A pet collar that talks and keeps fleas at bay?

It’s common knowledge that owning a pet can have many health benefits. A pet can reduce stress and anxiety, help to combat loneliness and even encourage you to exercise. So it’s no wonder that we want to keep them safe from harm. This pet collar from Riddex apparently protects your furry friend in two ways – if your pet goes missing, it literally “tells” people how to contact you and it also uses safe ultrasonic pulses to repel fleas.

The collar could eliminate the need for nasty flea sprays and chemicals as the safe ultrasonic pulses are apparently sufficient to deter fleas. The recordable pet tag allows you to record a message to identify your pet and leave relevant contact information. You may even want to leave reward details. Then, if your pet goes missing, it may be more likely that he is returned safely to you.

This collar is possibly a novelty item, but if it does as it promises, it could save you a buck or two in flea treatments. The collar comes with batteries and retails for USD $24.99 from Picket Fence.

Two Headed Snake – Amazing Nature

This is a rare two headed snake found by a farmer in a village in Alicante, Spain. The chances of a two headed snake surviving in the wild is very slim as both would often fight over which head will swallow the prey as well as difficulty in deciding which direction to go.

Shri Shanidev: The Doorless Village

Shani Shingnapur is a small village in Maharashtra, India that has been depending on their deity for crime prevention measures and thus, has so far avoided using doors, windows or even locks.

Such is their faith in Shri Shanidev (Hindu God of Saturn), that they unofficially ban people from having normal safety mechanisms like latches, windows  and doors.

The people of the town claim that ever since the deity’s idol was set up in the village around 150 years ago, no one has experienced theft or any such grievances.

However, there is some discrepancy about the exact nature and number of crime instances.

Many point out that there has not been a theft in their time, while others note that thieves are always attempting to rob them but that their deity always sends the items back to them.

On the other hand, the village chief from 2004 was forthcoming about crime deterrence factors in Shani Shinhnapur.

According to her, “There have been no robberies in the village. When someone has tried they have gone blind and unless they confessed they were unable to leave the village.”

She did however end the account with this statement: “We keep our money in banks that have been built outside the village”.

As for the idol in question, it is a tall black rock that stands at approximately 5 feet.

Locals state that, years ago, villagers found this rock amongst the debris brought by a bad flood. They were mystified by its texture and overall look and were even more surprised to find that the rock bled after being poked and probed with sticks.

Initial fear of the black stone gave way to wonder when people started having dreams that linked it to Lord Shani. Soon they received instructions through their dreams to construct an open-roof shrine for this earthly representation of their deity.

The roofless feature was followed by the doorless village concept, both of which emphasized the close bond between Lord Shani and his people.

Their rituals also followed this basic idea where pilgrims and patrons did not require the help of a priest for darshans (prayers).

However, there are some limits in this special relationship. The deity has placed a restraining order of sorts against women and thus, they can only worship him from afar.

Nonetheless, the shrine and the quirky details of its surrounds are accepted by men and women alike.

In fact, this religious structure is one of the most popular temples in the country.

Indian Man Has 5 Kidneys.

Many people in need of a transplant struggle to receive just one organ.

But a photographer from Khaira Dona village, in the northwest state of Punjab, India, is now living with five kidneys.

Since 2004, Jaswant has undergone three transplant surgeries to replace his failed kidneys. With each procedure, the 33 year-old gained a new kidney from a family member, while the non-functioning organs remained in his body.

During kidney transplants, the failed organ is often left in the body to reduce the risk of death and complications that can result from removing it. Yet only an exceptional handful of such transplant recipients can claim to have had the procedure multiple times, like Jaswant.

Determined to “make it this time,” Jaswant received his latest kidney from his 55 year-old mother more than a month ago.

Jaswant had his first transplant surgery at age 25. The organ, which was donated by his older sister, functioned for more than a year. “However, my body rejected the kidney once I stopped post-operation medication because of financial constraints,” he said.

Two years later, Jaswant received another kidney, this time from his younger sister. After 14 months, he was placed back on dialysis, after his body rejected the organ of yet another family member.

While discussing his latest transplant, Jaswant cited his family’s “determination to see me live,” adding, “this time my mother, 55, gave me her bean shaped organ.”

