Ever watched a cooking show and wished you could sample the finished product? A professor in Japan has created a TV screen that you can lick to taste a particular food that is being shown on the screen. Workers spray flavors on a film that rolls over the TV screen. Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita sees it like this: “The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home,” he said. Miyashita said a commercial version of the TV could be made for about $875.
Seizure Stigma
Seizures are frightening enough, but seizures caused by tapeworms add an element of “eww.” According to doctors in Massachusetts, an otherwise healthy 38-year-old man had had dead tapeworm cysts lodged in his brain for decades in a relatively rare form of infestation called “neurocysticercosis.” When these cysts become stuck in the brain, they can cause pressure, inflammation and neurological symptoms that are sometimes confused for brain tumors. But symptoms may not manifest for years. This man’s cysts caused no problems until three years ago, when he fell out of bed, “shaking and speaking gibberish.” He then had a two-minute seizure on the way to the hospital. But he was discharged after five days of treatment and remains in good health today.
I Feel Like There’s Something In My Shoe
In Aswan, Egypt, recent inclement weather, including vicious rain, dust storms and snow, has forced hordes of scorpions from their usual hiding places and into homes and streets. Three people have died so far from scorpion stings, and 450 have been injured. The injured are being treated with antivenom. Health officials had to recruit doctors who were on vacation to help with the influx of patients.
Bad Alexa!
When bad Christmas weather kept Kristin Livdahl and her 10-year-old daughter inside, they looked for fun things to do, like “laying down and rolling over while holding a shoe on your foot,” Livdahl explained on Twitter. When the child asked Amazon’s Alexa for a challenge, it suggested she plug a charger cord about halfway into a wall, then hold a penny against the exposed prongs. Fortunately, Livdahl was there and yelled, “No, Alexa, no!” “I was talking to it like it was a dog,” she said. Later, Livdahl received an email from Amazon, apologizing for the incident and promising to follow up.
Clout Trumps Profits
With the help of friends, Missouri man Kyle Scheele made a cardboard cutout of himself “jamming out with a ‘pizza guitar’” and advertising something called the “Kyle Scheele Meal.” He then placed the cutout in a local gas station and waited to see how long his prank would last. But after the fake ad went viral on TikTok, convenience store chain Kum & Go made the Scheele Meal real. It included a Red Bull and a pizza sandwich, “which is just two pieces of pizza smashed face-to-face,” Scheele said. The promotion ran for about a week, with Kum & Go donating $2 of every $5 meal to the charity No Kid Hungry.
Conspiracy Theory Waiting To Happen
Residents of Barwell, a small English town, have been dealing with an unexplained noise for about a year. It’s been described as “a humming noise,” a “low-frequency droning sound” and a “horrible din” that never stops. Resident Ange Redshaw said, “At night, even lying on the pillow, you can feel the vibration. It’s that loud. During the day, I can hear it over traffic noise.” And now it seems to be spreading. Brian Heath, a resident of nearby Stapleton, says he has heard the “slow, rolling, rumbling sound” for a few weeks. “It’s quite a heavy noise … You can feel the pressure on your body,” he said. No cause has yet been identified.
What Goes Around Comes Around
In 2019, Kelly Stewart of Richfield, Utah, found a ring while using his metal detector in the yard of an abandoned home. It’s a 10-karat gold ring from the 1943 class of the Colorado School of Mines, inscribed with the initials “R.W.D.” Kelly found a 1948 yearbook from the school on eBay. It revealed the name of the ring’s likely owner: Richard William Deneke. Deneke is nearing his 100th birthday at a nursing home in Georgia. Stewart plans to mail the ring back to him.
I Spy A Teddy Bear
A stuffed bear named Teddy was the first gift Ben and Addie Pascal of Jackson Hole, Wyo., sent to their daughter Naomi before adopting her in 2016. Naomi, who is now 6, brought Teddy on family trips to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Croatia, Greece, and, most recently, to Glacier National Park in Montana. By the time the family realized Teddy was lost, snowfall had closed the higher elevations of the park for the season. Ranger Tom Mazzarisi found Teddy on a trail and couldn’t bring himself to throw out the toy, instead keeping it as a mascot on his dashboard all winter. Nearly a year later, the Pascals’ family friend Terri Hayden visited Glacier and spotted a stuffed bear in a ranger’s truck. After confirming it was Teddy, Mazzarisi returned the bear — along with a junior park ranger badge and ranger hat.
Soul Train Endures
Cable network BET broke a Guinness World Record in Harlem by recruiting 536 people to dance in the world’s longest “Soul Train line.” The line included original dancers from the Soul Train TV show, as well as a marching band and hundreds of local residents. A Guinness official was there to make sure participants followed the rules, including dancing “in pairs for at least 40 feet to qualify as a ‘Soul Train.’” The group took the record from Goodyear Ballpark in Arizona, which gathered a 426-person Soul Train line in 2014.
What Happens To Your Old Cans Of Shaving Cream
Gina Sheldon of Portsmouth, N.H., came home from Europe and opened her luggage to find $3,000 worth of gifts missing. The items had been “replaced with dog food, an old T-shirt and a shaving cream can,” Sheldon said; she believes those items were used because they look like “real luggage products” when scanned. She had spent 11 days in Italy and a few in Paris. She believes the switcheroo happened in the baggage area of Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris. Sheldon had bought a leather jacket for her teenager and “these really cute leather wristlet band purses” for other family and friends. Delta Airlines and their partner Air France are looking into the incident.
When You Just Can’t Have Twinkly Lights
The vendor who usually installs holiday lighting at Mears Park in St. Paul, Minn., declined to take the job after squirrels chewed through the wires in 2020. Lee Ann LaBore, co-chair of the Friends of Mears Park, said, “our vendor reuses the lights, and they can’t afford to … have the squirrels destroy them again,” she said. Instead, in 2021, organizers used a projector with kaleidoscopelike moving images of snowflakes. People “want to see the twinkly lights,” LaBore said. “Well, we can’t have twinkly lights. It was probably this or nothing.”
Stop Burning The Make-Believe Goats!
Since 1966, the city of Gavle, Sweden, has erected a huge straw goat in its downtown square at Christmastime. The goats are pagan symbols that preceded Santa Claus as a bringer of gifts; like him, they brought gifts to children. But in what has become an adjunct to the town’s tradition, the goats have been torched dozens of times during the past 55 years, including in 2021. Police arrested a suspect in his 40s who had soot on his hands and matched a description from witnesses.
You’re Going To Need A Bigger Gift Box
Suyin Ting, collections manager for vertebrate paleontology at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, is retiring. So researchers in Alabama and South Carolina have honored her with a unique gift: they named a prehistoric shark species after her. Carcharhinus tingae lived 40 million years ago. It was identified using fossilized teeth in the museum’s collection. “I am very honored to be recognized by my peers for my work,” said Ting on her retirement day.
Give Me Extra Fries And A Bike Ride
McDonald’s locations in Guangdong and Shanghai, China, are testing new in-store seating: exercise bikes. A spokesperson said the bikes are part of McDonald’s Upcycle for Good initiative, which promotes sustainability. They generate electricity, which customers can use to charge their devices. Oh, and they help customers stay healthier while gobbling a Big Mac and fries.
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