Ask Maxy

Dear Maxy ,
What is the right age to let girls wear makeup ? I have a daughter in the 5th grade . most of the girls are 10 and 11 years old . They are just beginning to take an interest in beauty . One of the girls has come to school a few times wearing lipstick . It was bright red . I thought it was inappropriate . Obviously , she is not my child , but I am concerned about my daughter getting the wrong impression of what is right . I don't want to speak poorly of this girl . but I want my daughter to be clear on what I think is appropriate . I currently allow her to wear colorless lip gloss and that's it .
Setting the Standards ---Jackson Mississippi 
Dear Setting the Standards,
Playing with make-up on your mom's dressing table is a rite-of-passage many of us will remember, but the regular wearing of make-up certainly has become a more controversial debate.
Many girls are starting to wear make-up from the age of 11 - three years younger than it was a decade ago. Peer pressure from friends, older siblings and wanting to feel grown up are being blamed as the main cause. They are also influenced by what they see on TV and the internet.
Unsurprisingly, most women don't approve of the shift in pre-teen girls and their beauty habits. Women are mostly concerned that these pre-teen girls might develop an unhealthy obsession with their appearance. This is a reasonable viewpoint.
The general guideline ( after asking a few dozen moms of teens) seems to be lip gloss between 11 and 12, eye make-up, somewhere between 13 and 14 and foundation between 14 and fifteen as long as they are not having problems with blemished skin. 
You and I know that make-up is a part of every woman's life . And so they should be taught how to use cosmetics properly and how to keep them light and natural looking.
Set some guidelines with your daughter...such as:
You may wear light pink lipstick at 12....mascara at 13 etc. So that she has a clear picture of what you expect.  What you don't want is for her to feel left behind by her friends. She wants the same privileges as her peer group.
Pick your battles; this isn't such a big one. Look ahead a couple of years.  Soon you will be dealing with when she can wear high heels and when she can start dating. Better to take a firm stance on boys, drugs, alcohol and getting her homework done."
Maxy

Dear Maxy,
Tooth decay runs in my family . Nearly everyone who got to be 40 has ended up with dentures . I am the first one to retain most of my teeth . I have had a bunch of dental procedures , but so far , no dentures . I mention this because I have two children who have inherited poor dental habits even though I have been vigilant about my own teeth . I don't know what to do to get them to understand the repercussions if they do not start practicing better hygiene .
Clean mouth 
Dear  Clean Mouth ,
For a start you could look up some scary images on the internet of people with decayed and or missing teeth due to poor dental hygiene. That kind  of  "scared straight" approach can awaken them to the  potential  downside of  bad habits .
 Also, get your dentist to warn them as to what can happen to their teeth and gums as the years progress, and give them some helpful advice.
Possibly one of your relatives might even co-operate by telling the children how they regret not taking better care of their teeth.
If all else fails, you may have to take away privileges until brushing and flossing becomes a regular routine. Good luck.
Maxy

