Image: Katie Melua and the spider that lived in her ear canal for a week (Instagram)
The most groundbreaking, fascinating and ‘woah’-provoking health news around today.
1. Singer discovers spider living in her ear
Considering 2014 has already brought us a woman with a leech living in her nose, and a spider that allegedly burrowed through a man’s stomach, we thought the gruesome insect stories were over. Unfortunately, not so.
The latest squirmy story comes from English pop star Katie Melua, who recently had her ears checked by a hearing specialist after experiencing a scratching, scuffling noise. Turns out the sounds had been created by a small jumping spider that had taken up residence in the 30-year-old’s ear canal. Fittingly, it had been camping in there for the week leading up to Halloween.
Katie, who amusingly released a track called ‘Spider’s Web’ back in 2006, shared a photo of her tiny tenant on Instagram (see above).
“Basically I used these old in-ear monitors to block out sound on a flight, a little spider must have been in them and crawled inside my ear and stayed there for the week,” she explained. “Though the thing looked TERRIFYING up-close on the doctor’s camera, once he took him out ( using a micro Hoover ) it was pretty small, and now its in this little test tube, alive and seemingly fine.” Katie later released the spider into her garden.
2. A shocking way to kick your bad habits
Everyone who’s ever scarfed down a whole packet of Tim Tams in one sitting knows bad habits are hard to break – but how far would you go to make it happen? Apparently, there are people willing to give themselves electric shocks to change their behaviour.
12 bad beauty habits we picked up from our mums
A US firm has developed a wristband to help people kick their bad habits by administering a ‘punishment’ chosen by the user – these include vibrations, sound reminders, blocked access to a mobile phone and, yes, a 300 volt electric shock. Ooph – say hello to the 21st century version of the ol’ ‘snapping an elastic band’ trick.
The Pavlok wristband – yes, named after Pavlov and his dog – includes a Bluetooth radio that links up to a smartphone app and can track the user’s behaviour. Users can also set up rewards for when they achieve their goals.