Company makes coloring book to tell 'the truth' about terrorism, spoofs Rolling Stone's Tsarnaev cover

Courtesy Really Big Coloring Books

The first part of an image about the Benghazi attack in the "LEARN about terrorism" coloring book.Courtesy Really Big Coloring Books

The second part of an image about the Benghazi attack in the "LEARN about terrorism" coloring book.Courtesy Really Big Coloring Books

A Missouri company's coloring book, which purports to tell the “truth” about terrorists, contains images criticizing Usama bin Laden and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after he was featured on a controversial Rolling Stone cover.

Wayne Bell, publisher of Really Big Coloring Books, says the company produced the book after receiving thousands of phone calls and emails about the Rolling Stone cover.

“We listen to what people say and they complained … like hard-core, about making the terrorist guy look like a rock star” Bell told FoxNews.com. “Since Tsarnaev was on the front cover of Rolling Stone, we thought he deserved the back cover of a [coloring] book.”

Bell said 1,200 copies of the coloring book, titled “LEARN about Terrorism,” were sold in the first two days that they were available.

The book is included as a supplement with two of the company’s “We Shall Never Forget 9/11” titles.

Bell told FoxNews.com the book is targeted toward adults and teachers looking to use it as a learning tool for children.

“They’re used to tell the truth, tell it often and tell the children.” he said.

One of the coloring book’s pages, titled “Rock Him and Stone Him,” is a spoof of the Rolling Stone’s Tsarnaev cover. “NOT the face of a rock star,” it reads, calling Tsarnaev the “Scum of the Earth.”

Another image shows a shark and crabs scoffing at terrorist Usama bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind, after his burial at sea, describing him as “evil trash.”

FoxNews.com’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.

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Pet pig Nemo's lymphoma treatment makes research history

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When George Goldner went to feed his six pet pigs earlier this year, his 730-pound (331-kg) companion Nemo was acting strangely. Nemo had suddenly stopped eating and laid in the mud.

So Goldner loaded Nemo into a trailer and drove more than two hours to Cornell University Hospital for Animals (CUHA) in Ithaca, New York. There he learned his four-year-old Hampshire pig had what doctors believed was the blood cancer B-cell lymphoma.

The hospital's researchers told Goldner they had never seen a pig treated for cancer. But that did not deter Goldner, a self-described animal lover, who asked doctors to devise a way to treat his pig based on their knowledge of cancer in dogs and humans and not worry about costs.

Now, four months after Goldner first rushed to the hospital, Nemo has made history as the first known pig to undergo lymphoma treatment - and successfully - leaving researchers with hope for advancements in treating cancer in large animals.

"Before when large animals were diagnosed with cancer, it was pretty much impossible to treat them," said Emily Barrell, a resident who picked all of Nemo's chemotherapy drugs and delivered them. "Now we have a model to base it on."

Because pigs have necks bigger than many humans, their veins are difficult to access, Barrell said, making it impossible to deliver many of the aggressive drugs needed for chemotherapy.

Doctors at CUHA consulted with researchers in other fields before implanting a vascular access port, which is a small metal port with a silicone cover, directly under Nemo's skin behind his ear.

The port contained a catheter that ran through a jugular vein in his neck, allowing Nemo to receive the sort of cancer treatment administered to dogs and humans.

Nemo is now believed to be in remission, Barrell said, and will return home in September if everything goes according to plan.

Goldner and doctors at CUHA declined to specify how much Nemo's treatment cost. The cost of chemotherapy for an average-sized golden retriever is $4,000-$5,000 from start to finish, Barrell said, and Nemo is seven or eight times the size of that.

"There were two choices: One was to let him die and the other was to give it a shot," Goldner said in an interview. "Now I think (Nemo) is definitely bound to provide some help."

Though some may criticize the cost of treating such large animals, Barrell said it has become common practice for cat and dog owners to pay for cancer treatment, and it is up to owners to decide how much they are willing to pay.

"This is exactly the type of clinical veterinary research we should be doing to treat disease in other animals," said Justin Goodman, director of laboratory investigation at animal rights group PETA.

Nemo's appetite is back and he's treated like a "big star" at CUHA, Goldner said.

"(Nemo) is a really special story about people being innovative and owners being dedicated," Barrell said.

