Archives for April 2014

The nice people at Buzz Feed have just the thing to get you off the couch and keep you from embarrassing yourself.

Oh, I’m kidding. You’re friends will be on the floor howling at you.

1. Quidditch

Via quidgif.tumblr.com

Fans of the Harry Potter series have built Quidditch into a legitimate sport that’s taking off on college campuses around the country. Don’t be fooled by the broom you have to carry between your legs — this is a legit sport with hard hits.

2. Tournament Rock-Paper-Scissors

staplesaustralia / CC BY / Via youtube.com

There’s a skill to Rock-Paper-Scissors that’s often overlooked by novices. Supposedly the sport’s greatest competitors can anticipate your next throw by subtle arm twitches and facial expressions.

3. Pop-Up Urban Football

Via tumblr.4gifs.com

OK, so this is more of a prank than a sport. Hand the ball off to an unsuspecting friend and see how they respond to a stampeding defensive line.

4. Roller Derby

Boston Derby Dames / Via bostonderby.tumblr.com

This sport has seen a resurgence in recent years with amateur and pro leagues popping up around the country. Roller derby players throw hard elbows; it’s a far cry from fake pro wrestling.

5. Bubble Soccer

Via gifak-net.tumblr.com

Someone figured out that it’s fun to fall down and not get hurt. This full-contact spin on soccer is quickly growing in popularity.

6. Flaming Soccer

Barcroft TV / youtu.be / Via daleconcomba.com

If bubble soccer is too bland for your taste, you can spice up the game by simpmly lighting the ball on fire. Disclaimer: Do not try this at home.

7. Segway Polo

SegwayToday, International Segway Polo Association / Via thewhistle.com

If you’re an eccentric millionaire, don’t let your Segway gather dust in the garage. Join a Segway polo league with your millionaire friends.

8. Freestyle Water Jetpacking

Via ohmagif.com

This sport is a little pricey, too. Specially designed water-powered jetpacks will let you fly though the air. Those lucky enough to participate compete by choreographing aerial routines.

9. Trampoline Dodgeball

tumblr.4gifs.com

tumblr.4gifs.com

Dodgeball quickly becomes an extreme sport when you play it on a trampoline and incorporate elements of gymnastics and parkour.

10. Fish Netting

Via thewhistle.com

Fishermen in certain parts of the country with large fish migrations have created a unique sport out of netting fish in midair. You’ll need a helmet, unless you’re especially brave.

11. Tomato Fighting

Via gifsoup.com

Every year in Buñol, Spain, residents gather for a free-for-all tomato fight. It’s catching on in cities around the U.S., most notably with an annual event in Colorado.

12. Frisbee Obstacle Course

Via gifbin.com

Unlike ultimate Frisbee or Frisbee golf, this sport is based on creating and defeating a progressively harder set of obstacles.

13. Dirt Bike Jump Roping

Via gifak-net.tumblr.com

OK, this is clearly a bit of niche sport. All you need is a dirt bike, some balance, and a couple friends with a long rope.

14. Tricycle Racing

Via thewhistle.com

Most thrift shops carry old plastic tricycles, which is all you need for a day of fun. This has become a big event in San Francisco where, every Easter Sunday, residents hold a race down Potrero Hill.

Roller derby is not a fool around sport. Chicago’s Windy City Rollers will damage your spine. But the basic premise is still the same. There are many non-traditional activities that can get you out and about and having fun.

So, go, pick one and have at it.

So let’s get this party started.

As an intelligent adult you may have figured out that getting arrested is not a good thing. Furthermore, asking the arresting officer to drop down and blow you might, just might, lead to additional charges. You would know that. Charles Bolen has no such limitations.

A South Florida man is accused of being a nuisance and then making some pretty serious threats to the arresting officer.

Charles Bolen, 53, of Pompano Beach, was arrested Friday in Palm Beach Gardens.

He’s accused of yelling at customers in front of a Walgreen’s store on Northlake Boulevard, and threatening to hurt them.

Bolen then took his act down the street to Pep Boys, where he “demanded money for beer,” according to his arrest report.

Once he was convinced to leave the store, he told officers to “wait until I get across the street and you will see what I am going to do,” the report said.

