Blog Posts by Brett Michael Dykes

chilisFighting fire with more fire -- and a WWF-worthy name -- there's a new champ holding the title of  world's hottest chili pepper.

As you may recall, in December The Lookout reported on the Naga Viper and its initiation as the chili pepper with the most heat. But now there's a hotter ticket in town:  the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T.

Yes, the Butch T. outdistances the Naga Viper, barely, on the Scoville scale -- which rates spice power by tracking the presence of a chemical compound in chilis. The Australian Butch T. weighs in at 1.46 million heat units on the scale, while the British Naga Viper tops out at 1.38 million. For comparison, the average jalapeno pepper falls around 5,000.

jacqueline howett the greek seamenBritish novelist Jacqueline Howett has become the latest author to publicly shame herself on the Internet over a bad review. We've seen it before in people who write books for a living, a notoriously sensitive lot: Alice Hoffman famously let loose a tirade on Twitter after receiving a less than glowing writeup in the Boston Globe in 2009--going so far as to publish the reviewer's phone number and calling on her fans to flame the critic.

It's been theorized that book authors--traditionally subject to criticism in print only as frequently as their books are published -- don't develop the thick skin of writers in other media, where criticism is more frequent and accessible. But now, the Internet exposes even infrequent novelists to the analysis of anyone with an opinion, a computer and an online connection. Authors can, in turn, react to these opinions, for all the world to see.

english loch ness monster

Nothing puts a damper on a serene afternoon's kayaking like the sight of a primeval sea monster.

That was the rude lesson for Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington, who'd taken their watercraft out on the foggy waters of Lake Windermere, only to encounter what appeared to be "an enormous snake" swimming by.

"It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph," the 24-year-old Pickles told The Telegraph. "Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal—it's not like any animal I've ever seen before."

ming vaseIt's the dream of any antique collector: You impulsively spend a few bucks on a trinket at an estate sale or an antiques store, and later discover that it's worth more than what you paid for it. Much more.

And that's pretty much the dream that came true for a 79-year-old British retired worker from the Cadbury chocolate factory, who recently walked into an auction house with a near-perfect Ming vase in a cardboard box.

It's unknown how the man, who wanted the press to refrain from publishing his name, came into possession of the rare vase, but staffers at Duke's—the Dorchester auction house that took it in—were astounded by the "spectacular find."

"When my colleague initially showed me what had arrived in a cardboard box I could not believe my eyes," Guy Schwinge of Duke's told the Guardian. "The vase is in perfect condition, and it is amazing to think that it has survived unscathed for almost six hundred years."

If you thought the world's-largest-cave contender in Vietnam was something, well, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Picture this: Narrow undersea passages encrusted with bristling -- and stinging -- life. A crimson waterborne haze of toxic gas. A tide-driven vortex capable of siphoning a hapless diver to oblivion.

Actually, you don't have to picture it. As with the Vietnam expedition and an earlier tour of Mexico's Cave of Crystals, National Geographic has done it for you in another series of breathtaking photos.

[Photos: More award-winning photography from National Geographic]

Here is our roster of stories that somehow managed to evade the full-on blog treatment:

• Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has been hospitalized for a blood clot issue, in the same facility where Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is being hospitalized for kidney stones. (ABC News)

• Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu has come out strongly against the Obama tax cut package. (Nola.com)

• Gay rights activists booed West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin  today for voting against the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell." (Politico)

clinton obama

After spending the afternoon conferring with President Obama on what the best course for the nation's economy going forward would be, former President Bill Clinton joined the president in a press conference to announce his support for the compromise the White House struck this week with the GOP.

Clinton hailed the agreement -- which the Obama administration insists it's confident will pass -- as a key measure to  help accelerate economic recovery and lower the unemployment rate. And on that basis, he appealed to his fellow Democrats to stop squabbling and support the bill.

Earlier today we told you how some were questioning why former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- whose political identity is largely tied to 9/11 -- has remained silent on the GOP blocking a vote on a bill to provide health care to for ailing 9/11 responders. This afternoon Giuliani finally broke his silence.

"The Zadroga 9/11 health care bill is not a political issue," Giuliani said in an email to The Ticket. "This should be a priority and area of bipartisan cooperation, an obligation to those who were harmed by the worst attack in our country's history."