Gorburger

On By A.P.In Gorburger, Japan, talk showLeave a comment

Even if T.J. Miller‘s name doesn’t ring a bell, there’s a good chance you’ve seen him on the big or small screen: In the last couple years, he has surfaced on The League, Happy Endings, and Our Idiot Brother, not to mention several commercials and podcasts.

This week Funny or Die launched a new web series featuring Miller … though he appears as a large blue space monster who takes over a Japanese talk show.

On each episode of Gorburger, Miller’s furry character interviews bands. The result is pretty funny and definitely weird; in the first ep, he quizzes talented twins Tegan and Sara.

“What advice do you have for elderly people?” Gorburger asks. “What’s the weirdest face you can make?”

The Onion’s Obama-Ahmadinejad ‘poll’ cited as fact in Iranian press

On By A.P.In Ahmadinejad, Iran, media, Obama, The OnionLeave a comment

 

A joke by the satirical website The Onion appears to have gotten lost in translation.

An Iranian news agency picked up — as fact — a story from the paper about a supposed Gallup survey showing an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than President Barack Obama. But it was made up, like everything in the just-for-laughs newspaper, which is headquartered in Chicago.

The English-language service of Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency republished the story Friday, several days after it appeared in The Onion.

The Iranian version copied the original word-for-word, even including a made-up quote from a fictional West Virginia resident who says he’d rather go to a baseball game with Ahmadinejad because “he takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.”

Homosexual acts are punishable by death in Iran, and Ahmadinejad famously said during a 2007 appearance at Columbia University that “in Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”

The Iranian version of the article leaves out only The Onion’s description of Ahmadinejad as “a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed.”

The article was featured prominently on the Fars website alongside its usual fare of stories about advances in Iranian military technology, condemnation of Israel and Iran’s nuclear program. The story appeared to have been taken down by about mid-day Friday, Chicago time.

Calls to Fars representatives were not answered Friday.

The Onion reveled in the fact that it had been taken seriously.

Onion editor Will Tracy put out a tongue-in-cheek statement that referred to Fars as “a subsidiary of The Onion” that has acted as the paper’s Middle Eastern bureau since it was founded in the mid-1980s by Onion publisher T. Herman Zweibel.

“The Onion freely shares content with Fars and commends the journalists at Iran’s Finest News Source on their superb reportage,” Tracy said in jest.

It’s not the first time a foreign news outlet has been duped by The Onion. In 2002, the Beijing Evening News, one of the Chinese capital’s biggest newspapers, picked up a story from The Onion that claimed members of Congress were threatening to leave Washington unless the building underwent a makeover that included more bathrooms and a retractable dome.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49226254/ns/us_news-weird_news/

Tycoon offers HK$500 million to wed his lesbian daughter

On By A.P.In Cecil Caho Sze-tsung, Gigi Chao, homosexuality, Hong Kong, Human Behavior, lesbian, Marriage, Paris, Ray Gaudette, Relationship, Sean Eav, Wealth and Power, weddingLeave a comment

 

 The daughter of the tycoon who on Tuesday offered HK$500 million (US$64 million) to any man who would marry her found the proposal “quite entertaining,” she told CNN.

Gigi Chao said her father, property developer Cecil Chao Sze-tsung, “loves her very much” and was aware of the cash offer before it was first reported Tuesday by local Hong Kong media.

The tycoon’s offer came after Chinese media reports last week that she married another woman, her long-time companion Sean Eav, in a civil ceremony in Paris last week. Asked by CNN to confirm her civil union, Chao said she was “not in a position to verify that.”

Her father, however, was unequivocal, telling CNN “reports of Gigi being married is not true, it’s a rumor.” However, he did confirm that he is offering the multi-million dollar bounty for a future son-in-law: Any nationality or wealth of the suitor is fine, the only requirement is that the man “loves my daughter, and she loves him.”

Asked if she would consider her father’s offer, Chao said, “we will see.”

The 76-year-old tycoon himself has never married, and has long earned a reputation on the pages of local newspapers and magazines in the arms of beautiful women, having once bragged of having had 10,000 girlfriends, the South China Morning Post reported.

