Would you eat a tarantula?

The other day I watched a little bit of the TV show “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern“.  I don’t usually watch it, but it can be interesting (and quite gross at times) . In the clip I saw, he was in Cambodia, and he showed people who eat tarantulas.  And of course he tried it.  I don’t think I would try that…

Yummy... NOT!

The story of how this happens is unusual also.  A husband and wife team go into the forest to catch tarantulas, then they de-fang them using a stick, a knife, and their hands, and they sell them for 12 cents apiece.  Imagine if that was your job!  It’s dangerous enough to find and catch poisonous spiders, plus the other dangers in a forest.  Then they remove the fangs and poison.  What could possibly go wrong?  And to get only 12 cents per spider… I realize the economy is on a different scale there, but that still seems quite low for the amount of risk involved.

A woman buys the tarantulas, rinses them off, seasons them with a mixture of powdered instant chicken soup, garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar, then fries them.  While cooking, they make whistling noises and popping sounds (like a small explosion).  While frying the hair/fur falls off.  Supposedly they are quite tasty, with a sweet and nutty taste.  The woman sells them in town for 25 cents each, and makes about $25 a day, which is a really good living there.

Reading about it doesn’t do the story justice.  You should watch this short clip to experience it a little closer.

To answer my original question: No, I would not eat one.  I’m not scared of spiders, but I’d still rather not eat them, especially when they’re potentially poisonous.  There’s plenty of other foods I would rather eat.

caption contest, woman surrounded by paperwork

New caption contest!  There’s a woman sitting at a desk, surrounded by papers.  What happened?  What will be done about this?  What’s the craziest thing that could be done about all this paperwork?

(To see our other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

funny pictures, episode 12

Someone pointed out that many of my recent posts have been asking for contributions to the humor (i.e., caption contests), and I make no apologies for that — I really enjoy seeing how different perspectives result in varied humor.  But I realized I have been neglecting the funny pictures series, so I will continue that post-haste.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, here are several funny / weird / random / odd pictures for you to enjoy.  (Of course you are welcome to leave comments, but don’t feel pressured to.)

This reminds me of regular reader Rurouni Kenneth!
Pets have a way of letting you know when they feel neglected...
This sounds like that "Important Doctor", with his bacon and cheese diet*...

* The bacon-and-cheese diet has been referenced many times, but you can find the first mention of it here, if you care to read more…  Just remember this is a humor site, so take any of this seriously at your own risk!  Better yet, don’t take any of it seriously!

This reminds me of a guy I know... his name is Anonymous. 🙂
Grimace: Nom-Nom-Nom

There ya go.  Stay tuned for more funny pics, and feel free to peruse the funny picture archives if you are new here.

a motorcycle fueled by poop

Many inventors are looking to cash-in on the green movement, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  I’m all for lower car emissions and reducing our “carbon footprint”.  But it’s not surprising that some people don’t know where to draw the line between good idea in theory and bad idea in practice.  Hence the Toilet Bike Neo.

Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto has created their own green driving machine.  Actually, it should be called a green driving latrine.  It’s literally a toilet combined with a three-wheel motorcycle.

The Toilet Bike Neo runs on biogas, which is a more scientific way of saying poop.  I’m not against the concept — using excrement for energy is a good idea.  But including the toilet on the motorcycle seems a little odd to me.  Well, let’s be honest, more than odd — more like “that ain’t right”.  I know a few people who might would even use it (where are you, Buck Elvis?), but most people would rather have privacy when taking a dump.  Plus there’s the post-pooping customs to deal with, which I shouldn’t have to explain.

It appears to have a giant roll of toilet paper on the back, but that doesn’t seem plausible.  Surely there’s some bidet-type system installed.  The bike even has a little toilet hood ornament, in case the driver wasn’t embarrassed enough by sitting on a giant toilet.

A commenter at CNet calculated the motorcycle would need about 218 pounds of poop daily to create 2 gallons worth of gasoline.  And supposedly it takes about 18 days for the poop to be converted into biogas, so you’d need to carry around about 2 tons of poop to keep the process flowing for daily usage.  That would increase the weight of the bike so much that you’d need much more poop because your gas mileage would be so bad.  However you figure it, that’s a big load of crap!