How would you like to have been one of the custom officials opening up a package that had come from Hong Kong that had been marked “personal clothing” only to find about 300 live scorpions and spiders!

The scorpions and spiders had been packed in nets, bottles and transparent plastic boxes and were concealed under clothing and newspapers within the package. Tarantulas were also included in the spider tally.

“The scorpions almost bit the examiner,” Nelson Ebio, a port collector at the Central Mail Exchange Center, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It was the first time the post office had encountered such poisonous mail, he said.

The package had arrived from Hong Kong on a Monday, but it wasn’t clear who had sent the package or why although it’s been speculated that the package was intended for someone who collects these types of invertebrates and insects. My guess, having been involved in reptile keeping, is more along the lines that these creatures were being smuggled into the country illegally for the pet trade.

The spiders and scorpions have been handed over to Manila parks and wildlife officials.

The spiders and scorpions were later handed over to the parks and wildlife office.

If you’ve been thinking of switching your landline telephone service over to Broadband Phone Service you might be very interested in taking a look at what ViaTalkhas to offer. ViaTalk offers VoIP telephone services in over 2,200 metro markets spanning all 50 states.

ViaTalk offers many of the services that you are used to receiving with your landline service and more. Features include enhanced voicemail, call hunt, call record, several types of caller ID, call forwarding, free in-network calling, call waiting and many other services that you can only get with a VoIP service.

At this time they are having a special- register now and get 6 months of free service. That sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

I took a look at some of the packages that they are offering and found that each of the plans offer “call anywhere in the US/Canada” from 500 minutes worth of calls per month to unlimitted, plus each plan offers voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, call return, e911 support plus a variety of other features. Package prices range from $9.95 to $35.95.

VoIP also known as Voice over Internet protocol, has really been taking off in the last year and I know several people who have switched their service over to broadband technology who are happy with the service and quality of the calls. It might be a great time to start checking into a service such as ViaTalk if you’ve been thinking of switching your service from a regular telephone network to an Internet phone service.