Posts Tagged ‘weird’

Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Cow’s Urine…

Fizzy drinks are often blasted in today’s health conscious society.  So you can imagine the up-roar about the imperative release of a new fizzy drink in India that is made using the urine of cows.

Created by India’s Hindu nationalist movement, Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh, the fizzy drink is said to be almost ready for general consumption.

Named Gau Jai, or Cow Water, the drink has been developed in a research centre in Haridwar, an Indian holy city, and is hoped to provide a healthier alternative to soft drinks like Coke and Fanta.

Health implications – Fizzy Cow’s Urine fights diseases.

According to the director of the Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh’s Cow Protection Department, Om Prakash, the drink is an invaluable cure for a number of supposed diseases.

“We refer to gau ark (cow urine) as gau jal (cow water) as it has immense potential to cure various diseases.

“We have developed a soft drink formula with gau jal as the base and it has been sent to a laboratory at Lucknow for testing,” said Prakash.

The organisation is now focusing its development to managing the preservation of the urine drink through the hot summer months.

“It will be a revolution of sorts. The acceptance of cow urine as a potent medicine is increasing day by day and once it comes as a cold drink, its demand will definitely increase.

“It will prove and justify the high stature accorded to a cow in Indian culture.”

Not as bad as you might think…

However, for all of you who are expecting a foul smelling, yellow drink will be pleased to hear that this will not be the case.  In fact, Prakash claims that the drink will taste good if anything and will work in a de-tox fashion.

The move comes as Pepsi and Coca Cola have gained firm success in the Indian market and they are anything but healthy.  It would appear that Prakash’s movement is firmly against the soft drinks and is simply working to create a healthy alternative for the people of India.

The RSS has had a number of dealings with the sickly soft drinks as in 1994 the organisation declared a nationwide boycott of goods which included the likes of Pepsi and Coke.

How much for that cow’s urine in the window?

Price wise, the RSS is remaining tight-lipped over the whole thing but has said that the drinks will be cheap.  However, competition will be tight as Pepsi and Coke  are also extremely cheap throughout India.

Maybe Prakash’s drink will stand a chance in the Pepsi/Coke dominated market as the big named brands have been struggling to fight off allegations of their drinks containing dangerous and harmful toxic pesticides – something which cow’s urine clearly would not fall pray to.

Would you drink it?

What about you?  Would you swap the Dr Pepper and the Sprite for a mouthful of the healthy cow’s urine or do you think you’ll stick to a few E numbers?  Let the world know!

Cheaper than a Virgin Atlantic flight…

Jennifer Figge has become the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, making the epic crossing at the truly inspiring age of 56.

Figge, an American athlete, spent 24 days making the huge crossing from Cape Verde off Africa to Trinidad and Tobago. Officials are still calculating the exact total distance she swam.

And according to Figge she hasn’t had enough as she is now planning on carrying on her swim all the way up the coast to the British Virgin Islands.

Shark attack…when is it safe to get back in the water?

The physical strain was not the only issues Figge had to deal with but also the threat of attack by sharks.  Figge swam the Atlantic, therefore behind the protective cover of a cage to keep the danger of the sea predator at bay.

Probably viewed as both a let down and a relief, Figge didn’t end up seeing any sharks, but instead got an eye full of pilot whales, dolphins and turtles.

However, the sea can be just as dangerous as sharks as Figge faced daily torrents of waves reaching around 9 meters into the sky.

Energy drinks kept her going…

To keep her going, as Figge spent 8 hours at a go in the water before taking some solace in one of the rescue boats, crew members would chuck energy drinks to her.  Even in stormy weather, divers would be on hand to bring the drinks to her in person.

However, when the weather got too bad it was said that the crew would lose her and wouldn’t be able to see her in the water.  The weather also didn’t help with Figge’s route as she ended up being thrown 1,000 miles off course due to the bad weather.

The Atlantic was originally crossed by Benoit Lecomte, a French swimmer who swam the choppy sea 10 years ago, spending over two months, 73 days in total, swimming 4,000 miles, around double the distance that Figge is expected to have crossed.

