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Piercing is popular, but sometimes infection can set in. The artist Rembrandt may have had problems with a pierced ear, especially since he lived before the invention of antibiotics, according to British surgeon Ben Cohen. In many of his self-portraits, Rembrandt paints himself with a deformed left earlobe, and earrings were fashionable for men in the 17th century.

Cohen says, “In the portrait painted circa 1628, at the age of 22, the left lobule was occupied by a round swelling with a small bunch of what were apparently granulations at the upper edge. This swelling was also present in some later portraits but by about 1642 it had become a thickening.”
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The Wrigley gum company is planning to develop a gum that contains Viagra, which would work faster than taking the pill. The gum would begin to work after about 2 minutes of chewing, while the pill takes an hour or more. And think of the potential for practical jokes! Meanwhile, people who live near a Viagra manufacturing plant say they just have to sniff the air to benefit from the drug.

Richard Gizbert writes in abcnews.com that when the went blows over the Viagra plant in Ringaskiddy, Ireland, resident Charles Allen heads downwind. He says, “They’re grinding the tablets and the wind is coming from that direction. So there’s bound to be a certain amount in the air all the time. That’s why we’re sitting here.”
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In British Columbia, Francis Joe found a trail of huge 15 inch footprints in his strawberry field on the reservation where he lives. He thinks they belong to the legendary creature the Cowichan people call Thumquas. He says, “That’s not the tracks of an ordinary human.”

He heard his dogs barking, but didn’t pay any attention to them because they often “bark all night.” Local fishermen told him they’ve heard growling noises in the brush along the river.

Thirty years ago, his three daughters saw a sasquatch in the same vicinity. “It was just getting dark and it was standing by a ditch just staring at us,” says Jeanne Bob. “It was really big, black and hairy, and had a very strong smell. I wasn’t kidding then and now I really believe it.”
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Dr. David Whitehouse writes in BBC News Online that AIDS arose from a combination of two chimpanzee viruses. Chimps could have had one form of SIV (the simian form of HIV), then eaten smaller monkeys, and caught another form of SIV from them. When humans ate the chimps, they contracted HIV from the combination of the two SIV viruses.
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