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MAN SELLS FRESH AIR TO POLLUTED CITY DWELLERS FOR £200

This British guy is supposedly making a mint bottling up genuine Swiss mountain air…

A British man has been selling fresh mountain air to people in polluted cities for £200 a bottle.

John Green is an IT consultant from London whi has lived in the Swiss city of Basel for 20 years. His convenient location next to the Swiss Alps has meant he’s able to bottle up fresh mountain air and sell it to people who live in heavily polluted cities.

Green says in a promotional video: “I have lived here for 20 years, and the Swiss don't know what they've got. The air really is something special.

"When I go up the mountains I really do feel better, I am not imagining it. I seriously feel almost reborn."

He added: "I actually go 10,000f up to fetch it. I don't go into a car park to get it, honest.

Green’s company is called www.mountainairfromswitzerland.com and sells air in three litre bottles for £200, one litre bottles for £135, or a pint for £75.

The blurb for the company says: “As you open the box that has been delivered to your door you find your jar of Swiss air inside, you also find you have a certificate with signed authentication.

“You also find you have the GPS coordinates of exactly where in Switzerland the air was collected. We want to keep the location secret to protect supplies.

“Let's just say it's collected by a babbling mountain stream, fed by melt water from a famous glacier, near a very famous mountain.

Speaking in a promotional video for his company, John said: "If you're sitting in some polluted town, which you probably are, gasping with diesel fumes, we're at 3,000 metres, and we've just got new supplies of mountain air...so get yours!”

Thankfully, the company will give 25% of any profits to the charity World Vision Clean Water Initiative.

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Attractive Dates Don't Pay For Dinner, Study Finds

Attractive dates don't pay for dinner, Scottish researchers found. More specifically, if the date thinks they are more attractive, they are less likely to offer to pay, especially for women.

"We predicted that attractive people would show less willingness to pay because people that are more attractive bring more to the table -- literally -- in the dating market," said researcher Michael Sirrat of the University of St. Andrews in a statement.

For the study, 250 men and women with an average age of 25 were shown pictures of hypothetical blind dates and were asked about how they would prefer the bill to be paid. They were given the options of having the man pay, the woman, or splitting the bill.

"Men overall reported a much greater willingness to pay for the meal than the women, consistent with social norms in dating. Women almost never indicated that they would pay," said Sirrat.

Additionally, the women preferred attractive dates to pay for them, suggesting a desire to enter relationships when the potential mate is attractive.

The study was published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology.

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10 WEIRD THINGS PEOPLE EAT AROUND THE WORLD

When one looks upon a source of food he or she usually judges it by the way it looks, the way it smells and only after that the way it tastes.

When considering nutrition people often chose vegetal, animal or mineral products that appealed to them by the way they looked.

The cultures around the world have each of them their strange type of food that is considered not only to be disgusting but it is also classified as weird, non-eatable, un-appealing etc.

What does exactly define such a food? How come a food considered weird in Europe is a gourmet dish in Thailand or Bahamas Islands?

It seems people all over the world grew accustomed with their own traditions in food and anything related to them and that is why certain dishes seem impossible when you think of them.

Even if sometimes one is tempted to try such a dish out just for the sake of adventure, the experience is a memorable one and can certainly become a habit.

So…how about digging into the international kitchen and discover the 10 strangest types of foodthat have ever appeared on a plate.

10. VERES

The Veres is a Hungarian dish with origins somewhere around the 15th century and during that age it was considered a meal of the poor.

Originally was prepared from the blood drained from the pig’s cut throat. The blood was boiled until merely cooked and minced like meat, then it was added boiled pig organs also minced and pieces of boiled bacon.

 All the ingredients were mixed with salt, pepper, hot paprika and water from the boiled organs and after that the composition was packed inside cleaned pig intestines.

After that the Veres was put through boiling water and left to dry in the attic. Now-a-days to the recipe is added boiled rice in order to mild the blood taste.

It is served with red wine all over Hungary and in the neighboring countries where it was imported over the years and it is considered a delicacy. I guess it requires …taste.

