A Mushroom Primer

We've got some interesting mushroom species here in North America and fungi geek David Fischer takes you through the mysteries, smells and colors of a few of the coolest ones on his site American mushrooms.

World's Oldest Eyeball?

Neatorama reports that an 80-year-old man in Norway can still see with a 123-year-old transplanted cornea. Bernt Aune received the transplant in 1958 from a donor born in 1885.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the oldest living organ in the world,” an eye doctor at the hospital said.

World Biggest 'Thriller' Dance Party

Thrill The World is a event where a group of crazed Michael Jackson fans attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the Largest Simultaneous Dance to “Thriller.” According to the site, a record breaking 4,177 zombies in ten countries participated this year on October 28th.

Today is National Candy Corn Day

That's right. And what better time to highlight possibly the most specific blog I have yet to come across, one dedicated to the mysteries and joys of the yellow and orange candy that comes out once a year. It's called Sweet Candy Corn.

Highlights include:

recipe for candy corn sugar cookies

candy corn soap

candy corn photo gallery

and giant candy corn

The Pumpkin Chronicles

A man spent 8 days floating down the Wisconsin River inside a 750-pound pumpkin to raise money for charity.

p.s. - It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown airs tomorrow, Tuesday Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. eastern on ABC.

Vegetarians: Avoid Space Travel

Why? Well, apparently outer space reeks of steak. Says the UK Sun:

Astronauts reported the bizarre scents on their suits when they returned from space walks. The space agency has commissioned Steven Pearce of British fragrance firm Omega Ingredients to recreate the smells to help train spacemen. He said: “When astronauts were de-suiting and taking off helmets, they all reported quite particular odours. “We think it’s a high energy vibration in the molecule and that’s what we’re trying to add to it now.”

For Your Information...

There are few things more strange looking than platypus and echidna babies. I think an echidna is an anteater. That thing looks like an uncooked turkey!

Elephants in Tennessee: Who Knew?

South of Nashville, in Hohenwald, Tenn., lies the nation's largest natural-habitat refuge. It's an elephant sanctuary that's home to 17 lady Asian and African pachyderms. Apparently, the nonprofit is not yet open to the public. They are still building a visitor center. But I would love to go. I saw a lady elephant at the zoo once that had a beard!

Fake Baby as Travel Accessory?

Gadling reports on the "fake baby" trend, apparently popular in the UK, where women carry a lifelike doll so that they can avoid social interaction while traveling. They're called "reborns." And a UK talk show interviews other women who are feeling like empty nesters and like the attention that carrying a real looking baby around gets them. I have one word: creepsville.

Punk Rock Turtle

Weird turtle with an algae mohawk.

A 'cardboard' duvet helps the homeless?

A Dutch company is marketing Le Clochard quilt cover, made to look like a cardboard box. Forty percent of the proceeds go to housing young homeless people.

First E. choli, now this?

Is this photo for real?

The Great Muppet 'Caker'

Check out this ridiculously (and wonderfully) ornate Muppet cake. Looks like Zoot's even got a marzipan saxophone!

Too Strange for Words

"A 'dead' man's son spots him on television after eight years," reports the Telegraph. Long after he thought his dad was dead and buried, this guy in the UK sees him on a show about missing people. Apparently, he had been in an assisted living facility nearby the whole time, but could not remember his name.

"Police have apologised for an extraordinary series of errors which led to him being declared dead and an unidentified man being cremated in his place." Um...

Walk this Way

A new study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine finds that you can infer a woman's history of vaginal orgasm by observing the way she walks.

"Trained sexologists were able to correctly infer vaginal orgasm through watching the way the women walked over 80 percent of the time. Further analysis revealed that the sum of stride length and vertebral rotation was greater for the vaginally orgasmic women. "This could reflect the free, unblocked energetic flow from the legs through the pelvis to the spine," the authors note.

This is weird.

Sounds to me like some scientists were having fun watching young women "videotaped from a distance while walking in a public place" and placing wagers on their "orgasmic history."

Save those pennies

Remember what I said? Always save those coins! This man bought a car with his.

Random Manta Ray Found On Busy Street

The Experience Project writes about a manta ray sighting on a sidewalk in downtown San San Francisco. Apparently the ray gathered quite a crowd and no one knows how it got there. Weird!

Shortie Gets her Shortening

At this year's Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, hometown girl and Olympic silver medalist Shawn Johnson will be memorialized in butter, according to the local paper. "Butter Johnson" will be displayed alongside the traditional butter cow. Hmm...maybe you have to be from Iowa? I'm speechless.