Nick Offerman stares at you for a long time
It’s 45 minutes of Nick Offerman starring at you while sipping 16-year Lagavulin by a crackling fire. We present Nick Offerman’s Yule Log. It’s impressive.
The eating of rats
The Adi tribe in northeast India celebrates Unying-Aran every March 7. It’s a festival surrounding the eating of household rats, wild rats, and all other rats found in the area, according to a feature article on BBC. One of the tribe’s favourites, apparently, is a stew made of rat stomach, intestines, liver, testes, fetuses, tails, and legs boiled together with salt and chili and ginger. “I was told: ‘No party; no happiness if there is no rat available: to honour an important guest, visitor or relative, to celebrate a special occasion; it can only be done if rats are on the menu,’” said Finland professor Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow, who is conducting a study on rats as a food resource. “Gifts of rats, dead of course, are also an important item in making sure the bride’s relatives are happy to see their daughter leave her old family and join that of her husband.” It’s not immediately clear how the tribe developed their taste for rat, as the area is full of other, more traditionally-eaten animals. They’re also not alone. Apparently, other communities around the world enjoy rat, a culinary tradition that goes back centuries. [Source: BBC]
Earthquake strikes Tajikistan
A sparsely populated area of Tajikistan was hit with a 7.2 earthquake Monday morning and felt in places as far away as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Currently, authorities have no information on casualties or damages, a spokesperson for the Central Asian nation told news sources. [Source: NBC]
Chavez movement dealt blow in Venezuelan election
The coalition opposition in Venezuala has won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, after a landmark vote dealt a noisy blow to the Socialist of President Nicolas Maduro. The parliamentary election results are the worst loss yet for the socialist revolution Hugo Chavez began nearly two decades ago. The majority coalition is made up of centre and right-wing parties. Food shortages, including staples such as rice, flour, and milk were motivating forces in the election. “Venezuela wanted a change and that change came. A new majority expressed itself and sent a clear and resounding message,” said Jesus Torrealba, opposition coalition chief. A record-setting 74.3% of the electorate turned out to vote. [Source: BBC]
Manitoba’s moose population declining at alarming rate: Wildlife Society
Manitoba’s moose population is declining. And that has gotten the attention of conservationists and wildlife groups in the province. In the last 12 years, the province’s moose population went from 45,000 to less than 20,000 today, according to the Manitoba chapter of the Wildlife Society. “Wherever there are roads in the province, it allows access for human predators, four-legged predators and wildlife diseases to get easier access to the moose,” the Society’s Jack Dubois told Canada Journal. The group is calling for the province to develop a more comprehensive plan to end the decline. [Source: Canada Journal]
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