Real-Life 50 First Dates: Teen Loses Memory Every 24 Hours

Drew Barrymore’s character has a weird memory condition that makes her relieve the same day every time she wakes up. This pretty much the basis of the romantic comedy 50 First Dates. It’s a pretty interesting concept for a film, but in real life it would be considered a nightmare. Unfortunately, 19-year-old Jess Lydon has to go through something similar to this every day.

Instead of returning to the past, Jess is actually trapped in the present. She has been affected by a rare condition known as Susac Syndrome that only allows her to remember what happened in the past 24 hours. Needless to say, this is highly upsetting to Jess and her family. It gets so bad sometimes that she cannot remember what she had for dinner the previous night, or what she did on Christmas and for her birthday. Looking at family pictures confuses her, as she can’t recollect any of the events that took place. The worst part is that although she split up with her boyfriend almost 2 years ago, she wakes up thinking they’re together every morning. Imagine having to relive a heartbreak every single day of your life.

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New York Woman Makes a Living Catching Other People’s Cats

If you’ve ever dreamed of living in New York, here’s one more reason for you to move there – Jordana Serebrenik. The name of her business explains it all. She is the founder, owner and sole worker of Catch Your Cat, which pretty much sums up what she does. This 45-year-old resident of Murray Hill will come to your home, catch your cat and will do with it anything you want her to.

Let’s face it. Although cats are very adorable creatures, they are fierce when it comes to personal space. Even a hint of threat to their independence and some of them they will even snarl at their own masters. So imagine trying to get a pet cat into a carrier to go to the vet. It could be quite a daunting task. More so, for the elderly or the physically impaired. That’s where Jordana and Catch Your Cat step in. For about $80, she will make sure the cat is in the box in no time at all.

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iPhoneography – Colleges to Offer Courses in iPhone Photography

If a filmmaker could shoot an entire movie on a smartphone, a course on iPhone Photography doesn’t really seem like a bad idea. It’s actually pretty neat that two colleges in London are planning to offer a course that’s dedicated to the ever-popular iPhone. According to course tutor Richard Gray, all you need to attend the course is a passion for photography, a creative mind and, of course, an iPhone. The course fee is £115 (that’s about $178) with an additional £20 ($30) for the purchase of required apps.

The iPhoneography course starts in a few weeks, so it’s still unclear as to who will be interested in taking it. Of course, the iPhone doesn’t compare to high-end DSLR cameras, but for photography-enthusiasts who don’t really have big bucks to spend on this kind of equipment, the course might just be pretty useful. Also, according to Gray, the iPhone camera is not to be underestimated. “With the right apps and skills, it can be a powerful creative tool,” he says, adding that “No longer do you need expensive equipment to produce great images.”

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Ultimate Tazer Ball – The Sport That Lets You Taze Your Opponents

If you’ve read or watched the Harry Potter series, you’d know that Quidditch has Bludgers that are hurled at opponents to make them lose control of the ball. While this could be fatal in real life, no one’s ever thought much of it since it’s only make-believe. But what if there really was a sport where players were armed with weapons to cause serious injuries to their opponents? That, my friends, is exactly what Ultimate Tazer Ball is all about. The weird sport actually allows players to use stun guns on members of the opposing team.

I watched a few short videos of the sport being played, and in my opinion, there’s nothing fascinating about it beyond the use of the stun guns. The ball used by the players is actually pretty huge, like a beachball, which makes it look like grown men running behind a kid’s toy and trying to stun each other in the process. Menacing expressions are adopted, which I’m guessing is to provide the audience with some entertainment while in reality, nothing much is going on. But again, that’s just my opinion, so let me tell you the rules of the game, and then I’ll let you be the judge.

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Man Chooses Pet Buffalo as Best Man at Vow Renewal Ceremony

People who renew their wedding vows will generally go to any lengths to get everything right the second time around. So this man from Quinlan, Texas, thought things through and realized that no one could make a better best man than Wildthing, his pet buffalo. A 2008 picture of the ceremony shows Ronald Bridges and his wife Sherron posing along with the towering Wildthing. You’d think the picture was morphed if you didn’t know it really happened.

The Bridges run a ranching business in Texas, and Ronald is actually pretty experienced in working with farm animals. So when Wildthing was born in 2005, Ronald decided to tame and raise him as a part of the family. When the buffalo responded beautifully to domestication, the Bridges kind of went overboard. They actually gave him a room of his own in the house where he could eat, sleep and come and go as he pleased. The only time he’s not allowed inside is when they have guests over, as American Bison can actually be pretty temperamental and dangerous around people.

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Master Seducer Is Paid To Catch Cheating Girlfriends

Men certainly seem to be willing to dish out large sums of money for love-related services. First it was to hire wingmen and then for breaking up. Now it’s the turn of all the jealous boyfriends and husbands out there to spend some cash and prove their women are cheats. If you’re thinking detective agency, you’re wrong. Men are actually hiring this guy to directly flirt with and seduce women in order to prove their betrayal.

