Photo via a Creative Commons Attribution License, by brar_j
Pokémon are seen indoors and outdoors.
When Nintendo released the Pokémon GO app for iPhone and Android in early July, the world split into two parts: those who loathe the game and those who are utterly obsessed with catching these virtual creatures. Some public spaces and neighborhoods are advocates for an “anti-Pokémon GO” campaign. A handful of businesses, however, are cashing in on the craze.
Terminix released a job application on Facebook calling all Pokémon GO users to apply to Terminix’s new “Pokémon Control Unit” for help on capturing these virtual pests that are taking over the world and people’s yards.
The game uses GPS, letting users walk to find Pokémon nearby and “catch” them and depending how many there are in one area, it can lead to flocks of people in random front yards, public parks and even inside of buildings. Terminix’s new “Pokémon Control Unit” will help homeowners’ “augmented-reality pest infestations” in and around their homes, just like Terminix technicians do with real pests.
“We’re in the business of capturing pests,” the Terminix Facebook post said. “Right now it seems like the type of pest the world is obsessed with capturing is virtual, and that’s why we’re putting out a call for applicants for our newest service: #PokemonGO Control. If you’ve got what it takes to resolve the biggest residential and commercial augmented-reality infestations in the U.S., fill out the application below and send it our way via a direct message on Facebook.” The company is even offering a negotiable salary – with Pokémon coins, of course. The application leaves room for brag-worthy skills and examples of captured Pokémon. The company prefers that potential employees have more than five days of experience.
The company is aware the Pokémon don’t disappear after one person collects it, but was a concept to help the company join in on the fun of the fad. “The type of bug doesn’t matter — if our customers want it removed from their property, we’ll do the job,” the post said.
A Beetle for President?
A newfound beetle species has been named after China’s President Xi Jinping — but Chinese censors have stepped in to crush the idea.
The Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii was identified in China’s southern island province of Hainan by Cheng-Bin Wang, a Chinese national affiliated with the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague.
Wang told the AFP news agency that he greatly admired Xi’s actions in China, and saw the beetle as a symbol of the Communist chief’s achievements. “The Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) is very rare — you might not encounter a single one even after 10 field collection sessions — and it also eats rotten wood for food,” he said in an email. “So it’s a metaphor for Xi Jinping, a rare person you only encounter once a century, and specifically his controls on corruption (eating rot), which will allow Chinese corruption to gradually disappear.”
But Chinese censors have ordered the internet wiped clean of references to Wang’s bug, the China Digital Times said.
The U.S.-based website, which tracks censorship in China, cited authorities telling media: “All websites find and delete the article ‘Entomologists Report: Scholars Use ‘Daddy Xi’ to Name a New Type of Beetle’ and related information.”
Man Uses 1,000 Bed Bugs to Give Himself a ‘Tattoo’
If you had to dream up the weirdest, most obscure thing someone could do to their body, letting 1,000 bed bugs feed on your bare arm in the shape of a bunny rabbit is right up there.
YouTuber Johnny Fedora tips a jar of 1,000 or so bed bugs onto a rabbit-shaped stencil on his arm, and lets them go to town for two to three minutes. No one is as chill as this guy about having so many tiny insects on his skin. He’s even pumped to see how fat some of them got.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all just for that sweet bunny tattoo with the little cotton tail; he’s feeding the hungry bed bug colony because they’re being used to train a bed-bug sniffing beagle called Bob.
After two hours, the bunny rabbit looked all right, but soonafter the whole area swelled up like a disgusting, red balloon.
About 48 hours after the bites, things got really gross, with the bunny shape now covered in puss-filled blisters. “You gotta remember that this is atypical for a single bed bug bite, but when you’ve got 1,000 or so on you at one time, you get this nice, blistered appearance,” Fedora says.