Dear Maxy ,
My husband died 11 years ago . Our son "Marcus" was 6 at the time . His dad was in intensive care for two months , and because of his young age , our son was not allowed to see his father .
Before he died , my husband asked his younger brother to keep his drum set until Marcus turned 18 . Marcus uncles used to call him on his birthday , which also was his father's birthday . But since my husband died , neither has called to wish there nephew has called to wish their nephew a happy birthday . 
Marcus will be 18 soon . He is into music and wants the drums . I have asked his uncle on several occasions by sending a message on Facebook . I also asked my son's half-brother (from my husband's first marriage) to get the drums and Marcus could pick them up from his house . Nothing has happen . I recently noticed a picture on Facebook of a guy who used to play in a band with my late husband . In the photo , he is playing drums that look suspiciously like the ones that belong to my son .
Marcus has nothing of his father's . he as no included in an decisions on what to sell and what to keep , or even asked what he'd like to have . He was also given his dad's El Camino . but my husband put the title in the name of Marcus half-brother , who sold it . He didn't even give my son any of the money from the sale . Tat was bad enough , but Marcus only really cares about the drums .
The entire family know that my late husband wanted Marcus to have the drums . What should I do ? File a lawsuit ? How do I honor my later husband's wishes and give my son this final gift from his dad? 
Distraught Mom of a Musician 
 Dear Mom of a Musician, 
Is  anything  in writing ? If not, you might need  to file  a lawsuit , but  in order  to prove  your  case , you probably  will need other  credible  witnesses  to testify that your husband's wish  was  for  Marcus  to have  the  drum set . An attorney  will let  you know  if  you have  a case .
But  a lawsuit  should  be the last  resort . Asking personal
questions  on Facebook is making your family business open to the public and I am not surprised you got no response . Pick up the  phone . Call the  uncle who supposedly has the drum set . Be nice. Tell him  what a wonderful 18th birthday  present  it  would be for  Marcus  to finally have  this  memento  from his  father . Ask if it would be convenient if you picked it  up,  and  what you can do to facilitate  the transfer .
Marcus  could also call his  uncle . Family relationships  work  both ways  and  Marcus  is  old  enough  now  to establish  his  own contact with his uncle.  If he told him in person, how much it would mean to him, you might get a more positive response.
Marcus should have established a relationship with his uncle long before now. He is nearly eighteen, almost a man. He may be the one to best handle the situation.
But for certain, If you hound this uncle you will only make the situation worse and make him dig his heels in. 
Maxy

 Dear Maxy ,
Last week , our son came home from school and told us that a boy at his school had killed himself . he boy had been a friend of his since fifth grade . 
The school had a moment of silence over the public address system , but never mentioned the boy's name . Most of the details about the suicide are nonexistent , although there are few things mentioned on a website asking for help paying for funeral costs . Students who didn't know the suicide victim are guessing it was caused by bullying . Our son says that's not true . Some students are even saying the fund requests are a scam .
We haven't heard anything about whether the school is offering grief counseling . We've talked to our son about the tragedy and are trying our best to help him . Because the students have n information , they are making wild guesses and placing misinformed posts on social media . My question is why is this tragedy so secret . Should the school do more ?

Sad Mom
Dear Sad Mom,
Sometimes , the  school is  ill-equipped  to deal  with such  tragedies and  does  nothing , which  tends  to create a whirlwind  of  misinformation . Also, the  administration  may fear
that  mentioning the details  would further negatively affect the kids or even encourage copycat suicides . But  the  details  do not  need  airing . The  acknowledgement  of mourning , however  is  important .
The  American  Foundation  for  Suicide  Prevention  (asfp.org )  offers a  Toolkit  for  Schools , and  you should  mention  this  to the  administration . The  foundation  is  also  an  excellent  resource  for  anyone  dealing  with a suicide   and  you will find  information  there  that  will help  you talk  to  your  son about  his  friend . There most definitely should be a grief counselor at the school to help the children deal with the loss. It might be helpful to talk with some of the other parents to see what you can do as a group to arrange something.

CNN Update on Nepal Quake

Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN)  Half a million tents are urgently needed for the huge number of people forced from their homes by Nepal's devastating earthquake, a government minister said Wednesday, as rescue efforts continue in the stricken nation.

Minendra Rijal, Nepal's minister of information and communications, said relief operations were underway, but that much more needs to be done.

Rijal wasn't able to put a precise number on those made homeless by Saturday's devastating quake.

But he said the government had so far provided more than 4,700 tents and 22,000 tarpaulins to those in need of shelter. Aircraft loaded with tents are expected from India and Thailand in the next day, he said, with another 100,000 tents expected from Pakistan.

Map of Nepal earthquake epicenter and aftershock locations

The United Nations has said the quake has affected 8 million people across 39 districts, with a quarter of those in the worst affected areas.

Rijal said 21 helicopters, including seven provided by India, were helping in the rescue and relief efforts, with 866 people rescued by air and a little more than 1,000 rescued using land transport.

As rescue workers seek to reach people who desperately need help, the weather is only making things worse.

