CURIOUS TIMES

A weekly roundup of newsbites from the Truth is Stranger than Fiction department.

RATS! I CAN’T AFFORD PROPER FOOD: A few weeks ago, Curious Times reported on a plan in India to begin farming rat meat in order to help feed that country’s poorest citizens. But that’s not the only country that is rediscovering the joys of eating rat. Cambodian media reports that the price of rat meat in that country has quadrupled to around 5,000 riel per kilogram (about 58 cents a pound), putting it out of reach of poor people. Instead, the poor are now hunting rats in order to sell the meat to richer diners in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. “Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family,” said an agriculture official in Cambodia. (Reuters)

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HOW TO WIN A PRIZE IN LITERATURE WITHOUT REALLY TRYING: The folks who bring us the annual World’s Oddest Book Title competition have celebrated the 30th anniversary of the prize by choosing the oddest book title of the past 30 years. And the winner is, Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers, a thrilling tome which carefully records all of Greece’s postmen and postal routes. Somehow that title beat out competition from the likes of People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead, How to Avoid Huge Ships, How to Bombproof Your Horse, and my personal favourite, Cheese Problems Solved. The prize was originally created as a joke to help stave off boredom at the 1978 Frankfurt Book Fair. (TheBookseller.com)

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GROSS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: The publishers of the Guinness Book of World Records have released The Best Gross World Records, a book chock full of challenges for the readers of this column. Try getting your name in the record books by attempting some of these charming antics: Most Worms Eaten in 30 Seconds; Most Feet and Armpits Sniffed; Loudest Burp; Most Worms Removed From a Human Stomach; Longest Ear Hair; Most Big Macs Consumed; and Farthest Marshmallow Nose Blow. The record book also lists a Brazilian woman as holding the record for most body piercings, with 1,903 — over 500 of which are in her genitalia. She plans on continuing to gather more piercings until she breaks the 2,000 barrier. “I love pain,” she explained.

SO WHY DOESN’T GOD JUST STOP THE DISEASE IN ITS EARLY STAGES? Medical science has come a long way, baby. But it still can’t convince a dying patient that God won’t save him. A survey of 1,000 randomly surveyed Americans found that 57 per cent believe that divine intervention can reverse a terminal illness, even if physicians declare that treatment would be useless. Surprisingly, the survey also asked 774 medical professionals the same question, and found that 20 per cent of doctors, nurses, and medical workers believe that God can revive a dying patient. (MSNBC)

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CRIMINALS - GUNS = DEAD CRIMINALS: A key lesson for would-be kidnappers: Don’t put down your gun or you may just end up dead, just like the kidnappers in Florida who forced their victim into a car last week and started to drive to their hideout. Along the way, one of the abductors in the back seat of the car put his gun in his lap in order to send a text message. At that moment, the would-be victim grabbed the gun, shot the two men in the back seat with him, then pointed the gun at the head of the driver and forced him to stop, at which point he called 911 and finished the ordeal. (Tampa Bay Online)

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WHAT HE MEANT TO SAY WAS “STOP KILLING US”: Japanese marine biologists claim to have trained a 23-year-old Beluga whale to say three words. Nack the whale uses different noises to express the words bucket, diving goggles, and diving fins. Professor Takashi Murayam of Tokai University says this breakthrough is the first of its kind, and he expressed hope that humans and whales will communicate fully with each other in the future. (The Telegraph)

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YOU CAN NOW STRIKE “BEING BURIED ALIVE” OFF YOUR LIST OF FEARS: A cemetery in Santiago, Chile, will be the first to offer coffins installed with a panic button, in case you are buried alive. “We want to be pioneers and avoid catalepsy cases, in which a person gets completely paralyzed for a few hours and ends up buried as if they were dead,” said a spokesperson for the Camino, a Canaan cemetery. The new coffin design also includes built-in motion detectors. Of course, they made no mention of who will pay for the lifelong therapy you’ll need to recover from the trauma. (Fortean Times)

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DRIVEN TO IMPOTENCE: Scientists in Germany have ruined another one of life’s simple pleasures. They now warn that heated car seats may toast a man’s nuts just enough to damage his sperm production. The latest research backs up a previous study which found that couples take longer to conceive if the man drives for more than three hours a day, due to the pressure of the car seat on the poor guy’s dingly-danglies. (New Scientist)

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I-READ-IT-ON-THE-INTERNET-SO-IT-MUST-BE-TRUE FACT OF THE WEEK: Fourteen per cent of American dogs suffer from separation anxiety.

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