89 million condoms to be given out at Brazil's carnival

Image via Wikipedia

I first thought the number was a typo, but calls to the CIA's condom intelligence division have confirmed. The Brazilian health ministry will be handing out 89 million condoms during the Rio Carnival, long noted as the party of parties. This is up significantly from the 26 million they handed out at last years' carnival. I have to think this makes Carnival the sexiest place/time in the world, short of Charlie Sheen's mansion.

There is a good reason for this. According to health officials in Brazil,  630,000 people in Brazil are infected with the AIDS virus. Fair enough.  Party on!

Related articles

• Rio de Janiero celebrates opening of Carnival (cbsnews.com)

Economist compares Chinese provinces to countries

This is a fascinating look at the provinces of China,  and how they rank when compared to various countries in the worldfrom the Economist. China as a whole, has the second largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. ,  but it's interesting to see just how strong some of the component economies are. From their report:

"Guangdong's GDP (at market exchange rates) is almost as big as Indonesia's; the output of both Jiangsu and Shandong exceeds Switzerland’s."

" Guangdong exports as much as South Korea, Jiangsu as much as Taiwan. Shanghai’s GDP per person is as high as Saudi Arabia’s"

Click on the graphic to go to the Economist's interactive graphic. It's worth looking at.

They have also compared stated in the U.S. to countries of the world. From the report:

"California on its own would rank as one of the biggest economies of the world. These days, it would rank eighth, falling between Italy and Brazil on a nominal exchange-rate basis."

"Who would have thought that, despite years of auto-industry hardship, the economy of Michigan is still the same size as Taiwan's?"

Click on the map to go to the Economist's interactive map.

Video: House lifted by balloons to 10,000 feet

The real life "Up"! Watch this house being lifted by 300 helium balloons in southern California to a height of 10,000 feet. The stunt will be part of the upcoming National Geographic series "How Hard Can it Be" :

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

World's largest shark jaw up for auction

What is being billed as the world's largest  shark jaw is up for auction at the Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas in June. Reserve bid: a cool $625,000 plus buyers premium. That's a lot of cabbage but then again that's a lot of teeth.

Here's part of the description about the jaw: "The ferocious Megalodon was the largest predaceous shark ever to have swum the oceans of our planet; completely dominating the marine food chain for almost twenty million years. That it could reach the length of two city buses is immediately apparent from this tremendous, astonishing jaw, containing 182 first-class fossil teeth, each with superb enamel coverage, coloring, serrations, and measuring up to 7 5/8 inches along the diagonal, amongst the largest Megalodon teeth ever discovered." 

Care to place your bid? Click here. 

Related articles

• Rare Beatles Cover Album Goes On Auction (wcbsfm.radio.com)

Lady Gaga suing human breast milk ice cream maker

Image by Jazmin Million via Flickr

The thought of ice cream made from human breast milk is sickening to begin with. Is this really a product people want? Capital FM is reporting that Lady Gaga is suing a London ice cream parlour over their new flavor "Baby Gaga", which is indeed made from breast milk. Business owner Matt O'Connor told AOL News the he sees the flavor as more of a tribute. "We named it 'Baby Gaga' because she's the queen of 'shock and roll,'" O'Connor told AOL News when the flavour was introduced Feb. 25. "Some people are turned off by the idea, but, really, it raises the philosophical question: Is it better if we use milk from cows injected with hormones who are artificially induced with pregnancy every few months, or human milk?" O'Connor said.

Count me among the "turned off".  Good luck to you Lady Gaga.

Video: The 1st annual "Crackhead Tossing Competition"

No typo here. As billed. I'm sure the Olympic committee is looking into this for the upcoming Stupidity Games.

Crashed plane in Google Maps images

Somewhere over Alameda, CA this plane crash was picked up in a Google Maps image:

School apoligizes for mock slave auction

Image via Wikipedia

An Ohio school district apologized after Chapelfield Elementary School put on a mock slave auction in an American history lesson. Ten year old Nikko Burton, who is black, was not amused. "I ended up being a slave. At first I didn't care, but after people were bidding on people it kind of made me a little mad and stuff."

The class was divided into slaves and masters. Students who were playing the role of master were told to feel the students playing slaves to see if they were worth buying, according to Burton. "They got to look in your mouth and feel your legs and stuff and see if you're strong and stuff."

A school district spokeswoman said the slave auction was part of state required curriculum and that it was a one-time lesson.

This leaves me wondering if they have been using old issues of the National Lampoon for lesson plans.

Related articles

• Chapelfield Elementary School Sorry For Making Black Student 'Slave' (huffingtonpost.com)

Video: Testing jetpack on skis @47mph - awesome (sort of)

Dare devil and sometime stuntman Troy Hartman is shown here testing out his new jetpack on skis. He had this to say about it: "50% throttle yielded a speed of 47 mph. A second set of test runs demonstrated ascents of black diamond rated slopes. More details to follow at troyhartman.com ."



Testing New Jetpack on Skis - Troy Hartman from Troy Hartman on Vimeo.

Christchurch earthquake rock that destroyed house up for auction

The owner of a large boulder that destroyed his house in Christchurch, New Zealand during the recent earthquake has put the offending boulder –– nicknamed "Rocky" –– up for auction. The current bidding is up to $8,150.00. Proceeds are going to the Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fund.

"For sale 1 owner 25 - 30 tonne landscape feature (answers to the name Rocky) ...
He is in pristine condition (just a little bit of concrete dust). Suitable for garden feature, or as in our case a magnificent addition to your living area.
Rocky will enhance your "indoor outdoor" flow considerably, especially if you load him in through the garage roof like we did.
Sorry, but we are unable to deliver Rocky but would be happy for you to pick him up and roll him away (please mind our neighbours when you do) :-)
Highest bid (should there be one) gets personalised photo with Rocky (when cordon lifts) and of course a wonderful addition to your home."