Gigi Chao is an executive director of Cheuk Nang Holdings, a luxury property development company run by her father.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/27/business/hong-kong-tycoon-daughter-reward/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Thanks to Ray Gaudette for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

New incredibly bright comet to appear in 2013

On By A.P.In Artyom Novichonok, C/2012 S1, comet, International Scientific Optical Network, ISON, Oort Cloud, Russia, Science, Space and Time, Vitali NevskiLeave a comment

 

A new comet has been discovered that is predicted to blaze incredibly brilliantly in the skies during late 2013. With a perihelion passage of less than two million kilometres from the Sun on 28 November 2013, current predictions are of an object that will dazzle the eye at up to magnitude —16. That’s far brighter than the full Moon. If predictions hold true then C/2012 S1 will certainly be one of the greatest comets in human history, far outshining the memorable Comet Hale-Bopp of 1997 and very likely to outdo the long-awaited Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4) which is set to stun in March 2013.

The new comet, named C/2012 S1 (ISON) was found by the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) in Russia on 21 September when astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok captured it on CCD images taken through a 0.4-metre reflector. Its near-parabolic orbit suggests that it has arrived fresh from the Oort Cloud, a vast zone of icy objects orbiting the Sun, pristine remnants of the formation of the Solar System.

C/2012 S1 currently resides in the northwestern corner of Cancer. At magnitude +18 it is too dim to be seen visually but it will be within the reach of experienced amateur astronomers with CCD equipment in the coming months as it brightens. It is expected to reach binocular visibility by late summer 2013 and a naked eye object in early November of that year. Northern hemisphere observers are highly favoured. Following its peak brightness in late November it will remain visible without optical aid until mid-January 2014.

Comet brightness predictions sometimes exceed their performance. Amateur astronomers of a certain age may remember the Comet Kohoutek hype of 1973 – not quite the ‘damp squib’ it has been portrayed, since it reached naked eye visibility! Even if C/2012 S1 takes on the same light curve as Kohoutek it is certain to be spectacular, quite possibly a once-in-a-civilisation’s-lifetime event.

http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1209/25comet/

Do eunuchs live longer?

On By A.P.In aging, castrati, castration, centenarian, Chosun Dynasty, Current Biology, eunuch, Korea, lifespan, testosterone, Yang-Se-Gye-BoLeave a comment

Talk about a longevity strategy no man wants to pursue. A recent study published in the journal Current Biology finds that Korean eunuchs — castrated men — lived 14 to 19 years longer than other men, suggesting that male sex hormones play a role in life span.

In the study, the researchers used a genealogy record called the Yang-Se-Gye-Bo that tracked eunuchs who worked in the Korean imperial court during the Chosun Dynasty, which ruled from the 14th to early 20th centuries.

Researchers were able to identify 81 eunuchs, who were castrated as boys, and determined that they lived to an average age of 70, significantly longer than other men of similar social status. Even kings didn’t typically make it to age 50.

Three of the 81 eunuchs lived to 100, a centenarian rate that’s far higher than would be expected in modern society. The current incidence of centenarians is 1 per 3,500 people in Japan, and 1 per 4,400 people in the United States, for instance; thus, the incidence of centenarians among Korean eunuchs was at least 130 times higher than that of present-day developed countries, according to the paper.

TIME.com: Want to live longer? Don’t try caloric restriction

“Our study supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men,” the authors write.

Based on earlier research, the authors argue that one explanation for this could be that male sex hormones may negatively influence the immune system and “predispose men to adverse cardiovascular attacks.” They note further that the theory helps explain why females — in many species — live longer than males.

But while animal studies have suggested that castration (which removes the testes, the source of male hormones) results in longer lives, studies in humans have been spotty. In one study of castrati singers, there was no difference in lifespan between them and non-castrated singers; in another study of institutionalized, mentally ill men, however, those who were castrated lived some 14 years longer than those who weren’t.

