FACT OF THE WEEK
You never hear of someone doing a midnight run for a nice, crunchy piece of broccoli, writes Stephanie Clements in The Denver Post. If only we craved carrots instead of chocolate. But that's not how we're programmed. "You [crave] sweetness, so you would go toward breast milk, and salt to prevent dehydration," says registered dietician Bonnie Jortberg of the University of Colorado.
As we age, we grow to like fruits, vegetables and fish, but they don't stick around like fats do, adds Ms. Clements. Nature hard-wired fat craving into both the satisfaction and survival centres of our brain, making hunters even out of modern man. "There is some research that men seem to crave salty foods, whereas women tend to crave more of the chocolate," Ms. Jortberg says. "We need to come up with some comfort carrots, because that would help us all a lot."
HMMM!
Dumb blonde jokes slow mental
activity - study
BERLIN (Reuters):
Blondes perform intelligence tests more slowly after reading jokes playing on their supposed stupidity, said psychologists in a newly published German study.
Some 80 women of various hair colours were tested on their mental capacity to work quickly and precisely in a series of psychometric tests. Before sitting the tests, half the participants had to read "dumb blonde" jokes, such as:
"Why do blondes open yoghurt pots while still at the supermarket? - Because it says 'Open Here' on the lid."
"No blonde woman believes she is stupid," said Jens Foerster a social psychologist from the International University Bremen in northern Germany on Wednesday.
"But after exposure to negative social-stereotypes about them, the fair-haired participants performed significantly more slowly in the tests."
Foerster explained the result by saying that when people are told they can't perform a task well, they work more slowly but more cautiously, to try to make fewer mistakes.
"The study shows that even unfounded prejudices generally dismissed as untrue can affect an individual's confidence in their own ability," said Foerster.
Fat 'Pumpkin'
A Palm Beach Post writer, making the point that America's obesity problem is not limited to humans, reported from the Boca Greens Animal Hospital (Boca Raton, Fla.) in June that 'Pumpkin,' a 12-pound Chihuahua, was up and moving well after her recent liposuction surgery. However, the 12 ounces of fat she lost still left her among South Florida's overweight pets, said to be two-thirds of their population. As Pumpkin's owner was reminded, surgery is not to be a substitute for sensible exercise and a modest number of treats.
WEIRD NEWS
Man jailed for shooting off his testicles
LONDON, (Reuters):
A British man who accidentally shot himself in the testicles after drinking 15 pints of beer was jailed for five years on Tuesday for possessing an illegal firearm, a court spokesman said.
David Walker, 28, was arguing with a friend at a pub in South Yorkshire, northern England, when he went home to get his sawed-off shotgun, which he jammed into his trousers.
But as he walked back to the pub, the gun went off, blasting pellets into his testicles. Doctors later removed what remained of his testicles during emergency surgery.
Walker admitted possessing a prohibited weapon at a hearing in June at the court in Sheffield.
Absent acupuncturist gives client
a prickly wait
BERLIN, (Reuters)
A German acupuncture patient was left pierced with needles in a clinic after a therapist forgot about her, locked up his practice and went home, police in Hanover said on Thursday.
The 41-year-old woman from the north German town had booked an afternoon session of the ancient Chinese therapy which involves inserting needles into the skin and is believed to prevent disease and relieve pain.
The doctor left her in the treatment room for what she assumed would be a short while, especially since she still had needles embedded in her body.
After 90 minutes the woman began to shout for attention. Getting no response, she realised she was alone and trapped in the building. She alerted police by phone and was later set free when the doctor returned.
Russian learns he's dead, thanks
to blind ex-wife
MOSCOW, (Reuters):
A Russian taxi driver got a rude shock when he discovered his blind ex-wife, who thought he had died in an explosion, had him buried in a Moscow cemetery, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
Oleg Lunkov learned of his apparent death when he applied for a passport and was told he died in a bomb blast on Moscow's metro on February 6. His ex-wife thought he was on the train, but being blind, she got her mother to identify the remains.
"I thought, 'I hope they didn't bury me on my birthday'," Lunkov told the Moscow Times after visiting his grave in southeastern Moscow. "But it turns out they did."