Heavy rain has intensified the hardships for the countless Nepalis who are sleeping out in the open because their homes were destroyed or they don't feel safe inside buildings amid continuing aftershocks.

People protesting the slow aid

U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Wednesday that 1.7 million children are now in urgent need of aid in the areas worst-hit by the earthquake as it launched a $50 million appeal to get help to them.

"The lives of so many children have been torn apart and they are in desperate need of life-saving support, including clean water, shelter and sanitation," said Tomoo Hozumi, the agency's Nepal representative. ( Canada is currently sending thousands of portable water filtration systems, which have the capability of purifying the foulest water  to potable )

"Without a safe water supply, waterborne diseases remain huge risks for children. Many families are struggling simply to protect themselves from the sun and rain, and we only expect needs to grow in the coming days."

In the district of Gorkha, where the 7.8-magnitude quake was centered, a large storm rumbled over the mountainous terrain Tuesday afternoon.

 

Man pulled from earthquake rubble in Nepal after 80 hours

"That essentially shut down helicopter missions for the entire afternoon, except for a small window before sunset," Matt Darvas, an emergency communications officer for the humanitarian group World Vision, told CNN on Wednesday. He's currently in the main town in Gorkha.

The canceled helicopter flights meant fewer airdrops of vital supplies to devastated villages and dashed hopes of rescues for injured people in isolated locations.

There was brighter news from the outskirts of the capital, Kathmandu, however, where rescuers pulled a man from the wreckage of a building where he had been stuck for a staggering 80 hours.

Makeshift Field Hospital

Some 5,238 people were confirmed dead as of Wednesday evening as a result of the massive earthquake, with another 10,348 injured, Nepal's National Emergency Coordination Center told CNN. Officials have warned the death toll is expected to rise.

The frequent downpours in Nepal have made it harder for emergency workers to help the injured.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta was at an army field hospital in Kathmandu when the heavens opened Tuesday.

"The rain has arrived and in many cases this is the worst-case scenario," he said. "This is what they were hoping wouldn't happen."

Pieces of tape held patches in the ceiling as water threatened to bubble in; sheets of canvas served as walls.

Gupta said it was "kind of remarkable what they've been able to do" at the makeshift hospital. Over three days, the medical staff there had treated 617 patients and saved 586 of them.
The international community has responded with every kind of aid possible, including China
At the forefront of aid are the United States, Japan, Canada the UK, Finland and Australia.
The united States has sent rescue workers, food, clothing and emergency supplies . The UK and Canada have responded with doctors and medical personnel, with Canada sending a complete mobile field hospital capable of helping at least 50,000 people. Japan was quick to send rescue  personnel and  disaster assessment teams who can organize rescues and cleanup. All above mentioned countries have contributed millions in funds for aid, with the USA in the lead, donating 10 million dollars.

What do You Think ?

Extraterrestrial life (from the Latin words: extra ["beyond" or "not of"] and terrestris ["of or belonging to Earth"]) is defined as life that does not originate from Earth. It is often also referred to as alien life or simply aliens (or space aliens, to differentiate from other definitions of alien or aliens). These hypothetical forms of life range from simple bacteria-like organisms to beings far more complex than humans.
The development and testing of hypotheses on extraterrestrial life is known as exobiology or astrobiology; the term astrobiology, however, includes the study of life on Earth viewed in its astronomical context. Nonetheless, scientists at the National Institutes of Health reported studies that life in the universe may have begun "9.7±2.5 billion years ago", billions of years before the Earth was formed, based on extrapolating the "genetic complexity of organisms" (from "major phylogenetic lineages") to earlier times.[1][2] Many scientists consider extraterrestrial life to be plausible, but there is no direct evidence of its existence. Since the mid-20th century, there has been an ongoing search for signs of extraterrestrial life, from radios used to detect possible extraterrestrial signals to telescopes used to search for potentially habitable extrasolar planets

Baltimore Riots Over Freddie Gray's death

Two weeks of tension over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray boiled over on Monday night as rioters clashed with officers and National Guardsmen in the city’s streets in the worst violence to date. The chaotic scenes included hordes of officers fleeing from a barrage of rocks and bottles tossed by protesters, as well as looting and cars and businesses set on fire, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

The heightened violence came just hours after Gray’s funeral on Monday (April 27), with many Baltimore residents frustrated that the investigation into how Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in Baltimore Police custody appears to be moving too slowly.

