The weird, the odd & the funny

EnglishLady

Veteran Expediter
Reuters

Thieves make BMW hottest car at auto show

When carmakers like BMW say they hope people find their next car at auto shows like the one in Detroit this week, this wasn't exactly what they meant.

Two thieves drove away in a brand new $94,000 BMW 750i xDrive Sedan on Wednesday night that was left idling outside the Westin Book Cadillac, one of Detroit's major hotels.

The car was one of more than a dozen BMW sedans used to ferry executives and guests around town during the show.

On Thursday morning, police said they were still looking for the gray four-door BMW.

Police said the car was dropped off by a valet to be loaded onto a transport truck to take it back to BMW's North American headquarters in New Jersey when two men jumped into the car and drove away.

BMW, which featured its glitzy 650i convertible at the Detroit auto show, said it remains committed to the event.

"It's just an unfortunate incident," BMW spokeswoman Stacy Morris said


Radio stations told to censor Dire Straits

Canadian radio station have been warned to censor the 1985 Dire Straits hit "Money for Nothing," after a complaint that the lyrics of the Grammy Award-winning song were derogatory to gay men.

A St. John's, Newfoundland, station should have edited the song to remove the word ":censoredsign:got" because it violates Canada's human rights standards, according to ruling this week by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

A unnamed listener to OZ FM in the Atlantic Coast province complained to the industry watchdog last year after hearing the song, which features Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and fellow rock star Sting.

The council said it realized Dire Straits uses the word sarcastically, and its use might have been acceptable in 1985 when the best-selling "Brothers in Arms" album was released, but said it was now inappropriate.

"The decision doesn't really relate to the Dire Straits song at the end of the day, the decision relates to the word in question," Ron Cohen, the council's chairman, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

OZ FM argued unsuccessfully that the song has been played countless times since it was released more than 25 years ago, has won various industry awards, including a Grammy in 1986, and remains popular with listeners around the world.

The ruling comes in the wake of an uproar sparked by a U.S. scholar who decided to publish an edition of Mark Twain's novel "Huckleberry Finn" that would remove the word "******" to make it less offensive to some readers.

Although the Dire Straits ruling only sanctions the St John's station, it means other Canadian radio stations could get in trouble it they air the song without censoring it.

The Broadcast Standards Council is a non-governmental industry group that administers ethical standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters

Dire Straits dissolved as a band in the 1990s after a string of hit albums


Breast implants catch eye of tax agents

Breast implants, a luxury cruise ship and bank robbery victims have become the latest targets of Argentine tax inspectors battling rampant evasion in the South American country.

Argentines are notorious for evading taxes, and it is common to pay for everything from new cars and houses to breast enlargements with wads of cash, while savers stash their money in off-shore bank accounts or undeclared in safety deposit boxes.

Tax inspectors, who have previously targeted modeling agencies and soccer players, have turned their attention to the booming trade in breast augmentation -- counting the number of imported breast implants to calculate surgeons' earnings.

"According to a preliminary assessment, the companies and self-employed people working in the business are suspected of evading 40 million pesos ($10 million) in income tax," the AFIP tax agency said in a statement.

Some 125,000 breast implants worth $15 million were imported in 2008 and 2009, when women spent an estimated $170 million on breast enlargement surgery, the agency said.

But it's not just plastic surgeons who are catching the attention of the AFIP inspectors.

They seized television sets and video players from a luxury cruise ship when it docked in Buenos Aires in December, while AFIP chief Ricardo Echegaray called last week for victims of a daring bank robbery to face inspections over the contents of 136 safety deposit boxes stolen in the raid.
 

EnglishLady

Veteran Expediter
Please don't cry – it upsets a man's sex drive​


Smelling the tears of a woman can quell a man's sexual desire, according to a study that determined female crying can have a direct chemical impact on male libido.


Scientists have found evidence to suggest that tears from a weeping woman contain a chemical signal that can have a subconscious effect on a man's sexual desire, even if he is not a witness to the crying.

The findings suggest a functional role for crying in humans, who are unique in the animal kingdom by expressing emotion with weeping eyes. Crying among women may be a way of controlling male desire and sexual aggression, the researchers suggested.

