Weekend Reading, Have a Seat

Goat Accused of Attempted Armed Robbery of Mazda 323. Also of practicing black magic.

Read all about it here. And that, my friends, is what they call the “hook”.

Now that I have you here, make yourself comfortable. I found lots of interesting stuff this week.

I’m Mad as a Hatter: High fructose corn syrup, the alleged “natural” sweetener, comes with a side of mercury. I find this highly alarming, as my husband believes that HFCS is a food group. Apparently, the FDA has known about this for years, and I can only hope there is a huge fallout from this.

Also, guess what? BPA in toilet paper. Lovely. Really.

Evidence that a little dirt never hurt anybody; and may, in fact, be good for you:

In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system.

Pledge to Go Veg for 30 Days and PETA will pledge a donation to The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, supporting the planting of fruit trees in poor villages. But hurry! Pledges need to be made by the end of January.

Some libraries are loaning their patrons Kill A Watt meters: A brilliant and practical way to educate homeowners about their power usage. (Learn how you can tweet your numbers on Twitter here.) I don’t see this happening at our local library anytime soon, though, as they have recently tightened regulations for new borrowers. I’d probably have to sign over my firstborn to be trusted with a Kill a Watt. (via Treehugger)

10 Disturbing (alas, fascinating) Facts about Women and Body Image: My boys were blown away by this one:

At 5′9” tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 which is considered severely underweight. Because of her ridiculous proportions (39” bust, 18” waist, 33” thighs and a size 3 shoes!), if she was a real woman, she wouldn’t be able to walk upright – she would have to walk on all fours.

The target market for Barbie Doll sales are girls ages 3 to 12.

Now available on DVD: Blossom: Seasons 1 & 2, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, and season-bloody-FOUR of Meerkat Manor . All I can say is: Why?

In local news:

Newark, DE uses a car to store power for the local electric grid:

The Greenhill Car Wash is being outfitted with a solar system and water-recycling system, and they use “eco-friendly chemicals”. So if your car, like mine, is covered in salt from the latest wintry mix, consider voting with your dollar and supporting these guys for taking the green initiative.

Finally, 3 Cheap and Easy Formulas for Homemade De-icers. Because I would rather rot at home than manually de-ice my car.

That’s it for this week! What stories did you find?