That’s when the officer started to arrest him, prompting Bolen to say “you are not taking me to jail.”

As he was being taken to jail, Bolen told the officer he was going to “****” the officer’s “wife in the ***,” according to the report.

And the final insult came when Bolen was in his holding cell, when he “unzipped his pants” and told the officer to perform a sex act on him, the report said.

Bolen is charged with disorderly conduct and exposure of sexual organs.

Of course, since this is Florida, the incident is far from isolated, as evidenced by the tawdry tale of The City Pimp.

A homeless man who goes by the nickname “City Pimp” was arrested after allegedly eating fast food from Wendy’s while lying in front of another business with his pants down and his genitals exposed.

Anthony Johnson, 54, was arrested in front of a Walgreen’s store in the 1200 block of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the arrest report, Johnson “was laying in the front of the business with his pants around his knees, exposing his genitals.”

The arresting officer also wrote in the report that the Walgreen’s manager said Johnson “is a constant problem to the business, and they receive numerous complaints a day about him on the property.”

Johnson was charged with lewd or lascivious exhibition.

Well, to be fair, Wendy’s does make one of the best fast food chain burgers in the country. I’m not sure I’d get that excited about them, but that’s just me.

Of course not all food related police calls involve genitalia, I know – you’re shocked, sometimes it just involves some crack and linguine. With the linguine being used as a weapon.

Yeah, this is the state that just keeps on giving.

A woman described as a “crazy” acting “crackhead” got locked up after accusations she hurled pasta at a man, punched him in the mouth and busted a coffee cup, according to a recently released affidavit.

What could be called the case of the linguine launching lady began boiling late on April 5 as Port St. Lucie police went to an address in the 2400 block of Southeast Garden Terrace.

A man identified as the victim said he was expecting Jeri Rossello, 45, to drop by and get some of her stuff. She came in and walked to the kitchen. Rossello, he said, grabbed a pasta meal from the refrigerator and threw it at him.

Pasta is a general term for a variety of thin, dough-based foodstuffs of Italian origin sometimes served with meatballs. Available in a cornucopia of shapes and dimensions, pasta typically is rigid until boiled. It’s often served with a sauce, such as marinara, pesto, bolognese, alfredo or Fra Diavolo, with types of pasta including angel hair, linguine and elbow macaroni.

Meanwhile, the victim said, Rossello smashed a coffee mug and pulled phone wires from the wall. He said she punched him in the mouth and took off in a U-Haul van.

He described Rossello as a “crack head” who acted “crazy,” telling police she may have gone to a different address where she’s staying with another dude.

Investigators eventually found Rossello, who said she tried some leftover linguine but put it back in the refrigerator. She said there was no physical or verbal altercation.

Asked about the victim’s injured lip, Rossello said he must have done that to himself.

Rossello, of the 1500 block of Southeast Balcourt Court in Port St. Lucie, was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge.

Go back and read that again. The author felt that he needed take an entire paragraph to explain what pasta is and how it’s used.

That’s what’s called “speaking to your target audience” i.e., morons.

But what do all these fine citizens have in common? Well, (1), they’re citizens of Florida and, (2) they are products of the Floridian educational system. And who’s the shining example of that fine institution? Nancy Louise Vaughn would be a good contender. After all not many teachers are so hammered at 7:00 AM that they get a DUI on their way to school.

An Estero High School teacher was arrested and charged with driving under the influence Monday morning.

Just before 7 a.m., a deputy was dispatched after receiving calls about a reckless driver on Imperial Parkway and Terry Street. The callers advised that the driver of a red car was going 20 mph and was swerving in both lanes.

The deputy caught up to the red vehicle and observed the same behavior as described by the callers. Subsequently, the deputy conducted a traffic stop.

The driver identified herself as Nancy Louise Vaughn, 56, and asked the deputy why she was being stopped, claiming she was not speeding and only going 45 mph.

While talking to Vaughn, the deputy said she had a glassy look in her eyes and had a slow reaction to his questions. The deputy said she could not keep her balance when she was asked to step out of the vehicle.

Vaughn was asked to perform some sobriety exercises, which the deputy says she failed.

