Oddity Central |
- Disturbing Trend – Teens Drinking Hand Sanitizer to Get Wasted
- The Real-Life Mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs
- Dog Poop Removal Company Proves Big Hit
- World’s Highest Water Slide Is Called Insano, Looks Pretty Insane
| Disturbing Trend – Teens Drinking Hand Sanitizer to Get Wasted Posted: 26 Apr 2012 03:11 AM PDT
You'd think that someone drinking hand sanitizer was obsessed with keeping their insides as clean as their outsides. But no, in a disturbing new trend, teenagers are actually consuming the alcohol-based liquid as a cheap substitute for liquor. Since kids don't have access to alcohol, they are actually using the chemical cleaning agent to get drunk. Recently, six teenagers were brought into San Fernando Valley emergency rooms for alcohol poisoning from hand sanitizer consumption. This got public health officials worried so they started issuing warnings to parents and teachers about the hazards involved with ingesting hand sanitizers. According to Cyrus Rangan, a medical toxicology consultant at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, "All it takes is a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager." He believes that although the practice isn’t widespread yet, it has all the potential to balloon into a huge issue. Since hand sanitizer bottles are very easily available and inexpensive, the trend couldn't take very long to catch up. It doesn't help that distillation instructions are easily available on the internet; kids can separate the alcohol from the sanitizing liquid with just a little salt.
A lot of people aren't aware that hand sanitizers contain 62% ethyl alcohol. A few drinks are equivalent to consuming hard liquor and could get a person's speech to slur and stomach to burn. Apparently, kids get so drunk they have to be brought in to the emergency room. Unfortunately, the consumption of hand sanitizer is only the latest of several other substances that teenagers have consumed as an alcohol substitute. "Over the years, they've ingested all sorts of things. Cough syrup had reached a very sexy point where young people were using it," says Helen Arbogast, the injury prevention coordinator at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "We want to make sure this doesn't take on the same trend." A while ago, we also featured two very disturbing trends teens seem to be using to get intoxicated faster: vodka eyeballing and using alcohol-soaked tampons.
Parents are currently being educated about the hazards of being careless with hand sanitizers, since awareness is the first step to prevention. The popular hygiene product is a risk, no matter what the size of the bottle. If it must be purchased, it's better to go for the foam version instead of the gel type, advise several health care professionals. It's harder to separate alcohol from the foam type, so it's less likely to be consumed. Also, the chemical mustn't be left around the house and its use must be supervised at all times. If only good old soap would be as practical to use anywhere, like this alcohol-based hand sanitizer. via KTLA Disturbing Trend – Teens Drinking Hand Sanitizer to Get Wasted was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| The Real-Life Mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs Posted: 26 Apr 2012 02:48 AM PDT
If you want to see what mermaids look like in real life, you'd better head for Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida. Considered to be one of the oldest and most unique road side attractions of the state, the 430-acre theme park has been entertaining people for the past 60 years. People from all over the US visit Weeki Wachee, located an hour north of Tampa, to view its most unique attraction – the beautiful women dressed like mermaids, swimming in the cool and clear spring waters. Becoming a Weeki Wachee mermaid is no easy task, on the contrary, it’s something that even the most experienced swimmers would find hard to do. The job involves spending almost the entire day under water, at a temperature ranging in the lower 70s. This is difficult, because the ideal water temperature for adults is much higher, between 85 and 89 degrees. Putting on 30 to 45 minute performances, three times a day, seven days a week is certainly no easy task. To add to this, the ladies have to wear tight, 15-pound mermaid tails that zip up the side and bind their legs together. It sure does look beautiful, but it's pretty hard to swim about as though you have only one leg. Throw in a synchronized choreography routine and underwater lip-synching while trying to breathe through a hidden rubber hose and you've got some real heroes here. With all these factors in play, the mermaids manage to swim gracefully, with pretty hand movements and smiling faces. They sure must be highly talented actors to hide all that discomfort.
Photo: Ripley’s Newsroom According to Stacy McConnell, a 31-year-old full time performer at Weeki Wachee Springs, making the whole thing look easy is what separates career mermaids from amateurs. "You don't want to do a swimmer's stroke when you're being a mermaid. You can't look like you're struggling down there," she says. They get it right after countless hours of training and rehearsals. "It's all about being graceful and looking natural. You learn how to swim with pretty hands."
