Mom Uses Year-Old Cheeseburger to Keep Kids Away from McDonalds

We’ve read several myths on the internet about the very questionable quality of food served at fast-food restaurants. A Canadian mom has actually gone on to prove some of these myths, in an attempt to discourage her teenage children from consuming ‘junk’ food.

Melanie Hesketh, from Windsor, Ontario, has a McDonald’s cheeseburger sitting on her kitchen counter. It looks as good as new, except that it’s been there for a year. That’s right, a whole year. Nope, no mould, no fungi, no maggots. Apparently, even bacteria won’t eat the food that millions of people around the world queue up for, each day. According to Melanie, who is a professional nutritionist at Windsor’s Lifetime Wellness Center, the meat patty has just shrunk a little but otherwise looks edible. It has a faint but lingering greasy, leathery odor, and still smells slightly like a burger. Her trick has worked pretty well. The sight of the burger in their kitchen every single day has helped her kids cut back on their intake of fast food. In fact, her oldest son has visited McDonald’s maybe only twice in the past year, in spite of growing peer pressure.

Photo © Tyler Brownbridge/The Windor Star

The meat-patty is all fine, but I was wondering about the bun and the cheese. Surely, those should have gone moldy in at least a few weeks. Melanie reports otherwise. The bun has hardened, but is perfectly preserved along with the slice of cheese. She attributes this to the ‘astronomical’ amounts of salt and other preservatives contained in fast food. All this does make one wonder (once again) about the food served in places like McDonald’s. If the food never spoils, exactly how old is that burger that’s being served to us? In response to such questions, the company says on their website, “Despite the myths out there, our meat is very real!” They go on to point out that the meat used is “100 per cent Canadian, CFIA-inspected beef.” The meat is “sprinkled with salt and pepper at the restaurant during cooking. That’s it. No additives, fillers or binding agents,” they add.

Photo © Tyler Brownbridge/The Windor Star

It all sounds good, but no one can deny the evidence that proves the opposite. So the next time you’re about to bite into that big, fat, juicy burger, take a second to think about what might actually be in it.

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Ball Cutter Fish Kills Fishermen by Biting off Their Testicles

Man-eating predators have always been part of legend and folk-lore. But here we have news of a real-life monster, interested in only one part of the human anatomy – the testicles.

The monster in question is in fact a 40lb fish called Pacu, found in the waters of Papua New Guinea. The Pacu are notorious for having eaten up the testicles of swimmers and anglers caught unawares, leaving them to bleed to death. This has led to the creatures being nicknamed ‘Ball Cutter’ fish. Initially, the villagers could only describe the monster-fish as something mysterious, like a ‘human in the water’. They finally got to see the predator up-close when a Pacu fish was recently caught by Jeremy Wade, a 53-year old British Fisherman, as a part of his TV series called River Monsters. The muscular fish was hard to catch, but Wade managed to track it down, reel it into his boat and wrestle it into submition. When he opened its jaws up with his hands, the teeth of the Pacu were found to be quite similar to human ones.

Photo via MySpace

The Pacu fish are actually native to the Amazon, and were introduced to Papua New Guinea only about 15 years ago. Traditionally vegetarian, the fish used their molar-like sharp teeth to crack open nuts (no pun intended) and seeds. When veggie food wasn’t available in their new surroundings, they had to resort to eating meat. I suppose this is when they discovered a particular liking towards the meat of human testicles.

All we can say is that if you ever happen to be swimming or fishing in the rivers of Papua New Guinea, be sure to guard those family jewels!

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Woman Tattoos Favorite Rapper’s Name on Her Forehead

How responsible is a tattoo artist for the strange things that people get tattooed on various parts of their body? This was the very question that Kevin Campbell faced this week, when he helped a woman get her favorite rapper’s name tattooed on her forehead.

While the name or identity of the woman remains unknown, her pictures have been circulating the internet and have turned viral. This woman has done the unthinkable, even for die-hard fans. She apparently wanted to show off her love for Drake, the Canadian rapstar, so she got his name etched in a place that no one could miss. The photographs themselves were taken by Kevin’s manager and co workers from Will Rise, the L.A. tattoo shop. A close-up shot shows that the woman has shaved off her hair and eyebrows. Kevin confirms this. He says that she came in to the shop that way, asking specifically for the tattoo to be made on her forehead. She had even picked out the font beforehand. According to Kevin, she seemed to be a little high, but pretty sure of  what she wanted. But when the tattoo job was nearing completion, she seemed to have lost a bit of her enthusiasm.

He did lose a night’s sleep after making the tattoo, afraid he’d be called  the a-hole who tattooed “DRAKE” on some drug addict’s forehead.  But he does feel that he’s done the best he could to prevent her from going ahead with it. Kevin says he’ll ask his clients three times if they are sure they think it’s a good idea, and also tell them about the potential consequences of getting a tattoo on the face. Beyond that, it’s up to the customer to take the decision. He does admit though, that he had the choice to turn her away, and didn’t take it. And for that, Kevin’s already facing a lot of criticism from other tattooers.

Well, the deed is done, and quite irreversibly at that. Apparently the woman only got the outline done, and didn’t have enough money to pay for the filling. But she’s assured the folks at Will Rise that she’ll be back for more.

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