The deputy concluded that she was impaired and she was arrested.

When asked if she had been drinking or possibly taking any prescription drugs, Vaughn told the deputy she had not.

She then told the deputy that she was a school teacher and was on her way to work at Estero High School.

Over two hours after she was stopped, deputies say Vaughn’s breathalyzer test readings were .258 and .273 – three times the legal limit.

The school’s website lists Vaughn as an Intensive Reading teacher, with the goal of improving reading comprehension and FCAT scores. The FCAT testing started for Lee County students on Monday.

“She was my favorite. She was awesome, not only did she care about me as a high school student but what was to come of me in college also,” said Emma Kenline, a former Estero High student.

“[She] needs to learn from her mistakes. She did it before this is the second time,” said Estero High School senior, Austin Roberts.

This is Vaughn’s second DUI in Lee County in less than one year.

Students say in the classroom, Vaughn was nice, but strict. Outside, she had tons of school spirit.

“She didn’t really talk about her family life at all. It was very professional didn’t really talk about her personal life,” said Estero High School junior, Maddie Dawson.

“I mean everybody makes mistakes. I guess this is hers. But what she needs is our help, not our criticism,” Kenline said.

We asked students if Vaughn ever seemed drunk in the classroom before–the kids we spoke with said no.

Vaughn is no longer teaching her classes and has been reassigned to another position outside of the school.

The district is investigating the incident.

Note number one; there were several typos in this article that I fixed so my readers would not think I was an idiot. Number two, this is why you hire someone with, at least, a high school education to proof your work.

Now, again, go read this one more time. It took them two hours to administer a sobriety test. Plus this is her second go round with a DUI and he students are aware of them both.

But I’m not done.

The town where she lives, Estero, was founded by a complete whack job, Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed, who proposed a theory that we live on the inside of the Earth’s outer skin, and that celestial bodies are all contained inside the hollow Earth.

To be fair, Estero has a high employment rate, a nice fire department and 98% of its population is white, which is why drunken teachers who could cause kids to die get a pass.

I don’t need to tell you who doesn’t get a pass.

For the most part Batman is viewed as a character who refuses to kill. Thus the many times he has had to face the same enemies over and over. But there have been attempts by some authors to take Batman to a darker place and they’ve had him kill his nemesis du jour. Sometimes brutally. Click on the link if you don’t mind hanging, as in by the neck and until dead, the mentally challenged for no reason.

Seriously, I did say “brutal.”

But for all of the reinventions of Batman it’s his brooding image of a protector of the innocent that reverberates with the majority of the public and has helped cement the character as a pop culture icon.

Susan Karlin, over at Fast To Create, writes that “The Dark Knight’s 75th anniversary is spawning a year-long celebration. We asked some Batman notables to spill some behind-the-scenes tales from bringing the Caped Crusader to life.”

Holy shuffleboard! Batman is 75?

Batman–the creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger–made his first appearance Detective Comics #27 in May 1939.

In honor of the Caped Crusader’s 75th anniversary, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are planning a year-long celebration: a slate of new Batman comic titles beginning with Batman Eternal, an April 19 WonderCon panel, partnering with comic book stores and libraries for Batman Day on July 23, art exhibit and panels at San Diego Comic Con, new animated DVD films and shorts, and home video release of the 1966-8 Batman TV series and 25th anniversary edition of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie.

On May 5, the Paley Center in New York will live stream a Batman At 75session. A documentary, Legends of the Knight, is in theaters, while a successful Kickstarter project hopes to realize another, The Cape Creator: A Tribute to Bat-Maker Bill Finger.

For our part, Fast Company rounded up some notable Batman covers through the years (see slide show), and asked some Batman luminaries to describe their encounters with the Dark Knight.

ADAM WEST
Starred as Batman in the ABC TV series Batman, and Batman: The Movie.

“One time, I was at Shea Stadium, doing a live show. I took five, told the band to relax, and went backstage. It was kind of dark, under this tent. I took off the Batman cowl, and suddenly, two hands reached out of the gloam and grabbed it. I heard this man say, “I created you. I created you!” And it was Bob Kane. The man who created it all. Then Bob and I became friends. What a character!”