This what I do not understand - If this is a legitimate protest against the police - Why do the citizens burn buildings and loot businesses owned by their own neighbors, regardless of color??? These protests just seem to attract thugs, thieves and violence so they receive more disapprobation and negativity than the support most people would like to give.

The spark that ignited Monday's pandemonium probably started with high school students on social media, who were discussing a "purge," a reference to a film in which laws are suspended.

Many people knew "very early on" that there was "a lot of energy behind this purge movement," Baltimore City Councilman Nick Mosby said Tuesday. "It was a metaphor for, 'Let's go out and make trouble.'"





Baltimore's handling of riots slammed as 'disaster'

 Carter said. Baltimore police "routinely" are "superaggressive," with "zero tolerance for any kind of overactivity going on from these young people," she said. "And yesterday they acted completely opposite to their normal behavior."

But Mosby believes it was not intentional. Authorities "came ill-prepared, and it escalated quicker than they could respond," he said.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said there were about 300 police officers at the mall, but the ages of the rioters factored into the response.

"Yes, we prepared," he said. "Because there are 14-, 15- and 16-year-old kids out there. Do you want people using force on 14-, 15-, 16-year-old kids? They're old enough to know better. They're old enough to know not to do those things. They're old enough to be accountable, but they're still kids. unfortunately. So, we had to take into account while we were out there.

President Obama, on Tuesday criticized those rioting in the streets of Baltimore as "criminals" and "thugs" and argued that broader societal changes are needed to address underlying tensions that exist between African American communities and the police.

Making his first remarks on the death of Freddie Gray and the ensuing violence, Obama said fixing the problems experienced in Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and other cities will require politically difficult choices on education, criminal justice reform and economic investment in neighborhoods often overlooked until such incidents.
Freddie Gray's death on April 19 leaves unanswered questions in it's wake. But it is clear that when Gray was arrested in West Baltimore on the morning of April 12, he was struggling to walk. By the time he arrived at the police station a half hour later, he was unable to breathe or talk, suffering from wounds that would, in due time, cause his death.
Gray died Sunday from spinal injuries. Baltimore authorities say they're investigating how the 25-year-old was hurt—something they should already be aware of, given that it was while he was in police custody,  away from public view, that he apparently suffered injury. How it happened remains unknown. It's even difficult to understand why officers arrested Gray in the first place. But with protesters taking to the streets of Baltimore since Gray's death on Sunday, the incident falls into a line of highly publicized, fatal encounters between black men and the police. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a reserve sheriff's deputy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, pleaded not guilty to a second-degree manslaughter charge in the death of a man he shot. The deputy says the shooting happened while he was trying to tase the man. Black men dying at the hands of the police is of course nothing new. It is just getting more attention these days, mostly because bystanders have the means to record these events now.
According to the city, an officer made eye contact with Gray, and he took off running, so they pursued him. Though he'd had scrapes with the law before, there's no indication he was wanted at the time. He did have a switchblade, but Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, “We know that having a knife is not necessarily a crime.”
The police say Gray didn't resist arrest and that officers didn't use force, which seems to be mostly corroborated by video shot by bystanders. Gray seems to shout in pain, and his leg seems injured as officers drag him to a police van. (Someone off camera shouts, "His leg broke and y'all dragging him like that!") Gray also had asthma and requested his inhaler, but didn't get it. Yet it's not the leg or the asthma that killed him. Instead, it was a grave injury to his spinal cord. Gray's family said he was treated for three fractured vertebrae and a crushed larynx, the type of injuries that doctors say are usually caused by serious car accidents. The van made at least two stops before reaching the police station, but there's no footage to say what happened during the journey or at those stops.
"It's baffling." Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said. "None of the officers describe using any force against Mr. Gray." And yet somehow Gray was fatally hurt while in police custody.

