Weight Loss Wonders: Tips and Tricks

To prepare for Halloween, let’s look at fauna that could easily find a place in the local novelty shop as dismembered people parts. These are not the odd potato or pumpkin the grew into the shape of a butt. These plants and fungi come out looking like human bits every single time. 10- Bleeding Tooth Fungus The hood of Hydnellum pecki comes in various shapes, and when it oozes a red, sticky substance, it could easily be mistaken for a bloody tooth dropped on the ground. The substance is sap, forced out of cap’s pores during the night by excess moisture that builds up in the roots. This only happens when the fungus is young. Another name for Hydenellum pecki is “strawberries and cream,” but don’t eat it. While it is not poisonous, the peppery, bitter taste makes it inedible. The fungus also absorbs from the environment the heavy element cesium-137, a radioactive isotope that could be toxic at sufficient levels. Found throughout American and Eurasia, bleeding tooth fungi usually ...

Prison populations are a huge problem throughout the world. Prisons are expensive to run and can turn into “How to be a better criminal 101,” yet some of those who are incarcerated are among the most evil and vicious people of our societies. Do we try and rehabilitate inmates or punish them? With overcrowding it doesn’t make sense to keep more and more people in prison for longer and longer jail sentences. Money should be spent to teach the inmates to find a legal way of living outside the prison walls. The easiest way to encourage inmates is by offering to reduce their sentences if they better themselves or complete some sort of repentance for their crimes. While those are the mainstream ideas for reducing prison sentences, some prisons have some pretty out of the box concepts on what actions can get an inmate out early. 10. Knitting for the Future Brazil has over 200,000 more prisoners than its jails were designed to hold. The overcrowding creates a powder keg of violence, m...

The basics of staying healthy seem pretty easy to follow: Eat well, exercise, get enough sleep and you should be on the right track, right? Surprisingly, it can be more complicated than that. Oftentimes the very choices we make to benefit our health can be the same ones that hurt us in the long run. Read on to learn which unexpected habits — like brushing your teeth after every meal or slipping into a pair of comfortable sandals — might be causing you harm. 1. Compulsively using hand sanitizer. If you reach for hand sanitizer any time you make contact with the outside world, you might want to take pause. Unless you're in an especially germ-prone place like a hospital, soap and water will work just fine, says Richard Gallo, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Dermatology at the University of California-San Diego. When you're not near a sink, hand sanitizing gels can help, but be sure to read the label first. Recent research has shown that those containing triclosan may p...

Every year, creative minds from around the globe come up with great new innovations — ideas that may make you exclaim "Why didn't I think of that?" This is a list of a few great ideas that have debuted so far in 2014. They are attention-grabbing because they are either eco-friendly or just super cool. Enjoy. XStat Originally the idea of military veterans who saw the need for such an innovation first-hand and engineers at a Portland-based startup company called RevMedx, this simple pocket-sized invention has the potential to save lives on the battlefield as well as many other situations. The XStat is a syringe filled with sponges that are covered in chitosan. Chitosan is a substance that fights infection and clots blood to stop bleeding more effectively. When someone is in need of the XStat, medics are instructed to insert the syringe deep into the wound and inject the sponges to quickly stop the bleeding. It is estimated that between 2001 and 2009, up to 80 perce...

Big bugs The largest insects that ever lived were dragonfly-like bugs of the order Protodonata, sometimes referred to as griffinflies. They had wingspans of nearly 2.5 feet across and huge mandibles, making them formidable predators. Thankfully, they went extinct a long time ago at the end of the Paleozoic Era. Although insects can't grow quite that large in today's world, there are a few that are nevertheless large enough to give even seasoned entomologists a good fright. Titan beetle The Amazon rain forest is home to many large beetles, but none of them compares in length to the titan beetle, Titanus giganteus. This gargantuan insect has mandibles that can easily snap a pencil in half, and reportedly they can rip into human flesh, too. Believe it or not, this beetle is actually a draw for adventurous tourists, and many ecotourism agencies in South America advertise pictures of them in their pamphlets. Like many beetles, the titan beetle can emit a loud hissing sound...

Many of us have visited a lake, perhaps camping on its shores or swimming in its cooling waters. But how often do we question what lies beneath us in the inky depths, or what events might have transpired on its gentle shores? While often beautiful and serene, there is also something decidedly foreboding about a lake. Its calm surface may conceal a turbulent past and decades of history can remain forgotten beneath its waters, just waiting to be rediscovered. This list highlights 10 spectacular lakes from around the world, each of which conceals a decidedly sinister past. 10- Coniston Water, England Lady In The Lake Coniston Water is situated in a northern England area known as the Lake District . An area of amazing natural beauty, the Lake District is an extremely popular tourist destination and a hot spot for outdoor sports enthusiasts. Coniston Water is the third largest lake in the Lake District. Its calm waters attract hundreds of canoeists and kayakers every year, who gen...