Thursday, July 31, 2008

'Termites don't taste too bad'


MSNBC reports that "Lost in the rocky, remote Australian Outback, a former pest exterminator faced dehydration and death. Desperate for food, he turned to what he knew best — bugs, he said Wednesday.
Theo Rosmulder, 52, managed to survive for four days by feasting on termites and other insects before local Aborigines happened upon him Tuesday and brought him back to civilization.
A weary-looking Rosmulder told reporters that he found some relief from hunger at a giant termite mound. "I just hit the top of the termite nest off and got stuck into them," Rosmulder said.
"Termites don't taste too bad," he said at a news conference in the southwestern Australian mining town of Laverton.
Rosmulder was suffering from dehydration but otherwise in "surprisingly good condition," Western Australia state police Sgt. Graham Clifford said. He said the insects and termites provided Rosmulder a bit of moisture and some protein."

So you want to sleep while you work...

Fox News reports that "It may not sound like much of a job — three consecutive months in bed — but NASA says the participants in its bed rest study are providing valuable information for the space program.
The test subjects are paid $10 per hour, or about $17,000 over the course of the study, which is carried out at the University of Texas...They spend three months lying down, and the preparation and rehabilitation take up another month.
MyFOXHouston.com reports that NASA's Flight Analog Research Unit is looking for ways to minimize the debilitating impact of zero gravity in space, which can cause reduction in muscle mass and bone density. One way to recreate those conditions on the ground is for test participants to lie down with head slightly tilted back for 90 days.
"It's very relaxing at times. This is probably the most I've sat still in 10 years," participant Heather Archuletta told MyFOXHouston.com.
They can shower, surf the Internet and watch DVDs, all while remaining in bed. Afterward, the rehabilitation phase is key to the study, because NASA tests ways of bringing their bodies back to normal.
"I just wanted to help out the space program keep astronauts more healthy so we can make it to Mars," said Archuletta, who updates an online blog from her test bed."

Anyone interested?...

Here is the entire story.

Here are photos of the study participants "in action."