Men, blue hair isn’t for the senior set any more, particularly if it belongs to the Playboy Bunny of your dreams, a woman wilder than you thought was possible. If you pick up the November issue of Playboy (available October 16, 2009), you’ll see her – Marge Simpson, in all her glory. Well, sort of.
Marge, as November’s cover girl, doesn’t show you quite everything; a few things are tastefully left to the imagination. She is also the subject of a three-page spread and an article titled, The Devil in Marge Simpson.
So, how does Marge Simpson measure up to Marilyn …read more

I’m not going to say much about this one – just point you in the direction of the Placenta Teddy Bear – and then you can come back and let me know what you think.
What do I think? Um, let’s just say I’m not a fan.
Just click on the box below to see what I mean:
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Image: PhotoXpress.com

Death – it happens to all of us…eventually. And when it does, the usual chain of events is a funeral and/or where you are either buried or cremated, followed by a period of mourning for those you left behind.
But, according to this fascinating article from mental floss, it doesn’t have to be that way.
Might sound somewhat morbid and gross, but it turns out there are plenty things your body can do and places for your body to end up rather than six feet under or in an urn.
According to this mental floss article  ‘10 Things Your Body Can Do After …read more

It’s a strange world where a person can end up with jail time for the simple and often involuntary act of yawning. But what’s even stranger is that while the yawner was being given jail time, the actual defendant, who plead guilty to a felony drug charge, was only given two years probation. Interesting way of ensuring that justice is done.
(image source)
 
Apparently the judge decided that the yawn was a disrespectful interruption of the court and the yawner was in contempt.
Seriously, you have to wonder what the judge was thinking. Yawning is as natural as breathing and just as involuntary. …read more

Any flip flop wearers out there?
If so, here’s a study you  might want to consider.
Two reporters living in New York City recently walked around the city for four days wearing flip-flops. They took numerous train trips, walked through Prospect Park, headed out to the bars in West Village, took in a baseball game at Coney Island, waded through the public restrooms at the Coney Island subway station, and even rode the Cyclone, twice.
They then turned the flip-flops over to a microbiology lab at EMSL Analytical for testing.
The results -  the flip-flops had collected approximately 18,100 bacteria of the five most …read more

Italian scientists have created a new procedure to turn blocks of wood into artificial bones.
It starts with taking a block of wood  and heat it up until it turns to pure carbon (in other words charcoal). 
They then spray calcium over the carbon thereby creating calcium carbide. Further chemical and physical steps will convert the calcium carbide into carbonated hydroxyapatite which is then able to be implanted and used as the artificial bone.
According to the scientists, the wood-derived bone substitute will let live bones to heal faster and more securely after a break than currently available titanium and ceramic implants.
But using wood to create artifical bone is still a work in …read more

I don’t know about you but I always respond better to someone who is smiling, be it family, friend, or stranger.
But can we expect everyone to smile all the time. Is that even possible? And would we really want to be constantly surrounded by smiling faces?
One Japanese company, Omron, thinks so and has created the Smile Scan to help people rate their smiles.
Consisting of a video camera and sensor unit that connected to computer software, the Smile Scan scans a person’s face, rendering a 3D image and evaluates critical spots such as mouth and eyes to see if the person …read more

A recent New York Times article highlights to the growing nursing shortages around the world. Seems an understaffed Prague clinic has been offering liposuction, breast augmentation, and tummy tucks as incentives to get nurses to work there.
All they have to do is sign up for three years and they can have the plastic surgery of their choice – for free.
Interesting incentive plan. And apparently it’s working. According to the clinic manager, they are now fully staffed.
 In fact, they had to reject dozens of applicants.
But it sounds more like providing a bandaid rather than a cure to the continuing nursing shortages.
(via Kevin …read more

Check out this innovative low-cost, low-tech concept waterless toilet system created by industrial designer Virginia Gardiner.
This waterless toilet, aptly named LooWatt, is a closed-loop management system that will recycle human waste and eventually turn it into energy.
Here’s how it works. After defecating, you turn the crank on the toilet which, instead of flushing, magically pushes the waste down into a receptacle that is lined with a carbon-rish biodegradable film. Once this prototype sealed container is full, it is removed and the compressed waste is taken to an anaerobic digester which, in turn, will produce cooking gas from the methane.
It sounds …read more

You have to check out this fascinating, funny, and downright bizarre list that Time has put together of Top Ten Non-Emergency 911 Calls.
Here’s a sampling…
A police officer who steals marijuana and gives himself a drug-induced fit of panic  His conversation with the dispatcher: “I think we’re dying. We made brownies, and I think we’re dead. Time is going by really really really really slowly.”  They survived and the  police officer was lucky not to have to do time.
An Ohio man called 911 in May 2009 after his live-in adult son refused to clean his messy bedroom.
An Oregon man called 911 because …read more