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  <title>Creative Loafing Atlanta: Bad Habits: News of the Weird</title>
  <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com</link>
  <description>Atlanta Creative Loafing Weekly Newspaper, shelter from the mainstream for news, event listings, dining, movies and music..</description>
  <language>en-us</language>
  <copyright>Copyright 2009Creative Loafing Atlanta. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Creative Loafing Atlanta readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Creative Loafing Atlanta.</copyright>
  <managingEditor>online@creativeloafing.com</managingEditor>
  <webMaster>webmaster@creativeloafing.com</webMaster>
  <pubDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:01 MST</pubDate>
  <lastBuildDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:40:45 MST</lastBuildDate>
  <generator>Dispatch Gyrobase</generator>
  
    <item>
    <title>Earth-friendly sex toys, frogs with fangs and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/earth_friendly_sex_toys_frogs_with_fangs_and_more/Content?oid=1174126</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: For some consumers, good environmental citizenship is important even when choosing sex accessories. No longer will they tolerate plastic personal vibrators made with softeners called phthalates; or body lubricants that contain toxic chemicals typically found in, say, antifreeze; or leather restraints from slaughtered cattle. In an October issue, Time magazine described a market of organic lubricants, biodegradable whips and handcuffs, vegan condoms, and glass or mahogany vibrators (even hand-crankable models, eliminating the need for batteries). Some Catholic Church
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <item>
    <title>Bathroom bloggers, prostitutes sent from God and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/bathroom_bloggers_prostitutes_sent_from_god_and_more/Content?oid=1159522</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: Procter &amp; Gamble announced in October that it will once again create and host a public restroom for the holiday season in New York City&#39;s Times Square as a promotion for Charmin tissue. Last year&#39;s installation was merely specially outfitted toilet facilities, but this year P&amp;G will upgrade by hiring five bloggers (&quot;Charmin Ambassadors&quot;) to &quot;interact&quot; with the expected &quot;hundreds of thousands of bathroom guests&quot; and write about their experiences with Charmin tissue on the company&#39;s website (and
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <item>
    <title>Artificial memories, the worst jobs in science and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/artificial_memories_the_worst_jobs_in_science_and_more/Content?oid=1144945</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: Recent Precision-Tuning of the Fruit Fly Brain: 1) Scientists at England&#39;s University of Oxford know how to make fruit flies scared of things they weren&#39;t scared of previously &mdash; by implanting artificial memories in their brains after somehow locating and managing the precise 12 neurons that enable the flies to learn things. The implanted &quot;danger&quot; (the smell of sweat-soaked athletic shoes) causes the flies to scatter at the first whiff. 2) Scientists at the University of Toronto know
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <item>
    <title>Famous frozen heads, high-maintenance goddesses and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/famous_frozen_heads_high_maintenance_goddesses_and_more/Content?oid=1131534</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: The human brain&#39;s 100 billion neurons may have such specific functions that a few electrically charge only upon recognition of a single celebrity, such as Oprah Winfrey or Bill Clinton. UCLA researchers, studying the healthy cells of pre-op epilepsy patients, inadvertently discovered this unusual property, which apparently varies with individuals but remains internally consistent, whether the celebrity is represented by picture, name or sound. Patients were presented &quot;hundreds of stimuli,&quot; one researcher told the Wall Street Journal in
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Alien evolution, rectal bombs and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/alien_evolution_rectal_bombs_and_more/Content?oid=1117357</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: Love Can Mess You Up: Before Arthur David Horn met his future bride Lynette (a &quot;metaphysical healer&quot;) in 1988, he was a tenured professor at Colorado State, with a Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale, teaching a mainstream course in human evolution. With Lynette&#39;s guidance (after a revelatory week with her in California&#39;s Trinity Mountains, searching for Bigfoot), Horn &quot;evolved,&quot; resigning from Colorado State and seeking to remedy his inadequate Ivy League education. At a conference in Denver in
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Body modification taken too far, piggyback fetishes and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/body_modification_taken_too_far_piggyback_fetishes_and_more/Content?oid=1102672</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: Beneath the luxury hotels on the Las Vegas Strip is a series of flood tunnels that are home to dozens of people who work odd jobs such as hustling leftover change in casino slot machines. A correspondent for London&#39;s the Sun gained the trust of a few and even photographed their &quot;apartments&quot; for a September dispatch, showing well-stocked quarters, with scrounged appliances and furniture and even one makeshift shower rigged from a water cooler. &quot;Amy,&quot; who has lived
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Painful fetishes, brothel business strategies and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/painful_fetishes_brothel_business_strategies_and_more/Content?oid=1086654</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: What is believed to be the world&#39;s only commercial lounge openly serving cocaine operates in La Paz, Bolivia, though the owners of &quot;Route 36&quot; have to change locations from time to time, depending on the moods of the bribed authorities. An August dispatch in London&#39;s the Guardian reported that a nearly pure gram costs the equivalent of about $14 ($22 for &quot;premium&quot;), served by waiters in an empty CD case, with straws, but bar drinks are also available.