LEN WEIN
Writer/editor of Batman comics and animated Batman TV shows since the late ’70s. He’s best known for co-creating, with artist John Calnan, the character of Lucius Fox, who runs Bruce Wayne’s business and is played by Morgan Freeman in the films.

“Batman literally saved my life. At age 17, I was misdiagnosed as having the flu. When I was finally correctly diagnosed, as having blood poisoning from a staph infection, the doctors were convinced I had hours to live. The only drug available at that time was penicillin, which I was deathly allergic to. Except the Batman TV series was going to premier in three weeks, and I was not going to miss that show. I hung on by sheer force of will. During that time, the doctors found out about a new antibiotic, Keflin, which they tried on me and I recovered–in time to see the show. The fact that I would later go on to write and edit Batman comics is amazing to me.”

NEAL ADAMS
Legendary Batman illustrator, who redirected Batman from its TV show camp to its Dark Knight origins; illustrator of the Batman Illustrated collection and author/illustrator of Batman Odyssey.

“By the time I started working for DC Comics in 1967, they had takenBatman down some strange trails–like introducing Bat Mite and Bat Hound–and debating how to respond to the TV show’s satire. I wanted to save DC Comics from flushing the Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger down the toilet. So I asked Batman editor, Julius Schwartz, if I could work for him. He said, “Get the hell out of my office!” in his trademark charm. So I went down the hall to Murray Boltinoff, who edited The Brave and the Bold, which featured Batman. He paired me with an excellent writer, Bob Haney, and asked if I wanted to make changes to Haney’s script. I told him, ‘I’m not going to let any scenes take place in the daytime. I won’t have Batman entering through doors–only windows and shadows.’ So I began drawing Batman. And three months later, I walk into DC Comics, and there’s Julie, holding sheets of fan mail, snarling, ‘They wanna know how come the only real Batman is in The Brave and the Bold?’ I laughed, and said, ‘Every kid knows who Batman should be. The only people who don’t seem to know are the folks at DC Comics.’ He growled back, ‘You’re working for me now, Adams.’”

JIM LEE:
DC Comics co-publisher and artist best known for Batman: Hush, Batman and Robin, and various Justice League and Batman covers to the present.

“I was five when my family moved to the U.S. from Korea, and I learned how to read from comic books. My dad was a doctor, so every summer, he took my sister and me sightseeing on the way to medical conventions. He kept me quiet by giving me comics, so I spent summers reading and drawing Batman in the back of our station wagon. I remembered the Batman stories more than Mount Rushmore or the Alamo. I was such a huge fan of the 1966 TV show that, in 2001, I found a guy who knew a seamstress with access to the original patterns of Batman’s costume. So I had her make a custom costume in the same material and color saturation, down to the shoes and utility belt. It cost me $1,400. It was an awesome costume. It went over so well, that my friends would invite me over to their kids’ birthday parties to entertain.”

MICHAEL USLAN
Executive producer of executive producer of Batman, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and upcoming Batman vs. Superman; author of The Boy Who Loved Batman.

“I fell in love with Batman at eight years old, because he was the only superhero with no superpowers and fought the greatest supervillains in the history of comic books. Batman’s greatest superpower is his humanity. The Batman TV show happened when I was in eighth grade. I waited for months for it to premiere. When it did, I was simultaneously thrilled and horrified. The show was in color, and the animated credits and sets were really cool. But it was too much like a cartoon. The entire world was laughing at Batman. At that point, I made a vow. Somehow, I was going to show the world the real Batman–a creature of night, who stalks criminals from the shadows–and figure out how to erase the words Zap! Pow! and Wham! from the collective consciousness. That path would become my life’s journey and career.”

BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Artist of several Batman covers from the ’80s onward, including Batman Anniversary: Issue 400, and the Kevin Smith series Batman: Cacophony and Batman: The Widening Gyre.

