It's a plant that might just be the cure to substance abuse, and even though there are entire clinics built around it in Canada, here in the U.S. it remains both illegal and ignored. Ibogaine is an alkaloid derived from the iboga plant, a perennial rainforest shrub and hallucinogen native to western-central Africa. According to some former slaves to heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, alcohol and ...

If you're going to do a television series about the deepest concepts of the universe -- time travel, aliens, the future of mankind -- it makes sense to turn to the smartest man in the universe for help. That's what the Discovery Channel did with "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking," a four-part special series that debuts Sunday at 9 p.m. EST. And even though the 68-year-old British ...

The suddenly famous, tranquilizer-loving, yard-hopping mystery monkey of Tampa Bay now has his own (unintentionally) hilarious theme song and greatest hits video. The song was written and performed by brothers Noah and Jesse Bellamy, whose father and uncle had hits in the 1970s and '80s as The Bellamy Brothers. Meanwhile, the monkey's Internet fame continues to grow. There are now three ...

While you were sleeping through English Lit, other people were listening. Those same people have now turned up a new play by the Immortal Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare. (What have you done lately?) Back in 1727, LewisTheobald, an editor of Shakespeare's works, claimed to have found a "lost" play from the Bard inspired by "Don Quixote" called "Cardenio." In the preface, Theobald basically ...

When Randy Fitzgerald was 3 years old, his dad took him to the bowling alley in Iowa, where he would leave the youngster in the alley arcade with a stack of quarters. The only unusual part is that Randy has an exceedingly rare condition, arthrogryposis, which left him paralyzed from the neck down since birth. So Randy's dad pushed an old-school pinball machine in front of the "Pac-Man" ...

Rick Coffey thought he saw a cat behind his St. Petersburg, Fla., home Saturday. That wouldn't have been much of a surprise, since he's set his backyard up as a certified wildlife sanctuary -- birds, raccoons, possums and squirrels flock to scarf up the seeds and fruit Coffey keeps out in an ersatz animal buffet. He didn't expect to see "the monkey." By now, perhaps he should have. It was ...

The little old man with the walking stick looks harmless. Mess with him though and you'll likely find yourself in a world of hurt. That's because the man is Shihan Kevin Garwood, 61, who has created a form of self-defense for the elderly that sneakily turns a mild-mannered walking cane into a weapon of ass destruction -- as in whoop-ass. Garwood's program -- he calls it Cane Work -- is designed ...

The suddenly famous dope-addict monkey of Tampa Bay popped up again March 22, slipping into a St. Petersburg woman's backyard, swinging from a tree on her patio and taking a dip in the pool. On the lam for more than a year, once again the wily primate got away. Apparently more hungry than jonesing, he made off with an armload of grapefruit from a backyard tree before authorities arrived with ...

You would think the peanut butter cup, that glorious blending of two great tastes that taste great together, would be the leading culinary combo in history. And it was, until now. Make way for the new king -- how to even say it? -- bacon on the grill. Tired of winter and still loopy from watching too much Olympic curling (seriously, still), a friend and I hit on a shockingly brilliant idea ...

In a scenario worthy of a Magilla Gorilla cartoon, a dope-fiend monkey is on the lam in Tampa Bay and has eluded capture for more than a year, despite being spotted by hundreds of people and shot at least a dozen times with tranquilizer darts. "All we've done is manage to turn him into a drug addict," said lead trapper Vernon Yates, owner of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Seminole, Fla. ...