Jaswant’s family makes a modest living—his brother is a driver and his father sells milk. Doctors from India’s National Kidney Hospital were so impressed by the young photographer’s story and the determination of his family, that they performed Jaswant’s most recent transplant surgery for free.

Rajesh Agrawal, the transplant surgeon who conducted the procedure along with doctor’s Suresh Aggarawal and Sanjay Mittal; said Jaswant is not the first person in this part of India to undergo multiple kidney transplants.

“The case is second in the region, where a third kidney transplant surgery has been done successfully. The earlier three transplants in the country were conducted at Hyderabad, Lucknow and Delhi,” doctor Agrawal said.

Korean Woman Spends 10 Million on Driving Tests.

Cha Sa-Soon, an elderly South Korean woman, has inadvertently reaffirmed age-old jokes about female drivers by closing on a world record for most failed driver’s tests. The 68 year old pensioner from the Wanju county has failed the theory section 775 times.

Cha first tried out for the written exam in April 2005 and has faired miserably ever since.

Her scores always fell into the 30-50% range where the pass rate required a 60% score.

Since her first attempt, she has been showing up almost every weekday for the same exam for the past few years.

Applicants are charged 6,000 won for every attempt and the Driver’s License Agency in Cha’s district, where she has been setting this fail record, figures that the the sum total of all unsuccessful attempts probably add up to 4,000,000 won ($3,000).

They also state that additional expenses like transport costs probably raise this figure to 10,000,000 won ($6,800).

Ironically, hefty transport costs may have been the reason why Cha has not enrolled in a driving school to help her through her exams. As it happens, most of the driving schools were located in urban settings, far from Cha’s hometown.

Thus, she has opted to rely on guidebooks for the past few years.

However, Cha is undeterred by her failure and believes that practice makes perfect.

“I believe you can achieve your goal if you persistently pursue it,” she says. “So don’t give up your dream, like me. Be strong and do your best.”

Her ultimate dream is to purchase a truck so as to build a business based on a door-to-door sales endeavor. The current mode of transport for her goods is a handcart.

If and when Cha succeeds, she will then venture into the practical aspect of getting a license  driving an actual vehicle!

The Goonch: Vicious Human-Eating Mutant Catfish

The Great Kali is a river that flows along the India-Nepal border. Ordinarily a rather serene location, a mutant, vicious catfish has been terrorizing natives who fear swimming and meeting up with the goonch who eats people (not to be confused with the grinch who ate Christmas).

This creature, a giant catfish, looks like a reject from a horror movie, and is all the more disturbing because it is dangerous and very, very real!

Scientists fear that the fish, originally a bottom feeder scavenger, began eating humans after developing a taste for flesh from feeding on burnt corpses dumped into the river after funerals.

Investigated by English biologist, Jeremy Wade and slated for a television documentary, the goonch is considered an endangered species.

In the past, locals speared them unmercifully in shallow waters and today electricity and dynamite are often utilized. Most anglers destroy the specimens they catch without even eating them.

How big are goonches? The largest one caught weighed in at 161 pounds and was nearly 6 feet long, which is a world record weight and far bigger than any landed before. If one of these critters likes the way you look, it’s goodbye to you!

Is the goonch after revenge?

While that may not be likely, reports of swimmers being dragged underneath the surface by unseen forces are documented and well-known.

Snake with a Foot Discovered in China.

A snake measuring sixteen inches long has been discovered in China by Dean Qiongxiu, making its grand entrance by clinging to the bathroom wall with a clawed talon.

Unfortunately, its life was cut short when she beat it to death with a shoe as it attempted to defy evolution and scurry across the wall using its single foot. Preserving the specimen in alcohol, it was turned over to the Department of Life Sciences at West Normal University in Nanchang.

According to resident snake expert Long Shuai, the cause of the foot remains unknown, though an autopsy may reveal why. This biological anomaly is in a way similar to the growth of an extra head, which shares similarities in the way humans develop into conjoined twins.

Unlike two-headed snakes, however, human conjoined twins don’t often attack each other. A snake with two heads has little chance of surviving for a long time in the wild, though one can only guess the physical limitations or advantages a snake with an extra foot might have.

