDC, "offers the strongest evidence to date that HIV transmission between women, although rare, is possible."

Via the CDC:

The woman who acquired HIV was aged 46 years and had a history of heterosexual intercourse, but not in the 10 years before HIV infection. She reported three female sexual partners in the preceding 5 years but said she had no IDU, receipt of tattoos, acupuncture, transfusions, transplants, or any other recognized HIV risk behavior. The woman supplemented her income by selling her plasma and had tested negative for HIV by HIV-1/2 enzyme immunoassay (EIA) serology screening after donating plasma in March 2012.

In April, 10 days after donating plasma, the woman went to an emergency department with a sore throat, fever, vomiting, decreased appetite, pain on swallowing, dry cough, frequent diarrhea, and muscle cramps. At that time, she was again tested for HIV by EIA serology screening, and the results were negative. She was treated with azithromycin for a presumed upper respiratory infection and discharged. Eighteen days later, the woman attempted to sell plasma but was refused because she tested positive for HIV by EIA serology screening followed by an HIV-1 Western blot test. On July 5, results of repeated EIA and Western blot tests conducted on the woman at a health clinic were positive for HIV infection.

The likely source of the patient's new HIV infection was her female sex partner aged 43 years who had tested positive for HIV in September 2008 when she had an HIV-1 viral load of 82,000 copies/mL and a CD4+ T-lymphocyte count of 372 cells/mm3(25%). The partner began antiretroviral treatment in February 2009 but stopped in November 2010. Although she had esophageal candidiasis and weight loss at the time of her HIV diagnosis, her HIV-1 viral load had decreased to 178 copies/mL, and her CD4+ T-lymphocyte count had increased to 554 cells/mm3 (44%) by January 2011, when she was lost to follow-up.

The couple reported routinely having unprotected (using no barrier precautions) oral and vaginal contact and using insertive sex toys that were shared between them but were not shared with any other persons. They described their sexual contact as at times rough to the point of inducing bleeding in either woman. They also reported having unprotected sexual contact during the menses of either partner. The recently infected woman reported that her partner was her only sexual contact during the 6 months before her seroconversion.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...n-spread-through-sexual-contact-between-women

I had no idea this was possible, how strange

 

[charl_huntress]

I read this post out of context and thought for a moment you meant albino humans.

Albinos are tasty, I don't know why it's called Soylent Green instead of Soylent White.

t:

Yes, women can give one another HIV



http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...n-spread-through-sexual-contact-between-women

I had no idea this was possible, how strange

These are the end times...

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Measles Are Back in New York City Thanks to Anti-Vax Absurdity

Everyone should get vaccinated, and, in recent weeks, measles has given us nasty reminder of why: as of last Friday, 16 cases of the highly-contagious respiratory virus had been reported in New York City.

Despite having been officially "eliminated" in the United States since 2000, measles can still make its way back into communities when people bring it from overseas. From there, the disease still wouldn't get very far in a community where people are immunized. Yet it seems people are refusing to get the message. Beyond the cases reported in New York, measles has now cropped up everywhere from San Diego to Boston to a suburb of Vancouver. The former is a particularly scary case; 100 cases have shown up recently.

According to the CDC, following the proper vaccination schedule of two doses of MMR is nearly 100 percent effective at preventing measles. Please do not excuse yourself from vaccination based on phony science. We all need to do it.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...ers-you-just-brought-back-measles-in-nyc.html

I hate anti-vax idiots with such a passion it almost physically hurts when I hear about cases like this

 

[Doctor Evo]

From what I've read it has to do with the oxygen content of the ocean and that's what is also killing the reefs

I don't believe this is accurate, at least on a global scale.

Also, the primary function of cnidocytes with nematocysts (stinging cells in jellies) isn't really defense - it's prey acquisition.

 

[Teelie]

The reefs dying off is due to increased acidification of the water which is the result of increasing temperatures from the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere warming the oceans up.

At least that is the broad, simplified way I've read it explained as.