And there are other reasons that women may outlive men, including for example the presence of estrogen, which may help enhance longevity. Also, as ABC News reports:

“Females may have an advantage in longevity because they have a back-up X chromosome, (Dr. L. Stephen Coles, a co-founder of the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group,) said. A woman’s body is a mixture of cells, half containing an active X chromosome from her mother and the other half from her father, he said. If there is a defect on one X chromosome, half of her cells will be unaffected.”

TIME.com: Health checkup: How to live 100 years

Further, the longevity of the Korean eunuchs could be attributable to lifestyle factors the study didn’t track, like diet, exercise and stress.

The authors think the men’s long lives can’t be chalked up solely to a privileged lifestyle, however. “Except for a few eunuchs, most lived outside the palace and spent time inside the palace only when they were on duty,” study author Kyung-Jin Min of Inha University told Reuters. Meanwhile, they still tended to outlive other royalty who spent their whole lives inside the palace.

Obviously, the study authors don’t advocate becoming a eunuch. There are more sensible and reliable ways to up your chances of a long, healthy life: don’t smoke, eat a healthy diet, get plenty of exercise.

“For better health and longevity, stay away from stresses and learn what you can from women,” the authors said in a statement.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/25/health/eunuchs-lifespan/index.html?hpt=hp_bn12

Fecal transplant cures woman’s bacterial infection

On By A.P.In C diff, clostridium difficile, Dr. Goldman, fecal transplant, Georgia, Kaitlin HunterLeave a comment

After surviving a near-fatal car accident, Kaitlin Hunter found herself battling a devastating bacterial infection in her colon that also threatened her life.

The persistent infection was beaten through a little-known technique involving the transplant of fecal matter from Hunter’s mother, which put healthy bacteria back into her colon.

Following the July procedure, “I’ve been so happy,” said Hunter, 20, of Marietta, Georgia. “I’m cured.”

Her struggle began more than a year earlier when she was released from a hospital in Sacramento, California.

A June 2011 car accident fractured her lower spine, lacerated her liver and colon, and broke all 10 toes. Emergency crews used the Jaws of Life to cut Hunter from her dad’s car, and then she was flown to the hospital, where she spent the next month.

Upon her release, Hunter flew home to Georgia. It hadn’t been the summer vacation she imagined, but she thought she was getting better.

But “right when I got off the plane, I went to the hospital. I was having extremely bad stomach pain. A month later, we found out it was C. diff,” Hunter said, using the abbreviation for the bacteria clostridium difficile.

How it began

In the hospital after her accident, doctors followed standard care and put Hunter on antibiotics to prevent an infection.

In spite of the antibiotics — or possibly because of them — C. diff infected her colon, causing severe stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting.

Hunter, who stands 5 feet 7 inches tall, lost 40 pounds during her struggle. Her weight plummeted to 85 pounds.

It’s believed that antibiotics, which kill harmful infection-causing bacteria, also weaken the beneficial, healthy bacteria percolating in the colon. With the colon’s defenses down, C. diff grows rampant, releasing a toxin and inflaming the colon.

C. diff infections kill about 14,000 people in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the number and severity of total cases have increased dramatically over the past decade.

Experts: Alcohol enemas ‘extremely dangerous’

Even though antibiotics put someone at risk of developing a C. diff infection, standard treatment still calls for prescribing more and different antibiotics to kill the C. diff and allow healthy bacteria to recolonize.

But for many people such as Hunter — who went through nine rounds of antibiotic treatments — the healthy bacteria never get the upper hand, and the C. diff just keeps coming back.

‘Brand-new’ treatment

Increasingly, doctors are taking a different approach. Instead of continued assaults on bacteria, “fecal matter transplants” recolonize the colon with new bacteria from a healthy donor.

“This is brand-new for most gastroenterologists,” said Dr. Suku George, Hunter’s treating physician. “We are very excited about this.”

George had never deposited fecal matter by colonoscopy into a patient until Hunter wanted to try it.

Hunter’s mother “donated” one of her stools for the procedure. Next, the hospital lab carefully diluted it, and George pumped the foreign fecal matter right into Hunter’s colon.