“For Batman: Cacophony, I got an email from [DC Comics’ art director]Mark Chiarello that said, ‘Cover. Joker. Stabbed in the heart. Interested?’ I wrote back, ‘Absolutely.’ I came up with an idea of, in typical Joker fashion, holding his own heart and taunting Batman, ‘You missed!’ Getting stabbed in the heart is pretty ballsy, so I figured, why not go for it? Mark wrote back, ‘This is so sick. I love it. We can’t use it.’ It was just too macabre. So I redrew the picture with him with a knife plunged into his chest, with no blood and suffering no ill effects. That was the cover they went with. I knew there was no chance the first one was going to be used, but it was so insanely Jokeresque, I had to draw it.”

WALT SIMONSON
Artist of several Batman stories and covers from the ’70s onward.

“Bernie Wrightson and I had a competition going–who could draw the longest cape on Batman. Bernie’s longest cape appeared in Swamp Thing issue 7, of Batman looking past his left shoulder with a long cape flowing over the city. My response was in Detective Comics #443, of Batman standing on a beam across a narrow alley with a cape that looks like cardboard, compared to the beautiful silky style that Bernie drew. It was the longest Batman cape I’d ever seen and I just thought it was incredibly funny.”

For more covers, check out industry trade Comic Book Resources’ list of the 75 greatest Batman covers.

[Images courtesy of DC]

The new Superman versus Batman movie that’s coming out appears tilted to the dark side as well. Considering how the first Superman ended it would be kind of hard to follow it with a comedy.

Batman, though, is in a place all his own. He has taken his mere human abilities about as far as any human can take them. He is a shining example of what hard work can accomplish. Also he’s a shining example that not all billionaires are jerks.

Both messages need to be heeded.

I’ve wasted a lot of cyberspace debunking the whole concept of Bigfoot. It would seem that common sense and a basic knowledge of biology would preclude any notions in that direction. It would seem that way but it’s not. Simply put there is not enough vacant land in the areas where the Bigfeet allegedly live to hide a population large enough to be self sustaining. That is not true for the Yeti, which is rumored to live in Tibet and the surrounding areas. Scientists have even found DNA that could explain the sightings there. This is not true for Bigfoot. The problem that us rational folks have in debunking the concept is that there are o hard and fast numbers on what it would take to make a viable population. How many beings do you need to create a self sustaining group? While scientists have long known that the number is larger than two they never really got around to figuring out just how much more than two were needed.

Sarah Fecht, over at Popular Mechanics, says that scientists now have come up with a number. The reason is that they were trying to figure out how many people would be needed to colonize a new world without falling into inbreeding in a generation. The rules for these numbers apply to pretty much all living things so, if you do decide to hunt for a Bigfoot, we now have a good idea of how much land will be needed at the get go.

Back in 2002, John Moore, an anthropologist at the University of Florida, calculated that a starship could leave Earth with 150 passengers on a 2000-year pilgrimage to another solar system, and upon arrival, the descendants of the original crew could colonize a new world there—as long as everyone was careful not to inbreed along the way.

It was a valiant attempt to solve a thorny question about the future of humans in space. The nearest star systems—such as our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light-years from home—are so far that reaching them would require a generational starship. Entire generations of people would be born, live, and die before the ship reached its destination. This brings up the question of how many people you need to send on a hypothetical interstellar mission to sustain sufficient genetic diversity. And a new study sets the bar much higher than Moore’s 150 people.

According to Portland State University anthropologist Cameron Smith, any such starship would have to carry a minimum of 10,000 people to secure the success of the endeavor. And a starting population of 40,000 would be even better, in case a large percentage of the population died during during the journey.

At the moment, NASA isn’t ready to send human explorers to Mars, let alone out of the solar system. But some private organizations, including the federally funded 100 Year Starship project, plan to make manned interstellar travel possible within the next century, hoping that a huge increase in propulsion speed could reduce the travel time between stars to just a few hundred years. Icarus Interstellar, one of the groups involved in 100 Year Starship, asked Smith to make this calculation of how many passengers would be needed to keep that population healthy. The results are published in the April–May issue of Acta Astronomica.

“I did this study to materially help in putting together the millions of puzzle pieces that will be required to allow humanity to spread out from our earthly cradle,” he says.