The lack of clear evidence in Baltimore is a reminder of just how unusual the case of Walter Scott was. The North Charleston, South Carolina, man was shot in the back by a police officer while running away, but a bystander caught the incident on video—debunking the official account in a police report.
The obvious tie between the Gray and Scott cases, though, is that in both incidents police apprehended black men under questionable circumstances—Scott for a busted tail light, Gray for, well, it's unclear. In both cases, the black community feels its members were unfairly targeted by the local police.
The police already have made up their minds about who we are," Rudolph Jackson told The Baltimore Sun. "They figure every black person with their pants hanging down is a suspect, and they stop them without probable cause." That echoes complaints of African Americans around the nation, from Ferguson to Staten Island to Cleveland, about how they experience the police not as defenders of the peace but as an arbitrary menace, more likely to violate a citizen's rights than preserve them.

Six officers have been suspended with pay and placed on desk duty in the Gray case, and while the Baltimore Police Department didn't specify their races, the three officers in the clip arresting Gray all appear to be white.
The other obvious problem here is : what happens when the police are not being filmed or even being watched? Despite movement to provide police with body cameras, many still don't wear them. There is much that's still unknown about Gray's fatal injuries, but it's hard to avoid the conclusion—based purely on what the mayor and others have said—that his injuries came at the hands of police officers in the van.
A common estimate is that 400 people die every year while being arrested—a number that City Lab's Richard Florida notes is probably an undercount—and six in 10 of those deaths are homicides, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The U.S. Department of Justice says it will also investigate whether officers violated Gray's civil rights. But if the police can't be trusted to get a man to jail without grave injury, can they be trusted to investigate this death effectively? And if they can't, who will?



Top 10 Signs of Alien Life??....Hmmmmm



Nepal quake



Nine out of 10 Nepalese troops are said to be involved in search and rescue operations, as the country pleads for more foreign aid to deal with a massive earthquake that killed 4,000 people. Almost the entire army and police has joined the quake effort, officials say. China, India, the UK and US are among those sending aid from abroad. Nepal says it needs everything from blankets and helicopters to doctors and drivers.

Some 200 climbers stranded by the quake on Mount Everest are being rescued. About 60 of the climbers had been brought to safety by helicopters on Monday, according to Tulsi Gautam, the chief of Nepal's tourism agency. He said that helicopters were only ferrying two people at a time because of the risk of flying at such a high altitude. The climbers had been unable to leave the mountain because of avalanches triggered by the tremors.
The quake, which struck on Saturday, is now known to have injured at least 7,000 people. Vast tent cities have sprung up in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, for those displaced or afraid to return to their homes.
Several aftershocks have been reported - the latest on Monday night. Across the country, thousands are camping outside for the third night. There are shortages of water, food and electricity, and fears of outbreaks of disease.

 Nepalese troops - seen here unloading supplies from an Indian helicopter - are heavily involved in the relief effort           





Meanwhile, an army spokesman told the Associated Press news agency that 90% of the country's 100,000 troops are taking part in the quake effort.

The Nepalese government's Chief Secretary, Lila Mani Poudyal, said his country was short of medical teams and relief materials, including "tents, dry goods, blankets, mattresses and 80 different medicines".

"We don't have the helicopters that we need or the expertise to rescue the people trapped," he said. The need for doctors would grow as more survivors were pulled from the rubble, Mr Poudyal added.

Dozens of people are also reported to have been killed by the earthquake in neighbouring China and India.

Both countries have sent emergency teams to Nepal, along with Pakistan, which said it was dispatching four C130 transport planes carrying a 30-bed hospital. Other countries, including Britain, Australia and New Zealand are also contributing aid, alongside international agencies.

However, congestion at Kathmandu's airport has caused delays, with Indian TV reporting that an Indian relief flight was forced to turn back.