The result ended Hunter’s struggle with C. diff.

A study published in March reported a 91% cure rate after just one fecal matter transplant, and a 98% cure rate when combined with an additional round of antibiotics.

Remarkably, that study only included the sickest of patients. All 77 of the study participants already had a recurring C. diff infection, having tried and failed five rounds of antibiotic-only treatments over 11 months, on average.

The study used the colonoscopy method, which many believe is the most effective, because relatively large amounts of fecal matter can be placed deep inside the colon.

Other methods use either an enema or a nasogastric tube, which sends fecal matter through the nasal passage, down the throat and into the stomach.

Why polio hasn’t gone away yet

George tried the nasogastric tube on Hunter, using fecal material from her father, but the C. diff infection returned. He then asked for and received permission to perform the hospital’s first colonoscopic fecal transplant.

Looking ahead

Gastroenterologists pioneering the practice unanimously seem to agree that eventually a cleaner, commercially developed suppository will replace the crude feces and water mixtures currently in use.

“It’ll become a little more acceptable to hospitals and patients and more widely performed,” said Dr. Lawrence Brandt, a professor of medicine and surgery at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine who was the lead author on the March study.”But for people that have recurring C. diff, it doesn’t really much matter, because these patients are so ill and so much want to get better. The fact that it’s stool, it doesn’t matter to them.”

To enroll in a fecal transplant study, visit clinicaltrials.gov.

Thanks to the future Dr. Goldman for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Ohio woman unknowingly married her father

On By A.P.In incest, Ohio, Percy Spruill, Valerie SpruillLeave a comment

You’ve heard of sister-wives, but one Ohio woman recently discovered she had a daddy-husband: she had unknowingly married her father.

No one is sure exactly how it happened, least of all Valerie Spruill, 60, who learned the truth in 2004, six years after her husband Percy Spruill died.

As told to the Akron Beacon Journal, Spruill’s mother was a teenager when she got pregnant by then-15-year-old Percy. Baby Valerie was sent to live with her grandparents, but found out when she was nine years old that the man she thought was her father was actually her grandfather, and that a person known to her as a “family friend” was actually her mother.

Nobody talked about her father.

Valerie met and married Percy Spruill, and the couple, along with her three kids from a previous marriage, settled in Doylestown, where she still lives. Percy died in April 1998, at the age of 60.

DNA testing confirmedwhat an uncle revealed to her shortly after Percy’s death.

She’s not even sure whether Percy knew.

“That conversation didn’t come up,” she told CNN Thursday. “I think if he did know, there is no way he could have told me.”

She has been seeing a therapist to deal with the emotional toll.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2012/09/21/20219866.html

Pennsylvania couple charged with trying to sell neighbor’s lost puppy on Craig’s list

On By A.P.In Craig's list, Crime, Dogs, Human Behavior, Nature, Pennsylvania, puppyLeave a comment

A couple in Pennsylvania is facing criminal charges for selling their neighbor’s lost puppy on Craigslist instead of returning it, according to police.

Police in Leechburg, Pa., said two dogs, a Rottweiler and a golden retriever mix, wandered onto the property of Scott Duff, 41, and Roxanne Duff, 38, on September 3.

After discovering the animals, police say, Roxanne Duff left a phone message for police saying she was unsure what to do with them.

Leechburg Police Officer Christopher Laird returned Roxanne Duff’s message, recommending that she contact either an animal shelter or a local dog kennel, according to a police report. He told her he would contact her if they find dogs’ owner. During that call, Roxanne Duff allegedly told Laird that the Rottweiler puppy had run away since her initial report.

Later in the evening, Laird received a call from the dogs’ owner, Shawn Lerch, who said Duff had returned his golden retriever but not the Rottweiler. Lerch said he believed his dog was still in the area and suspected the Duffs were keeping him, despite what he had been told.

When Laird knocked on his neighbor’s door, Scott Duff answered and allegedly denied having the puppy. The next day, Lerch called police again, saying he believed the dog was still at the Duffs’ house, according to the report.

