Why You Shouldn’t Eat Your Boogers -Factoid #2

When Ol’ Blue Eyes sang, ” Ive got you under my skin”, I am sure he was NOT talking about this:

However, this little critter is the subject of today’s factoid.

Do bugs live in eyelashes?

Most people don’t like the idea that bugs can live on their skin and hair. However, the truth is that many bugs do, and they live with us in harmony, most of the time. By the time we reach late adulthood, most of us have wiggly, microscopic, wormlike mites called demodex mites living in the roots of our eyelashes. If you pull out one of your eyelashes and examine it under a strong magnifying glass, or better, a microscope, there is a good chance you will see one of these tiny mites clinging to the base of the lash. They can also live in our skin pores and the hair follicles on our face, such as the eyebrows.

These mites are cigar shaped, a third of a millimeter (a tiny fraction of an inch) long, and have eight stubby little legs situated at the front of their long, so they waddle along fairly slowly. When one of these mites reaches a hair, it burrows headfirst down into the follicle. Their bodies are layered with scales, which help to anchor them into the follicle, and their needlelike mouths eat dead skin and oil that is produced by the skin. Fortunately, although the mites eat, they don’t actually poo in the follicles.

An individual female can lay a number of eggs in a single follicle. When mature, the mites leave the follicle, mate, and find a new follicle into which they lay their eggs. Each mite can live for several weeks, and mites can be transferred between humans if two people’s hair, eyebrows, or the sebacceous glands on their noses come into close contact.

Mites living on our eyelashes are usually quite harmless, and most people are totally unaware of the little squatters living in their hair follicles. However, if too many accumulate in a single hair follicle, they can cause itching, certain skin disorders, or an eyelash to fall out. As many as twenty-five eyelash mites have been found huddled together in a single follicle! There are some great pictures of these mites in a variety of poses on the Internet.

Okay, now I’m itching like crazy!

This post is part of the Boogers and Book Bucks Giveaway. Don’t forget to enter at the original post for your official entry. Comments here count as a bonus entry 😀

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Viral Video – Burger King Bath

Would you like fries with your shake? A soda with your cheeseburger? Some TOE JAM on your Caesar Salad? Say WHAT?!?

As I was watching the 11 o’clock news last night… and again this morning…. and, AGAIN a few minutes ago (other than the Olympics, this seems to be the hottest news going), I was exposed to a sight even I, weird as I am, would have never thought of.

When you retire, some places give you a gold watch (didn’t make the baddie in SPEED happy, he used his to blow up the bus), others give you a clock and a party (my mom got that when she retired from Delco), and some lucky few get a hefty check as a way of saying, “Thanks for all you’ve done” (or, don’t let the door hit’ya where the good Lord split’ya!). I guess the thing to do when leaving Burger King is to take a bath in the sink.

It seems “Mr. Unstable”, as he calls himself, had been thinking about bathing in the dish sink for two months before taking the plunge. Apparently, the stunt was part of his birthday celebration.. some people have cake and presents, others get drunk, but only a select few get a spa treatment in a restaurant sink! I wonder if that “sanitizer” is a good exfoliate…

Scrubbing himself with utensils, he continues his bath even after a manager is informed. The manager simply shook her head and continued counting the cash. When Burger King corporate found out, all those involved, or uninvolved as in the case of the manager, were fired, all the utensils were thrown out, and the sink was sanitized… twice. As an added precaution, all remaining employees were retrained in safe food handling. I can just here the new training video: Always wash your hands whenever you touch your face, and NEVER take a bath in the utility sink.

Okay, HONESTLY, after I’m done laughing like a hyena, this video is disgusting. But not in the way you think, they’ve sanitized everything and my BK is safe. What makes this video disgusting is that someone thought to film the stunt, the manager thought little to nothing of it (would she have been just as indifferent if he was spitting on the sandwiches. a far more likely occurrence), and that we live in a day and age this stupid prank is a national news article that trumps wars, starvation and human suffering. Yeah, it’s weird. Yeah, it’s gross… I wouldn’t wash my dishes in the bathtub. But is it more shocking than the child molesting police officer (local news, here) or what’s happening between Georgia and Russia.

