I blame Twitter. After being sent a link to an intriguing product in the depths of Amazon, I got sucked into a world of bizarro goods and their reviews.

Check out ten of the best with a taster of their reviews. And make sure you've got nothing planned for the next hour or so.

1. Grim Reaper on Skeleton Horseback Life-Size

I agree with the previous reviewer about this being a great addition to any kid's room, but did you parents know that this lovely figurine ALSO readily converts into a nightlight?! 2 large Christmas bulbs fit *perfectly* inside the reaper's eye sockets (I recommend red), and the string is easily hidden behind the cloak so you're not left with any unsightly cords.

All I can say is, this is NOT an appropriate item for a hospice ... lesson learned--the hard way!

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

2. Uranium Ore

Ran out of toothpaste, and remembered how you're supposed to be able to use baking soda to clean your teeth, so of course, I accidentally used this instead, and Wow! all I can say is, my teeth have never been cleaner! They sparkle, they tingle, and for some reason, they STAY clean now, no matter what. Highly recommended!

Truth be told, I ran out of buttocks ointment. I was really chafed and irritated after a long day of wearing my new dungarees. The high humidity did not help. In my predicament I was willing to try anything for relief. I swabbed a two finger amount of this Uranium Ore on the effected area, and was pleasantly surprised of its instant relief qualities. It glowed a little through my pants, but other than that, no noticeable problems.

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

3. Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon

Not only does this thick Tuscan Whole Milk, 128 fl. oz, do a body good, but also makes the most convincing milk "moustache" in the business, with actual hair in it.

After a long hard week full of days he would burst through the door, his fatigue hidden behind a smile. There was an icy jug of Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz in his right hand. With his left hand he would grip my waist - I was always cooking dinner - and press the cold frostiness of the jug against my arm as he kissed my cheek. I would jump, mostly to gratify him after a time, and smile lovingly at him. He was a good man, a wonderful husband who always brought the milk on Friday, Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz.

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

4. Wedding Chapel - 10 x 18 With Wood Roof

Although I chose not to go for any of the extras - a mirror ball in the vestry and a tiger skin-print font are too 'modern' for my conservative tastes - I was still surprised that this item came with a complete Hillbilly family inside.

Well, I for one, am dissapointed..my chapel arrived, but it was just a bunch of wooden planks...abut 178 of them to be exact...I asked the UPS guy to help me assemble it and he just stared at me. (I think he was a bit pissed off having to haul so many peices of wood up to my door step) Well, alas, now me and my fiance have to wait another 2 months until I can put this damn thing together. She is getting pretty impatient. If worse comes to worse I'll just forgo the roof and we'll have an outdoor wedding.

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

5. Wolf Urine Lure-32 oz

One is immediately drawn to this vintage by the colour, which is an elegant, pale straw hue with an appealing peachy fruit on the nose. It has an incredibly effervescent bead -- the whole glass teams with bubbles -- culminating in a frothy layer at the head.

Today is Valentine's Day and I hoped that a little splash of this would drive my lady wild. But alas... I sleep alone again. Also I keep hearing all this howling outside my bedroom.

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

6. Deer Rear

This is one hot and steamy Deer ass. Dont be fooled by imitations. This is the authentic ass of a deer. If you have ever found yourself out hunting alone. You know that sometimes, when looking down the scope of your winchester rifle, the ass of a deer looks mighty fine.

On a hunch, I bought one of these for my weird old Uncle Crotty, who lives in my mom and pop's attic. He'd been having problems and was trying to bite through his chains, but Pop says that since he's received the Deer Rear, he's happy again. Crotty has even stopped leaving funny stains on the carpet and begun writing Muzak for the Otis Elevator Company. Who could ask for more?

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

7. Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass

This is an awesome product. I have performed my first two bypasses using this kit (on myself of course), and I have lost over 200 pounds. There was some initial bleeding that occured, and I needed to be rushed to the emergency room due to "severe internal hemorrhaging" but the three week stay was well worth the cost I saved by doing my own bypass.

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

8. How to Avoid Huge Ships (Paperback)

This book lacks criteria for discerning between huge ships and merely really big ships. Some well-designed lists, charts or colorful pop-up sections would have been nice for readers who were unsure what size of ship they were avoiding.

This is a must-read for anyone who encounter huge ships daily and do not want to get run over by them. I found this book extremely helpful. To this day, I have never been run over by a single huge ship!!

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

9. WHAT ARE THESE STRAWBERRIES DOING ON MY NIPPLES?

I had been trying to figure out how the strawberries got there after my frequent blackouts, and this book answered that question for me AND told me where to hide the bodies. Thanks Vanessa!