United Nations World Food Program spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told AP that the agency planned "a large, massive operation".

  

 

Temporary camp in Lainchaur, Kathmandu

A camp has been set up on a playground where even now children are playing. But it no longer resembles a safe place. There's rubble everywhere;  trash and glass are strewn all over.

"It's getting quite bad," says one man who is here with his wife and four daughters. "We've been here for three days and we've been living on instant noodles. There's nothing else to eat."

His house is not badly damaged, but he is adamant that he will not go home despite the challenging conditions in the camp.

"We've heard all these rumours about more earthquakes and aftershocks. We will not leave this place, not for a while."

Bodies are cremated near a river in Kathmandu







Whale Whisperer Gets Wild Whale to Spin...Whales Have a Sense of Fun...And Other Animal videos



Odd but Interesting

            

The archaeologist Matthew Stirling and his wife, Marion Illig, posing with a recently discovered and restored Olmec head in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán (Veracruz, Mexico, 1945).  The Olmec civilization existed before the Incas

Robert Wadlow was the tallest person in history. He reached 8 ft 11.1 in (2.720 m) in height and weighed 439 lb (199 kg) at his death at age 22 in 1940.

Invisible twin

Photo taken in early 1900's

You could see a human footprint like this today on any beach or patch of mud. But this footprint -- clearly from the anatomy of a modern human being -- is fossilized in stone estimated to be about 290 million years old.The discovery was made in New Mexico by paleontologist Jerry MacDonald in 1987.


Showmen’s Rest: Chicago’s Clown Graveyard

An elephant statue marks Showmen’s Rest, a mass grave of clowns and other circus performers. The lowered trunk symbolizes mourning.

In Forest Park, Illinois, the Woodlawn Cemetery contains a large plot marked by elephant statues. Engraved at the base of one large elephant are the words Showmen’s League of America. On the gravestones, the dates of death are all marked June 22, 1918. Beneath is a mass grave containing the remains of clowns, trapeze artists, strongmen and other circus performers.

Hammond Circus Train Wreck

On the night of June 22, 1918, members of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were asleep in the rear cars of their train. It was 4am, and the train had stopped just outside Hammond, Indiana to cool an overheated axle box. They were en route to their next performance in Hammond, and then on to Monroe, Wisconsin. They would never make it.
A second train carrying the animals and some people was about 90 minutes ahead of them. They would not hear of the disaster until they pulled into Hammond that morning and solemnly gathered for roll call to determine who was missing.
Alonzo Sargent, an engineer for 16 years with the Michigan Central Railroad, had fallen asleep at the helm of an empty 21-car military troop train. He missed all the automatic signals and flares warning him of the stalled train, smashing into the wooden circus cars at about 35 miles per hour. Most of the dead were believed to have been killed within the first 30 seconds. As survivors scrambled to pull themselves from the splintered mess, the train’s old-fashioned kerosene-fueled lanterns ignited the wreckage.
Those who survived watched helplessly as their friends and family succumbed to the inferno.
In the hours following the crash, bodies were still being extracted from the smoldering wreck. Joe Coyle, a clown, was seen weeping beside the crushed bodies of his wife and children.


Showmen’s Rest: Heroes of the Sawdust Ring

There were 127 injured and an estimated 86 dead. A mass grave was dug in a 750-plot section of Woodlawn Cemetery recently purchased by the Showmen’s League of America. Many of the remains were unidentifiable, or known only by their stage names, so headstones at Showmen’s Rest are marked with names like “Baldy,” “Smiley,” and “Unknown Female #43.”

Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, 1917

Today, original circus wagons from the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus can be seen at Circus World in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Their winter headquarters in Peru, Indiana is now the International Circus Hall of Fame.


Tests reveal the fossilized remains of the Altamura Man are around 150,000 years old and contain the oldest Neanderthal DNA ever extracted.