Biologists have never been able to come up with a satisfactory reason for the emotional tears produced during crying, as opposed to the protective tears produced to keep the eyes moist and free of dust and debris. Although tears were obviously being used as an emotional signal, there was no obvious function attached to them, said the scientists, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. "Despite psychological theories on the meaning of tears and biological theories describing tears as an adaptation related to their eye-protective nature, or a mechanism for expelling toxic substances, the functional significance of emotional tears remains unknown," the scientists say in a report to be published in the journal Science.

However, following a series of experiments involving men who were asked to sniff tissues soaked in the tears of weeping women, the researchers now believe that they have found convincing evidence to support the idea that female emotional tears contain some kind of chemical signal, or pheromone, that can directly affect a man's emotional state.

One of the studies involved asking men to rate a series of photographs of women's faces according to their sadness or sexual attractiveness. Sometimes the men were exposed to the tears of weeping women, and sometimes they were given tissues soaked in saline solution that had been carefully collected after being dribbled down the women's cheeks – to simulate any body odour that may be picked up.

None of the men said they were able to detect any difference in smell between the tissues soaked in tears and those soaked in the saline solution, and none knew that what they were given to sniff contained a woman's tears.

Professor Noam Sobel, who led the research team, said that a significant decline in the men's estimation of the women's sexual attractiveness only occurred after they had been exposed to the tears. Further studies showed that tears also resulted in a decline of testosterone in the men's saliva, as well as their own judgement about their state of sexual arousal.

A final part of the study investigated the brain activity of the men using functional magnetic resonance – a type of brain scanner. Again, the scientists found that men had lower activity in parts of the brain associated with sexual arousal after sniffing a woman's tears.

Professor Sobel said: "These effects materialised despite that subjects did not see a woman cry, nor were they aware of the compound source. Moreover, in Western culture, exposure to tears is usually in close proximity. We hug a crying loved one, often placing our nose near teary cheeks, typically generating a pronounced nasal inhalation as we embrace."
 

EnglishLady

Veteran Expediter
AOL

Waterproof Notepad Helps You Record Ideas in the Shower

(E.L.) or ......something else to do instead of changing the shower head :D

Some people do their best scrubbing in the shower; others do their best thinking.

Just ask Mark Knudsen, a Michigan-based, self-professed "shower thinker" with a penchant for coming up with great ideas while showering.

A couple of years ago, Knudsen's watery brainstorming habit led to something big: the invention of a simple little novelty that helps shower thinkers like himself record their every thought mid-cleansing.

After a "splash" of genius in his very own shower, Knudsen created "AquaNotes," a nontoxic, recyclable, waterproof notepad designed to withstand exposure to moisture.

He created an eco-friendly waterproof pencil to go with the notepad, added some standard suction cups to both items and stuck them up on the wall in his shower.

This way, even as the water pounded down on him, Knudsen could record any and all grand ideas that came to him, without a single thought going down the drain.

"I always came up with my best ideas in the shower but could never remember them once I got out," Knudsen told AOL News.

"I was in the consulting business, so these little spurts of information would come to me randomly. I used to keep a regular notebook and pen on the edge of my bathtub just in case I came up with something, but my notes would get so soggy, they were illegible. I had to come up with a better solution."

Knudsen admitted his initial idea for recording his thoughts while showering was a total bust.

He said he would yell his ideas from the shower and ask his wife to write them down from the other side of the door, which proved to be exhausting -- and extremely annoying -- for both parties.

"Finally it dawned on me that I needed to invent a waterproof notepad. Ever since we started making AquaNotes, my showers have been much more relaxing," Knudsen said with a laugh.

"Plus, my poor wife doesn't have to run in with paper and a pencil to help me anymore."

Besides making his life a whole lot easier, it seems Knudsen's quirky creation is also benefiting fellow shower thinkers

Knudsen said AquaNotes -- available at myaquanotes.com starting at $6.99 -- has made quite a splash with creative-minded customers such as writers, artists, entrepreneurs, businessmen, professors, songwriters, musicians and comedians.

"I've gotten a lot of feedback from professionals in creative industries. They use AquaNotes to jot down random ideas for work that come to them while showering. I've heard it all -- from songwriters who use the notepad to jot down song lyrics to comedians who use it to write down new jokes," explained Knudsen.

Unlike his previous experiences scribbling on soggy paper, Knudsen said AquaNotes stays sturdy and easy to write on in the shower because the water just beads up and rolls right off the pages.

Knudsen said all that's left is a perfectly legible memo that can be torn off the perforated pad and taken wherever it needs to go.