It’s only a matter of time before regular snakes evolve into walking monsters and take over the world.

Return of the Burger (and Hot Dog) King Takeru Kobayashi

We haven’t heard much from the Japanese eating legend since 2007, when Joey Chestnut beat him at the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Championship, downing an unbelievable 66 franks and buns in 12 minutes.
In the years since, the 31-year-old eating machine didn’t exactly throw in the napkin. He’s competed at various Major League Eating Events, but he hasn’t dominated the sport as he once did.

All that changed over the weekend. The man some call “The Tsunami” came roaring back to beat Chestnut and other top eaters at the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Championship, wolfing down 68 Krystals and five “Big Angus” burgers in 8 minutes for a total of 93 points.
“It is satisfying,” Kobayashi said, after pulling up his shirt to show the crowd his chiseled chest and rock-solid abs.
“I have wanted to get back on top and this win makes me feel like a champion again. I will be back next year and hope to beat my own record. It is me against myself.”

Bangladesh awards farmer who killed 83,000 rats.

Bangladesh on Wednesday awarded a farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a monthlong campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and reduce the need for food imports. Mokhairul Islam, 40, won a first prize of a color television for killing some 83,450 rats in the past nine months in Gazipur district near the South Asian country’s capital, Dhaka. He collected their tails for proof.

“I am so happy to get this honor,” Islam told The Associated Press after receiving a 14-inch television and a certificate amid cheers at an official ceremony packed with 500 farmers and officials. “I had no idea that the government gives prizes for this.”

This is an exciting moment. I will continue to kill them,” he vowed.

Officials say the impoverished nation imports some 3 million tons of food annually, while the Ministry of Agriculture estimates that rodents annually destroy 1.5 million to 2 million tons of food.

“We can cut the import of food by at least half if we can succeed in this year’s campaign,” said Wais Kabir, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council.

He asked everyone, especially farmers, to take on the killing mission as a sport. The government has said it will train mainly farmers and students for this year’s campaign.

“Killing rats is not that easy, it needs training,” Kabir said.

Islam said he mainly used poison to kill the rats at his poultry farm, and that the cull has paid off as the rodents now scavenged less.

“Previously I needed 33 sacks of poultry feed per week, now I need less than 30,” he said.

Fakhrul Haque Akanda, a farmer from northern Bangladesh and the second-prize winner, killed some 37,450 rats mostly with traps, some he invented.

“These bloody rats are my enemy, they destroy my gardens,” Akanda said.

“Please pray for me so that I can continue my mission, and teach and motivate others to join me,” he told the audience before taking his prize, also a television.

Last year, the U.N. World Food Program launched a monthslong food aid project in the country’s southeast after a plague of rats devoured rice crops.

Schwarzenegger asked to close prostitute Website

A British government minister asked California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to shut down a U.S. website that allows men to rate prostitutes, including many working in London.

Harriet Harman, minister for women and equality, told the ruling Labor Party’s annual conference that “Punternet” fuels the demand for prostitution — a vice she said degrades women and puts them at risk.

She said the web site was a “very sinister development” in the trade and exploitation of women and allows guests to compare and rate services in the same way as they would a restaurant, a hotel or a holiday.

Pimps put women on sale for sex on the site then clients offered their comments on line, she said.

“Punternet has pages and pages of women for sale in London,” said Harman, who is deputy leader of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labor Party.

She said she had raised the issue with the U.S. ambassador to Britain and asked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to close it down as it is based in that state.

“Surely it can’t be too difficult for ‘The Terminator’ to terminate Punternet and that’s what I am demanding that he does.”

The Punternet site describes itself as “The Online Community for Patrons and Providers of Adult Personal Services in the UK” and says it was “created to facilitate the exchange of information on prostitution in the UK.”

Prostitution is not illegal in Britain. But associated activities, including soliciting, advertising using cards in telephone boxes and kerb crawling, are criminal offences.

The minister also used the speech to say the government would make it a criminal offence to have sex with a prostitute who is being controlled by a pimp.

The government was also stepping up action to tackle human trafficking in the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games, most of which will be hosted in London.

“We’re determined to ensure that, especially in the run-up to the Olympics, international criminal gangs don’t trick and abduct women from abroad and sell them for sex in London.”