Crabs on Drugs

It's bath salts, but with crustaceans...

Scientists are constantly warning us about all of the crap we're pouring into the ocean and the results are stacking up. From garbage patches floating around to whale stomachs inflated with plastic to our own food being so full of mercury that we can't even eat it, there's obviously problems.

Now scientists have discovered that our medications are mixing up in the ocean and making areas so drug-infused that animals are feeling the effects. It happens along the coast and can include a cocktail of prescription drugs or even caffeine. In this case, crabs are getting high on prozac of all things and killing one another. 

Have you heard of any freaky ways humans continue to destroy the planet this week? Share your findings here at the chat.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Animals

Animals in Amniotic Sacs

Check out these freaky photos

You're probably already familiar with how a human fetus appears in an amniotic sac. It's pretty weird-looking; in fact, it could be more alien than human in some people's eyes. But have you seen dogs, crocodiles, snakes and other creatures in THEIR amniotic sacs? If not, definitely head to this page that will show you lots of photos. Keep in mind that it is pretty freaky!

I think the gecko photo is my favorite in the bunch. It's so colorful and actually looks like a gecko--more like one than a human fetus looks like a human, anyway! Some of these photos are animals in early stages of development while others are animals that were just born, still in their amniotic sacs. 

Which photo did you like best (or find most disturbing)? Share any photos you find of animals in amniotic sacs in the chat.

 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Animals

Freaky Wikipedia Pages

Share the weirdest you've found

If you're like me (and a lot of other people), you can fall into the black hole that is the Internet for hours reading useless but interesting information. Buzzfeed is one of the biggest fun black pits that exists and right now they have an article up about the scariest pages on Wikipedia that you have to check out if you love the strange, macabre and downright terrifying.

The creepo in the picture above who was so obsessed with a woman that he waxed her body to keep it near him for years gave me actual shivers and that's just the first entry. From whole body transplants to dead people being photographed, it's not for reading at night unless you like staying up forever without sleep.

What freaky Wikipedia pages did they miss? Which ones have you run across that make you have nightmares? Share them in the chat.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Culture

Run Your Phone From Your Bloodstream

Think it's not possible?

You probably already knew that electricity can run through your body. These days five-year-olds know this when they play with science kits from the library. But did you know that scientists can actually harvest that electricity and use it? Scientists in China have announced that they've developed a device that harvests electricity from our blood. 

It's a long, thin fiber that harvests electricity from blood movement and the results are pretty amazing, comparable to the effectiveness of a solar panel. We're not saying you will be able to charge your phone with your own blood someday soon... but we're also saying it's not impossible. In fact, the implications could be many. People might be able to run their own pace makers on their blood someday!

What do you think of this technology? Share your thoughts in the chat below.

 

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Science

Sunscreen Made From DNA

It's not only real but quite effective

Humans make a lot of things out of other creatures, and some of them are things that we really shouldn't make. I cried when I read about what we're doing to horseshoe crabs. We're going to wipe their species out if we don't find an alternative.

A "bandaid-like" sunscreen made from DNA that ensconces your flesh may not only protect you from the sun but actually improve at protecting you over time. This may be a required device not too far in the future if temperatures continue to rise, but what is professor Guy German's device actually made out of? The thin DNA film sounds like it may have to be based on human DNA (will it have to match your own when you wear it?) but I could see scientists experimenting with animal DNA to get it going.

What do you think of DNA "sunscreen"?

Photo courtesy of wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Health

It Clown Fetishes are a Thing

And some are as horrific as you might imagine

Generally speaking, if an act hurts no one an is committed by two consenting adults, it should be fine, right? And fantasies are fantasies for a reason: you don't REALLY want to enact those deep, dark thoughts. You just enjoy visiting them in your mind. So the fact that lots of people are lusting after Pennywise in the new Stephen King's It film, it shouldn't freak us out, right?

Maybe it's because the movie is already scary and not, say, filled with goofy clowns. Or maybe it's because the fantasies that people are reporting are often disturbing, involving blood, dismemberment and death. We all have some pretty out there fantasies but none of mine are that violent. Even so, I'm not judging unless any of these fantasizers start killing people.

Have you ever heard of a monster fetish like this one? Have you ever found yourself attracted to a scary creature? Tell us about it in the chat.

 

 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Lifestyle

Preserve a Spiderweb

Try this cool yet freaky Halloween activity

Want to wow your students, kids or even your colleagues with a cool but somewhat creepy craft this Halloween? Try the freaky art of web preservation. You can easily preserve an abandoned spiderweb with just a few ingredients, including:

spray paint 

spray glue

cardboard

paper

gloves (optional)

Check the site for the full tutorial and find out how to make a really cool-looking web out of a real spiderweb! Try not to displace any spiders already living and move to an abandoned web if you can. Bright colors work best for this craft.

Do you know of any other weird or freaky Halloween crafts and activities? Let us know in the chat!

 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Animals

An answer to the mystery of abandoned shoes

Finally we know where they come from!

 Have you ever spotted a single shoe lying by the side of the road and wondered where it came from? You're not alone - in fact, there's a name for it: the One Shoe Phenomenon. The topic even has its own Wikipedia article!

(Note: This is in regards to shoes left on the side of the road. It is separate from the phenomenon of shoes with dead people's feet inside, washing up on the beaches of British Columbia.) 

Some of you might have wondered if the shoe was left behind at a horrific car accident. It is true that if a person gets hit by a car hard enough, the impact can knock them out of their shoes. It is also true that first responders may have to remove a person's shoe for medical reasons, and it's entirely possible that the removed shoe ends up discarded and forgotten at the side of the road.

However, someone on Reddit recently polled the community, and the answers turned out to be much less gruesome. There are two main ways that single shoes end up on the road:

1. Someone sets the shoe(s) on the roof or bumper of their car, forgets about them, and drives off. Eventually the shoe falls off. 
2. Someone inside the car throws the shoe out the window. This happens for two reported reasons: adults fighting and throwing a shoe out the window in a fit of pique, and little kids throwing a shoe out the window because they're little kids and they think it's funny.

So there you have it - mystery solved!

Mother Earth Will Survive Us

Just take a look at these pics...

My environmental biology teacher repeatedly said this and I've echoed it a million times: the earth will survive us. Sure, we'll probably destroy each other because we can't even vote properly, but once we're gone the planet will grow over our civilization, heal and repair itself. Have you ever seen that show Life After Earth? That shows what it will be like once we're gone and the planet forgets that mankind ever existed.

Not convinced? Check out these photos of the world moving on without humans. There's a tree grown right around a bicycle, overgrowth over a train track, ghost towns... The caption of the slideshow says that the photos prove that nothing is more powerful than Mother Earth and I am inclined to agree.

Have you seen any other cool photos like these? Share them in the chat.

 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Society

Fake Reality

Do you think our universe is a virtual reality?

Does the idea of our universe being a virtual reality world totally terrify you? Ever since I read about the idea, I've been fascinated with it, but I wasn't scared until tonight when I had a terrifying dream (within a dream, within a dream) that was not only jarring but guided by a smug-looking woman I saw prior to falling asleep in my mind. Is this world real? Holy cow, I have no idea, but even if it's not, I say we still do our best while we're here since we can still suffer and feel joy, you know?

Plenty of modern thinkers have not discounted this possibility, and we have plenty of evidence to ponder that points toward it being true. If it is true, however, does that mean we're safer than we thought since global warming may not be real--or is our simulation the effects of global warming on a planet, thereby dooming us by definition? Argh!

What do you think of a virtual reality world? Read up about it before you decide and let us know your thoughts in the chat.

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Klat Categories: 
Society

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