The man who makes this possible is Jack Knowles, a handsome young Englishman. He has been working in stealth for men of varying ages and backgrounds for the past two years, and has so far made a whopping £200,000 ($315,000). The work that pays so well even has a name – Honey-Trapping. The master seducer works his charm on unsuspecting women; if they respond, it’s break-up time for the couple in question. If the woman brushes him off, the relationship is effectively saved.

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TV Channel for Canines Proves Television Is Going to the Dogs

Television in San Diego is going to the dogs. No, really. They have a new 24-hour channel that’s just meant to keep dogs company when the owners are out of the house. DOGTV was launched on Time Warner and Cox digital cable systems last week.

It’s not uncommon for dogs to feel lonely when their masters leave the house, and some even wreck things out of anxiety. According to Gilad Neumann, CEO of DOGTV, there are several other behavioral issues that dogs develop due to loneliness. He says dogs experience stress too, and leaving the TV on for them could provide some comfort. So what kind of programs do dogs like to watch? Obviously, ones with other dogs. There are programs of dogs playing with balls, meant to stimulate pets, and dogs sleeping, meant to relax them.

Since the concept is still very new, it’s difficult to say if pets will really be interested in the channel or not. While Neumann says that it is intended to create a soothing and relaxing environment for dogs, professor of animal behavior Dr. Katherine Houpt thinks that the channel is not likely to be successful. She says that cats may be interested in TV, while dogs prefer the sound. Dogs don’t even want to be entertained and like to sleep when alone, according to Dr. Houpt.

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Woman Has Eaten Nothing but Pizza for the Last 31 Years

It isn’t exactly food fit for a queen, but it’s good enough for 33-year-old Claire Simmons. Claire loves cheese and tomato pizza so much that she’s been eating nothing else for 31 years. Which means she’s been eating the stuff since she was about 2 years old. That does sound too young to be eating pizza in the first place. But it’s not that she doesn’t want to eat anything else, it’s just that she can’t. She shudders at the mere mention of other food and will gag if she puts anything else other than plain pizza in her mouth.

What Claire suffers from is actually known as Selective Eating Disorder. Experts say she’s on the road to killing herself with her diet. But she disagrees. According to Claire, she keeps herself healthy by drinking plenty of water and getting lots of exercise. This doesn’t convince her GP however, who says that if she keeps this up, the lack of vitamins and minerals will lead to huge problems in the future, such as a stroke or heart attack. Claire can’t help it though, given that she’s terrified of eating fruits and vegetables. “I get so angry when people think I’m being faddy – this is a real medical condition,” she says. She does seem to have made it through 31 years on just pizza, and is still going strong. I wonder how she isn’t sick of the stuff, though.

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This Norwegian Princess Can Teach You How to Talk to Angels

A princess talking to angels – sounds like a chapter right out of a fairy-tale, doesn’t it? Turns out it isn’t. Real-life Norwegian Princess Martha Louise can not only converse with the unearthly beings, but also teach you how to do it. Last Thursday saw the release of her second book on the subject, with co-author Elisabeth Nordeng. The book called ‘The Secrets of Angels,’ is a sequel to the 2009 ‘Discover Your Guardian Angel.’

According to the two women, angels are real and they do exist just for us. In fact, the angels supposedly want to be in touch with us and help us, all we need to understand is how they operate and how they get in touch. Princess Martha Louise says that she realized her innate abilities to contact angels and read people’s inner feelings as a child. She is also trained in physical therapy and has always been interested in alternative forms of treatment.

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Renowned Photographer Spends over 10 Years Building 35-Foot-Long Camera by Hand

In a world where all things small are considered beautiful and cool, a photographer is doing something quite drastically different from the norm. Dennis Manarchy is in the process of creating a camera that is so huge, it captures 24-foot tall realistic photographs of incredible detail. Photoshop-ing these pictures would be totally out of the question.

The camera itself is a thing of wonder. It’s huge, to say the least. At 35 feet long, 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide, it’s large enough to fit a small apartment into. Manarchy is in the process of collecting more funds to make the camera functional, and in the meantime, he has a working immobile model, equally large, fixed in his studio. It uses negatives that are 4.5×6 feet in size. An actual window needs to be used as a lightbox to view them. As opposed to dipping the negatives in chemicals, they need to be showered with the stuff in order to be developed. The resulting photographs are of such pristine detail that even the fleck of an eyelash or pores on the skin can be viewed clearly.

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Hang on to Your Panties: Thai Man Collects 11,000 Pairs of Women’s Underwear in 30 Years

Some hobbies are downright disgusting. Like this guy from Thailand who collected 10,000 pairs of women’s underwear. No that’s not the gross part. What’s truly disturbing is that he smelled them all the time, even while he was driving. Ewww, right?