(Reporting By Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Cynthia Osterman)

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Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ makes cake taste better, study says

It's not just the cake but how you eat it, a new study claims. In this file photo, Oliver Hardy prepares to blow …Science has once again stepped up to the plate, in a manner of speaking. A new study says that singing “Happy Birthday” actually makes cake taste better.

The study, published in the upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, finds that the ritual of singing before eating a slice of cake, or any other dessert, increases one's appreciation of the treat. The result is that the food ends up tasting better, at least in our minds.

The “Happy Birthday to You” song hasn’t even been around for 100 years, though the Guinness World Records does call it the most recognizable song in the English language. So, is it the song itself or the ritual?

University of Minnesota psychologist Kathleen Vohs found that this ritual even extends beyond singing to include such practices as how one opens a candy bar wrapper.

Do you have any personal routines when it comes to eating your food? For example, do you treat yourself to a doughnut on Friday mornings at work? Vohs found that personalized eating habits like this, carried out in “repeated, episodic and fixed behaviors” result in us enjoying that doughnut all the more because of the anticipation built up in our minds.

“Whenever I order an espresso, I take a sugar packet and shake it, open the packet and pour a teeny bit of sugar in, and then taste,” Vohs told the Daily Mail. “It's never enough sugar, so I then pour about half of the packet in. The thing is, this isn't a functional ritual, I should just skip right to pouring in half the packet.”

In other words, her own personalized consumption habit is an integral part of her enjoyment of that espresso.

But there’s good news as well for those watching their waistlines: The ritualistic satisfaction can be applied to any food, including healthier options like fruits and vegetables.

In the experiments, Vohs asked control groups to eat chocolate bars in two different manners. The first group was told to methodically eat half of the bar, wait for a set period of time, then unwrap and eat the other half. Those in the second group of testers were allowed to randomly eat the chocolate bar however they preferred. Vohs found that the first control group reported a higher satisfaction level and were even willing to pay more money for the chocolate bars.

Her second significant finding was that this ritualistic enjoyment applied only to our own personal behaviors. Meaning that Vohs wouldn’t likely get any enjoyment out of watching someone else incrementally add sugar to her espresso. In fact, she might find the process frustrating, since the logical part of her brain knows that she simply wants more sugar added.

This isn't Vohs' first interesting study. In 2010, she was involved in a study that found that handling money actually helps reduce pain.

Going forward, Vohs said she would next like to try applying the rituals to other habits outside of food. “We are thinking of getting patients to perform rituals before a surgery and then measuring their pain post-operatively and how fast they heal,” she said.

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Giant rubber duck makes splash in Hong Kong harbor

HONG KONG (AP) — A six-story-high rubber duck is making a big splash in Hong Kong.

Crowds watched the inflatable duck being pulled by tugboat across Victoria Harbor in front of Hong Kong's signature skyscraper skyline.

Tourist Zhang Wenjin from Shanghai says it's a big surprise. "This is huge. My daughter liked it when she saw it just now. Because kids like cute stuff."

Yu Kwan Yee of Hong Kong was part of the crowd. "The duckie is swimming," the 2 ½-year-old said.

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman created the bright-yellow duck, and it was built of PVC material in New Zealand by a company specializing in large sails.

Hofman was on hand as the duck arrived and said it later had to be deflated because high winds and waves created a "big challenge."

The duck has been transported around the world since 2007, bringing a message of peace and harmony. It has previously been to Osaka, Japan, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Auckland, New Zealand, and Amsterdam.

It will be anchored at a Hong Kong terminal for display until June.

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Teen makes tearful apology to wisdom teeth after surgery

Some people will tell you that pain is the basis of spiritual growth. Sorrow, regret and eventually letting go are life lessons we all go through at some point.

But not all of us experience those painfully emotional moments in association with our wisdom teeth. And even fewer have had to deal with the moment being captured on video and posted to the delight of countless strangers.

But that’s exactly what Kansas teen Abbie Kritz is going through, after her boyfriend posted a video of Kritz lamenting the loss of her wisdom teeth while under the influence of pain medication.

"I did it against my own will, I would have kept you," Kritz says earnestly to the removed wisdom teeth, which she is holding inside a plastic jar while being driven home by her mother.

"I loved you from the first moment on."

Her boyfriend and mom can be heard laughing in disbelief as Kritz continues the soliloquy to her lost choppers.