Photo: Ripley’s Newsroom Weeki Wachee Springs is said to have had its golden age in the 1960s, when celebrities like Elvis Presley would stop by to watch the mermaids. But even today, it is still pretty popular, with about 175,000 visitors coming in each year. And it's not easy to become one of the mermaids. The auditions are always nothing short of brutal. McConnell says that "before we even get to talk to you, we make you get in the water. We watch from the theatre to see what faces you make." Obviously, they wouldn't want to waste time with people whose cheeks pop out and eyes bulge out unattractively under water. That's not what people come to see. Predictably, even after selection most mermaids don't last more than a year or two on the job. This makes McConnell a senior mermaid, with over 12 years under her belt. It doesn't pay much and she has a second job, but she isn't prepared to quit anytime soon. I suppose the lure of playing a magical character is too hard to resist?
Photo: Ripley’s Newsroom
Sources: Ripley’s Newsroom, Business Week The Real-Life Mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Dog Poop Removal Company Proves Big Hit Posted: 26 Apr 2012 02:21 AM PDT
Who knew that scooping up dog poop could also rake in the big bucks? DoodyCalls is a company that does just that. They make an annual revenue of $4.5 million, with about 6.6 million poops disposed of in the last year alone. 55 franchises currently exist in 22 states of the US, and there are plans to expand the number to at least 250 in the coming decade. That's a huge success for an idea as simple as cleaning up behind a dog. Co-founder and CEO Jacob D'Aniello says that the only way his business could fail is, "If one day, everybody in the world woke up and decided they loved picking up dog poop." That sure is quite unlikely, given that most people with dogs are hard pressed for time. D'Aniello agrees that his customers aren't necessarily lazy people, but need quick solutions to the mundane tasks in life, so they can have more time for themselves. DoodyCalls allows customers to pay for more leisure time. D'Aniello first came up with the business idea for DoodyCalls when he was driving home from work in late 1999. On a popular radio show, he heard a man talking about his love for his career – picking up dog poop. The more D'Aniello thought about this, the more he realized how much that guy loved his job, made a great living out of it, did not have to commute, and worked his own hours. Soon, he was talking about the business plan to his future wife, Susan. She wasn't too enthusiastic at first, but once he presented her with the business pitch, she was quickly on board. DoodyCalls was soon created and ads went live in the local papers. Their first order was a housewarming gift for a friend – a six months dog poop cleaning service for the new home. Since then, there was no looking back. At $15 per week per dog, their service is affordable and popular.
When Jacob and Susan first set up the business in 2000, they hardly knew what a big pooper-scooper company should look like. With literally no competition in the field, they had to make it all up as they went along. Right from setting prices to predicting a dog's bowels, everything was a learning experience for the couple. For instance, they learned the hard way that winter is the cruelest season for someone collecting dog poop. "It's like putting poop in the freezer," says D'Aniello, with all that snow around. Scraping off hardened dog-poop can be an exercise right out of hell. And it's worse when all the snow thaws out; massive amounts of stool that was preserved all those cold months is unleashed at once. D'Aniello is grateful for his wife's presence. "Thank God for my wife, she has the stronger stomach. There were a few times…," he shudders. "Let's just say I had to leave."
Now, if people making millions out of picking up dog poop isn’t an inspirational story, then I don’t know what is… via Business Week Dog Poop Removal Company Proves Big Hit was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| World’s Highest Water Slide Is Called Insano, Looks Pretty Insane Posted: 26 Apr 2012 01:47 AM PDT
Ever wondered what it would be like to dive off a 14-storey building? Ok, that sounds a little suicidal, but that’s the kind of sensation you get when you’re sliding down Insano, the highest water slide in the world. Part of a water park near the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, Insano is known as one of the most thrilling water park attractions in the world. Constructed in 1989, it still holds the record for the highest water slide on Earth, at 41 meters high. That’s as tall as a 14-storey building, in case you were wondering. What makes Insano “the most extreme equipment of this type on the planet” (according to the beach park’s official site) is the very steep slide that really lets gravity do its number on anyone crazy enough to try it. Apparently, the whole decent takes just 4 to 5 seconds but during that time you can reach speeds of up to 105 km/h. That’s as fast as a Ferrari.
Luckily, there’s a nice big pool at the bottom to bring you to a halt, but I wonder what would happen if you ran before sliding… This thing looks so steep that you might actually miss the slide and jump to your death. Everyone commenting on photos and videos of Insano seems to want to try sliding on it themselves, but I can barely stand to watch others doing it. For once, I think I might NOT be the one with a problem. Oh and if you’re thinking about all the crazy positions you’d like to slide off Insano, you should know they only allow the classic water slide position, to avoid any injuries. Also, people with special needs, pregnant women and children under 1.40 aren’t allowed to use it.
Beach Park via Sri Tweets World’s Highest Water Slide Is Called Insano, Looks Pretty Insane was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
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