Health officials in Los Angeles were curious why "hundreds" of people got sick after a fundraising party at the Playboy Mansion last month. It turns out the Playboy Mansion is full of Legionnaire's disease! Which can lead to fatal respiratory failure, septic shock, and acute liver failure. Thought it's not likely!
It's nice to know that Parks and Recreation's April Ludgate is equally less-enthused when in space. Here's the first episode of CollegeHumor's Forcefield Troopers.
What's worse than sticking your hand down a public toilet? Gripping a shopping cart, apparently. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona found that of 87 shopping cart handles examined, 72 percent had markers for fecal matter. And of those 87 carts, 36 had E. coli. Just how bad is that?
A study by Dutch scientists found that people with full bladders showed better judgment when choosing between "small and immediate" rewards and "larger but delayed" awards, possibly because the parts of the brain involved in bladder control are involved in impulse control as well. This is, potentially, useful news; on the other hand, when we really have to pee the only decision we are prepared to make is where. [Telegraph]
Police arrived at actor/F-18 jet Charlie Sheen's house on Tuesday night and removed his twin boys from his custody, following allegations that he threatened his ex-wife Brooke Mueller on several occasions. (Mueller had obtained a restraining order against Sheen earlier in the day; she alleges that he threatened to "stab [her] eye with a pen knife" and, at another time, "cut [her] head off, put it in a box, and send it to [her] mom.")
Legislators in Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker was recently on the business end of an embarrassing prank telephone call, have decided that it is in their state's best interest to ban prank calls. A bill currently circulating in the Wisconsin legislature, authored by Sen. Mary Lazich and Rep. Mark Honadel, both Republicans, would prevent callers from using fake voices, or phone numbers, in order to "defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain any information of value from" the person on the other end of the line; those found guilty of prank calls could be subject to fines of as much as $10,000.
The Smithsonian has put up some 200,000 photographs of animals taken by dozens of motion-activated "camera traps" set up in around the world, and... they're kind of breathtaking. Not just in a "Ooh, animals are cool" way, either (though, come on, animals are totally cool)—in a "Wow, some of these are pretty amazing photographs" way. The intent, obviously, is to study animal behavior without needing smelly humans around, and not to take pretty pictures, but the pictures do end up being quite pretty—we're particularly partial, for example, to this set of beautiful black-and-whites shot in Kenya. (Above is an Asian black bear caught on camera in China). The best thing to do is go to the official site, find one of the cameras, and just click through all the photos it's taken. Animals! Right?
Teenagers and young adults who, in the words of the BBC, "use cannabis," are increasing their risk of psychosis, according to a new study. Of course, the link between psychosis and marijuana use is well-documented (remember that kid from high school? Who smoked all that weed? And then a few years later he left you a voicemail letting you know that he was in touch with the German Chancellor about the second coming?)—this study, however, seems to indicate that cannabis usage comes first, and not as a self-medication strategy for symptoms of psychosis:
The owl mascot of the Colombian soccer team Atletico Junior died on Sunday after being kicked off the field by Luis Moreno, a player for the opposing side. The owl was first hit by a ball in mid-pass; a refereee stopped the game and Moreno, apparently unclear on proper owl-moving techniques, kicked the animal. "I want to apologise to the fans," he said later. "I was not trying to hurt the owl. I did it to see if it would fly." [Sydney Morning Herald]