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Zombie attacks, deadly dominoes and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/zombie_attacks_deadly_dominoes_and_more/Content?oid=1052177</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: If society were ever attacked by zombies, we would probably be doomed, and quickly. That was the conclusion of two university researchers in Ottawa who set up mathematical models hypothesizing zombie attacks as infectious diseases with the well-known characteristics of zombie biology from popular fiction. In fact, according to a July BBC News report, zombies are more threatening than virulent diseases because they can regenerate (unless decapitated or incinerated, of course). More troubling was the researchers&#39; presumption that
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Lactating men, rotten cheese delacacies and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/lactating_men_rotten_cheese_delacacies_and_more/Content?oid=1069162</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: A male Swedish college student, Ragnar Bengtsson, 26, has begun pumping his breasts at three-hour intervals in a 90-day experiment to see if he can produce milk. If he succeeds, he said, it could prove &quot;very important for men&#39;s ability to get much closer to their children at an early stage.&quot; A professor of endocrinology told the daily Aftonbladet that male lactation without hormone treatment might produce &quot;a drop or two,&quot; but suggested that men instead consider offering
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Diaper fetishes, gas station sushi and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/diaper_fetishes_gas_station_sushi_and_more/Content?oid=1021974</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: A woman offering child-care services in Melbourne, Fla., was dismayed to learn in August that a scam pulled on her by a diaper-wearing man in his 40s was not illegal. A man called her, on behalf of his disabled adult &quot;brother,&quot; who has a mental age of 5 and poor bladder control, and she began assisting him in her home during the day for $600 a week. She was later outraged to learn that the &quot;brother&quot; was really
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <item>
    <title>Eyelash transplants, cowardly lions and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/eyelash_transplants_cowardly_lions_and_more/Content?oid=1037244</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: Breakthroughs in Eye Hair: The pharmaceutical company Allergan has introduced eyelash-thickener Latisse, a $120 per month prescription &ldquo;medication&rdquo; to help a woman overcome feelings of inadequacy if she suffers from scrawny lashes. Alternatively, eyelash transplants are now available in the U.S. and Britain, originally developed to restore lashes for burn victims, but, according to the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, now to market to women dissatisfied with their own (at about $6,000). And in May, Washington, D.C., resident
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Hardcore doll collections, mud wrestling and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/hardcore_doll_collections_mud_wrestling_and_more/Content?oid=1009048</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: Lonely Japanese men (and a few women) with rich imaginations have created a thriving subculture (otaku) in which they have all-consuming relationships with figurines that are based on popular anime characters. &quot;The less extreme,&quot; reported a New York Times writer in July, obsessively collect the dolls. The hardcore otaku &quot;actually believes that a lumpy pillow with a drawing of a (teenage character) is his girlfriend,&quot; and takes her out in public on romantic dates. &quot;She has really changed
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Donald Duck&amp;#39;s words of wisdom, fleeing circus tortoises and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/donald_duck_s_words_of_wisdom_fleeing_circus_tortoises_and_more/Content?oid=994016</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: Donald Duck may be a lovable icon of comic mishap to American youngsters, but in Germany, he is wise and complicated and retains followers well past their childhoods. Using licensed Disney storylines and art, the legendary translator Erika Fuchs created an erudite Donald, who often &quot;quotes from German literature, speaks in grammatically complex sentences, and is prone to philosophical musings,&quot; according to a May Wall Street Journal dispatch. Though Donald and Uncle Scrooge (&quot;Dagoberto&quot;) speak in a lofty
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Record-holding paper airplanes, ethics classes for gang members and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/record_holding_paper_airplanes_ethics_classes_for_gang_members_and_more/Content?oid=979801</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: World-Class Adolescent Endeavors: Japanese engineer Takuo Toda&#39;s paper airplane was certified in May as the Guinness Book record-holder for the longest flight from a single folded sheet of paper: 27.9 seconds. And in Witcham, England, in July, Jim Collins won the World Peashooting Championship, using a &quot;traditional&quot; instrument blowing at a target 12 yards away, but noncompeting ex-champion George Hollis once again drew the most attention with his homemade, gyroscopic-balancing, laser-guided peashooter, with which he won three previous
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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    <title>Underwear art, memory machines and more</title>
    <link>http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/underwear_art_memory_machines_and_more/Content?oid=964292</link>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
       
      
        By Chuck Shepherd
      
      
      LEAD STORY: A Whiff of Injustice: William Dillon was released in November after 26 years in prison when a DNA test ruled him out as the murderer. He was the second Florida man recently freed by DNA after being positively identified at trial by a star police dog, Harass II, whose trainer Bill Preston had sworn could amazingly track scents through water and after months of site contamination. In June, the Innocence Project of Florida said as many as 60
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    </description>
    <category>Bad Habits/News of the Weird</category>
    <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:00:00 MST</pubDate> 
    <source url="http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com">Creative Loafing Atlanta</source>
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