19 out of 24 days isn’t bad, let’s be honest…

Figge wasn’t able to swim everyday of the 24 day adventure, due to the bad weather at sea.  According to her business manager, David Higden, Figge was forced to stay on the accompanying Catamaran until the weather eased up.

“She swam 19 of 24 days.  It turned from an endurance swim into an extreme adventure swim. She didn’t get into the water as much as she wanted, because the waves were so high.

The weather was so extreme the crew had trouble seeing her in the water,” continued Higden.

Even a cast wouldn’t stop her!

Figge is not new to the world of extreme sports and has been enjoying cross-country running and maritime crossings since her 30s.  Some of her accomplishments have seen her run 180 miles across Mexico which actually saw Figge complete the final 60 miles with a cast around her left leg.

Is that a set of pliers in your mouth, or are you just pleased to see me?

What do we do in this country when we have incredible tooth ache? Some of the lucky people in Britain have managed to get an NHS dentist, others rely on emergency services to provide relief, and one man has turned to pliers as a saviour.

Ian Boynton, a 42-year-old veteran from Beverley, took pliers to his mouth-agony after he tried and failed 30 times to see different dentists around the country.

In absolute misery from the pain of the toothache, Boynton took matters into his own hands and went to work to solve the crisis himself.

13 teeth in two years…

In fact he didn’t just leave it there – over the last two years Boynton has taken the pliers to 13 of his teeth, perhaps the issues are continuing as he hasn’t been able to visit a dentist since his last check in the army in 2003.

“I’ve tried to get in at 30 dentists over the last eight years but have never been able to find one to take on NHS patients,” said Boynton.

10,000 GPs when all you need is a dentist…

It’s hard not to feel his despair as more and more people in Britain are suffering the same plight everyday due to the outstanding lack of dental health care available in the country.

“It’s a horrible situation to be in when you can’t afford to go to the dentist when your teeth were so bad.

“I started having pain in a front tooth, which protruded slightly more than the others. I was constantly fiddling with it and wiggling it because it hurt so much.

“In the end I knew it had to come out and had to use the pliers to pull it. Amazingly, it did not hurt as much as you might think.

“I think I’d been prising it that much in the meantime that I’d been killing the nerve.”

The tooth fairy would have a field day…

It would seem that Boynton has had a wide range of tooth/pliers situations and has undergone the home-style operation on each type of tooth in his mouth, from molars to incisors and canines and has left himself with very few teeth to chew with.

The good news for Boynton is that he has now finally found a dentist and has laid the pliers to rest.  He is clearly thrilled about being able to provide proper care to his gnashers, his only concern is that he won’t be able to continue with his own DIY dentistry.

“I desperately needed a dentist because, although I’m no longer in pain, I need to have false teeth as I’m finding it difficult to eat. Unfortunately I can’t make false teeth myself,” said Boynton.

Are you crazy?

A Stockholm student took her degree course a little bit too far as she convinced the authorities that she was crazy just to get into a psychiatric hospital for her university degree show.

The student, Anna Odell, created an elaborate fake attempted suicide scenario which saw her being eventually taken to a psychiatric ward.  According to the St Goran’s hospital, Odell put up a fair old struggle as it took 8 hospital staff to restrain her.

Odell found her way up bridge and started screaming out that she was going to take her life by jumping off it.  Witnesses around scrambled to contact the authorities who apparently could barely control the supposedly frantic woman.

However, it didn’t take long to get the truth out of the student, who apparently gave up on the morning after the stunt and was happily kicked out onto the streets.

Wouldn’t we all say that?

According to Odell, the whole scenario was fake and is meant to be part of a larger university project that will be ready in May.

Mind you, the sceptic in me starts to wonder that if I was in a position where I was needing 8 hospital staff to reign me in and was looking at a long old sentence in a psychiatric hospital, I might come up with the same story.

“Disgraceful” says the hospital.

However, the hospital don’t share my views on the matter and are absolutely furious that the whole stunt was carried out.

