http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/Curiosities and other things I come across in my reading but can't spend much time on. Sometimes scientific, sometimes not, with sources wherever possible. hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/618921A H a p p y a n d S a f e 4 t h o f J u l yhttp://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/618881Thousands of people flood a small Vietnamese village every day so Tran Van Muong can spit on them. Muong claims that the water he fills his mouth with and then sprays between his magic lips has the power to cure all diseases and ailments. He’s been called a charlatan, but high health care costs...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/618179Flying over a remote beach in northern Australia, a helicopter pilot spotted a crocodile – and crashed after swooping in for a better look. Dragging his injured passenger from the wreckage, the pilot buried him in sand up to his neck to stave off hypothermia (they were a safe distance from the...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/617902Herbivore: A Japanese man, who saves money, shuns sex, has a penchant for nice clothing, and prefers a quieter, less competitive lifestyle. This class of young men is taking hold in Japan. They are soushoku dansi – translated to “grass-eating boys” or, more commonly, “herbivores.” The term was...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/617368A Nova Scotia man wants to take Tim Hortons to the province’s human rights commission for not letting him drive his mobility scooter up to the drive-through of a local franchise. Tim Hortons, which bans scooters at drive-throughs for safety reasons, should find a way to get this man his coffee –...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/616849Harvard researchers have tripled the lifespan of a worm, C. elegans, with mutations that could greatly increase how long humans live. The scientists genetically engineered the worm’s somatic cells, which are involved in growth and behaviour but have a finite lifespan to act more like reproductive...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/616317After being given an egg rejected by its biological parents, two “gay” male penguins at a German zoo hatched a chick and are raising it as their own. The penguins, named Z and Vielpunkt, are two of six “gay” penguins at the Bremerhaven zoo, who’ve been seen trying to mate and even incubate...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/615974The first fully intact 17 th -century “witch bottle” has been unearthed in the UK. The bottles were used to ward off illnesses thought to result from a curse. Two hundred broken bottles have been found – this is the first chance scientists have had to see what they contained. Pins, along with the...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/615835Switzerland has taken a lot of flak recently for its refusal to give up the names of tax evasion suspects hiding in the country. To draw attention away from banking policies, the Swiss farmers’ union is releasing a “lingerie farming” calendar, featuring photos of greased-up, half naked men...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Nautikos367/615658When people sign up for Twitter, post once, then never return. By John Swansburg and Jeremy Singer-Vine Posted Monday, June 8, 2009, at 11:41 AM ET After examining some 300,000 Twitter accounts, a Harvard Business School professor reported last week that 10 percent of the service's users account...