Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Welcome to Friday! And since next week is Thanksgiving, that means the start of some vacation for most of the ec team. We hope you'll be taking some time to celebrate with your families and friends, too!

So let's get this holiday kicked off right—with "Snippets and Soundbites"! You know you want to hear about all the weird, randomness we've found in this week's news stories!

Like mother, like daughter.
Remember the story we told you a few weeks ago about the death of Fluffy, the world's longest snake in captivity? Well, the Columbus, Ohio, zoo where Fluffy made her home still misses her, but they have called in reinforcements to fill the void she left. The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium announced Wednesday that it has acquired Fluffy's significantly shorter daughter. The new snake, whose name wasn't revealed, is 12 years old and 18 feet long. Fluffy was 24 feet long and 18 years old when she died at the end of October with an apparent tumor. To learn more, go here.

Dance the night away.
Are you a fan of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars"? Did you agree with the voters' decision to keep Bristol Palin this week? Well, apparently one rural Wisconsin man didn't agree—because after Bristol's routine on Monday night, the man shot his TV with a shotgun. . . which led to an all-night standoff with the SWAT team. The man was arrested Tuesday morning and is also accused of threatening his wife with a gun after he shot the TV. He appeared in court on Wednesday on a charge of second-degree reckless endangerment, and his bail was set at $1,500. The man's wife said he was under stress because of financial reasons, suffers from bipolar disorder, and had been drinking prior to retrieving his gun. Apparently, he was angry because Bristol, former U.S. Vice President candidate Sarah Palin's daughter, continues to do well on the reality show despite no dancing experience and according to some, little talent. Read all about it here.

Facebook causes asthma attacks?

An 18-year-old Italian man and his doctors are warning that Facebook could cause asthma attacks. Here's why: the 18-year-old was recently dumped by his girlfriend. Then, she unfriended him on Facebook. Distraught, he re-friended his ex-girlfriend using a new identity/nickname he created on the site and started keeping tabs on her. Apparently upset over seeing her friend new guys and pictures of her posing with guy friends, he had an asthma attack. It's important to note that the man had been taking two steroid drugs to help control his asthma. After noting that viewing his ex-girlfriend's profile on Facebook seemed to trigger his increasing attacks, a doctor suggested the man no longer log in to Facebook—and that seemed to stop the attacks. Italian doctors promptly published a paper in a medical journal saying social networks could cause psychological stress and trigger attacks in depressed asthmatics. To learn more, go here.

And if this wasn't enough news of the weird for you, check out page 38 in this month's (and every month's) issue of ec.