"AquaNotes is also a hit with moms. They use it to write grocery lists, to-do lists, or remind themselves of relatives' birthdays. I also had a mom tell me that she used her notepad to write messages to her teenage son who was going through puberty. She would leave notes in the shower reminding him to wash his armpits extra carefully," said Knudsen.

He noted that AquaNotes have also found a fanbase among field workers, especially at construction sites. Since they never know what the weather will bring on the job, Knudsen said workers take their notes and sketches on AquaNotes just to be safe

Additionally, he said college students use the notepads for last-minute cramming or studying in the shower.

Couples have also been known to use the pages to leave each other sweet messages, so Knudsen created a separate product called "LoveNotes." That water-resistant pad comes with a red pencil so lovebirds can make their shower notes extra romantic.

In the end, it appears Knudsen has helped solve a pretty common dilemma.

Since introducing his product online, Knudsen said numerous grateful shower thinkers have come forward, proving that many of us really do have flashes of brilliance while using the loofah.

We don't all just sing in the shower.

"The shower is the one place you visit every day that's completely isolated. You have no other distractions in there -- no cell phone, iPod, TV or Internet -- so it's easy to totally relax and let your thoughts take over. I think that's why some people do their best work in the shower," Knudsen said. "Your subconscious is constantly generating ideas, so maybe a quiet, relaxing shower brings out the best ones."

To keep the bright ideas flowing and increase productivity during shower time, Knudsen is designing an even bigger waterproof notepad next.

While he hasn't yet heard of customers taking longer showers because of major brainstorming sessions on AquaNotes, the bigger notepad might change that.

"Maybe someone will soak in the bathtub and start writing a book on it," joked Knudsen. "Or a screenplay."

After all, what's a few water wrinkles on the skin when you may be coming up with the world's next big book, movie, song or invention?
 

EnglishLady

Veteran Expediter
Telegraph 11:11PM GMT 20 Jan 2011


US restaurant to offer African lion tacos


A Tucson taco restaurant already has served up python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake and turtle. Next on the menu will be lion meat.

Boca Tacos y Tequila says it's accepting orders for African lion tacos, to be served starting Feb. 16. Bryan Mazon says there are already a few reservations from curious customers.

Mr Mazon says his restaurant started offering exotic tacos on its menu every Wednesday about six months ago and has tried "just about anything we can get our hands on."

According to the Food and Drug Administration, lion and other game meat can be sold as long as the species isn't endangered.

The Arizona Daily Star says most of Boca's exotic tacos range between $3 and $4. The lion tacos will cost $8.75 apiece
 

EnglishLady

Veteran Expediter
Telegraph 11:11PM GMT 20 Jan 2011


US restaurant to offer African lion tacos


A Tucson taco restaurant already has served up python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake and turtle. Next on the menu will be lion meat.

Boca Tacos y Tequila says it's accepting orders for African lion tacos, to be served starting Feb. 16. Bryan Mazon says there are already a few reservations from curious customers.

Mr Mazon says his restaurant started offering exotic tacos on its menu every Wednesday about six months ago and has tried "just about anything we can get our hands on."

According to the Food and Drug Administration, lion and other game meat can be sold as long as the species isn't endangered.

The Arizona Daily Star says most of Boca's exotic tacos range between $3 and $4. The lion tacos will cost $8.75 apiece


Update on this story ....

Discovery News Jan 25

Lion Tacos off the Menu

The owner of an Arizona restaurant won't be putting African lion tacos on the menu after claiming to receive numerous complaints and threats. Owner Bryan Mazon recently announced his plan to serve the exotic tacos for around $9 each starting Feb. 16.

Boca Tacos and Tequila in Tucson has previously offered tacos filled with python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake, turtle, duck, frog legs and Rocky Mountain "oysters

According to this article in the Arizona Daily Star, Mazon said he was serving the tacos to "get my name out."

Mission accomplished, I guess.

And how is lion meat even legal to sell?

Well, according to the Food and Drug Administration, lion and any other game animal can be sold as long as the species isn't endangered. And African lions, while listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, are not endangered.

So where do you go after lion tacos? Bugs


According to this article
'Insect Pizza,' 'Bug Mac' Foods of the Future? : Discovery News
insects may be our most sustainable food source. Oyamel, a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., has grasshopper tacos on its menu. And while they may sound unappetizing, having tried it myself, here's my official review: crunchy and very tasty, with none of the guilt from eating an apex predator
 

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