Another thing that makes this gross is: If this hadn’t been video-ed and posted on MySpace, the health inspector and Burger King would have never found out. Everything would have gone on as normal. Yuck! And I’m sure they used those utensils and sink the next morning… They didn’t throw them out and double-bleach the sink until AFTER the video was shown to the corporate and civil authorities.

Eastwood Mailman made the point that this shouldn’t be a shock; these are the very people we trust to make our food in a healthy and sanitary way. And I have to agree with him. I worked in fast food, like most teens, and I KNOW things that happened. That patty that fell on the floor is only dirty if someone sees, or those fries can be redipped to count as the “fresh fries” you asked for, and I KNOW not everyone washes their hands on backline after wiping a booger off their nose… not to mention, GAWD KNOWS where that booger landed!

Man, Weezer should have waited a little bit longer!  So… Who wants a Whopper for supper?

Viral Video Wednesday – Pork’n’ Beans

This week’s Viral Video Wednesday was inspired by Bermudaonion’s link in last week’s comments.

It’s amazing how many of us have seen the same videos… many of those videos we seem to not even remember ever watching, but we know them. It’s been a fun week finding the vids for this week, too. Some of them I’d never seen or heard of, which made me feel a bit stupid like “OMG! What rock have I been under? How did I miss this!” But most of them I knew. Some of them are my new favorites, AND my kids are getting into helping me find new videos… particularly my 15-year-old who has definitely ruined me on a couple of these. AND we are all still singing Numa Numa here (of course, my children are still playing them and finding new ones).

So, on to the vids:

Today’s VVW is a fun puzzle… What do the following videos have in common?

Remember Gary from last week? He’s back this week for a second appearance! Will we ever get away from him, really? it is Viral Video Wednesday, after all!

The suspense-building LOOK from a Prairie Dog:

When showing off your Ninja moves, make sure they didn’t wax-on the floor last night:

Mad scientist at play in a field with Diet Coke (we actually did this at home, and the kids tried the soda afterwards… it tasted nasty!):

Warning! Mentally unstable Britney-crazed fan who lost his meds (R-rated for language) Say it with me, “Leave Britney Alone!!!“:

I personally believe some-uh.. like such as and the Iraq and such as… HUH?:

The funniest 6 minutes you will ever see! Remember how many of these you have done! (I just totally ripped off the “more info” on the site):

Chocolate Rain! *breathe* made me lots of money from Dr. P *breathe*:

You know, there will be an entire VVW dedicate to this video in the future… but today, it’s simply a piece of the puzzle:

Weird, hypnotic… a bit of a WTF… but all the same, a piece right in the middle of our puzzle:

Quite possibly one of the most disturbing… not to mention addictive… videos I’ve ever seen (Warning: R-rated for some language):

The number one most obnoxious video ever made. It makes me want to shove pencils into my ears all the way to the erasers! (Warning: more than 20 seconds can cause psychotic episodes):

ROFLMAO… never saw this one before, but thought it fit… consider it a clue:

And the last piece of the puzzle… “Charlie! Wake up you silly sleepy-head!” ( 😀 ):

Now, put all these pieces together and you get the following Weezer’s Pork ‘n’ Beans video:

 

One of the many things I love about Weezer’s video is that a lot of the viral vids are of people who have really been ripped up by commenters, fellow video-makers, comedians and Talk show hosts, etc. Now, I’m not feeling sorry for them… many of them got spots on National television, record deals, and even a spot on a Weezer video. 😀 But in this video they get a chance to thumb their collective nose at their critics. I like that.

Now, I know there are TONS! of viral videos that I missed, the video is so full of them that I couldn’t name them all. So here’s your chance to post the missing ones, either here in the comment section or… even better… on your own blog as your own VVW post 😉

I leave you with this Numa Numa – South Park Style video Sammi, my 15-year-old, found: