Odd Facts

The Diving Horses of Atlantic City

2009-09-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

Starting in 1905 and ending in 1978, Atlantic City featured diving horses. The horses were trained to dive into the water from a platform with girls on their back from 2-4 times daily.

Ones such lady, Lorena Carver, dove from a forty-foot tower into a 12 foot-deep tank for 25 years until 1930 when she "got a little heavy." Lorena averaged one broken bone per year. Lorena remarked that the job was not especially demanding. "All the girl has to do is look pretty and not fear height or water. . . . The horse knows what to do. He'll take care of you."

Lorena said her horses loved to jump, often making it difficult to get them to wait to build suspense before jumping. Much depended on the horse, with some leaping immediately off the platform while some took up to 5 minutes to look around. The horse Klatawah (Indian for "go away" or "go to h*ll"), would often paw with his hoof as many times as he felt before diving, a remnant of a pawing-his-age act he had performed. When the crowd was small, Klatawah would make a "few lazy scrapes" and dive from a "reclining" position, but he would prance and show off when the crowd was large.

Sonora Webster Carver, another girl who rode the diving horses, was blinded in 1931 when the impact of the water detached her retinas. She continued in the show for another 11 years. Her sister, Arnette French, who also dove with the horses until 1935, remembers,. "What impressed me was how Dr. Carver cared for the horses. . . we went, the S.P.C.A. was always snooping around, trying to find if we were doing anything that was cruel to animals. They never found anything because those horses lived the life of Riley. In all the years of the act, there was never a horse that was injured.''

Sornoa's worte the memoir, A Girl and Five Brave Horses which can be previewed here and is very interesting and includes pictures. She describes her first performed jump. "I felt his muscles tense as his big body sprang out and down, then had an entirely new feeling. It was a wild, almost primitive feel, that only comes with complete freedom of contact with the earth. Then I saw the water rushing up at me, and the next moment we were in the tank."

One person remembers seeing the horses:

"The High Diving Horses were always my favorite. I must have seen at least six of them over the years. They each had their own style of diving. One would wait a good five minutes before jumping - he would hold his head up and watch the seagulls fly by. Some dove with their front legs straight out, while others tucked up their legs as if they were going over a jump. One horse would twist in the air and land on his side, making it dangerous for his rider.

Another horse, I think his name was Patches, drew quite an audience. After making so many jumps he no longer waited for his rider. He would charge up the ramp to the tower and take a running jump off the diving board, leaving the rider behind. A couple of the girls tried to leap on him as he flew by, only to be left sailing through the air mount-less. One day, he got up so much speed he almost overshot the pool. Needless to say, they retired him. One year they even had a high diving mule."

When the show was closed, the last two diving horses, Gamal aged 26 and Shiloh aged 9 were bought by the Fund for Animals.

To see videos of the Atlantic Diving horses, please visit here and here.

Sources: ATLANTIC CITY features the High-Diving Horse, Mr. Peanut, Lucy the Elephant, and generations of Americans running amok under (and over) the Boardwalk, Palisades Amusement Park" A Century of Fond Memories, Dedication, New York Times, Petticoat Discipline Quarterly, Life

religious game show

2009-09-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Istanbul television station, Kanal T is launching Penitents Compete, a new reality show in September that focuses on religious conversion. 10 atheists, confirmed as athiests by 8 theologians, will be the contestants. A Christian priest, a Jewish rabbi, a Muslim inam and a Buddhist monk will try to convert the contestants.

The prize is a trip to the holy city of their new chosen religion (the Vatican and Ephesus, Jerusalem, Mecca or Tibet). Station deputy director, Ahmet Ozdemir says, "They can't see this trip as a getaway, but as a religious experience."

Advertising slogans for Penitents Compete include "We give you the biggest prize ever: we represent the belief in God" and "You will find serenity in this competition."

Source Source

Charles Daubeny, "Oxford's first professor of Chemistry," once held up two bottles in front of his class, telling him that if the liquids in the two bottles mixed, the lecture hall would explode. But when he tripped and the liquids mixed to the audience's horror, nothing happened. He had a technician to thank. The technician had substituted the liquids before the lecture. Eurekas and Euphorias: The Ozford book of Scientific Antecdotes (p. 4).

leech removed from eye, cockney Bible and lost lab

2009-08-31T08:00:00.001-05:00

In Sydney, a 66-year-old women was gardening in her backyard when she flicked dirt into her eye. "After multiple attempts at wiping the dirt away, she felt some movement in front of her eye and called for her husband's help. He saw a leech four to five millimeters long pass across her cornea and under the upper lid." Doctors were able to successfully remove the leech with a saline solution. Source

Mike Coles wrote a cockney version of the Bible endorsed by Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey. Dr. Carey wrote the foreword and believes this version will bring the Bible back "into the marketplace, into the streets, where it originally took place". Here is the Lord's Prayer (as found in Luke 11:2-4) as translated in this version:

HELLO, Dad, up there in good ol' Heaven,
Your name is well great and holy, and we respect you, Guv.
We hope we can all 'ave a butcher's at Heaven and be there as soon as
possible: and we want to make you happy, Guv, and do what you want 'ere on
earth, just like what you do in Heaven.
Guv, please give us some Uncle Fred, and enough grub and stuff to keep us
going today, and we hope you'll forgive us when we cock things up, just
like we're supposed to forgive them who annoy us and do dodgy stuff to us.
There's a lot of dodgy people around, Guv; please don't let us get tempted
to do bad things. Help keep us away from all the nasty, evil stuff, and
keep that dodgy Satan away from us, 'cos you're much stronger than 'im.
Your the Boss, God, and will be for ever, innit? Cheers, Amen.

Source
Simon, a Labrador mix went missing from his Baltesz family in Bristol. After using the conventional methods, the Baltesz family started sprinkling their diluted urine around town with trails leading back to their house. "A small army of friends and volunteers has been helping."

Mother, Louise says: ""There are people who are upset about it, but I'm too emotionally drained to think about it," she said. "I'm worried about it - I really am. . . . I do feel mad doing it, but I'm driven to desperate measures."

Simon has been lost since July 4th. Louis adds, "The house is so quiet without him. He's a bit of a special dog because he was a rescue animal and it took us ages to rehabilitate him.'He's unusual for a Labrador because most are friendly and approachable but he was so badly treated he doesn't trust anyone except us. We are really attached to him."

Source Source Source .

40 minute war and the shoe-fitting fluoroscope

2009-08-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Anglo-Zanzibar War between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar (in East Africa) occurred on August 27, 1896. The war lasted aproximatley 40 minutes. While Khalid bin Bargash seized power after Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini's death, the British wanted the sultanship to go to Hamud bin Muhammed. Bargash ignored the British ultimatum that he relinquish power and barracaded himself in the palace. When the time alloted in the ultimatum expired, five British warships commenced bombing of the palace. After British victory, the British forced Khalid's supporters to pay for the cost of the shells used in the attack. The war ended Zanzibar's status as a sovereign state. Several months later,under British prompting, Hamud abolished slavery. Source
In the 1920s to 1940s, a popular device in shoes stores was the shoe-fitting fluoroscope. Stores used their machines to draw in customers with slogans such as "Shoes of Quality, X-Ray Fitted" and "Kiddies love it!" One 1940's advertisement boasted, "Whether the shoe clerk is an “old timer” with 20 or more years of fitting experience or a “Saturday extra” who has been on the job only a few weeks, ADRIAN X-Ray Machines help him give your child the most accurate fitting possible."

The machines showed the image of the foot inside the shoe when a person stood over the x-ray tube. [One source says the x-ray tube was lead-shielded while another says it was shielded with 1 mm of aluminum.-most likely varied b model and year]. "Some units allowed the operator to select one of three different intensities: the highest intensity for men, the middle one for women and the lowest for children. "

Some models had three viewing slots, where both the child, parent and clerk could view the image. "Fortunately, the X-rays did not continue directly through to the viewers' eyes, but were reflected by mirrors to the viewing ports. With repeated use of the fluoroscope with different pairs of shoes, an enterprising clerk could entice customers to find the perfect fit."

While potential dangers of radiation were known before the shoe-fitting fluoroscope was patented, 10,000 shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were being used in the 1940s. In 1951, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists formed safety standards. The standard required that customers could not use the device more than 20 times a year or 5 times a fitting, and that "customers should have shoes on BOTH feet at the time of a fluoroscopic examination." 1960, the device was banned in 34 states.

The Museum of Quackery claims their fluoroscope on display was found in Madison, West Virginia in 1981 where it was still being used.

Source Source Source Source

Random Historical Facts

2009-08-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

In 1671, the chief butler to the prince de Conde, Francois Vatel, was charged with overseeing a feast in honor of the visiting Louis XIV. Forgoing 12 days of sleep for the feast preparation, when Vatel discovered he lacked two roasts he said, “I have lost my honor. . . This is a disgrace which is more than I can bear (105).” The lack of sleep and missing roasts proved too much for Vatel when he stabbed himself with his own sword when his fish did not come in time to prepare for the feast. On the road to the church, his corpse passed the cart delivering the fish.

In the 1600s, “[r]edheads were thought to be the product of sex during menstruation and were believed to exhibit the lack of sexual self-discipline inherent in the ill-timed copulation of their parents (109).”

The the Middle ages, after monks were forbidden to practice medicine and dentistry any more, barbers began to assume medical roles. A common practice of the time was bloodletting. Barbers advertised their bloodletting services by displaying "buckets of fresh blood in their windows. When the blood congealed, it was poured into the street, where it spoiled." (34)

Sources for first two: "Sex With Kings" by Eleanor Herman." Sources for third: "Toothworms spider juice and illustrated history of dentistry."

Royal Mistresses part 3 of 3

2009-08-10T08:00:00.007-05:00

If you have not read Part 1, please scroll down and read it first.

Gabrielle d'Estrées (1571-1599)

Gabrielle d'Estrées was royal mistress to Henri IV of France, a monarch often at war during the start of their relationship. Gabrielle, even when pregnant, insisted on living with him in his army camp. She washed his clothes, pounding them with rocks when the soap ran out as well as wrote official dispatches for him. At one point, Henri wrote: "Last evening I found three bullet holes burned into the fabric of my mistresses tent, and begged her to go to her house in Paris, where her life would not be endangered, but she laughed as was deaf to my pleas. . . . She replied that only in my presence is she pleased. I entertain no fears for myself, but daily tremble for her" (43)." When Austrian troops advanced within 500 paces of Gabrielle, she yelled and exhorted Henri's troops to bravery until Henri "ordered her to be slung over a horse and taken to the rear of the camp" (43).

When the news of Spain's surprise attack first broke, Gabrielle left the Paris ball she was at, and went and fetched 50,000 personal gold pieces which she gave to Henri to support his troops. From there, she personally canvased 250,000 euros in donations and pawned her best jewelry.

Off the battlefront in 1509, Gabrielle managed a household with "eighty-three ladies and gentlemen, seventeen crown officials, and more than two hundred servants" (145). She also had great political power, such as joining the council and making laws. Henri declared Gabrielle "Titulary Mistress of His Majesty, the King of France," ordering all dignitaries to visit her after visiting him, and allowing her to communicate on his behalf directly to the Pope.

Henri IV had 56 mistresses throughout his life, but was only ever faithful to Gabrielle. Henri wanted to marry her. Indeed, he pressured her husband, Nicholas d'Amerval to declare impotence as grounds for divorce. (Nicholas had fourteen children with his first wife.)

However, Gabrielle died in childbirth one day before Henri was to wed her, make her queen and make her son his heir. Henri, traveling, was unable to make it to Gabrielle in time. Servants stole rings off her body and her father carted off her royal furniture.

Gabrielle had died with a grimace on her face so that "her mouth twisted around toward the back of her head and, at her death, stuck there as if in concrete" (214). Henri placed her wax effigy in his apartments, visiting it often and having it daily dressed in a new gown.

After Gabrielle's death and his marriage to the Spanish infanta, his carriage overturned in 1606 in a river. Ignoring the Queen, Henri saved César, his son by Gabrielle, and left the Queen to be pulled by her hair to safety by a courtier. Henri raised his six legitimate and eight illegitimate children together, keeping a list in his pocket to help tell them apart.

Henriette-Catherine de Balzac d'Entragues (1579-1663)

After Garbrielle's death, Henri's next mistress, Henriette-Catherine de Balzac d'Entragues, whom he fell in love with during marriage negations with the Spanish infanta, demanded 100,000 crowns before she slept with him. Henri's minister, the duc de Sully, spread the silver equivalent on the floor of the cabinet room in protest. Henriette took the money and also asked for written proof of marriage before she slept with him.

Seven months pregnant, she threatened to stop Henri's Spanish marriage negotiations causing him to giver her titles and a castle as appeasement. When Henriette gave birth to a still-born son (a healthy son would have made her Queen), Henri and Henriette made up.

When Henri's new Queen, Marie de Medici arrived from Spain, she arrived to empty apartments as the king had made no provisions for furniture for her. When introducing Henriette to Marie, Henri said, "This is my mistress who now wishes to be your servant" (78). Marie and Henriette soon became enemies. Henriette mocked the queen while the Queen resented her. When the Queen showed Henri letters from Henriette that mocked him, Henriette convinced Henri they were forgeries designed by the queen. Henriette forgave Henri for 6,000 pounds.

Henri commented on his relationship with his wife: "I receive from my wife neither companionship nor gaiety nor consolation, she either cannot or will not show me any kindness or pleasant conversation, neither will she accommodate herself to my moods and disposition" (80).

Henriette fell out of power in 1608 for "traitorous dealing with the Spanish" (80), and in 1610, after Henri's assassination, Marie exiled Henriette from court until Henriette died unmourned.

Source: "Sex With Kings" by Eleanor Herman (a very interesting book).

Royal Mistresses part 2 of 3

2009-08-03T08:00:00.013-05:00

If you have not read Part 1, please scroll down and read it first.

Anges Sorel (1421-1450)

"The earliest surviving portrait of a royal mistress is of Anges, painted in 1449, a time when secular portraits were not yet common, and many of the rich and famous still bribed church artists to paint their faces on saints (2-3)." As a result, Charles VII of France had his royal mistress, Anges, painted in a two-part church panel as the virgin Mary offering a breast to the baby Jesus (seen above). Anges died in childbirth soon after the panel was completed.

Queen Maire tolerated her rival, but her son, the heir to the crown, Louis, despised Anges for causing his mother pain. "One day in 1444, Louis, running into Anges, cried, 'By our Lord's passion, this woman is the cause of all our misfortunes,' and punched her in the face (197)."

Anges used her influence with the king, with to raise him from his apathy and help him drive the English out of France. "Charles . . . made a poor king before Agnes, and returned to being a poor king after her" (2). (Charles VII was the contemporary of Joan of Arc.)

Madame de Montespan (1641-1707)

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart (Athénaïs) was the mistress of Louis XIV of France for 13 years and provided him with 7 children in 9 years.

Athénaïs kept her radiant good looks until age 40 by a lavish regime of creams, oils and cosmetics. Because of the rich court food and the limited exercise options for ladies, Athénaïs daily rubbed herself with pomade and would disappear to a spa to starve herself.

Athénaïs was a strong spirit. Once, when Louis reproved her wearing strong perfume, Athénaïs said it was because he stank so badly. Five months pregnant, Athénaïs insisted on being with Louis as he toured his frontiers, sleeping in farmhouses and bumping in carriages. She loved playing cards. "One Christmas Day she lost the staggering sum of £230,000, kept playing, and won back £500,000 on one play involving three cards" (143). When her illegitimate 12-year old daughter was married to a 17-year-old dwarf for political reasons, Athénaïs pushed for immediate consummation despite the conditions of the marriage contract.

Athénaïs was not interested in politics, and was even unreliable in getting her friends political positions. She was disliked by the court and the public for her haughtiness and lavish spending.

Before Athénaïs married, she had attempted to become Louis' mistress. When married and a lady-in-wating to Queen Marie-Thérése, Athénaïs told the queen she would rather die than be Louis' mistress and criticized his current mistress, Louise de La Valliére, sharply. However, when Athénaïs became Louis' mistress, the queen was the last to find out. Athénaïs, now the mistress, treated the Queen rudely. Athénaïs was also rude to Louise whom she demanded to help her get ready in the morning.

For some time, Louis tried to keep up a public charade. In 1670 and 1671 Louis took his old mistress, Athénaïs and his Queen on journeys to confuse the public and avoid scandal. The crowd called them "the three Queens" (68). At one stop with only one bed, the indignant Queen was given the bed while the King, his brother and sister-in-law, his cousin, Louise and Athénaïs slept on a mattress on the floor. Despite this, the Queen was grateful that Louis treated her respectfully, returning to her bed every night and eating with her. Despite this, Athénaïs enjoyed a 20-room apartment to the Queen's 11.

Athénaïs' husband, the marquis de Montespan, enjoyed the life of a soldier. Once he disguised a girl he seduced as a member of his Calvary. While the marquis was known to storm convents for the girls inside, when he returned to court, he raged about his wife's immorality, boxing her ears and using language so strong it sent several ladies to bed with "the vapors."

After exiled from court for pretending to mourn for Athénaïs' death, he held an elaborate funeral. "He stood by the main door with his two small children, all clad in black, somberly accepting condolences on their loss" (99). After storming another convent and injuring the girl, her mother, the father superior and several peasants, the marquis was sent to prison but escaped to Spain.

In 1667, Athénaïs visited a with for help with seducing Louis. The witch, La Voisin, provided services to wealthy patrons. When innocent Louise invited Athénaïs to dine with the king and her, Athénaïs slipped lve potions made of "dead babies blood, bones, and intestines, along with parts of toads and bats" (107) into Louis; drinks. Soon after, Athénaïs became Louis' mistress, but by the late 1670s her position was unstable, causing her to sulk, storm and scheme against her rivals. Instead of a young beauty, Athénaïs appointed the future Madame de Maintenon as the royal governess but was shocked when Louis fell for her.

In 1680, La Voisin was burned for witchcraft after 218 people were interrogated and 36 more executed. La Voisin's daughter claimed that Athénaïs had been a patron ordering black masses which included infant-sacrifices with its blood drained into chalices. When the police excavated La Voisin's garden, they found the bodies of 2,500 infants-"aborted, stillborn, premature, and those who had been sacrificed alive. There was a small oven in the garden pavilion where La Voisin would burn an infant's body if it was too big to burn easily.

Louis finally understood why for thirteen years he had awoken with a headache every morning after having dined with Athénaïs de Montespan the night before. He was revolted at the quantities of noxious potions he had consumed over the years" (113). Louis hushed Athénaïs' involvement, imprisoning witnesses. While Athénaïs remained at court for another ten years, Louis avoided her and returned to his Queen's bed.

When Athénaïs was exiled from court at age 51, she left protesting and storming. Athénaïs' husband was later pardoned and returned to court, becoming a favorite of the king after Athénaïs' exile. Athénaïs' son with Louis , the duc de Maine, who blamed his mother for his limp, insisted on personally telling his mother of her exile, threw her furniture out the window and took over her apartments for himself. After Athénaïs' exile, forced to follow the lead of Madame de Maintenon, public favor swung back towards Athénaïs. With rosaries and Bibles fashionable, courtiers yearned for the days of Athénaïs.

Louis never visited Athénaïs, despite her fashioning special rooms for his visit and hanging her bedchamber with his portraits. While she remained proud, forcing her visitors to stand when receiving them, Athénaïs founded a hospital, personally sewed clothes for the poor and took to wearing bands of iron-spikes for penance.

When she died, Athénaïs' body received a botched autopsy, was dumped on her doorstep and received a small funeral. According to custom, her entrails were placed in a separate urn, but they disgusted the porter so much that he threw them on the ground where they were eaten by pigs.

At her death, two of her sons openly rejoiced at Athénaïs' death while Louis remained cold. Only Madame de Maintenon (whom Louis had secretly married) mourned.

Source: "Sex With Kings" by Eleanor Herman (a very interesting book).

Royal Mistresses part 1 of 3

2009-07-27T08:00:00.010-05:00

Introduction

"In the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, the position of royal mistress was almost as official as that of prime minister (5)." The position of royal mistress was so accepted, that even Frederick III appointed an official royal mistress-whom he never touched. Spain, however, did things differently at the time. Spain's royal mistress had no official position. Plus, with the king being "one step away from God," women were sent to a convent after sleeping with the Spanish king.

"It was reported that Philip IV of Spain (1605-165) chased
a young woman through his palace and hurled himself at the door
she had bared against him, commanding her to let him in. The
sobbing girl cried, "No, no Sire! I don't want to be a nun." (8)

Common non-bedroom duties of the royal mistresses included patronizing the arts and entertaining the king. Even some mistresses whose physical relationship with the king had ended kept their position due to their various skills such as diplomacy, entertainment or companionship.

A royal mistress was most often a well-born and titled lady at court, and most often married. Indeed, it was considered scandalous for an unmarried woman to have a child. If the king was interested in an unmarried woman, he would often marry her to a husband who would look the other way.

The royal mistress was expected to keep up appearances, wearing gowns that outshone even the queen's. Many royal mistresses were left in debt by the end of the month as a result of the gowns, servants, carriages, etc, they were expected to have.

Titles were often given to royal mistresses, but some kings waited until after their mistress was dead to grant titles (so they could have a splendid funeral). The royal mistress was often rewarded with titles, property and jewelry, but she could be removed from her position and have her property and jewels taken at the king's whim. There could only be one official royal mistress at a time and the king's fancies changed.

While the royal mistress was frequently treated better than the Queen, her position was far less stable. For many kings, the queen's treatment of his royal mistress determined his treatment of the queen. The king chose the queen's living quarters, her ladies in waiting, her activities and her allowance. The court, after all, took its cue from the king- if the king snubbed his queen for the royal mistress, so would the court. If the king insulted his queen, so would the court. It was wise to at least tolerate the royal mistress. Some queens even made allies of the royal mistress causing the mistress to ask the king to treat his wife better.

But just as the king's treatment of his queen varied, the king's treatment of his royal mistress varied. Some mistresses were allowed to receive foreign dignitaries, while other were forbidden to dabble in politics-even forbidden from granting titles to their family (a common practice of the time). The king could marry off his illegitimate children by his mistress to profitable marriages, or he could refuse to give them titles at all. The position of the royal mistress was as varied as it was interesting.

Lola Montez (1786-1868)

After the French Revolution, while royal mistresses still existed, their positions were not nearly as powerful as their predecessors, and the public was not as tolerant of excesses.

Lola was very fiery-carrying knives and pistols and threatening to hurt herself if she didn't get her way. She horsewhipped gentleman who she felt insulted by, as well as slapped and hit shop owners and passers-by for the same reason.

Lola was a dancer born in Ireland, raised in India, married and divorced in England who claimed to be French. When Ludwig convinced Lola to stay in Bulgaria, the public grew nervous that their king would be influenced politically by her. Ludwig showered Lola with jewels. While Ludwig made his Queen wear old dresses, Lola would show up to the opera in a 13,000 florin dress and diamond tiara.

Ludwig forced Lola's Bulgarian citizenship through. In 1847 he forced Parliament to make Lola, a countess,but his entire cabinet resigned and Queen Therese shunned those who "received" Lola. Yet, Lola's new title allowed her to drive a carriage with a nine-pointed crown on it.

The public avoided Lola, suspicious of her influence and shocked by her behavior. In the street, boys threw manure at her and people yelled insults. This behavior inspired a volunteer group of student bodyguards called the Alemannia, distinguishable by their red caps. Lola threw wild parties for her Alemannia, but the other students disliked the Alemannia-leaving lectures en mass when they arrived.

When Ludwig heard of the disturbances, he closed the university for a semester, prompting riots which Lola participated in until she was recognized and pelted with manure. When she took refuge in a church, she was thrown out, but escaped to the palace. The next day, the hundreds-strong mob had stormed and trashed police headquarters prompting the city commandant to promise that Lola would be out of the city in one hour.

When Lola, from her balcony, dared the gathered crowd to kill her, her coachman and a lieutenant forced her into her carriage and fled. Ironically, Lola was in a plain dress, without jewels or cloak.

Lola started more riots when she snuck back to see Ludwig disguised as a man. Ludwig abdicated his throne during the riots, but stayed in Bulgaria because his son plead with him not to flee. If Ludwig would have fled, it might have cost his son's claim to the throne.

Ludwig tried for two years to be reunited with Lola, but was prevented. Lola went to America where she made both a dancing, acting and lecturing career as a former royal mistress. She married twice and settled in California. "She raised a bear in her backyard, invested in a mine, and was known to tour the mine shafts chomping on a cigar. . . Lola was known for her charitable works and, surprisingly, Bible study (229)." She donated $300 to a charity for reformed prostitutes upon her death and lived a quiet life at the end.

An older and much more life-battered Ludwig wrote a poem about Lola:

Through you I lost the crown
But I do not rage against you for that
For you were born to be my misfortune
You were such a blinding, scorching light!
(230)

Source: "Sex With Kings" by Eleanor Herman (a very interesting book).

smurfs

2009-07-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

In May, ambitious employees at a downtown At&T building in San Jose attempted to clean out an unplugged office refrigerator, removing the food and using chemicals to clean the inside. The building was eventually evacuated and a haz mat team responded. Twenty-eight people needed "treatment for vomiting and nausea" while seven were hospitalized. Immune from the mix of moldy food and chemical smells was the employee who cleaned the fridge. Her allergies blocked the smell. Source

Little Tikes' Cozy Coupe is being inducted into Clevland auto museaum. Selling 457,000 units in 2008, the Cozy Coupe outsold every other car in America. "In the '90s, it outsold both the Accord and Ford Taurus." Little Tike currently produces a Cozy Coupe every minute. Director of marketing for LIttle TIkes, Rosanne Kubisty comments, "It's definitely a recession-proof vehicle." Source Source

When a week-old cocker spaniel puppy came in muddy from the garden, its 4-year-old master tried to bathe him in the toliet. When he pulled the chain, however, the puppy was flushed down the toliet. The boy's mother could hear the puppy crying from her garden drain cover and called Dyno-Rod, a UK drainage firm. Using "specialty camera equipment," the puppy was located and nudged to a manhole cover where it was rescued by a fireman. Video of the resue can be seen here. The puppy is currenlty fine and has been named Dyno.

In June 2009, 2,510 people in Swansea, Wales now hold the world record for most people dressed as smurfs. To verify the record, every person was checked to make sure no natural skin was exposed. At that point, five attempts to break the smurf record had occured over the last 18 months. Source

Rain

2009-07-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

According to the concussion theory, aerial explosions disturb atmospheric equilibrium and cause rain. This idea began with Plutarch, a Greek moralist, in 1AD. Plutarch developed this theory after he observed rain after battles.Napoleon, himself, shot cannons into the sky in an attempt to muddy the ground to delay his opponents. Soldiers in the Civil War who fought in water-logged conditions also believed this theory.

In the early 1900s, the theory was popular.In 1910, C.W. Post ordered his cowboys to make 150 kites to carry dynamite into the sky. In the process of launching the kites, however, it began to pour rain and the experiment was scrapped.

During the dust bowl, rain-makers were in especially high demand. Congress appropriated money to test the concussion theory in Texas. Source Dyrenforth ran the tests without results and earned the name “Dry Henceforth.”

Dalhart, Texas paid Thornton three hundred dollars to make rain. Thornton set up four miles out of town and bombed with dynamite for four days, causing neighboring towns to complain. After four days, 1/10^th of an inch of snow fell, and it snowed the following day.

But rain-making was not always a safe profession. Wallace E. Howell, using silver iodine crystals, was taken to court and threatened to be shot on sight by Catskill residents who believed he caused rain to destroy their crops.

Self-proclaimed “moisture accelerator” Charles M. Hatfield was hired by San Diego to produce rain. The contract stated he would produce 40 inches of rain for free, but for every inch between 40 and 50 inches, he would be paid $1,000. When San Diego flooded severely in 1916, some believed Hatfield was responsible and Hatfield has to leave town when a lynch mob was threatened. Despite several press councils, Hatfield was never paid. Oddly enough, the flood was caused by only 28.01 inches of rain, yet Hatfield was hired to produce 50 inches.

Source The Worst Hard Time (p. 191, 231) Source

Weird Patents

2009-07-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

"The common house spider is often trapped within a bath or basin. This is mainly due to a spiders inability to negotiate or scale the smooth inner countours of a conventional bath or basin." The solution? A spider ladder as patented in 1994. The ladder is made of metal or plastic to prevent spiders from hiding under the ladder. It is attached with a suction cup. Source

Here is an electric tablecloth designed in 1992 to keep insects from crawling onto food. "The current passing through the insect's body is sufficient to produce a sensation which will discourage further travel across the edge of the cloth. A consumer who may come into contact with the strips will usually not feel the current and, even if the consumer is wet, the current will produce only a slight tingling sensation." Source

From what I understand this 2006 device uses water as a conductor and uses electricity on the phrenic and vagus nerves to cure hiccups. The patent details a history of hiccups. "Hiccups lasting up to 48 hours are classified as 'bouts.' Hiccups lasting longer than 48 hours are called 'persistent.' Those lasting longer than a month are called 'intractable.'" One reason drinking water is a traditional cure for hiccups is that it stimulates the vagus nerve on the drinker's mouth. Source

Have you ever wondered how to swing on a swing? Well this patent will explain how to swing from side to side and in an oval shape. "Another improvement on the swinging method described above is the induction into the side-to-side swinging movement of a component of forward-and-back motion. That is, by skillful manipulation of the body, the present inventor has found it possible to add a relatively minor component of forward-and-back motion to the side-to-side swinging motion, resulting in a swinging path that is generally shaped like an oval."

Electric lice

2009-06-29T08:00:00.002-05:00

Six years before Benjamin Franklin's experience with kites and lightning, court electrician Abbé Nollet demonstrated electricity to Louis XV. Nollet lined up Carthusian monks to form a 900 foot line connected with iron wire. When the electrical current was passed through the wire, the monks jumped simultaneously. Nollet wrote: “The exclamations of surprise were simultaneous even though they came from two hundred mouths.” Before Nollet, Stephen Gray in 1720 used Charterhouse charity boys for electrical experiments. He would hang a boy with insulating cords, use rubber glass to electrify him and “draw sparks from his nose.” Swedish biologist Albercht von Haller had his electrified boys stand on pitch to insulate them. When a person approached, electricity would pass between the boy and the person. Both would experience a sharp pain. Source (p.63)

Lumberjacks in the 19th century had it hard. Here is an excerpt from Lumberjack Walker D. Wyman's diary from 1885: "One of the best ways to fool the lice was to turn your [long] underwear when you went to bed at night. The lice spent most of the night finding their way from the outside to the inside and didn't have much time left to do any biting." Source(p.70)

locked up

2009-06-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Until 1772, British law required those accused of a felony to either enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. However, if a defendant refused to enter a plea, their estate passed to their family instead of to the crown as would happen if they were convicted. The law of Peine Forte et Dure was designed to try to force a plea out of the defendant. By 1406, if a defendant refused to enter a plea, they would be pressed until they died or entered a plea. A board would be placed across their chest and stomach and iron weights would be placed on top of the board, gradually increasing every day. In Nottingham, a mute man was pressed to death because he was unable to enter a plea. Source Source Source

Prison reformer Jon Howard believed that silence would allow prisoners more time to consider their crimes and offer a greater chance of repentance. Coldbath Fields House of Correction in London attempted a silence-prison reform in 1834. At this time, the prison housed men, woman and children. Silence was strictly enforced and prisoners were not allowed to talk or congregate. In attempt to keep prisoners from recognizing each other, they wore masks or veils with numbered tags. In response to the harsh punishments (flogging, bread and water diet, confined to the "dark cells"), prisoners invented hand signals and tapped secret codes on the water pipes. Source Source Source

In Tokyo, the restaurant Alcatraz ER provides a medical prison-themed dining experience. Upon arrival, you are handcuffed, mock injected, and locked in a cell. The food is served in metal surgical pans and cocktails are served in test tubes or plasma bags, sometimes with false teeth. If your cell door is “accidentally” left open, “your mission to go screaming around the restaurant in a wheelchair evading the outstretched hands of other prisoners.” A similar restaurant is The Lockup, with varying locations in Toyko. At one location, diners are placed in a dark room and left to find the hidden door into the restaurant. Source Source Source

no connection

2009-06-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

When computer programmer Jerry Jalava had a finger amputated after a motorcycle accident, he acquired a prosthetic finger with a USB attached. When Jerry uses the USB, he removes the prosthetic finger. He currently has Billix, CouchDBX and Ajatus installed on the drive, but he hopes for his next prosthetic to have a removable fingertip and an RFID tag (tracking device that uses radio waves). His blog Pictures Source

Alan Titchmarsh, BBC TV gardener, has a waxwork at Madame Tussauds that is “one of the most fondled.” His waxwork is kissed so frequently that lipstick is washed off its face twice a week. Source Source

For the 1939 World's Fair, Joe Sprinz, a catcher for the San Francisco Seals, tried to catch a baseball dropped 1,000-1,200 feet by a blimp. While part of his mitt touched the ball, the ball hit him in the face. He spent three months in the hospital due to 5 knocked-out teeth and a jaw fractured in 12 places. Source Source

Dust

2009-06-08T08:00:00.003-05:00

In No Man's Land (the western end of the Oklahoma Panhandle), the dust storms of the Great Depression “killed or forced out nearly one family in three.” This, however, was not as bad as the conditions in the Texas panhandle.

Caroline Henderson lived in No Man's Land and wrote letters that were published in the Atlantic Monthly. Here is an excerpt form her June 1935 letter: "Wearing our shade hats, with handkerchiefs tied over our faces and Vaseline in our nostrils, we have been trying to rescue our home from the accumulations of wind-blown dust which penetrates wherever air can go. It is almost hopeless, for there is rarely a day when at some time the dust does not roll over. 'Visibility' approaches zero and everything is covered again with a silt-like deposit which may vary in depth from a film to actual ripples on the kitchen floor.” By the summer of 1936, only 8 of the 136 homesteads in her township still had tenets.

The dust from different states were different colors. Kansas dust was black, eastern Oklahoma dust was red, Texas dust was yellow. When these mixed in dust storms, it sometimes tinted the sun light green.

Many normal activities were made dangerous. Trains had to stop to prevent their passengers from choking and to allow them to scoop dust out of the cars. One Kansas train ran into a few-hours-old dust drift and was stuck. School was frequently canceled as well. In April 1932, a dust storm shattered all the windows in a schoolhouse and covered the school and children with dust. Even hospitals had to pause due to their inability to keep the surgical wards dust-free. Another side effect was that “[m]en avoided shaking hands with each other because the static electricity was so great it could knock a person down” Cars drug grounding-chains behind them as well.

The dust and drought brought in many animals in huge numbers, including tarantulas, centipedes, spiders, black widows and grasshoppers. Towards the start of the depression, rabbit drives were started to combat the booming rabbit population. Using clubs, people trapped rabbits in fences and clubbed them to death. In some places, rabbit drives were weekly events and up to 6,000 rabbits could be killed per afternoon per square mile. Towards the start of the depression, attempts were made to send the rabbits to be canned for the city folks, but the bodies ended up being left or buried. By 1935, the rabbits were canned and eaten. The people were already forced to pickle tumbleweed, so the rabbits would not go to waste.

Dust pneumonia affected those who breathed in the dust, as well as sinusitis, laryngitis and bronchitis. Dust pneumonia caused coughing, body aches, shortness of breath and nausea. “By the mid 1930s . . . [dust pneumonia] was one of the biggest killers.” The Red Cross distributed masks designed to filter out the dust, but the masks often turned black in under an hour. The dust, only 63 microns small (a period at the end of a sentence is 300 microns), got everywhere. One man cut open the stomach of a dead cow only to find its stomach so packed with dust that it blocked the passage of food.

In May 1934, the east coast got a taste of the dust bowl when a large dust storm blew across. The Statute of Liberty could hardly be seen, and it dusted the White House and covered ships out more than 200 miles from shore. “People in the cities wondered why the plains folks could not do something to hold their soil down. One man suggested laying asphalt over the prairie. Another idea was to ship junked cars to the southern plains where they would be used as weights to hold the ground in place.”

The pictures are of the Black Sunday dust storm of April 14th, 1935. The dust storm produced enough electricity to power New York. The Black Sunday dust storm destroyed “one-half the wheat crop in Kansas, one-quarter of it in Oklahoma, and all of it in Nebraska—5 million acres blown out.” Twice as much dirt as removed for the Panama canal was carried in the dust storm.

Source: The Worst Hard Time (information and quotes from p.304, 257, 234, 221, 175, 173, 153, 116). Source Source

ack!

2009-06-01T08:00:00.008-05:00

This 1963 patent gives detailed plans on "facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force."

Because "civilized women" are less active during their pregnancy than "primitive women," they often have more trouble with childbirth. In attempt to create "less stress to the mother," the mother is strapped into the device (above) and spun around to create centrifugal force to propel the baby out. The "infant reception net" is padded with cotton and the baby's weight may be designed to to "activate an electric bell, announcing the event." Source

Three forms of an anti-eating mask was patented in the 1980s. One patent suggests the use of the mask by housewives to prevent them from nibbling while cooking meals. Another patent laces elastic lines through two plastic strips adhered on the user's mouth. "In essence, my invention stimulates the idea of sewing the user's lips together, but it does so in a manner that permits speech plus limited food and liquid intake." The device, however, is claimed to be more of an emotional reminder than a physical deterrent. Source Source Source

This 1989 patent details the specifics of a smoker's hat. The hat covers the smoker's head and returns purified air to environment. Uses suggested for this hat include use on airplanes, transit systems, and for smokers whose job requires them to interact with the public. "Because of the evolving social changes in our society, there is a need for a device to put the smoker and the non-smoker on equal footing. The present invention fills that need." Source

Inventions

2008-11-16T17:07:00.011-06:00

Since 1977, Paris has banned skyscrapers, but architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have designed a triangular 50-story skyscraper. The shape, more like a shark fin, is designed for "optimum solar and wind power generation." The skyscraper, Le Project Triangle, will be a combination office-hotel. The big sell? Because of its design, it "won't cast shadows on surrounding streets." In Britain in 1832, if a window had sunlight for twenty years, according to planning regulations, it could legally demand to keep at least some of that light despite new buildings. Instead of a height-restriction on buildings, New York regulates the shape of building as to not block too much light. Source. Source.

Architect David Fisher has designed the first moving skyscraper for Dubai. There will be 80 floors, each a prefabricated apartment, that will be able to independently rotate 360 degrees at a vocal command. A rotation takes between one to three hours. The building will generate its own energy and feed extra energy into the grid with its "79 giant power-generating wind turbines located between each floor." The project will cost $700 million and be completed in 2010. The residences will cost anywhere from $3.7 million to $36 million. Another moving skyscraper is planned for Moscow. Source. Source.

Most foods are harvested then transported to stores, but Agata Jaworska believes that food should grow while being transported. Perishable items could grow during transportation and arrive at the store more fresh. Source.
The Touch Sight Camera is a camera for the blind. To take a picture, hold the camera to your forehead. On the back of the camera, the picture is displayed on a braille screen with a three dimensional representation of the image. Helpful audio is also included. Source.

Another post with an imaginative title

2008-10-27T08:00:00.001-05:00

In June 2008, a seventeen-pound black watermelon was auctioned in Japan for $6,100 making it the most expensive sold in Japan. Luxury melons are common Japanese gifts, and this melon was bought by a marine products dealer wishing to support local agriculture. Jumbo black watermelons, Densuke, are grown only on the northern island of Hokkaido and have a 9,000 annual harvest. Most of these watermelons are sold in stores and markets for $188 to $283. The previous month, two Yubari cantaloupes set another record, selling for $23,500.
Source. For more expensive food, see this older post.

At Sarah's Smash Shack in San Diego, customers can "throw, smash and destroy an array of breakable objects in two private rooms and release their energies and emotions without fear of reprisal." Customer can rent "break rooms" for up to four people. The rooms are wired for customer MP3 players and the VIP break room has a viewing area. The staff will frame one of your pictures for you to smash. For $45, you can smash 15 plates or smash three glass flowers for $10.
Source.

It turns out the 1977 song "Staying Alive" can help with CPR. The song's beats per minute follows the recommended chest compressions per minute. Fifteen doctors and medical students practiced CPR for five weeks along with the song. While most people perform chest compressions too slowly, these doctors and students were able to perform CPR at the correct rate when tested without music. Dr. David Matlock says,"The theme 'Stayin' Alive' is very appropriate for the situation. . . Everybody's heard it at some point in their life. People know the song and can keep it in their head."
Source

Artist Marco Evaristti is currently planning his next subversive art project. When Texan death row prisoner Gene Hathorn is executed, Evaristti will freeze-dry his body into flakes and encourage museum visitors to feed the flakes to goldfish. When asked if he thinks visitors will really feed the fish, Evaristti replied, "They won't be forced to do it, but if they don't, the fish will die."
For context, here are some of Evaristti's other works from an earlier post:

Marco Evaristti created an art diplay consisting of 10 blenders with live goldfish inside. The audience was invited to partisipate by turning a blender on. Says Meyer, "An artist has the right to create works which defy our concept of what is right and what is wrong."
Marco Evarisitti also served his friends up meatball cooked with his own liposuctioned fat. "You are not a cannibal if you eat art," he commented.
The same Marco Evarisitti also painted an iceburg in Greenland red. He said, " This is my iceberg; it belongs to me."

Source Source Source Source

Because odd artists seem to be a popular topic, here are some of my older posts. Art crack, licking, " free="" trade="">, 35 second play, this old post.

Here goes...

2008-10-20T09:52:00.017-05:00

(The next all-new post will be on October 27th.)

The Long Island funeral home chain, Moloney Family Funeral Homes, now offers the Tombstone Hearse. This is a custom hearse drawn by a Harley Davidson 2006 Road King Classic. A complete ride costs $795 compared to a traditional hearse's $475-$575. Says Michael Moloney: ""It's not morbid, it's cool. . . It's a way for people to always remember your funeral."
Source, source

Under Brazilian law, political candidates may run under a name of their choosing. This has allowed at least six Brazilian politicians to officially run under the name Barack Obama. Claudio Henrique dos Anjos, running for a mayoral position, has jumped in the polls from third to being tied for first.
>Source, >Source,

33-year-old Wisconsinite Wendy Brownis accused of felony identity theft. She is accused of "st[ealing] her 15-year-old daughter's identity" who lives in Nevada with her grandmother.

Wendy Brown attended one day of high-school classes, practiced with the cheerleading squad and attended a pool party at the coach's house. Staff described her as timid and said she cried when talking about moving from Pahrump Valley High School in Nevada (her daughter's school). A student, Hope Edlebeck, said, "She did look a little insignificantly older, but you didn't want to question it. . . You just go aw, alright, whatever."

"If convicted, she could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine." She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She also fases unrelated theft and forgery charges.

Source, Source, Source,

In October, 1999, Nicholas White, a thirty-four-year-old production manager at Business Week, was trapped in an elevator for forty-one hours. While working late, the elevator jammed on his way back to his office from a cigarette break. He only had three cigarettes and two Rolaids, no watch or cell phone. No one heard the emergency alarm he activated. While maintenance was performed on the other three elevators, he was not noticed on the security monitors so no one knew he was there.
Without a concept of time, Nicholas smoked his cigarettes, waved at the security cameras, yelled, pried open the doors and attempted to open the locked escape hatch.
"He paced and waved at the overhead camera. He couldn’t tell whether it was night or day. To pass the time, he opened his wallet and compared an old twenty-dollar bill with a new one, and read the fine print on the back of a pair of tickets to a Jets game on Sunday afternoon, which he would never get to use."
Thirsty and disconcerted, Nicholas lay motionless for hours in a fever dream, even experiencing aural hallucinations.
Finally, the security staff found Nicholas. Nicholas rode the elevator up to get his jacket, but insisted a guard ride with him. In the office, a coworker had taped a letter to his computer, angry at him for not returning. At home, reporters crowded his house so he mostly stayed in his apartment.
Nicholas did not return to work, was let go from his job and settled four years later for a "hardly six figures" number. As of April 08, he is unemployed.
Security-tape footage of his 41 hours are sped up and can be viewed here.

Source.

Agr!

2008-10-06T19:32:00.003-05:00

Arg! I am very very very sorry for neglecting to post recently. I have not fallen into a hole somewhere, I have just been really busy in a good way. This week is the busiest week I have had in a really long time. This post will be a re-posting of some posts from the first two months of this blog. I am sorry for this, but I promise to have an original post as soon as I have the time. Thank you for your patience.

Aya Tsukioka has started a Japanese clothing line aimed at those who fear crime. Featured above is a skirt which folds out to disguise the wearer as a vending machine. Also featured is a purse resembling a manhole cover and a backpack that can disguise a child as a fire-hydrant. Aya admits, " These ideas might strike foreigners as far-fetched, but in Japan, they can become reality.” She has already sold 20 skirts at $800 apiece.

To see a slideshow of these inventions: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/20/world/20071020_JAPAN_SLIDESHOW_index.html

To read an article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/world/asia/20japan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Here are some odd street names:

Bear Bottom Dr - central Pennsylvania
Cowshit Ln. - central Pennsylvania
Imalone Rd. - northern Wisconsin
Zzyzx Rd. - California (how do you pronounce that?)
Horne Street intersects with E Church Street. - As Hormazd N Sethna said,
"Telling someone you'll meet them at the, Horne-E Church Intersection is
disturbingly provocative."
Grinn Drive and Barret Road intersect in West Chester, Ohio
Clinton and Fidelity intersect in Huston, Texas
In Tennessee, the only road leading up to Constipation Ridge is Farfrompoopen Road.

For pictures, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4766448.stm.

The world's longest acronym was found in the USSR:

NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT

Meaning:
Laboratory for Shuttering, Reinforcement, Concrete and Ferroconcrete Operations for Composite-monolithic and Monolithic Constructions of the Department of Technology of Building Assembly Operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for Building Mechanization and Technical Aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the USSR.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/teachers/literacy_7_11/word/newsid_1651000/1651769.stm

Ken Edwards of London ate 36 cockroaches in one minutes. His comment: "It's like having an anesthetic at the back of the throat." http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/amazing_feats/unusual_skills/most_cockroaches_eaten.aspx
In Australia, there is an Annual Cockroach Racing Championship for Australia Day. Some participant comments: ""It's great, we've taken one of our national animals and made it into a mascot, after all they're as much a part of Australia as the koala or kangaroo and far more common." http://www.2camels.com/world-championship-cockroach-racing.php
Also in Australia, this time at the Lizard Racing track, there stands a plaque that reads: "Cunnamulla-Eulo Festival of Opals. 'Destructo', champion racing cockroach accidentally killed at this track (24.8.1980) after winning the challenge (sic) stakes against 'Wooden Head' champion racing lizard 1980. Unveiled 23.8.81" http://www.whereintheworld.co.uk/newsite/detail.php?recordID=107
Now for this facts: I could only find it on one website. While it is copied and pasted onto many other websites and blogs, I can't vouch for its accuracy. But even if it isn't accurate, it is amusing to think about: Rita Carlson of California raised a foot-long and almost 2-pound cockroach. Her take on it: ""Plenty of protein, and plenty of good, natural vitamins helped to make this roach into a champion. You should have seen it when I first found crawling around my kitchen." http://www.ijmc.com/archives/1998/July/26July1998.html
Cockroaches have 18 knees, can hold their breath for 40 minutes and go a month without food and a week without water. Also, the female German cockroach only has to mate once to lay eggs for the rest of her life. http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/roaches/pg000097.html : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach

There was no gravestone for "Steady" Ed Headrick when he died. Instead, as he wished, his ashes were molded into Frisbees and given to his family. Known for his sense of humor, he quipped, "We used to say that Frisbee is really a religion — ‘Frisbyterians,’ we’d call ourselves. When we die, we don’t go to purgatory. We just land up on the roof and lay there."

To read the full story, visit http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2002/August/13/local/stories/10local.htm

In 2001, Doctors performed surgery on a 40-year-old Ethiopian man and removed 750 grams (26.344 ounces) of nails, door keys, hair pins and watch batteries. The man had 222 metal objects in his stomach and one of the nails was 15 cm (5.9 inches) long. Dr. Samuel said, " He must have been eating these objects for at least two years, as the wall of his stomach had thickened to accommodate all the inedible objects." - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1402616.stm

Monsieur Mangetout has made a career out of eating metal objects and has no side-effects. For his performances, he drinks mineral water and then chows down 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of metal with periodic glasses of water. Perhaps he is best known for eating an entire airplane (Cessna 150-see picture above) which took him about 2 years to eat.

Ramon Barrero entertained others by playing on "the world's smallest harmonica." However, during a 1994 performance, he inhaled a D-minor, chocked to death and died.

When composer George Antheil's unique music inspired his audience in Budapest to riot, the next night he had all the doors locked and set a gun on the piano. That night he enjoyed a quiet performance, but with audiences often strongly disliking his new style of music, he began to carry a concealed gun for concerts. In his words, "I felt for the automatic under my arm and continued playing...but catastrophe and myself at concerts were old pals...Besides, I could always shoot my way out."

For more on Antheil and mp3s of his music, go to http://www.paristransatlantic.com/antheil/mainpage/home.html

What is 007's favorite drink? . . . Not a vodka martini. But that doesn't mean Bond doesn't like his alcohol. on the contrary, in the novels James Bond drinks once about every 7 pages and prefers whiskey, drinking 101 in all. For an in-depth survey go to http://007.atomicmartinis.com/nstats.htm.

Paris and Unicyles

2008-09-15T17:27:00.015-05:00

About a million Japanese tourists visit Paris every year. And of those million, about 12 Japanese tourists per year develop "Paris syndrome" and must return home. Some are returned home with a doctor or nurse.
Paris Syndrome is a psychiatric breakdown caused by the gap between a "deeply romantic" expectation of Paris and the reality encountered . The most common sufferers are women in their 30s.
BBC describers the trigger: "An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures. But for the Japanese - used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger - the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much."
Source, source.

If you are willing to pay for it, there are several companies that will provide you with private paparazzi.
Some companies offer the full treatment, filled with paparazzi, stretch limos, "adoring fans," and bodyguards. Some companies even offer fake gossip magazines with their client's picture on the cover.
If the company approach is not for you, you can imitate Phillip Barker who hired a paparazzo over Craig's list for his 29th bar-hop birthday. His paparazzo fooled people into thinking he was an important person, and he was bumped to to the front of several club lines.
The events the paparazzi are hired for vary. From bar crawls to weddings. From corporate events to bachelor parties. Stran Vez hired paparazzi to surprise his finance Paige Hill. The paparazzi ambushed them as they left a theater, taking pictures and asking questions. Tania Cowher, one of the paparazzi said, "A couple of times, Paige tried to run away. . . so we ran along with her."
King of Clubs founder, John Theiss, offers the same experience to his VIPs. His most extensive package is $24,000 and includes a "publicist or a crazed fan who w[ill] ask for an autograph during dinner." Theiss says, "The ruse is really on the general public that’s watching all this thing."
Source, Source,
To raise money for Nepal, Steve Colligan will unicycle 1000km (620 miles) across the Roof of the World. To accomplish this feat, Steve will have to deal with an average elevation of 4000 meters (2.49 miles), and temperatures of -15 degrees centigrade (5 degrees Fahrenheit). He will be camping. His journey will take him up to the Mount Everest base camp and down the longest downhill slope (4,500 meters/ 2.8 miles. Colligan describes the slope as "great if you're a mountain biker, who can free-wheel, but us unicyclists have to keep pedaling the whole way to stop from falling off."
His Blog where you can follow his progress
Source, Source, Source
49-year-old Ramchandra Katuwal of Nepal has found hapiness in his 25th marriage to Sharada. They have been married 7 years. First married at age 26, Ramchandra's first wife ran away with her lover, a trend continued by many of his following wives. He also cites his struggle with poverty as a contributing factor. Over the next 16 years, Ramchandra only fully remembers 9 of his wives' names. Even though he resolved to never marry again after wife 24 left, he married Sharada. Why? ""I wanted to have a wife, because a house is not house without a wife."
Source.
This story reminds me of an earlier story I did on Kamarudin Mohammed which I will include.
72 year old Kamarudin Mohammed is a Muslim from Malaysia who has been married 53 times. His shortest marriage lasted 2 days and all but one ended in divorce. His most recent wife is also his first wife. Says Kamarudin: "I am not a playboy. I just love seeing beautiful women."
Source.
In Sharia law (Muslim law), a talak means for the husband 'to untie the matrimonial knot by articulating a word denoting divorce.' If a husband utters the word on his wife, the two of them would automatically be divorced and the wife would be in a state of iddah. If, during iddah, the parties wish to reconcile, the divorce may be revoked without their having to go through the process of nikah." (For detailed info from a Muslim court go here.)
Some men have tried to pronounce talak on their wives through text messages, causing the issue to reach courts.
Singapore rejected text message divorces. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates upheld them. Malaysia fines men who use text messages, but upholds their legality.
Egyptian courts are debating the issue.
According to CAMPAS (Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics), In Egypt, a divorce is filed every 6 minutes and 1/3 of marriages break up in the first year.
Source. Source. Source. Source. Source. Source. Source. Source.

No Theme

2008-08-30T15:21:00.008-05:00

Handcuffed and shackled, and fighting against strong winds, Jack LaLanne swam 1.5 miles, towing 70 boats with 70 people on it. . . he was 70 years old. LaLanne, called the Godfather of fitness, gave up white flour and white sugar at 15 and has been devoted to healthy living ever since. Among other things, he is responsible for the first"nationally syndicated exercise show on television." A firm believer in healthy living, he avoids steroids, takes a myriad of daily vitamins and even avoids aspirin. LaLanne will be 94 in September.
Source. Source. Source.

In Detroit, this house was foreclosed and sold for $1. It was on the market for 19 days. Once selling for $65,000, the house had be extensively vandalized, had attracted squatters and had racked up $4,000 in back taxes. The house's bank owner payed "$2,500 in sales commission and another $1,000 bonus for closing the $1 sale [and payed] $500 of the buyer's closing costs. . . The agent did say that the buyer agreed to pay the full list price of $1"
Source.

Following Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of the x-ray, one London company began selling x-ray proof underwear (probably lead-lined).
Source.

Tremayne Durham agreed to plead guilty to murder after Oregon prosecutors took the death penalty off the table, and agreed to his demand to have two special meals. He will immediately receive a meal of "KFC chicken, Popeye's chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, carrot cake and ice cream. " On his sentencing date (also his wedding-date), he will receive a meal of "calzones, lasagna, pizza and ice cream." "Prosecutors said they hated appearing to cater to the whims of a murderer, but eying the expense of a long trial and lengthy appeals, as well as the turmoil for the victim's family, they agreed."
PETA sent a letter protesting the conditions and demanding that Durham only be served vegetarian meals while incarcerated. The final paragraph of the letter reads, "Feeding prisoners corn chowder rather than chicken will go a long way toward ending the cycle of violence. You can help prevent Durham from contributing to any more suffering and death by mandating that he be placed on a healthy, humane vegetarian diet." The letter can be read here.
Source. Source.

For your viewing

2008-08-21T08:47:00.000-05:00

Here are some visual illusions. I included some favorites from old posts. You will probably have to click on many of these pictures to get an enlarged view to see the illusion. I set it so the pictures will pop up in a new tab or window (depending on your browser.)

These two tables ave the same dimensions:
In the image on the left, squares A and B are the same shade of gray. The image on the right proves it.
These lines are all horizontal.

This triangle is impossible.Try to follow the stairs up.
Move your head from side to side, and the inside of the circle seems to move.
Move your eyes around.
Can you spot the word in the face?
Think about it.
You have to click on this picture to enlarge it. This is a static picture, but as you can see it seems to move. If you really want to give yourself a headache, set it as your computer background like I did.
All these lines are vertical and horizontal:
You will recognize these two from a recent post.

Read the directions:
Count the legs:

For an older post of some cool sites to explore with spirals and moving optical illusions, go here.
Here is a spiral you can stare at. The next thing you look at will appear to be swirling.
Source.

For Your listening

2008-08-12T15:47:00.000-05:00

In 1625, all of the sopranos in the Sistine Chapel choir were castrati who had been castrated as young boys to achieve a unique singing voice. Castrated before puberty, they would retain their boy soprano voice but sing with the strength and breath capacity of a man. Part of their necessity was the fact that at that time, women could not sing in church choirs, but the men were said to be extremely popular and have the "voice of angels". "During the 17th and 18th centuries in Italy, some 4,000 - 5,000 boys were castrated annually for the purpose of singing alto in the church choirs." By 1640, castrati were used in choirs throughout Italy. The practice was officially banned by Pius X in 1903.
The only audio recordings of a castrati is of Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922). Critics say Moreschi was past his singing prime wen he made this recording. Because the style of music has changed so much, keep this in mind: "Many of the seemingly imperfect vocal attacks, for example, are in fact, launched from as much as a tenth below the note - in Moreschi's case, this seems to have been a long-standing means of drawing on the particular acoustics of the Sistine Chapel itself."
Here Morschi sings Ave Maria.
Here he sings Domine Salvum Fac.
Source. Source.
Georgia Brown is a Brazilian singer who holds the Guinness World Record for singing the highest recorded note. Her vocal range spans 8 octaves. A word of warning on the audio link. It is, how to put it, all very very high notes. Here. is her song. For a smaller dose of high notes, here is a video where she only sings high at the end.

In 1877, Thomas Edison recorded the first sounds for play back. He recited Mary Had A Little Lamb. Here is the recording which is very clear. Up until recently, Edison was thought to have made the first recording, but an 1860 recording of "Au Clair de la Lune" by French inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville has been found. Scott recorded by "etch[ing] representations of sound waves into paper covered in soot from a burning oil lamp." The distinction is that Scott's recordings were not designed to be played back. Here is the recording. Source.

Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944) was famous for being a terrible singer. Despite this, or because of this, she managed immense popularity and was able to draw 5,000 people to a 3,000 ticket Carnegie Concert performance. It is agreed that Jenkins was sincere in her belief in her singing, dismissing laugher as "professional jealousy." Her balls and recitals each had a theme. Between every song, Jenkins would change costumes. Both Enrico Caruso and Cole Porter were admirers. Cole Porter never missed her concerts. "He apparently screamed with laughter all the way through . . . but at the end he was the first one to stand up and scream and shout 'bravo'." While making this recording here, she allegedly only snag the song one time. She told the sound engineer it was perfect so no second try was necessary.
Source. Source. Source.

For more audio, you can visit here, and also here for such recordings as: Einstein explaining E=mc^2, Ted Bundy confessing, King Edward VIII abdicating and Neville Chamberlain's declaration of war.

By the way, I am currently on vaccation. I scheduled this to post automatically. (creepy music) Hope it works correctly.

Lots of twins and a little Cousins

2008-08-03T14:50:00.007-05:00

This year, it was discovered that two British twins unknowingly married each other. Each twin was adopted into a separate family and were never told they had a twin. After the discovery, their marriage was annulled. Their names and the length of the marriage is being withheld. Source.
In the United States, marriage between cousins is illegal in 24 states. Seven states permit marriage between cousins only under specific circumstances. In Utah, cousins may marry once they are both over 65, or both over 55 and sterile. A selected list of famous people who married their first cousins: Jesse James, H.G. Wells, Charles Darwin, Edgar Allen Poe and Jerry Lee Lewis. Source. Source.
Kylie Hodgson and Remi Horder both have white mothers and black fathers. As can be seen in the picture above, their twins were born with different skin colors. "According to the Multiple Births Foundation, baby Kian must have inherited the black genes from both sides of the family, whilst Remee inherited the white ones." While this is not an isolated case, it remains rare with odds of a million to one. Source.
If two pairs of identical twins married and had children, all of their children would be genetic siblings. Source.
In 2002, seventy-seven-year-old Finnish twin brothers both died within an hour on the same road. The first twin was riding his bike and was hit by a truck and killed. Two hours later, his twin brother was also killed by a truck while riding his bike. They died within .93 miles (1.5 km) of one another. Police officer Marja-Leena Huhtala said, "It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps someone from upstairs ad a say in this."Source.
"When Barbara and Daphne, also identical twins, were reunited at the age of 39, each arrived wearing a beige dress and a brown velvet jacket." Source.
James Springer and James Lewis were identical twins who were separated at birth. When reunited, they shared some similarities. Each had married and divorsed a Linda, then married a Betty. Both named their childhood dogs Troy. And one had named his firstborn son James Alan while the other had named his James Allen. Source

By the way, I am going on vaccation, but have scheduled really good posts for the 12th and the 20th. I will have a computer where I am going, but will probably be too busy having fun. Thank you for reading.

A very selfish post

2008-07-29T17:35:00.003-05:00

All right! All right! I admit it! This is a very very selfish post. This blog has never been about me, but . . . I have finally succumbed to the evil empire of Youtube and have made my first (and most likely last) Youtube video. If you ===>CLICK HERE <===then you can finally be assured that this blog is not written by a seven foot tall bald vampire who has a minor stutter and an major nose hair problem. I would also really appreciate it. Be sure to comment here and there. Thank you.

To keep this post from becoming entirely narcissistic, here is a somewhat short list of things not related to me.

In the UK, the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) is typically taken around age 16. One GCSE is taken per subject. In response to the English question, "Describe the room you’re sitting in," one student wrote, "f- off." Chief Examiner Peter Buckroyd decided to stick to the scoring guidelines and awarded the student 2 marks out of a possible 27. He commented: "It would be wicked to give it zero, because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for – like conveying some meaning and some spelling. . . . If it had had an exclamation mark it would have got a little bit more because it would have been showing a little bit of skill.” Source.
Japan now has three singing roads. Built by the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute and designed by Shizuo Shinoda, grooves are cut into the road at specific intervals which produce melodies when vehicles drive over them. "It works like the head of a record player on a vinyl album." Here is an English video explaining the roads, and here is a Japanese video with clips of the roads. The recommended speed is 28 mph (aprx. 45kph). One Japanese blogger advised, "Driving too fast will sound like playing fast forward, while driving around 12mph has a slow-motion effect, making you almost car sick." Source.
Here are two visual illusions to puzzle over: In the first illusion, both A and B are the same size. In the second illusion, are the two outer prongs rectangles or cylinders?

What's in a name?

2008-07-24T12:23:00.006-05:00

In New Zealand, a judge declared a girl a ward of the court in order to let her change her name. Her given name was "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii." The judge listed examples of other odd names that had been blocked by the court, including: "Yeah Detroit; Stallion; Twisty Poi; Keenan Got Lucy; Sex Fruit; Fat Boy; Cinderella Beauty Blossom; Fish and Chips." Source.
A 30-year-old member of the Ohio U.S. National Guard, changed his name to Optimus Prime. Source.
Forty-three-year-old Andrew Wilson of Branson, Missouri legally changed his name to "They." He now has no surname. He explained: "They do this,' or 'They're to blame for that.' Who is this 'they' everyone talks about? 'They' accomplish such great things. Somebody had to take responsibility." Source.
Christopher Garnett of PETA changed his name to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com in an attempt to draw attention to his protest against KFC's treatment of chickens. When PETA's campaign was over in 2006, he changed his name back. Source.
Given his name by a political father, States Rights Gist became a Confederate general. Source.
Robert Craft changed his name to Jack Ass. Bob's brother, Andy, died in an automobile accident, and Bob created a cartoon character named Andi Ass in his memory. Robert also helped found Hearts Across America to place hearts on the roadside where loved ones have died. Robert changed his name in 1997 to Jack Ass in "an effort to raise the awareness of others." He attempted to sue Viacom (MTV's parent company) for up to 10 million dollars for having their show Jackass give "injury to a reputation I have built and defamation of character I have created." The suit was dismissed. He later used a hunting rifle to commit suicide. Source. Source.
David Fearn from Walsall, England changed his name to "James Dr No From Russia with Love Goldfinger Thunderball You Only Live Twice On Her Majesty's Secret Service Diamonds Are Forever Live and Let Die The Man with the Golden Gun The Spy Who Loved Me Moonraker For Your Eyes Only Octopussy A View to a Kill The Living Daylights Licence to Kill Golden Eye Tomorrow Never Dies The World Is Not Enough Die Another Day Casino Royale Bond." Source.
Terri Iligan auctioned the right for the buyer to rename her. Casino Golden Palace payed $15,199 to change her name to GoldenPalace.com. She said she got the idea when her kids asked to attend a costly summer golf camp. Source.
Bill Holland, a painting contractor of San Francisco, changed his name for his business. Instead of handing out business cards, he changed his name to Zacary Zzzra and told his customers to look for him in the very back of the phone book. To stay the last name in the phone book, he has since had to change his name to Zachary Zzzzzzzzzra. While it has been good for business, he receives prank pone calls from places as far away as Australia and regularly has $400 plus phone bills from pranksters charging phone booth phone calls to him. He doesn't pay for any of the prank calls, however. Source.
"Autumn, Sullivan, Corbett, Fitzsimmons, Jeffries, Hart, Burns, Johnson, Willard, Dempsey, Tunney, Schmeling, Sharkey, Carnera, Baer, Braddock, Louis, Charles, Walcott, Marciano, Patterson, Johansson, Liston, Clay, Frazier, Foreman, Brown" was named after 25 boxing champions. Her mother, Maria, named her baby this to keep up her boxing-obsessed grandparents' family tradition of long names. Maria has a long name herself, but is proud of it. She wryly comments: "“When I was young I couldn’t ever remember my name. It took me to the age of 10 to memorise it all." Source.

"Dads", balloons, clues and bombs

2008-07-16T10:46:00.011-05:00

33 year old Daniel Everett (above) was arrested while trying to meet a 14 year old girl (really an undercover agent) with whom he had been having sexually explicit chats on line under the screen name "danmichelle2004." The irony? At the attempted meeting he was wearing the above "World's Greatest Dad" t-shirt. Source. Source.

28 year old Lefkos Hajji of London wanted to propose to his girlfriend Leanne in a memorable way. He hid a $12,000 ring inside an helium balloon, planning to give Leanne a pin to pop the balloon when he "popped the question." Unfortunately, after leaving the store, wind tore the balloon out of his hands and he spent the next two hours chasing the balloon in his car. He was unable to get the ring back. After he told his girlfriend, she refused to speak to him until he had bought her a new ring. Source.

On a more positive note for unusual marriage proposals, Aric Egmont successfully proposed to Jennie Bass through a Boston Globe Sunday crossword. Because both Aric and Jennie were big crossword puzzle enthusiasts, Aric convinced the Boston Globe to design and publish a special puzzle. The clue for number 111 across was, "Generic Proposal." (Jen+Aric=Generic). Aric remembers, "“We get to the ‘Will you marry me?’ clue, and I said, ‘Will you marry me, Jenny?’ I got up, got the ring, and got down on one knee and she screamed, and hugged me. It took her a minute to say yes.” Source.

In December 2003, the Oliveras family was fed up with a cockroach and rat infestation. In an attempt to solve the problem, they set up 19 "bug bombs" inside their 470-square-foot rental house. As the family walked to their car, a pilot light on a wall heater set off the bug bombs, exploding the house and causing $150,000 worth of damages. One bug bomb is more than enough for a 500-square-foot house. In 2001 an apartment was blown up by 18 bug bombs. As the newspaper noted, however, "several cockroaches survived the blast." Source.

ancient history

2008-07-07T19:53:00.021-05:00

Everyone recognizes the classical white marble statutes of the Greeks and Romans, but most of these statutes were painted. Specialists were able to determine this fact due to trace amounts of paint they found on the statutes and and references to painted statutes in ancient literature and history.
Here are some examples of how we are used to seeing the statutes and how the statutes probably originally appeared.

To see more comparisons, go here.
Source. Source. Source.

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Peterhof, officially began in 1710 by Tsar Peter the Great, boasts a 256 acre territory. It also contains 64 fountains which use 8,189 gallons of water per second. The fountains are operated entirely without the aid of machinery and rely solely on gravity.

The joke fountains are particularly interesting. One fountain, called "A bench," appears like a regular bench but soaks those who sit on it. Another, called "Oak let fountain," contains 500 hollow branches and is surrounded by tulips. It also soaks unsuspecting guests.

To see a satellite image of Peterhof, click here.
Source. Source. Source.

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Charles Seymour (1662-1748) earned the nickname of "The Proud Duke." He did not allow his children to sit in his presence. He refused to talk to his servants, but used sign language instead. When he traveled, Seymour had the roads cleared. He also had a number of houses built between his town and country house so he did not ave to stay at public inns.

Source. Source. Source (page 28).

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Prussian King Frederick William I (1688-1740) was obsessed with his Potsdam Giant Guards. Height was the only criterion for admission, and most of the men were over 7 feet tall.
Frederick was ruthless in his recruitment tactics using bribery, political influence, rewards, force and kidnapping. Every year, a few hundred new recruits were found. At one point, there were 2,000 men in the Guards.
One tall priest was kidnapped in the middle of his sermon. An Austrian diplomat was kidnapped but able to escape. Kirkman from Ireland was kidnapped off the streets at a cost of a thousand pounds.
Frederick also started a genetic engineering program, marrying tall men and tall women together.
When foreign courts caught the hint, tall men became diplomatic tools and gifts to Frederick. Peter the Great, who also admired giants, send Frederick hundreds of Russians all over 6 foot four.
Because height was the only requirement, the men were sometimes mentally retarded. The only case of a man being allowed to leave freely is a Swedish man sent as a gift from Augustus the Strong of Saxony. Despite frequent beatings, the man could not be drilled and was released to die a beggar in Berlin.
Because of the horrible living conditions, many of the men mutinied. About 250 were able to dessert each year, but if they were caught, their ears and nose would be cut off.
The men never fought in battle, but were kept for the amusement of Frederick who would often have them parade and drill for him.
Frederick was 5 foot five inches himself.
After his death, the Guards were disbanded.

Source. Source. Source. Source (p.168).

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Thank you once again to I Beati for this award. Am I allowed to give this award to all my readers? I hope so, because that is what I am going to do. My reasoning? My blog is so fabulous that those who read it regularly must be fabulous too. But seriously, thank you for reading my blog. I love researching and writing it, and having readers makes it even better.

Synesthesia

2008-06-27T10:43:00.007-05:00

Synesthesia comes from the Greek words syn and aesthesis, literally meaning together-perception. As commonly defined, people with synesthesia have mixed senses where one sense unconsciously triggers another. Some people can taste colors and feel words. However, the most important thing to remember is that everyone with synesthesia experiences it differently. No two people with synesthesia experience the same thing, even if they have the same form of synesthesia.
The most common form of synesthesia is associating letters and/or numbers with colors. For people without this, letters and numbers in black ink are just plain black. But for people with synesthesia, black letters and numbers are full of color. Patt Duffy explains learning to write: “I realized that to make an R all I had to do was first write a P and then draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line." But other people with synesthesia will disagree with Patt’s colors because the associated colors are different for every person. When Valdimir Nabokov, a famous Russian novelist, was a toddler, the colored letters on his wooden blocks irritated him because they were the wrong colors. For him, “there is steely x, thundercloud z, and huckleberry k. . . . And today I have at last perfectly matched v with “Rose Quartz’ in Maerz and Puls’ Dictionary of Color.” Researchers often have people with synesthesia choose from hundreds of paint tiles to make a list of how they see the alphabet, but letters can change and be shaded differently depending on what letters surround them.
While certain drugs can trigger an experience like synesthesia, synesthesia is not caused by drugs. Brain imaging has shown that synesthesia is involuntary and cannot be reproduced by a person without synesthesia. Synesthesia also stays mainly consistent over time, and is thus hard to fake. Even though synesthesia is a real phenomenon, many people stay quiet as to not be perceived as weird or on drugs. In my experience, most of the people I have met with synesthesia (fairly mild forms) do not realize that it is unusual or do not realize that there is a name for what they have.
Another form of synesthesia is linking color and music. This led to disagreements between Liszt and Rachmaninov over what was the correct color for the key they were composing in. Liszt would say to the orchestra, “O please, gentlemen, a little bluer, if you please!” Duke Ellington, who is also recognized as having synesthesia, had his own thoughts on the subject: “If Harry Carney is playing, D is dark blue burlap. If Johnny Hodges is playing, G becomes light blue satin."
Synesthesia can also involve taste, such as James Wannerton and his dislike for the earwax tasting name “Derek.” One man with synesthesia tastes broccoli every time he hears his girlfriend's name. He doesn’t like broccoli. Richard “tastes like a chocolate bar-warm and melting on my tongue.” Spelling can also effect a word’s taste. For one woman, “‘Lori’ tastes like a pencil eraser, but ‘Laurie’ tastes lemony.”
For Michael, the senses are mixed a bit differently. He feels shapes on his face and hands in response to flavors and does not like to serve chicken that tastes round instead of pointy. Carol feels guitar music on her ankles, violins on her face and trumpets on the back of her neck. And MW can feel the word mint on his hand as a “cool glass column.”
Scientists do not know what causes synesthesia. Some theories are that synesthesia is a result of brain "cross talk," a genetic neural connection overabundance or "a reduced amount of inhibition along feedback pathways.” The most fascinating theory is that every one is born with synesthesia, but the brain grows out of it.
Synesthesia has its own share of mysteries. Synesthesia tends to run in families, but in some pairs of identical twins, only one has synesthesia. A small amount of people have lost their synesthesia at puberty. Roman numerals have no color to people with number-color synesthesia. There was also a colorblind man with synesthesia who could only see color when he looked at numbers.
Some of my favorite random synesthesia anecdotes: Getting nauseous from the sound of wind chimes. Not being able to eat ice-cream because the vendor’s words sounded like black cinders. Seeing 7 as a man with a mustache. Hearing “oh”’s and “ah”’s from a painting. Every word having a different physical movement, easily demonstrated by a body-pose. Tasting blueberries when seeing a skyline. Feeling acupuncture as layers of colors. Seeing December as a red area to one's left. Feeling a song as a square.

This is a bit of an unusual post because I haven't posted a source for every fact like I usually do. (I adapted this post from my research paper on this topic.) While these are not all of my sources, here are a few to prove I'm not fabricating information. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them. Source. Source. Source. Source.

Oh. And thank you to I Beati for this award. I will pass it on as soon as I am done hoarding it.

Thank you all

2008-06-20T09:02:00.007-05:00

I know it has been awhile, but thank you all for being patient with me. I have now biked 500 miles and have legs with bruises, blisters and sunburns to prove it. I just wish I had legs of steel.

A 5.9 foot (1.8 meter) black-headed python was found inside a 10th floor toilet in a Darwin, Australia apartment. The animal was most likely a runaway pet. Reptile catcher Chris Peberdy said, "When I saw it I was pretty shocked. . . . There is no possible other way it could have got there than through the toilet. I had to give him a wash because he was wet and a bit smelly." Source
Raymundo Flores, a chef at the Brooklyn restaurant Junior's Restaurant was arrested for stealing lobster tails. He was hiding the tails in his pants and wrapped to his legs with bandages. Source
Seven young artist from Berlin are living in the Museum of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv with lice in their hair. They are wearing plastic shower caps to prevent spreading the lice to others. Twenty-three year old artist Vincent Grunwald describes it this way: "The idea is that we live in the museum as their guests, and at the same time we are hosting lice on our heads." Some criticize the exhibit and claim it is referencing the Holocaust, but the artists deny this. Source.
Federal Judge Eduardo Robreno fined HTFC CEO Aaron Wider and his lawyer Joseph R. Ziccardi $29,000 for inappropriate court behavior. Wider used 73 variations of the "F word" in 12 hours. When asked to open a specific file so questions could be asked about it, Wider responded, "I'm taking a break. F-k him. You open up the document. You want me to look at something, you get the document out. Earn your f-ing money, a-hole. Isn't the law wonderful?" Source
Familiar with Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird? Here are some excerpts from his list on things that used to be weird, but are now too common for him to publish in his column: " an old, widely-advertised phone-sex number is reassigned to a church/charity . . .political candidate dies but still wins the election . . .family thinks he's dead, but he's not and attends his own funeral . . .shoots himself while supposedly demonstrating gun safety . . . gasoline thieves check quantity in tank by using a match or lighter to peer inside . . . local election ends in tie, settled (by law) by coin flip or draw of cards . . .bank robber hails taxi or municipal bus for getaway . . . criminal on the lam goes on national tv talk show and mentions that he's wanted . . .unlabeled urn with loved one's ashes mistakenly stolen or sold at yard sale . . .judges punish young people by forcing them to listen to [classical or polka or etc.] music . . .elderly citizen trying to convince bureaucrat that, contrary to records, he's not really dead . . .elderly motorist makes wrong turn, gets lost for days." Source

Sorry

2008-06-08T22:44:00.006-05:00

My apologies to my readers. I have just got back from bicycling 285 miles and am leaving to bike 208 more. Or to put it another way, this will be the only post of the week. Thanks for sticking with me.

Some interesting and actual US Patents:
1.

Patent number: 6049912
Filing date: Dec 28, 1998
Issue date: Apr 18, 2000

This is a "tiara-like headband for use at parties" with phrases on thought and speech balloons.

Patent number: 3552388
Filing date: Nov 7, 1968
Issue date: Jan 1971

Here is a machine that will pat "a baby to sleep by means of periodic pats upon the rump or hind part of the baby."

3.Patent number: 5823572

Filing date: Oct 8, 1996
Issue date: Oct 20, 1998

This memo pad is designed to be used as a self-defense weapon. It has "a plurality of pages. . . . a plurality of edges and an indentation in at last one of the edges adapted to accept at least part of at least one finger or the victim's hand."

Patent number: 4834212
Filing date: Mar 30, 1987
Issue date: May 30, 1989

"There is a need in our complex society for a device which can be placed over the mouth and into which a person may yell or scream but which muffles the sound so others are not disturbed." It even measures the intensity of the user's sound.

Patent number: 4764111
Filing date: Nov 21, 1985
Issue date: Aug 16, 1988

"In other words, in order to turn off the beeper inside his mouth, the patient must wear the headgear. The beeping sound inside the patient's mouth is intended to be sufficiently irritating and, perhaps, embarrassing, to cause the patient to prefer wearing the headgear over hearing a beeper inside his mouth."

Patent number: 1466559
Filing date: Mar 29, 1921
Issue date: Aug 1923

"[B]y movements of the head, the device will receive a series of short jerks or impulses which will be transmitted to the teeth in order to produce a strain thereon, which strain serves to give the several organs of the mouth and head a proper exercise to maintain the necessary circulation therein."

Patent number: 5901666
Filing date: Aug 25, 1997
Issue date: May 11, 1999

"A vest or belt is integrally formed with tubular, pet receiving passageways which extend around the wearer's body and terminate in pocket-like chambers for feeding and retrieval."

8.Patent number: 3234948

Filing date: May 12, 1964
Issue date: May 1964

This cigarette uses a cheese-filter with or without acid-washed charcoal. Preferable cheeses are Parmesan, Romano, and Swiss.

Patent number: 883611
Filing date: Dec 16, 1907
Issue date: Mar 1908

When a rat is caught in this device, a collar with a bell is put on it and the rat is released. "The 'bell-rat' as it may be termed, then in seeking its burrow or colony announces his coming by the sounds emitted by the bells, thereby frightening the other rats an causing them to flee, thus practically exterminating them in a sure and economical manner. It may be added that the spring-band or collar is not liable to become accidentally lost or slip from the rat's neck because the adjacent hairs soon become interwoven with the convolutions of the spring to more firmly hold it in place"

Inspiration: Source. Source.

Herring, Einstein, Clinton, Poets and Numbers

2008-06-03T08:00:00.008-05:00

Herrings break wind to communicate and help form nightly protective shoals. Ben Wilson, a marine biologist says, "We know [herring] have excellent hearing but little about what they actually use it for. . . . It turns out that herring make unusual farting sounds at night." The fish gulp air from the surface which they store in their swim bladders. The herring expel the air from an opening next to their anus and produce a high-pitched raspberry sound. Source.
Yoda's appearance is based on Albert Einstein. Source.
In his time as president, Bill Clinton only sent two e-mails. One was an e-mail to astronaut John Glenn aboard the space shuttle. The other was not really an e-mail, but a test to see if Clinton "knew how to push the button on an e-mail." His staff sent 39,999,998 e-mails. Source.
Dr Kaufman,an assistant professor of psychology at California State University, researched 1,987 deaths of writers. He found that, "[o]n average, poets lived 62 years, playwrights 63 years, novelists 66 years, and non-fiction writers lived 68 years. . . . [But} poets produce twice as much of their lifetime output in their 20s as novelists do." Source.
The Piraha of the Amazon only have tree words for numbers: one, two and many. Peter Gordon, the psychologist at Columbia University in New York City, tried the following experiment. ""Gordon . . . sat opposite an individual and laid out a random number of familiar objects, including batteries, sticks and nuts, in a row. The Pirahã were supposed to respond by laying out the same number of objects from their own pile.For one, two and three objects, members of the tribe consistently matched Gordon’s pile correctly. But for four and five and up to ten, they could only match it approximately, deviating more from the correct number as the row got longer. The Pirahã also failed to remember whether a box they had been shown seconds ago had four or five fish drawn on the top. When Gordon’s colleagues tapped on the floor three times, the Pirahã were able to imitate this precisely, but failed to mimic strings of four or five taps." Source.