“It’s not only disgraceful that she used our resources, but what she also did to other patients, the staff - to everyone - is shameless,” commented David Eberhard, the chief physician at the hospital.

“She and the head of her college ought to cut their hair and get real jobs.”  Perhaps their hair isn’t their biggest worry, but thanks go out to the physician for apparently acting on behalf of the fashion police.

A serious waste of resources!

According to the student, however, who is astonishingly 35 years old, is adamant that the world knows that she took the stunt seriously.

“It was well thought through and no joke,” said Odell.

However, some criticism could be thrown at Odell for perhaps taking the stunt a little too far.  Odell was said to have spit at hospital staff who were trying to calm her down and she was eventually given drugs to relax her.

“Shameless” act of indecency.

It’s extremely easy to share Eberhard’s point of view, as the stunt could have taken the emergency services away from serious and legitimate incidents and even in the  hospital it has been reported that a number of other seriously ill patients had to wait as staff tended to Odell.

“Her project is in the same league as paintings of crying children or white horses in the surf.  It’s not only cheeky that she used society’s resources, what she also did to other patients, the staff – to everyone – is shameless,” continued Eberhard.

Signal, position, zombies…

You’re driving along the motorway, you’re checking your mirrors, it’s dark, you check your speed, there’s zombies ahead…?  A sign at the side of the road in Texas has stunned drivers by proclaiming that there are “Zombies Ahead”.  Maybe it’s time to pull over and have a coffee.

Apparently it’s not difficult to do either – although fairly illegal and, if you catch a driver without all their marbles, possibly dangerous too.  It all comes down to the fact that the proper authorities, namely the trasportation officers in Austin, Texas simply don’t bother locking up their road sign control boxes.

If you’re going to play with matches then you have better expect to get burned, and the blame surely has to fall on the authorities in this case, when they leave the security of the road signs so poorly defended.

It’s easy, but don’t do it!

I.Gizmodo is claiming that anyone could do it, and although they do stress that noone should be running out to make the signs read “Slow Fast” or “It’s Behind You”, they do point out that the boxes are often only protected with the simple password “DOTS” and the password can easily be reset by following a few illegal steps.

The authorities are refusing to take the prank with a pinch of salt and have highlighted how dangerous such an act could become. 

Apparently, this particular road sign box was indeed locked with a padlock and the prank could land the person responsible in a fair old bit of trouble, as the crime is classed as a class C misdemeanor in Texas.

Sara Hartley, the Austin Public Works spokeswoman refused to see the funny side of the situation, saying, “Even thought this may seem amusing to a lot of people, this is really serious and it is a crime and you can be indicted for it and we want to make sure our traffic on the roadways stays safe.

“It was a locked sign. There was a padlock that was cut and there is a computer inside those signs that is password protected and so they had to break in and hack into the computer to do it so they were pretty determined.”

Would it bother you?

Drivers are taking a different stance on the subject though, as many thought the prank was funny and obviously didn’t really believe that there were zombies out there down the road.

Even the director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, Chris Lippincott, found the sign amusing, although I’m sure if he shared this view with Hartley he’d get a slap on the wrist.

“It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for.  Those signs are deployed for a reason — to improve traffic conditions, let folks know there’s a road closure,” said Lippincott.

Although pranks like this are amusing and in this case does put a smile on the faces of the commuters, there is a real danger of the wrong person getting their hands on the road signs.

Writers block is one of my favourite things. I enjoy the fact that to find something interesting to say, you need to delve into the deepest recesses of your mind to try think of a memory, or a funny story you’ve read.

As I’m suffering from a bout of writers block today, I’ll tell you about an insane dream I had two nights ago, which is oddly fresher in my mind now that it was yesterday morning.

I was walking through what looked like a derelict city, bits of paper, and dust were flowing around me, but nothing was going in my eyes. The cloud got really thick round me, and I was struggling to see a foot in front of me. Then I saw my self from a third-person perspective. I watched myself grab at the cloud and tear in apart as if it was candy floss, as I tore through, a shot of bright yellow shone through and I stepped out into what I think was a fairground. Back in first person, I saw a clown who was juggling a cat, a dog and a mouse at the same time, and each animal was also juggling a cat, a dog and a mouse at the same time. One of the cats said jump back, so I did and then I was looking through a kaleidoscope at a broken mirror. Then I woke up.