The grave has been exhumed by police investigating his wife for possible fraud.
Lunkov's name still appears on prosecutors' official list of the 38 people who died in the explosion.
A US$7,244 (J$434,640) phone call
BERLIN, (Reuters):
A German man reported a female chat-line worker to police after facing a phone bill for 5857.48 euros (US$7,244) following an all-night flirt session with her.
The woman calling herself Tina rang the 28-year-old man on his mobile phone.
"She said she had found his number on the Internet and would really like to chat to him," a police spokesman in the westerly town of Wesel said on Wednesday.
She gave the man a number and asked him to ring her back, saying it would be a cheap rate. The pair then became locked in a six-hour conversation.
"The man said they talked about far more than just sex," the spokesman said.
Police are investigating allegations of fraud.
Robbers strip corpse of jewellery
LILLE, France (Reuters):
Thieves dug up a Frenchwoman's grave and stripped her corpse of thousands of euros (dollars) worth of jewellery she had asked to be buried with to avoid arguments between her five children.
Police said Monday the former partner of the woman, who died aged 82 in April, found her coffin abandoned in an alley near the cemetery in the village of Haulchin in northern France Monday.
Her body was still in the coffin but her earrings, two necklaces, two bracelets, and five rings had been stolen.
Safety shoes to escape tower blocks?
COPENHAGEN, (Reuters):
Danish high-rise buildings could be fitted with safety shoes to help people escape in emergencies, after an inventor was inspired by images of people jumping from the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001.
Shortly after the attack Danish pensioner Gunni Jensen, 67, applied to patent his "glideshoe" safety system, which works by mounting a narrow steel rail on the outside of a building near a window.
In an emergency, people grab an escape kit consisting of a steel glideshoe with a body strap, click it onto the rail and slide down to the ground, in a way similar to abseiling.
Security firm Falck A/S said on Monday it has bought exclusive rights to sell the shoes in Denmark, after Jensen obtained a worldwide patent for his invention.
Jensen said he was in talks with seven potential agents abroad.
Mexico's Attorney-General has
microchip fitted in arm
MEXICO CITY, (Reuters):
Mexico's Attorney-General said on Monday he had had a microchip inserted under the skin of one of his arms to give him access to a new crime database and also enable him to be traced if he is ever abducted.
Attorney-General Rafael Macedo said a number of his staff had also been fitted with chips which will give them exclusive and secure access to a national, computerised database for crime investigators that went live on Monday.
"It's an area of high security, it's necessary that we have access to this, through a chip, which what's more is unremovable," Macedo told reporters.
"The system is here and I already have it. It's solely for access, for safety and so that I can be located at any moment wherever I am," he said, admitting the chip hurt "a little."
The chips would enable the wearer to be found anywhere inside Mexico, in the event of an assault or kidnapping, said Macedo.
Olympic flame trail busts cannabis farms
ATHENS, (Reuters):
The Olympic flame, a symbol of peace meant to bring the world together ahead of the Games, became an instrument of crime busting when a police helicopter accompanying it on the island of Crete spotted cannabis farms.
"The police helicopter was accompanying the flame on its journey, patrolling the skies above the actual torch relay route, when they spotted a cannabis farm near the town of Rethymnon," said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Public Order.
"They decided to stay and investigate, and eventually spotted other farms in remote areas outside the towns of Heraklion and Rethymnon with a total of around 7,000 cannabis plants, which is quite a good haul," she added.
The torch, now in the last phase of its tour around Greece, will arrive at the main Olympic stadium in Athens to light the cauldron and open the Games on August 13.
Its $45 million journey around the world has had all the hallmarks of a presidential tour with security, surveillance, motorcades, cheering crowds and a specially chartered jumbo jet, dubbed Zeus.
OOPS!
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, intending to score some publicity in his battle against what he believes is irresponsible spending by the state legislature, held two small pigs in his arms at a photo opportunity outside the House chamber in May, telling reporters that one was named "pork" and the other "barrel."
Before the event ended, both pigs had soiled the governor's suit jacket and the elegant carpet at the State House, forcing Sanford's press secretary and speechwriter to pull quick duty with cleanser and paper towels.