 

Click here to go to the auction site

Libraries fight privatization with really dumb video

Libraries in Camarillo, Santa Clarita and Ventura (California) are being targeted for privitization. I'm not condoning or condemning this, but this is a really dumb video:

Click here to go to their website.

Laid off steel workers burn company executive to death

Norm from Cheers

Layoffs are always difficult and emotional. We've all heard the stories or disgruntled workers coming back to seek vengeance after being fired. In India, it appears, handing out those pink slips is even more dangerous. After learning they were laid off at a steel factory, a mob of fired workers burned a senior executive to death. The mob apparently attacked the exec's Jeep, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. Police are detaining two people in the case. 

They might just want to think about hiring Norm from Cheers to give the bad news next time.

Charlie Sheen is paid to tweet

This from AdFreak.com:  "As you may have noticed, Charlie Sheen just set a new Guinness World Record for being the fastest person ever to reach 1 million Twitter followers....  But he's not just on Twitter for kicks—or to impress more people with the ramblings of his newly enlightened self. He's on it to make money by endorsing products. As GQ reports, Sheen's handlers reached out to Los Angeles-based digital company ad.ly, which set up his Twitter account. Ad.ly specializes in marketing partnerships with celebs, getting folks like Snoop Dogg and Kim Kardashian (and now Sheen) to recommend products and services in exchange for cash (in Kim's case, supposedly $10,000 per tweet). Sheen confirms to TMZ that it's all about the money. ("I'm unemployed!" he points out.) He has yet to make an overt pitch through the account (unless Tigerblood is his forthcoming soft drink), and it remains to be seen whose products he'll endorse. Presumably he will start by peddling his own fragrance. UPDATE: More details here from Brian Morrissey. "We want to be top of mind if they think about monetizing it," says ad.ly CEO Arnie Gullov-Singh. "He may never think of monetizing it.""

How NASA recovers the rocket boosters from the Shuttle

I have always wondered what happened to those rocket boosters that are expelled by the Space Shuttle (RIP) during takeoff. Here's a series or photos from NASA shwoing ust how they recover them from the ocean.

From NASA "The shuttle’s two solid rocket booster casings and associated flight hardware are recovered in the Atlantic Ocean after every launch by Liberty Star and Freedom Star. The boosters impact the Atlantic about seven minutes after liftoff and the retrieval ships are stationed about 10 miles from the impact area at the time of splashdown."

 Credit: Frank Michaux, Ben Smegelsky/NASA

Click here to see more

Sirius XM launching radio station devoted to Charlie Sheen

The feeding frenzy continues. Sirius XM is launching "Tiger Blood Radio" devoted to all things Charlie Sheen. The station will be totally devoted to "breaking news, facts, fallout and career implications of the Charlie Sheen controversy," according a company statement. It will broadcast for 24 hours beginning March 5 at 6 a.m. until March 6 at 6 a.m. 

Sheen declared he had "Tiger Blood" in interviews this week  and it has gone on to become a Twitter trending topic this week.

For the first time I am happy not to have satellite radio!

The new Viagra: Banana spider bite will cause four hour erection

Image via Wikipedia

This is one of those good news/bad news stories. The venom from the Banana Spider, also know as the Wandering Spider, will cause a four hour erection. That's the good news. The bad news is that the condition,called priapism, is actually a painful condition where erections last four hours or more and require medical attention. More bad news: It can also cause loss of muscle control, severe pain, difficulty breathing and death due to oxygen deprivation.

A little more good news, though: Scientists in Brazil have managed to isolate the toxin in the venom that causes priapism and believe it may lead to a new drug for ER (erectile dysfunction for those of you that don't watch TV).

For the moment I would avoid that trip to the banana plantation you might be planning.

Chocolate factory in controlled by iPhone app

This is very cool. This chocolate factory uses an iPhone app to control most of of its manufacturing processes. Willie Wonka would be impressed.  Have a look:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Man must pay $2,000 every time he smokes a cigar in his home

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This has got to be one of the craziest legal settlements ever.

The New York Post reports that Harry Lysons, 70, of Manhattan has to pay $2,000 every time he lights up a cigar in his home. He must pay his neighbors, Russell and Amanda Poses, $2,000 every time he smokes a cigar in his apartment. If he doesn't pay within 15 days, he will have to pay another $1,500. His neighbours were suing him for $2 million, so this is a bit of a deal, I suppose.

The neighbours claim that the smell from the cigars created "foul and noxious odors ... that the strong [odor] was so pungent that you can't eat dinner." The Poses also alleged that the cigars created  breathing problems and ear infections for their children.

Lysons' attorney Jeffrey Marcus said that his client had no plans to quit smoking cigars. That-a-boy Harry!

Funny Commercial: McDonald's Shamrock Shake 1983

The McDonalds website says, "It all began with a little girl, a football team, and a visionary doctor."

The Shamrock Shake was developed in 1970, according to McDonald's. Delish.com, however, is reporting that Harold Rosen, who owned a McDonald's in Connecticut, claims he invented the popular holiday drink in 1966. Whatever. The drink has raised enough money to buy a four-story house which was the first Ronald McDonald House Charity.

This just gives The Cry Baby a reason to show you this very funny commercial from 1983:



Also see Sexy Japanese McDonald's Commercial

Sexy Japanese McDonald's commercial

It's just not fair. We get stuck with that dumbo clown Ronald McDonald and the Japanese get this!



Also see McDonald's 1983 Shamrock Shake commercial