This time, police chief Michael Diebold went to the Duffs’ home, where he found the couple’s five-year-old son and his babysitter. According to the police report, the child said, “his mommy had given the dog to a woman from the Internet.”

Diebold contacted Scott Duff again and told him what his child had said. Duff told him he had no knowledge of this and said he only knew that the puppy had escaped from his yard. A short time later, Duff called police back and allegedly admitted that his wife had placed an ad and sold the dog on Craigslist for $50.

After police located the woman who bought the Rottweiler, who said she was unaware of the theft. Roxanne Duff went to Pittsburgh, where the woman lived, to retrieve the dog, and it was returned to Lerch.

Police charged the Duffs last week with not making a reasonable effort to return lost property, two counts of conspiracy and false reporting.

The couple is due in court for a preliminary hearing on October 31.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/21/13991541-pennsylvania-couple-charged-with-selling-neighbors-dog-on-craigslist

Scientists discover gene that controls striping pattern on cats

On By A.P.In Alabama, Cats, Cheetah, DNA, gene, Greg Barsh, HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology, Huntsville, King cheetah, Leslie Lyons, National Cancer Institute, Nature, Science, Stanford University, UC DavisLeave a comment

Scientists say they’ve found the gene that sets the common tabby pattern – stripes or blotches.

It’s one of several genes that collaborate to create the distinctive design of a cat’s coat, and it’s the first of the pattern genes to be identified.

Cats with narrow stripes, the so-called “mackerel” pattern, have a working copy of the gene. But if a mutation turns the gene off, the cat ends up with the blotchy “classic” pattern, researchers reported online last week in the journal Science.

It’s called “classic” because “cat lovers really like the blotched pattern,” said one of the authors, Greg Barsh. He works at both Stanford University and the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology in Huntsville, Ala.

The research team, which included scientists from the National Cancer Institute, examined DNA from wild cats in California to identify the gene.

They also found that a mutation in the same gene produces the blotches and stripes of the rare “king” cheetah, rather than the spots most cheetahs have.

Leslie Lyons, a cat geneticist who studies coat color traits at the University of California, Davis, but didn’t participate in the new work, agreed that the research has identified the tabby’s stripes-versus-blotches gene. She noted that mysteries remain, such as just what genetic machinery gives a tabby spots.

Intoxicated woman steals ferry, screaming “I’m Jack Sparrow, I’m a pirate.”

On By A.P.In Addiction, alcohol, Alison Whelan, Crime, Drugs, Drunk driving, ferry, Human Behavior, Jack Sparrow, nightshade, pirate, Tristam LockeLeave a comment

A woman high on drugs and alcohol stole a 45-foot double-decker passenger ferry screaming “I’m Jack Sparrow, I’m a Pirate.” According to reports on Thursday, Alison Whelan and her friend caused thousands of dollars in damages when they commandeered the vessel.

Whelan and her friend Tristam Locke admitted that they had been on a two-day drinking binge and had consumed the deadly hallucinogenic drug, nightshade, as reported by The Telegraph. Whelan made her escape by unmooring the boat, untying several thick ropes “connecting the boat to the shore because she kept tripping over them.”

The ferry started “drifting like a pinball machine.” The two drunk ‘pirates’ were out of control “heading toward dozens of other moored vessels.” Whelan damaged numerous boats, making for a very expensive night. However, no booty for the self-proclaimed pirate has been reported as yet.

Whelan was heard taunting police and shouting “What are you going to do now? I believe this is out of your jurisdiction.” The two incorrigible hijackers were finally apprehended when the ferry came to rest about a mile upstream in still waters.

Whelan is a “chronic alcoholic who is awaiting a liver transplant.” She pleaded guilty to “aggravated vehicle taking and was jailed for 122 days.” When arrested she declared that she “would have ended up in St Tropez” if she hadn’t been captured.

http://www.examiner.com/article/weird-news-woman-steals-ferry-screaming-i-m-jack-sparrow-on-drunken-rampage