I had hoped this would have advise for handling situations where one finds strawberries on various parts of their anatomy. I've had strawberries on my buttocks for some time now and don't know what to do. Unfortunately this book focuses solely on the nipples. Hopefully the author will pen a followup.

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

10. Playmobil Security Check Point

I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger's shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger's scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said "that's the worst security ever!".

This toy would be a lot more realistic with about 350 people standing in line for an average of an hour. It still makes a nice set with the interrogation room.

Read all the reviews on Amazon...

That's yer lot. Now put down the credit card and step away from the keyboard.

Believe everything you read? Ever since reading Ben Goldacre's book, Bad Science, I'm much less trusting of stories using numbers to illustrate a point, especially when prefixed with "scientists say". But just how difficult is finding the real facts behind a story?

The challenge, aside from finding time, is to make sense of whatever facts and figures are being used to illustrate the point, especially if that proof is in an academic paper or a bank's financial results. Brain pain.

So, it was with some trepidation that I decided to try and verify that The Guardian had dropped a clanger in an article in this Saturday's business section. With the background of RBS' first profit since the tax-payer shelled out £20bn to keep the organisation afloat, the article asks how management can justify paying bonuses when the government is still owed. And owed big.

However, the graph (see below) used to illustrate the article didn't quite ring true. Of the two divisions showing a loss, US Retail & Commercial shows a loss of £51bn. Even in a world where we've graduated from bandying around 'billions' instead of 'millions', this seems like a hefty chunk of cash.

If this were correct not only would the red bar in the graph have to extend off the edge of the page, RBS would have posted a £44.7bn loss, which, I'm pretty sure, would be a bigger headline than anything about bonuses.

So, with @bengoldacre in the back of my mind, I decided to see if I could find the original material and double-check the figures. A rummage through the RBS corporate website reveals two documents, the interim results slides and the full version.

The data for the graph (not including the typo) is on page 29 of the 204 page report, not including appendices, if you're interested. It confirms the typo and a mere £51m loss. RBS shareholders can rest a little easier.

What this does confirm is a deep respect for the thankless job facing journalists wanting to do a thorough job. Put this into context against hastily written blog posts and the debate about how to pay for investigative journalism becomes ever more important.

To finish, a choice piece of language from the report on how one type of credit derivative is valued:

Gap risk products are leveraged trades, with the counterparty’s potential loss capped at the amount of the initial principal invested.  Gap risk is the probability that the market will move discontinuously too quickly to exit a portfolio and return the principal to the counterparty without incurring losses, should an unwind event be triggered.  This optionality is embedded within these portfolio structures and is very rarely traded outright in the market.  Gap risk is not observable in the markets and, as such, these structures are deemed to be level 3 instruments.

Ever wondered how we got into this financial crisis in the first place? Dunno about you, but I'm not sure I like the idea of an unwind event, unless it involves a cute cat and a bundle of wool.

Inspired by Peter Hill, writer of pithy, witty and altogether-too-clever headlines, who is too lazy to update his own blog, so I'm posting them corking headlines here.

Nope, it's not faked, it's actually snowing in Las Vegas (the one in the middle of desert) for the first time since 1979. Check out the photos at designyoutrust.com for the full majesty (Ok, that's a bit much, let's say effect) of the Vegas strip covered in snow.

Doesn't it look romantic. Get thee to an Elvis-themed chapel this instant.

One tip, if you're in Vegas and a red-faced portly gentleman starts shouting "Ho ho ho" at you, the surprise gift you'll pick up will probably clear up with the right ointment. Or so I'm told.

[Pic courtesy of Dmitry at designyoutrust.com]

I spend all day glued to a laptop, much of it browser-based. Not many advertisers manage to cut through the clutter with an ad that grabs the eye, holds the attention and gets the message across. And how rare is that?

I store special hatred for those annoying rich media ads. You know the ones, an accidental scroll of the mouse across their annoying hot spots and they expand over the content you originally wanted to see. If they have an X to close the ad, it's near-impossible to see or is so small you the steady hand of brain surgeon to close the damn thing.

Well, for the first time in ages, I watched an online animated advert all the way through to the end, thanks to the Twitter friends who pointed this as for the new Wario Land game on the Nintendo Wii:

I've seen something similar before, but can't for the life of me remember which brand it was. If you can remember, leave a comment below, I'd love to know.

And if you like that sort of thing, I suspect the creatives that came up with this ad owe a not inconsiderable debt to Alan Becker, who created the now famous Animator vs Animation movies in 2006.

Animator vs. Animation

Animator vs Animation Part 2