Recently in dangerous trends Category

The party's over for Florida kids hoping to hop into a pool with alligators. The state says so-called "gator parties" are unsafe, for both children and adults, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Who came up with this wild idea? The owners of Alligator Attraction in Madeira Beach, Fla., offered the reptiles for rent at local pool parties. Small gators, less than 4 feet long with names like Cupcake and Burger, swam alongside children in backyard pools at a cost of $175.

The gators had their mouths taped shut as a safety precaution. But that wasn't good enough for state inspectors.

Can't we all just get along?

That's what Theodore Finnell and a rival ice cream man in Uniontown, PA were asked last week after Finnell's wife informed police that a year-long ice cream truck feud had escalated into a potentially dangerous and rocky road war.

With permits on the line, the two must now work together and chill out.

From the perspective of Theodore Finnell and his wife Patty, an unnamed rival ice cream man has been harassing them for the last year, reports WTAE-TV.

Time to call it a trend: the AP reports that New York has just become the sixth state to ban the use of shackles during childbirth. (On prison and jail inmates, we mean; New York readers can stop worrying that free citizens might be chained to a bed by overzealous medical personnel. We hope.)

Perhaps, like us, you were under some quaint 21st-century notion that our civilized society would never chain down a woman in the throes of labor, prisoner or not. But apparently, there are still 40-plus states out there where nine-months-pregnant inmates are considered so threatening that they must be lashed in place. Even in New York, one vestige of the practice will remain: the new law allows inmates to be cuffed by one wrist during transport.

Researchers' Conclusions Something to Snort At?

File this one under already-broken news. News reports this week are revealing the startling conclusion of a study by a UMass-Dartmouth professor: most paper currency has cocaine on it.

Shocking! you say. Perhaps, until you realize that 1) the amounts of cocaine found on bills are truly tiny, posing no health risk; and 2) this phenomenon has been known about for decades.

The ever-thorough snopes.com sums up the history of drug-testing performed on our money, concluding that the presence of cocaine in trace amounts on bills has been known about since at least the 1980s.

"Axe Body Spray: It's Not Just an Alternative to Taking a Shower Anymore"

For anyone who has been exposed to fumigation-level amounts of "Axe Body Spray" and wondered how the product can be used for good instead of evil, keep crossing your fingers. But a growing trend among teens exposes a non-traditional (albeit slightly more lethal) use of the popular spray-on deodorant.

Meet the "Axe Bomb", a homemade pyrotechnic invention that uses cans of Axe, lighter fluid, and other combustible material to create a flamethrower or home-made pyrotechnics display.