9. NUTRIA STEW

I would say…no way, but this habit of eating this “rat” like creature comes from the far away China and during the 17th century spread all over the world.

Nutria is a rodent which likes the water a lot, a mixture between the water rat and the beaver, and it is a herbivore animal with a very beautiful fir. In the beginning they were raised for their fir but soon during the great famine and the war became a valuable source of meat.

 It is prepared as stew, boiled with herbs and spices and chopped vegetables such as carrots and onions. In Russia it is served as steak swimming in butter and bathed in white wine.

In France they make soup out of it and in China they prepared almost 40 different dishes among which the weirdest one is that one serving dry nutria meat in thin slices like carpacio.

8. CRIADILLAS

Criadillas are bull testicles. As everyone knows, from the dawn of times eating manly parts of a slain animal was considered a source of virility. Still consuming such a dish takes a bit of the chart to taste for adventure.

It is said they are very tasty but I guess it takes a lot of courage to take on the trial of trying them.

 The same name is given to the pig testicles considered to have a stronger taste but a better “flavor”. They are served grilled, boiled and then roasted or baked with garlic, onions or green parsley. They are quite a challenge and the experience is not one to be forgotten easily.

7. SILK WORMS

Typical Asian dish, Korean to be more specific, this food became popular all over the US and also in the great cities of Europe where the Korean restaurants became popular.

 Initially containing rotted baby worms not reaching maturity, the recipe became more elaborate and started using mainly male worms “harvested” after dieing posterior the female fertilization.

The worms are rolled through flour and bread crumbs and fried in palm oil and after that served with a sweet-sour sauce.

6. DONKEY PENIS

The latest trend in Chinese kitchen where anything eatable becomes fair game; this dish is something out of a horror movie. Setting apart the disgusting idea and considering only the presentation of this “phallic gourmet” dish, one’s stomach may turn upside down at the sight of something purple hanging in a Chinese meat store or presented on a lettuce platter at dinner.

 It is served boiled or fried in oil, or simply dried and sliced thin slice like salami.

5. CASU MARZU

Casu Marzu is an Italian cheese made in the island of Sardinia. The strangest part about it is that in order to achieve the right level of fermentation close to decomposition, this cheese is added a species of translucent worms.

 This is done so the fat level will be broken down. It is an ancient recipe and it is supposed to result a real delicacy which… personally I am not tempted to try.

4. SEA HORSES

In Asia, as the food is concerned, the life puts the movie out of business. The innocent sweet little sea horses are considered to be virility source so in spite of the fact that they are endangered species, these little creatures continue to appear as a dish on the menu of the Asian restaurants.

They are boiled in oil and served with mustard sauce. They are said to be sweet but eating them seems quite a crime against nature.

3. HAGGIS

Scottish originated, this dish surpasses every imagination. The stomach of a sheep is emptied and washed, rolled with onions and put to bake in the company of turnips and potatoes.

It is considered a delicacy and became now-a-days a gourmet dish after being centuries ago the Scottish poor sheep herder’s traditional food.

2. BOREWORS

The main dish of the African tribes, this combination of barbecued cow and sheep intestines and served with herbs like aloe and cactus is a nasty piece of work.

 Of course when hunger is tormenting one’s stomach, beggars can’t be choosers; but putting it next to other options in African food this dish fails by comparison.

1. SNAKE BLOOD

Top of the top in the weirdest foods chart, this odd creation of the human mind recently presented on Discovery, surpasses any other contestant.

Drained from slain king cobras in Thailand it is served as it is or mixed in drinks and is supposed to grant strange virility increasing and magical healing.

 It is a creation of “hunting for money” Asian industry and leaving apart that, it must taste disgusting; it is a crime against nature. Since a portion costs around $200-$250 dollars on the black market, soon king cobras will become extinct.

In the end, whether they were born from necessity or from the crazy idea of people looking for thrills, the strangest foods of the world are experiences people tend to take on. Choosing to try one has a lot to do with personal discipline and even more with way the world we live in is seen through our very eyes.

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