Iraqis Hunted by Man-Eating Badgers

As if raw sewage and shrapnel weren't enough scary campfire story fodder, there is a new horror on the loose in Iraq. Rumors are flying throughout the port city Basra that giant man-eating badgers stalk the streets at night, attacking unsuspecting human prey. The monsters are reported to be much larger than common badgers, with giant claws and sharp teeth for ripping through flesh. (Watch the video!)

A spokesman for the British army issued a statement that there are honey badgers in Basra but they rarely attack humans, unless provoked. “They are native to the region but rare in Iraq. They're nocturnal carnivores with a fearsome reputation, but they don't stalk humans and carry them back to their lair,” he said.

Still, many Iraqis believe this animal appeared directly after Western occupation of the province, spawning conspiracy theories that U.S. or British forces unleashed the animal to spread fear throughout the city.

Wait. Huge badger-looking animals terrorizing the village, put there by authorities to strike fear in the hearts of citizens? Sounds like a good idea for a movie...but there has to be a twist ending! I think that was the twist ending.

Nikonography

Here are some incredible pictures from Nikon's "It's a small world" photomicrography competition (photos taken through a light microscope). Life is so beautiful. Check out the rest and rate the entries here.

It's the Final Countdown

Final Countdown

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This is my favorite clip in The Soup this week. It's from the show Singing Bee but that's irrelevant. I love so many things: the ultra-fast zoom, the pained look on the singer's face, the booty dancers, the synthesizer. Everything.

If I Blogged This (Book Review)

If I blogged this, not that I did, or would, but hypothetically speaking, if I blogged a book review about the book "If I Did It" by OJ Simpson, would you guys be mad at me?

Well, someone at work got a leaked copy and sent it around as a PDF file and I did skim it. Let's just say - OJ Simpson is a chronic modifier misplacer. I don't have the energy or the moral security to break down his commentary on the murders, but I think these two excerpts will suffice:

"I did a little acting, too, and for a number of years I was a pitchman for Hertz, the rental car people. Some of you might remember me from the television spots: I was always running late, pressed for time, leaping over fences and cars and piles of luggage to catch my flight. If you don't see the irony in that, you will."

Ironic. It was so "ironic" when I killed my wife and her lover. Ironic.

"A few days later, we flew down to Manzanilla, Mexico, for our honeymoon. We stayed in a beautiful place called Las Hadas and made love three times a day. That's why we were there, right? To give Nicole a family of her own."

Gross. It was "gross" when OJ Simpson described his lovemaking habits. Gross.

Anyway, those are basically the most important passages from the book, as far as I could gather. Quote them at your next social gathering! Impress your intellectual reader friends!

Like, Dead Dead?

China executed its former Food and Drug chief today for taking bribes to approve untested medicines that resulted in the deaths of 10 people. Zheng Xiaoyu was convicted last week of taking about $850,000 in bribes, was sentenced to death, and today it was carried out. Done, and dead. China executes more people each year than all other nations combined. Makes me almost change my mind about the coolness of Communism!

Being serious for a second, this makes me think a few thoughts. Although this case highlights the Chinese state's incredible efficiency, it still makes me grateful that although the Patriot Act and Homeland Security do infringe on our human rights, at least our corrupt officials are not being sentenced to death. They are being sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and then having that sentence commuted by the president whose interest they were serving. I don't think anyone needs to die over that.

* This is a Chinese mobile execution van that delivers deadly injections on the go!

Not all dorks created equal

Turns out, fantasy dorks and theatre dorks are not the same kind of dork. The stage adaptation of Lord of the Rings (part musical, part play, all extravaganza) opened last week in London to mixed reviews. It had great potential, considering it is the most expensive stage production on record at $25 million - and we all know budget correlates directly with quality.

But apparently hardcore LOTR fans weren't feeling remiss in the absence of a Rodgers and Hammerstein Tolkien interpretation. One reviewer said his 14-year-old son left the show "tittering at the ponderous inanities of the script and the triteness of the lyrics." I then tittered imagining a 14-year-old boy tittering. Other people liked the show, though - including reviewers in the London Times and the Guardian.

I probably won't make it to London to see the LOTR stage spectacle. But I'm definitely going to miss out on ballads like "Hobbit-sized dreams" and company numbers like "Mordor ain't no place for dancin'!"*

*Not real titles from LOTR The Musical

Fiat Lux Jazz!

Okay. Occasionally something comes along that gets me so fired up I have to share it with everyone I come in contact with. Some of you may already be hip to these figures, but the gravity of this effort just hit me, so it's likely many of you, too, are still...in the dark.

This is one of the cheapest, smartest, easiest ways to help with energy conservation that I have encountered. CFL bulbs (Compact Fluorescent Light), the swirl bulbs, cost about $3 - but each one used conserves an incredible amount of energy. They also save you (the consumer) money, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Here are some fantastic figures (source):

- If every household replaced just one regular bulb with a CFL bulb, it would save enough energy to power a city of 1.5 million people, or all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island

-If every household replaced one bulb, it would be the equivalent of taking 1.3 million cars off the road in terms of greenhouse gas reduction

- The typical U.S. house has between 50-100 sockets. Each swirl bulb pays for itself in energy cost savings in just 5 months. And they each last 6-8 years - about 10x longer than regular bulbs.

These numbers reveal the incredible power of individuals to make big changes through small efforts. And since nearly 100 million households* already read this blog, the changes should happen by the end of the day today. But why not go buy a 4-pack for your home and just change 4 bulbs at once? Then tell 10 of your friends?

Look for the swirl bulb with the Energy Star on the box. Pick up a pack this weekend! Make it happen! I'm proud of you!

*Estimate