Jockstrip: The world as we know it

'SPLATOMETER' TO COUNT BUGS

It is called a "splatometer" and conservationists want car drivers in the United Kingdom to use it to count numbers of flying insects.

The splatometer consists of a rectangular shaped piece of PVC attached to the front of a car. After a trip, the PVC rectangle is covered with an identical piece of plastic and sent off for analysis, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.

The bug-splattered pieces of plastic are analyzed by computer software, which records the number and type of insects killed.

According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the results of the research might help determine how insect numbers influence the numbers of birds.

BODY PARTS PACKED

A bulging suitcase crammed with human body parts was found discarded on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

A homeless man and woman spotted the suitcase and lugged it several blocks to a deserted parking lot, apparently hoping to find something of value inside, the New York Post reports.

Instead they were confronted with a hacked-off human hand and torso. They slammed the suitcase shut and called 911, police said.

The human remains were taken to the medical examiner's office, where it was determined the hacked-off body parts included a man's torso, two arms and two hands. The victim's head and legs are missing.

GREEN FINDS IT HARDER TO SHOCK

Tom Green has gobbled mealworms and sucked milk from a cow's udder, French-kissed a mouse and conducted interviews with an excrement-covered microphone.

The 31-year-old comedian insists, however, his salad days are over because the lowbrow stunts that jump-started his career four years ago on MTV's "Tom Green Show" are the stuff of the new reality shows.

"You can turn on 'Survivor' and watch anyone eat worms," Green tells The New York Times.

Green says his new late-night show, "The New Tom Green Show," on MTV still wants to shock. He recently turned up at the doorstep of the former talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphaël, begging for cash. She gave him $300.

CANDY SALE FOR THE STATE

Confectioners at Heart's Desire Chocolates have devised a remedy to California's fiscal crisis -- a candy bar dedicated to the state budget deficit.

The "California Budget Crunch Bar" is a real Golden State bar, with bits of real orange pulp and chunks of almond mixed into both milk and dark chocolate varieties.

"We're donating 10 percent of the proceeds from every Budget Crunch Bar to the California State Education Fund," Diana Calderón of Heart's Desire, says in a statement.

The wrapper has a map of California straining against a belt tightly cinched around its waist and the pink foil inside symbolizes the pink slips given workers.