A recent study of the Altamura Man, an ancient skeleton embedded in a limestone cave in Italy, has yielded surprising results. The fossilized Homo neanderthalensis, which was discovered in the Grotta di Lamalunga by chance in 1993, have been difficult to study due to the rock and thick calcite layers covering it.

A research project that began in 2009, however, recently concluded through Uranium–thorium dating that the calcite most likely formed there during the Medium Pleistocene period. That means the Altamura Man lived somewhere between 128,000 and 187,000 years old.
Using a sample from the scapula, the study also revealed that the prehistoric remains may contain the oldest Neanderthal DNA ever extracted.

In what is surely the pinnacle of scientific achievement, scientists have created cheese using bacteria from human toes, mouths, armpits and belly buttons.

If you loved vagina yogurt,( see bottom of post) then you’re going to be really excited about the latest scientific breakthrough: Cheese made from human toe bacteria......And armpit bacteria, also belly button bacteria. Not to mention, each cheese is complete with the donor’s body odor.

Selfmade: Human Toe Bacteria Cheese

At some regrettable point in what will no doubt be referred to as a dark period in human history, microbiologist Christina Agapakis and artist Sissel Tolaas decided to make cheese using microbes growing on their own skin for an exhibit at the Science Gallery in Dublin.
After swabbing various parts of their bodies for their own personal Lactobacillus, Agapakis grew the bacteria and yeast in the lab until there was enough to add milk to. That’s when the lovely toe bacteria got to work turning the milk into curdled toe jam.
According to an article on NPR, Agapakis had this to say about her exhibit:

“People were really nervous and uncomfortable, and kind of making these grossed out faces. Then they smell the cheese, and they’ll realize that it just smells like a normal cheese.”

Comments on this article include:

VAGINA YOGURT

It is no secret that vaginas are a warm environment for bacteria, living micro-organisms, the missing planes of Flight 19. Well it turns out lactobacillus, a common bacteria used to culture milk, cheese and yogurt, is also found in the vagina.
So of course someone from Wisconsin would decide to put that to use. But rather than make cheese, as you would expect, she made yogurt from her personal lactobacillus.
In her experiment, University of Wisconsin PhD student Cecilia Westbrook used a wooden spoon to collect her ingredients, then let it culture in a dish with milk and a few other elements. In the morning, she mixed it with blueberries…and ate it.
She says it tasted like Indian yogurt. So the next obvious question is…does Indian yogurt come from vaginas?


Believed to be extinct for 80 years, the giant Lord Howe Island stick insect showed up in the most unlikely place.

When Europeans first landed on Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Ocean between Australia and New Zealand, they discovered a unique species of stick insect so large they called them “tree lobsters.” Dryococelus australis was common there, and often used by fisherman as bait.
That all changed in 1918, though, when the supply ship S.S. Makambo ran aground on the island. It was stranded there for 9 days while the crew made repairs. During that time, black rats who had stowed away on the Makambo jumped ship and discovered the stick insects were a tasty treat. The rats devoured the species, and the last one was seen in 1920.
The tree lobster was believed to be extinct.

Ball’s Pyramid, discovered in 1788, is the tallest volcanic stack in the world at 1,844 ft

About 13 miles from Lord Howe Island is a craggy rock formation protruding from the sea. It is called Ball’s Pyramid, after Henry Lidgbird Ball who discovered it in 1788. In 1964, a team of climbers on Ball’s Pyramid found a dead Lord Howe Island stick insect. A few more were discovered over the years, but none that were alive.
It wasn’t until 2001 that two Australian scientists decided to investigate. They scaled the rock, and discovered 24 of the stick insects surviving on a single Melaleuca shrub. Two breeding pairs were later collected. One pair was sent to an private breeder, though they died two weeks later. The other pair, dubbed Adam and Eve, were taken to the Melbourne Zoo where a successful breeding program has since bred over 9,000 of the insects.
The Lord Howe Island stick insects are considered the rarest insects in the world. Scientists hope to to eradicate the rats from the island and reintroduce the insects. How they got to Ball’s Pyramid and managed to survive there on a single plant for 80 years is a mystery.