Jaunted

Gross / Airplane Bathrooms / Toilets / Travel Health / → All Tags

When Airplane Toilets Malfunction

Hey, who wants to read an article with the phrases "blackish-green liquid" and "excrement had leaked out?" How about a version with "some black liquid, black oil came off on her face" and "there was quarter-sized, nickel-sized, dime-sized drops all over"? No one? Then allow us to summarize.

A Long Island couple was enjoying the unusually mild Northeastern winter we've been having by spending the evening on their deck. Their otherwise idyllic lounging was disrupted by black semi-liquid sludge that came falling from the sky on top of them, and which turned out to be incompletely frozen waste dropped by an overhead airplane.

According to the local CBS affiliate, they "want answers" as to why this happened to them (apparently they're not satisfied by the idea that the universe just wanted to make a cosmic punchline out of them that day). Money quote: "She says 'oh my God it’s raining' I said 'No it’s not'". Can you imagine?

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Sticky Situations / Gum / Gross / → All Tags

Chewing Gum Overwhelming Mexico City's Sidewalks

The sidewalks of Mexico City are being overwhelmed by gum, spit out and ground into the pavement to the tune of 70 pieces every three feet. So the city's point man in keeping public spaces clean, Ricardo Jaral, has a message for those of you who would toss your flavorless chew in the street:

When you finish chewing a piece of gum, you either have to put in a piece of paper and deposit it in a trash receptacle, or swallow it.

Isn't that bad for you? Jaral says nope:

I've always swallowed my gum, and it's never done me any harm.

At least you'll still be allowed to pop a piece on a whim: While you're now allowed to chew in Singapore, you can only get so-called therapeutic gum from pharmacies after showing ID.

Related Stories:
· Mexico Tells Citizens to Swallow Their Gum [MSNBC, via]
· Mexico City Will Eat Cake, 22,000 Pounds Of It [Jaunted]
· World's Largest Ice Rink Now Open In Mexico [Jaunted]

[Photo: laughingmonk]

Queensland Travel / Australia Travel / Lakes / Gross / → All Tags

Please Tourists, Don't Pee in the Lake

So, we're sure your momma told you not to pee in the swimming pool--but did she also tell you it's bad to pee in a lake? Down in Australia, the beautiful Basin Lake on Fraser Island off Queensland isn't doing well these days, and one of the causes is high levels of urine in the water.

The official word is that too many tourists are using the lake as a toilet and that's led the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to consider closing one of the access tracks to reduce visitor numbers.

Right now 35,000 people visit the lake every year and since there's no in- or outflow from the lake, whatever goes in, stays in. Our alternative suggestion is to simply stick up a big notice advertising the current urine levels in the lake. We're fairly sure most people would skip the swim.

Related Stories:
· Sunscreen, Urine Damaging Fraser Island Lake [ABC]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: John Brennan]

Food / Seoul / Korea / Gross / → All Tags

We're Suckers for Korean Food

So there we were last week, bitching about low quality margaritas at South-worst-ern restaurant Imagine Bar and Grill. Feh--the food could have been a lot worse. Like, Fear Factor worse.

This video of a live, or recently dispatched, octopus being consumed in Seoul drives that point home. The chewer in question seems happy about the whole ordeal. Good for him, but didn't we demand to eat something from the non-squirming section?