1. 12 Dec


    You know the handheld shooters used to launch T-shirts into crowds at basketball games? Apparently, they can be used in other, very illegal ways. Last weekend, U.S. Border Patrol agents found 33 cans holding 85 pounds of marijuana scattered across a field near Yuma, Arizona. After a little more nosing around, they also found an empty carbon dioxide tank. Their conclusion: Mexican drug smugglers are now using pneumatic cannons — essentially larger cousins of the devices used in sports arenas — to shoot their wares at least 500 feet into the U.S. The can-shooting cannons are also suspiciously similar to ones built on the TV show Mythbusters, another possible inspiration. Keep reading PHOTO: David McNew/Getty Image

    You know the handheld shooters used to launch T-shirts into crowds at basketball games? Apparently, they can be used in other, very illegal ways.

    Last weekend, U.S. Border Patrol agents found 33 cans holding 85 pounds of marijuana scattered across a field near Yuma, Arizona. After a little more nosing around, they also found an empty carbon dioxide tank. Their conclusion: Mexican drug smugglers are now using pneumatic cannons — essentially larger cousins of the devices used in sports arenas — to shoot their wares at least 500 feet into the U.S.

    The can-shooting cannons are also suspiciously similar to ones built on the TV show Mythbusters, another possible inspiration.

    Keep reading

    PHOTO: David McNew/Getty Image

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  2. 10 Apr


    Rhino horns are now selling for $25,000 a pound in underground markets — more than the cost of cocaine. In Vietnam and China, the substance is used by some to treat everything from headaches to fevers and even cancer. The medicinal benefits are scientifically unproven, but illegal poaching is at an all-time high. $25,000 — Cost per pound of crushed rhino horn powder $16,000 — Cost per pound of cocaine in the United States 28,000 — Rhinos remaining worldwide 448 — Rhinos killed in South Africa in 2011, an all-time high 160 — Rhinos killed in South Africa since January 2012 0 — Wild rhinos remaining in Vietnam. The last known rhino in the country was found dead with its horns hacked off in 2010. More numbers

    Rhino horns are now selling for $25,000 a pound in underground markets — more than the cost of cocaine. In Vietnam and China, the substance is used by some to treat everything from headaches to fevers and even cancer. The medicinal benefits are scientifically unproven, but illegal poaching is at an all-time high.

    $25,000 — Cost per pound of crushed rhino horn powder

    $16,000 — Cost per pound of cocaine in the United States

    28,000 — Rhinos remaining worldwide

    448 — Rhinos killed in South Africa in 2011, an all-time high

    160 — Rhinos killed in South Africa since January 2012

    0 — Wild rhinos remaining in Vietnam. The last known rhino in the country was found dead with its horns hacked off in 2010.

    More numbers