Apparently, his obsession was not just for underwear, but also for the stealthy way he obtained them. The police were tipped off about the thief after he broke into a building in Chinatown, Bangkok along with an accomplice. When they raided his home, to their surprise, they found not cash or jewels, but a whopping 10,000 pairs of underwear. And an additional 1,000 were in his vehicle. He then admitted that he had been breaking in and stealing female panties since the age of 18. He is now 48, so there was actually was literally 30-years-worth of underwear in there! Unfortunately, they could only arrest him on grounds of breaking and entering, since no one had actually reported any missing underwear. And I don’t suppose anyone would be interested in getting their missing garments back, either.

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Coolest Finds of the Week #28

Sand Art -Giant’s Footprints Spotted on Beach (Daily Mail)

Woman Pulls 2 Jeeps with Hair (Orange)

World’s 7 Most Impressive Tank Graveyards (Environmental Graffiti)

Most Innovative Yacht of 2011 Sinks (Powerboat-World)

Food on My Dog Blog (Tumblr)

Man Balances 23 Chairs on Teeth (Mirror.co.uk)

Chinese Restaurant Serves Sheep Placenta AIDS Soup (Asia Obscura)

St. Kitts and Nevis Sells Full Citizenships for $250,000 (Global Post)

Tower Made from 15,000 Abraham Lincoln Books (Boing Boing)

15 Amazing Giant Hearts Found in Nature (Environmental Graffiti)

World’s Hottest Vodka Rates 100,000 on the Scoville Scale

The Naga Jolokia chilli is dangerously hot and can  cause serious damage if ingested raw, but that didn’t stop a spirits company from mixing 18 kilograms of the fiery peppers with vodka, and creating one of the hottest drinks known to man – the Naga Chilli Vodka.

The chilli used in the making of this spicy treat is hotter than most law-enforcement pepper sprays, and the 100,000 Scoville units ranking means the Naga Chilli Vodka is twice as hot as Tabasco and almost as hot as the Habanero and Scotch Bonnet chillies. Most people think Jalapeno peppers are hot, but they’re rated at just 5,000 Scoville units, so you can imagine how hot naga Chilli Vodka is. In fact retailers like Master of Malt have posted a health warning that goes like this:

By purchasing this bottle, you agree that: 

1) I have been warned and fully understand that this product contains extreme heat and should be used and handled responsibly.
2) I use this product entirely at my own risk and I understand the potential danger if used or handled irresponsibly. If I give this product as a gift I will make the recipient aware of the potential danger if used or handled irresponsibly. 

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If Your Name Is Smith, This Man Wants to Hear from You

“I look for Smiths.” That’s how Bob Ziegler, from Minot, North Dakota, describes his hobby of 30 years. While most people are content with collecting stamps and bottle caps, Ziegler’s hobby is a little more complicated. He looks for people with the last name Smith and writes to them with a simple request: to send him their business cards. In the last 30 years, he has managed to track down thousands of Smiths, and sent them handwritten letters. Included with the letter is a stamped, self-addressed envelope that can be used to send him back the business cards.

Since 1982, Ziegler has sent over 2,500 letters, and collected 1,014 cards. The Smiths in his collection are spread in all 50 states of the US, and also seven other countries. Some of the responses he has received are a lot more interesting than the cards themselves. For instance, the chief deputy at Escambia County Sherriff’s Office, Larry E. Smith wrote, “It is an honor to serve the public whether it is providing assistance in times of need or providing a business card for someone’s collection because my last name is Smith.” The late president of American Pop Corn Co., Wrede H. Smith, sent not just his own card, but those of his son and nephew. He even threw in coupons for free JOLLY TIME popcorn. Of course, not everyone has been so enthusiastic to participate in Ziegler’s weird hobby. “What – are you nuts?” wrote back one Smith, with no card in the envelope. A few Smiths have been honest enough to admit that they did not have business cards.

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It Was Bound to Happen: Man Suffers Cardiac Arrest at Heart Attack Grill

In a weird karmic twist, a man suffered a heart attack while dining at a place called the Heart Attack Grill. A sign outside warns customers: “Go away. If you come to this place, it’s going to kill you.” I suppose all that the restaurant owners could say to this guy is – ‘we told you so’. We did a story about the restaurant here on OC a few years ago, but ittle did we know back then that it would one day cause someone to go into cardiac arrest.

The man remains unidentified, although a video shot by an onlooker shows that he might be in his 40s. The video captured paramedics rushing him out of the Las Vegas branch of the restaurant. When the disaster struck, he was actually chowing down a whopping 6000-calorie Triple Bypass Burger. Needless to say, he soon started to experience chest pains. and now he may actually need a bypass.

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