Don't read this—because the smell of a beaver's butt is key to at least some vanilla flavoring, Time reports. More specifically, beavers like to mark their territory with a musky, vanilla compound located in sacs between the pelvis and the base of the tail. Manufacturers have been extracting it for 80 years to flavor foods and perfumes—but it's tricky, because the compound often mixes with urine and anal gland secretions.

"You can milk the anal glands so you can extract the fluid," wildlife ecologist Joanne Crawford tells National Geographic. "You can squirt it out. It’s pretty gross." But she admits to sticking her nose in there and taking a whiff: "People think I’m nuts. I tell them, 'Oh, but it’s beavers; it smells really good.'" For the record, the slimey brown compound is extracted by anesthetizing a beaver and "milking" its nether regions. Ice cream sundae, anyone?
http://www.newser.com/...smell-of-beaver-butt.html






http://www.newser.com/...by-his-own-marijuana.html
Very important lesson for drug traffickers: Do not store your half-ton of weed in the backseat of your car. A Brazilian drug smuggler did just that, police say, and the man was killed when he crashed into a tree while being chased by police ... because the 1,100 pounds of weed came barreling forward and crushed him against the steering wheel. (The Daily Mail has the crazy pictures.)

Federal police started the chase when the man didn't stop at a road block, Jalopnik reports, citing local media. The chase went on for three miles before the as-yet-unidentified man lost control of his car; he was killed instantly.





http://www.newser.com/...-than-morphine-study.html
How would you feel if the ER doctor offered you centipede venom for the pain? The idea isn't so farfetched: A new study finds that the venom, which paralyzes prey, may also yield a compound that's more effective than morphine as a painkiller for humans, Smithsonian reports. Why? One of the molecules in the venom from a Chinese red-headed centipede blocks a sodium-ion channel, which in turn can make humans "indifferent to all types of pain," researchers say.

When mice were subjected to thermal and acid pain tests, the venom was about as effective as morphine; during chemical pain tests, it was even better than morphine. (It's not all bad news for animal lovers: The mice experienced no side effects.) Another benefit of the venom molecule: Researchers don't think humans would develop an addiction to drugs made from it, because it doesn't block receptors as morphine does, ABC Science reports.

Cool story bro.

old news.