"They were just trying to help me chew and I didn't accept them," she explains." I could have accepted them."

Eventually, Kritz came to terms with the situation. Or, put another way, the dentist’s drugs wore off. And for her part, Kritz appears to be taking in all the attention with a toothy smile.

“Oh my goodness it was awful,” she wrote on her Twitter account. “I just remember wanting to stop crying the whole time but I couldn't!”

Still, there’s no word on whether Kritz stands by her previous offer of putting the wisdom teeth back in place.

"They just wanted to be a part of my body and I said 'No, get out,'" she said tearfully in the video after making it back home. "I didn't meant it. You can come back if you want."

Then again, Kritz might be onto something, not just previously on something. While many people eventually have their wisdom teeth removed, there is growing opposition to having them removed without a clinical reason to do so.

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Thief makes off with reptiles from Calif. museum

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A 7-foot-long boa constrictor, two ball pythons and a monitor lizard were stolen from a Central California science museum by a man who was caught on camera throwing the reptiles into a plastic trash bag.

Workers at the Discovery Center in Fresno discovered the theft Thursday morning, the center's director, Mary Ellen Wright, told the Fresno Bee (http://bit.ly/Yk5G8m). The unidentified suspect apparently broke in overnight, smashing the tanks that held the reptiles.

Surveillance video showed the man putting four reptiles into a garbage bag: the red-tailed boa constrictor, two 3-foot-long pythons and a 3 1/2-foot savannah monitor lizard. The suspect also went into the center's gift shop and took children's toys, the phone system and the security monitor, the Bee reported.

Wright said the reptiles — worth hundreds of dollars — are mortal enemies, and she is worried about their conditions.

"It would be like throwing two pit bulls in a locked room," she said.

Wright said the animals also could injure the thief. The monitor lizard has sharp, 2-inch claws.

Police are looking at the video, according to the Bee. A call to a Fresno police spokesman Friday was not immediately returned.

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Information from: The Fresno Bee, http://www.fresnobee.com

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Soldier’s cat makes perilous journey from Afghanistan to Oregon

A decorated veteran took quite a risk in getting his new friend from the sandbox to the litter box.

And along the way, Staff Sgt. Jesse Knott found an unlikely ally in his elaborate plan to evacuate his adopted cat from the war zone in Afghanistan.

In an interview with KPTV, Knott explains that he met his pet cat, Koshka, at his base of operations inside the war-torn country. Koshka was a stray cat, serving a practical purpose as the unofficial mouse catcher. At first glance, Koshka was the "purrfect" weapon.

However, not having a real owner, the cat was often subjected to neglect and cruelty.

"He was showing some signs that people weren't taking very good care of him," Knott said. “I found paint in his fur a couple of times. And then, people took clippers and shaved his back.”

And as Koshka adapted to life inside Knott’s small workspace, the two formed a tight bond. In fact, it was in the aftermath of a bloody battle that Koshka provided Knott with some much-needed solace.

"I'd lost hope in myself. I'd lost faith. Then all of a sudden this cat came over, and it was like ‘hey, you are you,'" he said.

But that same act of kindness made it clear to Knott that if he wanted to do what was best for Koshka, then he had to get his beloved cat out of Afghanistan and to his family home in Oregon.

"He pulled me out of one of my darkest times, so I had to pull him out of one of his darkest places," he told the station.

That’s when Knott staged an elaborate and risky evacuation plan for his cat. First, he enlisted the help of a local Afghan interpreter who transported the cat to Kabul.

Both the cat and the interpreter were at risk. Knott had to trust that the man would take care of the cat, but he also knew that if the man were discovered to be helping an American, his own life would be at risk.

"The risk to him was immense," Knott said. “This is a cat with a purple collar and an American-brand cat carrier, going halfway across Afghanistan. Going across God knows how many Taliban checkpoints.”

But the interpreter did eventually get Koshka to the airport in Kabul. From there, Knott’s family spent $3,000 to fly Koshka to Oregon, detouring through Islamabad, Pakistan, and New York City.

Knott himself has since left Afghanistan and is now stationed in Washington state. His service in the military will soon be over, and he says he can’t wait to be permanently reunited with the animal that meant so much to him during a time of physical and emotional vulnerability.

"He was my saving grace," Knott told KPTV. "He kept me alive during that tour."

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