First ever "Weird, Wild & Wacky" compilation… A new feature of your Daily Dose Over time, I always seem to collect up a bunch of odd, weird, freaky or funny stories that really don't dovetail with very much of what I talk about regularly, and that don't warrant a full-sized feature -- yet nevertheless are so entertaining, provocative, or just plain mind-numbing that I just have to report them… And so, I launch my new "Weird, Wild & Wacky" edition of Daily Dose, an issue I'll repeat from time to time as I accumulate appropriate material. Here goes: * Ain't nothin' but a pound dog -- A Missouri woman upset over the death of her new pure-bred Chihuahua pup forced her way into the breeder's home and pounded the poor lady repeatedly over the head with the corpse. After leaving the scene, waving the dead puppy from the sunroof of her car, she called and threatened the breeder and her family. Police are contemplating misdemeanor assault charges against the woman… * Shake, battle and roll 'em -- A Florida nanny arrested on charges of infant abuse after being caught on videotape violently shaking a 5-month-old baby is suing the maker of the hidden camera that filmed her. Her defense: That because the film plays back in time-lapsed mode, it exaggerates the appearance of her movements with the child. Of course, the criminal charges have been dismissed, and her wrongful arrest and defamation suit rolls on… * Exercise for the un-"cord"-inated - A Washington inventor has come up with the perfect piece of exercise equipment for the no-fault, liability-mongering world we now live in: A cordless jump-rope! The U.S. Patent office has actually awarded a patent to the 52-year-old inventor of the device, which consists of two plastic handles with a moving weight inside that simulates the sound and rhythm of a jump-rope when held in the hands of a jumping human. The inventor plans to market the device to clumsy people, folks with low ceilings, or those afraid of their kids tripping on the rope -- and to mental institutions and prisons where rope represents a risk of suicide or could be used as a weapon. And it may now be illegal to pretend to jump rope without paying this guy a royalty… Oh, I'm not done * Cellular development targets tone-deaf teachers -- Kids facing classroom cell-phone bans are fighting back with ring tones so high-pitched teachers can't hear them. Now available for downloading to most cellular phones, the ring tones capitalize on a simple truth of biology: The fact that children and teens can detect higher-frequency sounds than adults. These new tones enable kids to merrily chat away in class through text messaging (like e-mail for phones), while teachers drone on obliviously. Ironically, the idea for the "kids-only" tones was pirated from high-frequency sound technology designed to drive loitering teens away from storefronts, but leave adult shoppers unaffected… * Gut-check pinpoints prevarications -- A new form of lie detector test may soon be added to long-standing methods of rooting out fibs. Researchers at the University of Texas have pinpointed a way to accurately measure changes in gastro-physiology that point to lies more effectively that the standard polygraph. According to the research, changes in the electrical waves that pass between the brain and the gut more consistently betray falsehoods than even cardiac waves, heart rates, or other accepted measures. Looks like no one really has the stomach for lying after all… Well, there you have it, my first collection of the weird, wild, and wacky tidbits and anecdotes I just can't keep to myself, but that may not qualify as standard, full-length Daily Dose fare. As you can see, though, all of these snippets point in some way or another -- socially, medically, criminally, whatever -- to where we're headed as a society. Whether or not that future place is a good one is up to you to decide… Anyway, hope you enjoyed these. I'll send more along as I collect them. Reporting more oddball stories than you can swing a Chihuahua at, William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