William Gardner-O’Kearney, who studied archaeology at Portland State, helped Smith build the MATLAB simulations to calculate how many different scenarios would play out during interstellar travel. He ran some additional simulations specially for PopMech to show us why the success of an interstellar mission depends crucially on the starting population size.

Gardner-O’Kearny calculated each population’s possible trajectory over 300 years, or 30 generations. Because there are a lot of random variables to consider, he calculated the trajectory of each population 10 times, then averaged the results. (With one exception: The starting population of 40,000 is so large that it takes 18 hours to complete each simulation, so he calculated that trajectory only once.)

Genetic diversity keeps groups healthy, and larger populations tend to have more diversity. In small or isolated groups, including Ashkenazi Jews and the Amish, marriage between relatives has reduced genetic diversity and made otherwise rare diseases such as Tay Sachs and cystic fibrosis common among those populations. Graph A shows that Moore’s suggestion of 150 people is not nearly high enough to maintain genetic variation. Over many generations, inbreeding leads to the loss of more than 80 percent of the original diversity found within the hypothetical gene.

A population of 500 people would not be sufficient either, Smith says. “Five hundred people picked at random today from the human population would not probably represent all of human genetic diversity . . . If you’re going to seed a planet for its entire future, you want to have as much genetic diversity as possible, because that diversity is your insurance policy for adaptation to new conditions.”

A starting population of 40,000 people maintains 100 percent of its variation, while the 10,000-person scenario stays relatively stable too. So, Smith concludes that a number between 10,000 and 40,000 is a pretty safe bet when it comes to preserving genetic variation.

The second threat to interstellar voyagers is catastrophes—plague, war, collisions, and mechanical failures—that could wipe out large portions of the population at any time.

The population of 40,000 can take quite a hit but still manage to stay within the range of a healthy population size, and the 10,000-person starship survives pretty well too.

To check out the smaller populations, we need to zoom in:

The population of 2000 gets halved over time, which is not good. And though the smaller populations (150 and 500) look as if they survived better, that’s partially because those populations had to have looser birth restrictions: Whereas in the simulations, the larger populations were allowed to have only one child per couple, the smaller populations allowed a couple to have two or three children to ensure the survival of the community. In the end, the growth cancelled out the disastrous effects. And if we take a look at the original 10 simulations for the 150-person starship (see graph below), we can see that three of the populations were totally wiped out. For 500 people, only one population got wiped out, and the risk of a wipeout gets smaller as population size goes up. The takeaway is that for both factors (genetic diversity and catastrophe survival), bigger populations are better.

Luckily, tens of thousands of pioneers wouldn’t have to be housed all in one starship. Spreading people out among multiple ships also spreads out the risk. Modular ships could dock together for trade and social gatherings, but travel separately so that disaster for one wouldn’t spell disaster for all, says Smith.

When 10,000 people are housed in one starship, there’s a potential for a giant catastrophe to wipe out almost everyone onboard. But when 10,000 people are spread out over five ships of 2000 apiece, the damage is limited.

To make interstellar travel a reality, scientists and engineers will have to overcome huge obstacles. They’ll need to find ways to increase propulsion speed, prevent the negative health effects that arise from living in space, and devise self-sustaining systems that provide food, water, and air. At least the new calculations provide some sort of starting point.

“With 10,000,” Smith says, “you can set off with good amount of human genetic diversity, survive even a bad disease sweep, and arrive in numbers, perhaps, and diversity sufficient to make a good go at Humanity 2.0.”

Things aren’t all that bleak. The math needed to power a ship at light speed or, possibly, beyond has already been done. The technology needed to build a portable biosphere already exists and growing food in non-native environments has been a reality ever since the development of hydroponics.

It would be a massive undertaking, but it could be done.

And almost all of it could be done now.

And one side note to all of this; all of the technology needed to make this happen will also help urban planners build self sustaining food centers in beleaguered neighborhoods and countries. Just in case you wondered what science is good for.

Not all allergies are obvious either. Smashing Lists, which is exactly what it sounds like, has a list of the 10 oddest allergies.