I expect a psychologist would have a field day with that one.

Dreams are crazy, I’ve always had a vivid imagination, and my brain does overtime at night. I used to have a recurring dream when I was young that involved me sitting in the middle of a white cube, about ten foot square, with no visible way out, no windows but bright light. I noticed a small balloon in the corner of the room, and as I approached it started to inflate, the balloon gets bigger and bigger until I’m pressed against the wall and the balloon starts choking me, then I’d wake up, freaking out. I put that one down to being asthmatic from birth, I’m not sure if it was an asthma attack or whether I was just struggling to breathe, but when I woke up I genuinely thought I was choking.

Now these two examples may be a bit weird, but I think dreams can be an amazing form of escapism, sometimes you can wake up and feel brilliant because of a good dream about winning something, or meeting someone long forgotten. Your dreams are unique to you, and its nice to know no-one can take that away from you.

The best thing about dreams is, they are free, and in today’s world it’s about the only thing that you can’t put a price on.

I think Yeats said it best:

“But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

Sleeptight.

How many cheerleaders can you fit in an elevator?
In the University of Texas, twenty-six cheerleaders wanted to find the answer to that question.

Like something from every teen boys dream, the group of 14 to 17 year old girls were attending cheerleading camp when they decided it would be a great idea to try the experiment.

Unsurprisingly, they got stuck when after they’d crammed in the lift, it couldn’t handle the weight and screeched to a halt trapping all 26 ?geniuses’ inside.

Remarkably, one of the cheerleaders had just enough brain cells to make an emergency call to fire-fighters who had to rescue them.

One girl was treated at the hospital and another two were treated on scene after the disastrous prank.

“The lift went down to the first floor but then the doors of the overloaded elevator wouldn’t open,” officials said.

“After a few panicked cell phone calls, police and fire-fighters were called to the scene and it took a repairman about 25 minutes to fix the door,” police said.

Stuffy UT officials didn’t find the prank very funny.

“It’s dangerous, actually,” UT police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said.

“They’re lucky that that’s all that happened.”

Calm down Rhonda.

A Florida wife and mother of three has been arrested for battering her husband with a frozen Lasagne.?

Amanda Trott was arguing with her husband (possibly over who was cooking the diner that night) when she snapped and threw the frozen slab of pasta-y meat, whacking him straight on the head.

Neighbours worried about the brutal food fight called police where Mr Trott claimed his wife had slapped him then hit him with the tasty student snack.

Mrs Trott later admitted the attack.

Sgt. David Cameron of the Florida Police said: “In my opinion, it hurts very much and will cause welts. It’s like throwing a block of ice, and it’s very heavy.”

Mrs Trott was charged with domestic battery, while her husband - lucky man that he is - was arrested on an unrelated injunction charge.

It’s blazing hot in New York right now, so in an effort to cool down some of the city’s summer diners have joined the OCD - that’s the Optional Clothing Diners club.The group even has the best motto ever: “No Hot Soup”, and boasts a membership of 50 people from all walks of life. The group regularly attend restaurants in the city for healthy, clothes free meals.

“We’re just more comfortable nude,” said John Ordover, who rents city eateries for dinner parties with a strict dress code - no clothes allowed.

“We’re not out to shock or put on a public spectacle. We want only to do things that other people do in the way that we are most comfortable doing them. That, for us, is without clothes,” he said.

“We’ve never had a restaurant say no to us, and the waiters think nothing of it,” said Ordover, 46, who by day works as a -fully clothed - Web marketer.

“If you work in a restaurant in New York City, the chances are you’ve seen a lot more shocking things than a room full of naked diners,” he added.

Like any nudist club the OCD has its fair share of eccentric members. A naked stand-up comic and naturist yoga teacher are among the regular diners.