Rapex is the name of a “condom” that in many ways brings to life the myth of the vagina dentata, a toothed vagina. Patented in South Africa, the device is essentially a plastic and latex cylinder with barbs lining the inside that is supposedly only removable with the help of a medical professional. Worn for no longer than 24 hours, disposable, and intended to go for a price not much more than that of condoms, this is one of the most interesting, disturbing, and potentially misused inventions I can think of. The official Rapex website can be found here.

PETA has just announced a $2,000 award to help find out who is terrorizing pigeons in Seattle. At least three pigeons surviving attacks with darts still lodged behind their eyes have been reported as seen on block 1400 of 3rd Avenue (Tori Perry, Norfolk).

That’s right: Pierre the penguin has just received a customized wetsuit commissioned by the California Academy of Sciences after shedding (primarily butt feathers) left him too cold to play with the other penguins. More details here, but all you really need to know to sleep better at night is that somewhere in the world is a penguin with his own customized wetsuit.

Since I’m in Minnesota, I shouldn’t be surprised that it snowed yesterday or angry at April (seeing as the only month during which Minnesota has NOT seen snow is August), but I am. So I decided to find other reasons not to hate April, and discovered that this month is:
Autism Awareness Month
International Guitar Month
Keep America Beautiful Month
National Child Abuse Prevention Month
National Frog Month
National Garden Month
National Humor Month
Mathematics Education Month
National Poetry Month
Stress Awareness Month
In honor of the penultimate distinction on this list, I think it’s appropriate to share a wonderful poem by Michael Ondaatje:
“Application for a Driving Licence”
Two birds loved
in a flurry of red feathers
like a burst cottonball,
continuing while I drove over them.
I am a good driver, nothing shocks me.

“A male octopus (right) deposits a sperm packet into a female in this photo taken during a field study and released on Monday.”
The headline really says it all. According to National Geographic (April 3), a recent study has “found that wild octopuses engage in ‘jealous murders,’ gender bending, and once-in-a-lifetime sex—unlike their seemingly shy, unromantic captive brethren.”
The study was done by the University of California, Berkeley; scientists watched the “baseball-size Abdopus aculeatus octopus species” (found off Indonesia) several weeks and recently published their findings:
“The team witnessed picky, macho males carefully select mates. The octopuses would then guard their newly domesticated digs jealously—occasionally going so far as to use their 8- to 10-inch (20- to 25-centimeter) tentacles to strangle romantic rivals to death.
“‘This is not a unique species of octopus, which suggests others behave this way,’ said Berkeley biologist Roy Caldwell, who co-authored the new study.
“The researchers also observed smaller males put on feminine airs. Some would keep their brown stripes—a male trait—hidden, perhaps to lull females into a false sense of safety before setting the scene for ‘seduction.'”

(image from angelmoth, a previous balletLORENT production)
BalletLORENT, directed by Liv Lorent, is currently seeking twelve pregnant women to perform alongside company members in MaEternal. The Newcastle company wants to “to share with an audience the beauty of what it means to carry the life of another within you.” Personally, I think there’s a reason that ballerinas stop dancing when they start morning sickness and hormonal swings, but Lorent has been inspired by her own pregnancy–and I’ve also been told you don’t argue with a pregnant woman.
(thanks to Aaron for the original article)

Like most Americans (or so I assume), I grew up thinking of Canada’s government as sort of a benign, agreeable uncle with a funny accent. So it was rather disturbing when I discovered that the first set of identical, natural-birth quintuplets to survive their infancy were in fact seized by the Canadian government in 1935, when the girls were one. Their doctor was given guardianship and they were put in “Quintland”–a tourist attraction that rivaled the Niagara Falls for popularity and that CNN called a depression-era freak show. According to the Wikipedia entry on the sisters, an average of 6,000 visitors came to observe the quints every day and the hospital/zoo brought in $51 million in tourist revenue to the area–during the depression. Even when the Dionne quints’ father successfully regained custody of his daughters in 1943 he continued to display and exploit them. In 1998, the remaining sisters were awarded $4 million by the Ontario government in compensation for their nine years on display (after a long and harrowing suit, of course).
Below are two pictures of Quintland from postcards. While the Wikipedia article is certainly more reliable and less…informal?…there’s also an interesting, if…unpolished and editorial…site here about Quintland with many pictures.

If you have money and a dog, and love the latter more than the former, you can now buy CDs for your pet that only he or she will hear. Thanks to Razorlight, a song audible only to dogs has topped New Zealand charts and is coming to the US soon. To read about several canine reactions, go here.

Found in the deep sea mountain range of the North Atlantic (creatively titled the Mid-Atlantic Ridge), the glass squid is clearly underrepresented in children’s literature and biology classes. Although, to be fair, the more common representation of the creature is more along the lines of this picture: