Arkansas - Land of Diamonds!

Okay, I'm going to Arkansas for my next vacation because this is the second time in a year I read about some shmo finding a big diamond lying on the ground!

Apparently there's a national park in Arkansas that is the only diamond field open to the public and people keep finding rocks! This guy found a 3.92-carat white stone!

Full story from Yahoo news

Woman gives birth to own grandchildren

It had to happen sooner or later. The only surprise is that it didn't happen in Arkansas or Alabama. I guess Brazil isn't too far off.

Actually, it's not quite the 'inbred' story it seems it might be. A woman chose to be the surrogate for her own daughter, making her her grandchild's stand-in mom.

The full story from Yahoo and AP

Man Sues McDonalds For Not Holding the Cheese

A South Carolina man is suing McDonalds because he ordered his Quarter Pounder without cheese and it had cheese on it. The man is allergic to cheese and almost died after he bit into the burger.

The man's lawyer noted that Mr Jackson, "told a worker through the ordering speaker and then two workers face-to-face at the pay and pick-up windows that he couldn't eat cheese, Houston said."

"By my count, he took at least five independent steps to make sure that thing had no cheese on it," Houston said. "And it did and almost cost him his life."

How about some personal responsibility? YOU'RE DEATHLY ALLERGIC TO CHEESE!! How about YOU look at YOUR food before YOU shove it in YOUR pie-hole? How is it McDonalds' fault that you can't seem to manage YOU'RE own affliction?

Somehow I'm sure he'll get some cash out of it and we'll all suffer for it.

The Full Story from the Charleston Daily Mail"

Black Hole Hews

Because People Suck

Unbridled Avarice

In findings that could surely be matched in the United States, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reported in January that the country's 100 highest-paid business executives had, by 9:46 a.m. on Jan. 2, earned an amount equal to what the average Canadian would earn in all of 2007. And The New York Times reported in December that Wall Street bonuses for 2006 were so large that one real estate broker complained at New York City's shortage of $20 million properties and a Greenwich, Conn., Ferrari dealer complained that Ferrari hadn't manufactured enough 599 GTB Fioranos (price: about $250,000) to fill his customers' orders. [Standard-Freeholder (Cornwall, Ontario), 1-2-07] [New York Times, 12-25-06]

Science Gone Mad

Alarming Science: (1) A researcher at the Minnesota Cancer Center reported in January finding amounts of the carcinogen NNK, most likely from tobacco smoke, in toenail clippings of smokers (and nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke). (2) A researcher writing in the January/February issue of Australasian Science magazine reported that the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, carried by many cats, not only can harm pregnant women (as was previously known) but also can lower the IQ of men and make women more promiscuous. [United Press International, 1-2-07] [Australian Associated Press, 12-26-06]

Science Gone Bad

Science Gone Too Far: A December New York Times dispatch reports that among the hottest social status symbols in Tokyo is the cute-but-bizarre dog created by inbreeding, such as a blue Chihuahua or a white dachshund. However, inbreeding also produces a high number of deformities, and to get that dachshund, for example, the litter of five contained four dogs with almost unspeakably gross birth defects. Nonetheless, because of demand, dog inbreeding continues. And a Nottingham University professor warned in January that farmers are now at work in the United Kingdom breeding "stress" and "hostility" out of pigs and cows to make them more obedient en route to the slaughterhouse. The professor said the goal of such breeders is to create animal "vegetables." [New York Times, 12-28-06] [Daily Mail (London), 1-10-07]

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