The Foot-Long What?
Reading, And Other Discoveries of The Month
After almost a year of blogging, I’ve come across some rather strange ideas and happenings to write about. I don’t go looking for these oddities; they come to me. I read – I’m one of those pussy left-wing people who do things like that. Here then are some of the more peculiar snippets that caught my eye.
Filed under things that make you take a second look, ducks with foot-long penises. Talk about stiff competition. Yes, I too wondered who studies duck dicks and why. Dr. David McCracken of The University of Alaska does, and all the way back to 2001 he was doing it. He must be a real hit at parties.
In China there have been reported cases of Mahjong induced epilepsy. I can say with a degree of certainty that it may cause spontaneous REM sleep, or irreversible tedium, but this seems a bit radical.
Humans are not fit for human consumption. At least according to Randall Fitzgerald, who recently published yet another health book. Fitzgerald claims we are too filled with nasty chemicals and toxins and would not pass an FDA review. I need to cut back on red meat any way.
A new planet has been discovered that has the density of balsa wood. Consider, this is the largest planet ever discovered. It is 1.7 times the size of Jupiter. I don’t have a friggin’ clue how big Jupiter is, but it must be huge. But, I’m excited about this. Imagine the plane that could be carved from this sucker.
All this may seem silly, but here are some sobering statistics:
1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
These stats are courtesy of This University of Dayton site. These are the people, those who don’t read, who will choose the next president of the US. These are the folks who make policy, and laws and cook your food. Maybe, just maybe, if they read about duck pricks, that will lead to reading about more serious issues. And if we are very lucky, maybe we will never again have a prick in the White house like we have now. Okay, maybe that’s pushing it, but at least the odds are better with people who read.