10. Allergic to Vibrations
People with sensitive skin are the most commonly become the victim of this allergy in which an episode of urticaria induce in the body parts by the vibrations of machinery like cars and lawnmowers. Just like other allergies, it is caused by the wrong perception of immune system to harmless object and immune system responds in defense to the object as it may cause any damage to the body. Welt, rashes, hives and other skin reactions immediately appear almost within five minutes and remain for hours or days as urticaria comes from histamine. The allergy can be treated by antihistamine or by calamine lotion.

9. Allergic to Sunlight
It is found that there are a number of allergies that happens due to sun but the allergy I am talking about is a special type of allergy which is known as solar urticaria. This allergy is uncommon unlike other forms of it that are caused by sun and only a few people are reported by far that suffered from solar urticaria. The ultraviolet rays from sun induces hives or urticaria on the skin of the effected, and in some cases even the visible light was found to be the reason of allergy in both covered and uncovered areas of body.

8. Allergic to Deodorants
It is really very irritating to sit beside a person who is stinking and sweating but many people are bound to stink as they are allergic to deodorants. It seems weird but it is true that people actually suffer from this kind of sensitivity which actually happens due to one or more ingredients that a deodorant contains. In this allergy, the suffering person experience pain, redness, burning, cracking of the skin, rash, painful pustules, and it’s horrible to know that in severe cases it can root puss-oozing cuts. It can be prevented by using the deodorants which do not contain that particular element which causes the reaction.

7. Allergic to Underwear
This is a really troublesome allergy because it originates from wearing the underwear but the allergy is even worse as the people bear pain, itching and blisters in the particular area. More often these people cannot even touch the affected area which makes it a night mare for them to put on an underwear. The allergy is common in both men and women and the good thing is that they can get rid of it by simply avoiding the specific fabric which is responsible for it, in most cases polyester, cotton, latex etc. The situation could turn severe; in that case the patient should consult a dermatologist.

6. Allergic to Kissing
It may sound humorous that a person is allergic to kissing and you must have already exclaimed “poor guy” in your head by now but it actually happens to some unlucky individuals. When the person experiences it, he suffers from hives, rashes, prickly eyes, blisters on eyelids, puffy lips, and respiration problems. It cannot cause a severe danger but passionate kisses can do that. Someone’s lips tongue or skin is not responsible for the reaction but it actually happens due to a particular food and medicinal reaction.

5. Allergic to Modern Living
Usage of electricity, mobile phone, cars and other automatic machines is all about modern living of the twenty first century but it is peculiar to know a person who is allergic to modern technology. Debbie Bird is one of those individuals who are reported to have this kind of allergy. She is allergic to electromagnetic field and hence computers, mobile phones, microwave ovens and cars that create electromagnetic field cause painful skin rash, and swelling of eyelid as big as three times of it real size when exposes closely to electromagnetic field. The reason behind this kind of allergy is unknown and the officials say that the electro-sensitivity is not known as medical condition.

4. Allergic to Apples Eaten Near a Birch Tree
This is another bizarre allergy that is caused by a food yet not food itself but by eating an apple near birch tree. Grace Morley is the person who was identified as the patient suffering from this weird sensitivity in which she is not allergic to apple or a birch tree but a condition to eat an apple near it. This fact about the reaction is very worrisome since the affected person will go into shock and could die within minutes in the response of this sensitivity and Grace Morley has suffered several shocks due to the unique suffering.

3. Allergic to Exercises
Exercise is necessary for good health but there are some cases in which many people are found allergic to exercise, yes, it is not a joke, that’s true. This particular type of distress is known as Exercise-induced anaphylaxis (EIA) which is caused by exercise or by food that is taken before exercise. This is a life threatening allergy which happens only when the patient takes the offended food or medication that is not suitable for his health before exercise and works out immediately after it. The fatigue symptoms include heat, itching, redness of the skin, large hives, crumple and faintness. Prevention is better than cure and works in this allergic reaction as well.

2. Allergic to Sex
This is one of the most bizarre allergies that exist in the world in which some women are found allergic to their male partner not because of them but because of their seminal fluid, the liquid that carries sperm. The disorder is known as “human seminal plasma hypersensitivity” and in severe cases the disorder can even cause death. The allergists have found remedy for the problem which requires effort and care from male partner and a treatment is also given to affected women in which sample of semen is applied to women’s vagina every twenty minutes to desensitize women’s immune system from it.

