Friday, April 25, 2008

Things You Can't Make Up

Well, it's Friday. What better day to share all the weird things I've encountered over the last week but didn't write about because of that whole voting thing in Pennsylvania. Anyway, these stories are 100% true. I swear. They just sound like they must be made up.

First, a company called Kids Be Gone (seriously) is marketing and selling a device they call the Mosquito. The Mosquito is a box that plays an irritating, high pitched noise that can only be heard by teenagers. Seriously. It has something to do with the hair cells in your inner ear deteriorating with age. I didn't even know I had hair cells there, but that's beside the point. I gather that the point of the thing is to make certain areas unattractive for teenagers to hang out. It's like a no loitering sign with some teeth. Almost 1,000 units have been sold. What a country.

Speaking of countries, France made some headlines recently when the lower house of their parliment passed a law making it illegal to "publicly incite extreme thinness." Again, I want to emphasize that I am not nearly creative enough to make this stuff up. I guess the bill is targeted at scary-thin models and websites that promote anorexia (which apparently do exist). Punishment would range up to $50,000 (which at the current exchange rate is about 18 Euros) and imprisonment. Now I'm all for people eating and the picture that goes along with the story is a little bit disgusting to me, but really? This is what the French legislature has to deal with right now? This is one of the important issues of the day?

On the topic of important issues: check out this video. Seriously. Because you couldn't make something like that up.

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