1. Allergic to Water
The allergy that caused by water is known as aquagenic urticaria, the disorder is very rare and only one out of every 23 million people may suffer from it. The allergic is very bothersome as the patient bears itchy red lumps and sore for almost two hours and has to confine to his home only. The ions in the non distilled water are responsible for the reaction and the patient has to remain careful about water and uses distilled water only. Ashleigh Morris who is a victim of this disorder cannot take showers or swim in water and it is also reported that even the sweating causes painful rashes in her body.

You want to laugh and then you read BLISTERING EYELIDS and the humor dies quickly.

Dr. Tim Mainardi, an all around nice guy who’s kind to kittens I am told, clears up 5 common myths about allergies.

Spring is finally rolling around the corner, and for most of us, that’s a big relief. For many others, however, this revival of life also means the return of sneezing, coughing, wheezing, itching and other vexing symptoms of spring allergies, commonly known as hay fever. To help you better prepare for the allergy season and better enjoy a tear-free spring, here are five things you might not have known about spring allergies.

1. Flowers are beautiful, abundant and probably not the cause of your allergies.
Most springtime allergies are caused by tree pollen, not flowers. The most allergenic trees — such as oak, birch, and maple — have small, or in the case of pine trees, no flowers. Trees that expend energy making beautiful flowers, rather than lots of pollen, know they will attract insects like bees to help them move the allergy-causing pollen from tree to tree.

Conversely, the allergenic trees need to produce a lot more pollen to better the chance that wind will blow their pollen to the next tree, to aid their process of reproduction. You can tell when a tree is pollinating by looking for catkins hanging off the branches.

2. You can develop spring allergies at any age, even if you didn’t have them as a child.
If your mild, cold-like symptoms continue unabated and are unaccompanied by a fever, it might not be a cold at all. Although many people first develop allergies during pre-adolescence, it is nevertheless quite common for people to develop their first spring time allergies post high school or even into their 30s and 40s. Sometimes a change in environment can cause allergies if you have recently moved from the city to the country or vice a versa.

3. Spring allergies actually start in the winter.
Although we commonly think of plants restarting their life cycle and pollinating around springtime — and bringing with them the much dreaded allergy symptoms — this process can actually start much earlier. This is because the trigger for plants to start pollinating is not only warming temperatures, but also the increasing length of sunlight during the day. Even as parts of the country still reel from below normal temperatures, the spring allergy season is already well under way. At the end of February, for example, cedar and juniper pollen will have already appeared in the Northeast, while the Mid-Atlantic will begin to see alder and elm pollen. In Texas, highly allergenic trees such as oak and ash have already begun to pollinate by end of February, as have the poplar cottonwoods of California.

4. If you’re allergic to one tree, you’re not necessarily allergic to them all.
While there is always some cross-reactivity between tree pollens, being allergic to one does not mean you’re allergic to them all. Trees pollinate in a more or less predictable pattern and knowing which ones you’re not sensitive to can help decrease the amount of medication you use. The best way to find out which pollens triggers your allergies is to see an allergist and get tested.

5. Eating local honey does not cure allergies.
While honey is healthy, delicious and supports local farmers, it is a misnomer that eating local honey will prevent allergies to local pollens. Bees eat the pollen — which contain the same amount of nutrients as a bean — so not much pollen actually gets into the honey. The concentration of pollen spores present in the honey is low and nowhere near the amount that allergists will give the patient during immunotherapy or allergy shots. Immunotherapy allergy treatment will gradually “vaccinate” the body against allergens by introducing small and regulated amounts of the offensive pollen allergen. This procedure is effective to build up the bodies tolerance an immunity to pollen, unlike the consumption of honey.

Blooming plants does not need to mean blooming allergies. The more you know about your spring allergies, the better you can guard against it’s irritating symptoms. See your allergist to learn more about how to have a beautiful spring that is free of sneezing, itching, and wheezing.

You should also know that dog and cat allergies are caused by the oils on their skin and not their fur. That doesn’t mean that getting pet fur in your nose isn’t irritating, but shaving your pet won’t stop your sneezing.