Art of 2007

2008-05-30T08:00:00.005-05:00

At the Tate Modern in London, the Shibboleth 2007 ran from October 2007 to April 2008. It was a 548 feet long crack on the floor which addresses "a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world." Source.
It begins as a crack, but deepens and snakes across the floor of the Turbine Hall. At some points, it is four feet across. In the first four weeks of the exhibit, 15 people were injured.
One incident: "We saw the first poor victim, a young woman who went into it with both feet up to just below her knees. She had to be dragged out by her friends. . . .Unbelievably, as we watched to see whether she was OK, an older woman deliberately stepped on it (she later told us, amazingly, that she thought the crack was painted on the floor) lurched forward and landed on the ground. She had a sore wrist to show for it." Source.
Here is a video of people looking at the exhibit and here is a video of the exhibit from beginning to end.
In 2006, the Tate Modern exhibited five corkscrew slides. The biggest slide was 182 feet long with a drop of 88.5 feet. Four legal claims followed.
Also in 2007, Urs Fischer spent ten days and $250,000 to build a 38 by 30 foot and eight feet deep crater in the Gavin Brown Enterprise Gallery. The crater is surrounded by a fourteen-inch ledge. A sign warns, "THE INSTALLATION IS PHYSICALLY DANGEROUS AND INHERENTLY INVOLVES THE RISK OF SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH." The crater is titled You. Source.

A bit of everything

2008-05-27T16:34:00.011-05:00

In Barboursville, West Virginia, when 12-year-old Megan Templeton picked up a seedless watermelon in a bin at Walmart, she was stung by an inch-long scorpion. She is fine. Source.

14-year-old Sam Hawthorne slept walked into the teeth of a dead, souvenir shark on his bedroom wall. The shark teeth embedded themselves into Sam's cheek for 15 minutes, but he survived with only a small scar.
My favorite part is the highly misleading article title: "Shark Attacks Boy in his Bedroom!" and the sentences: " The teenager survived a terrifying ordeal when he was bitten in the face by one of the killer beasts – in his own bedroom. . . . Jaws struck in the middle of the night at the family home." Source
As of posting this, the home-video of a laughing Swedish baby has over 50 million views on Youtube. The video can be seen here.
Michael Agger sorted through 57,840 comments on the video, dividing them into the following categories: armchair pediatricians, drugs, actual analysis, good wisecracks, the horror, sounds like, predictions, sell-out advice, look-at-me, mean, religious and insane.
Michael condenses all 57,840 comments into: "cute, cute, cute, evil, spam, I think the baby is ugly, How can you think that!, cute, cute, I want to have a baby, cute, baby is high, look at my videos, cute, just like my kid, cute, LOL, cute, cute, etc., etc." Source.
P.S. I will be on vacation this week, but I have programed a post for the 30th and the 3rd.

Unrelated topics

2008-05-23T11:09:00.011-05:00

Lali was born in Saini Sunpura, India March 11, 2008 with a condition known as craniofacial duplication. This means she has one head but two faces. While her condition often brings serious health complications, doctors say she is doing well. (The most recent article I could find was from April 9th.)
Viewed as a reincarnation of the Hindu goddess Durga, "[u]p to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings."
Daulat Ram, the village chief, plans to get governmental money for a temple dedicated to Durga and to assist Lali's family financially.
Lali's father, Vinod Singh says, "At first I was a little bit afraid, but then I accepted whatever God gives. . . . My daughter is fine - like any other child."
To see a video which includes Lali, her parents and villagers, click here.
Source

Mark McGowan is a UK performance artist. Here are some of his works:

For two weeks, Mark stuck two chips up his nose, strapped 48 sausage to his head and sat in a bath of baked beans in defense of the British breakfast.
He ate approximately three bites of corgi (the dog breed favored by Queen Elizabeth II) to protest a fox hunt of Prince Phillip.
He crawled through New York on his hands and knees wearing a George Bush mask and a sign on his rear reading, "Kiss my ass."
He reenacted the Abu Ghraib human pyramid with six teenage girls.
Dressed as a British soldier, he lay curled up in the Birmingham City Center for one week.
He randomly keyed cars in Glasgow and South East London. 47 cars were keyed in total. Mark said, "I do feel guilty about keying people's cars[. B]ut if I don't do it, someone else will . . . They should feel glad that they've been involved in the creative process."
To draw attention to the "obesity pandemic," Mark put a 27 pound turkey on his head, walked backwards for eleven miles. Along the way he shouted at obese people.
In July 2005, Mark attempted to leave a tap of cold water running for one year, using 15 million liters of water (aprx. 3,299,539 gallons). Through this he hoped to comment on water waste. Following threats of legal action on the part of Tames Water, the tap was shut off on July 29th.
From a 2007 interview: "A common misperception of me is that I'm an idiot. Within the art world they definitely think I'm an idiot. I'm not sure if it's a misconception. I am interested in the idea of shame. A teacher told me at school, 'you're an idiot. You're stupid'. I wasn't very good at exams. Part of my art is to be portrayed as an idiot and to be seen as a fool. One of the things about shame is that when you do it in public it has a certain amount of power attached to it and you can use that power."
Source. Source. Source. Source. Source.

Today on my Google homepage

2008-05-21T09:58:00.008-05:00

Yosuke, an African gray parrot in Japan, flew out of his cage and got lost. Yosuke spent a night at a police station were he remained quiet. After a few days with a veterinarian, Yosuke announced he was "Mr. Yosuke Nakamura" and provided his full home address. When returned to his family, the Nakamuras revealed that they had been teaching Yosuke his full name and address for two years. Source.

The Wall Street Burger Shoppe raised the price of its hamburger from $150 to $175. Co-owner Heather Tierney explains it this way, “Wall Street has good days and bad days. We wanted to have the everyday burger (for $4) ... and then something special if you really have a good day on Wall Street." The burger contains "[k]obe beef patty, lots of black truffles, seared foie gras, aged Gruyere cheese, wild mushrooms and flecks of gold leaf on a brioche bun."
While I find this excessive, I did a post called Hungry and Broke which makes this hamburger look like a bargain. One example: a $14,000 diamond-studded tea bag. Source

On May 17th, a political rally was held in Russia. The Moscow Times describes the event as "The first meeting . . . of a 'National Assembly' organized by the Other Russia opposition coalition featur[ing] calls for a strong challenge to the current government." The Moscow Times continues, "A couple of pro-Kremlin Young Russia activists added to the commotion at the event by launching [several] plastic phallus on propellers, which were knocked out of the air by security guards."
To watch a video of the commotion, click here.
Source. Source.

These museums are far from average.

2008-05-16T13:02:00.003-05:00

The Museum of Bad Art: "[O]ur mission: to bring the worst of art to the widest of audiences."

The caption for the picture above is: "The flesh tones bring to mind the top shelf liqueurs of a border bistro. With an astonishing emphasis on facial bone structure, the artist flirts with caricature and captures features of Mamma's face which remind us of a Presidential candidate. The upright marionettish pose of the babe hints that the early bond between mother and child is as formal as it is familiar. Good old fashioned parental respect is at the center of this celebration of color and contour."

The Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum in Texas: "A museum of cockroaches that everyone can love."

The museum has life Madagascar hissing cockroaches and "cockroaches that have been dressed in costumes to portray various themes." Below is Liberoachi.

You may not want to read on if you are squeamish.

The Mutter Museum by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia: "Disturbingly Informative"

Grover Cleavland's secret tumor
John Wilkes Booth's thorax
The "Soap Lady" who died of Yellow fever in the 19th century and whose body has turned into soap.
The nine-foot colon of a man who only had a bowel movement once a month. A picture can be seen here.
A collection of 2,000 objects that were swallowed and removed without surgery by Dr, Jackson.

The Icelandic Phallological Museum

"[P]robably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country."

The Vrolik Museum in Amsterdam: "over two thousand specimens of humans, mammals, and other vertebrates"

"Since 1994, 150 specimens of congenital malformations have also been on display."

congenital malformation: "physical defect present in a baby at birth[.]"
From what I understand, the babies are in formaldehyde jars.

China

2008-05-15T10:48:00.014-05:00

For some context:

In July 2007, China's population was 1,321,851,888. With a world population of approximately 6.6 billion, one out of every five people on earth lives in China. In 1950, China's population was 563 million, but had grown to one billion in the early 1980s. For a stable population, the national fertility rate must be 2.1; China's is 1.7. China's population is expected to peak in 2030. India has a much faster rate of growth and is expected to surpass China's population in 2040. Source.
For a live counter of Chinese population, go here.

All of these statistics come from the May 2008 edition of the National Geographic magazine. Because it is hard to paraphrase statistics, they are all selected quotes.

119 baby boys are born for every 100 girls.
The number of unmarried young Men-called bare branches-is predicted to be 30 million by 2020.
China's one-child policy created a generation of only children numbering 90 million.
Beijing enforces a one-dog policy that prohibits pets more than 14 inches high.
China is expected to overtake the U.S. as the world's largest economy in ten years.
Urban Chinese earn more than three times as much as those in rural areas[.]
Authorities have added 171 new pop culture references to China's national language registry.
Percent of the world's umbrellas made in China: 70
Percent of the world's buttons made in China: 60
Percent of U.S. shoes made in China: 72
Percent of U.S. kitchen appliances made in China: 50
Percent of U.S. artificial Christmas lights made in China: 85
Percent of US toys made in China: 50
Percent of Chinese goods sent to the U.S. that end up on Wal-Mart's shelves: 9
Percent of the U.S. toys recalled in the U.S. in 2007[:] 100
Number of months a Chinese factory worker would need to work to earn the money to earn the cost of a Thomas the Tank Engine train set: 6

More facts gleaned from the articles and paraphrased.

"Wang" is the family name of 93 million Chinese.

Sheng Qi, a Chinese artist, cut off his own finger in protest of the 1989 events of Tiananmen Square. (Picture above.) Visit his website.

Oops. I also forgot to add Minimal Ramblings of an Incoherent Mind :"A little home on the Internet where the quiet voices inside of my head can escape to be shared with the world. The loud voices, on the other hand, are silenced and stuffed into the basement to be punished for all eternity."

"Should I start trying to match my titles to my posts?" or "It is hard to be creative all the time." or "I pressed enter and posted this too early."

2008-05-14T11:48:00.016-05:00

In Detroit, plans are made by architect Steven Flum to convert shipping containers into a $1.8 million, 17 unit condominiums. The units will be between 90 to 180 square meters (approximately 262 to 590 square feet) and will range from $100,000 to $190,000. The containers will be stacked four high and will have balconies, patios, windows, doors, plumbing, heating and stairways. Source.

However, using shipping containers for housing is nothing new. This is an Atelier Workshop’s Port-a-Bach. This house can be rolled into place and folded out to accommodate two adults and two children. Source.

Here is Leger Wanaselja Architecture's two bedroom house overlooking San Francisco. The house uses three containers and a glass atrium. Source.

Adam Kalkin, maker of the quick house, designed this nifty shipping container cafe. Source.

"Global Peace Containers" is a non-profit organization interested in using shipping containers to build housing and facilities in poorer countries or for emergency relief. Here is a school they built in Jamaica and a house they built in Atlanta, Georgia. Source. Source.

And be sure to check out the new blogs I linked to. I realized I was neglecting that part of my blog.
Less Than Half a Nickel - Sergent P's 2 cents. A blog that deserves more readers.
Smiling Through it all - "My random blog about life & death, love & heartache, and the struggle to get my life together."
The Thoughts and Sayings Of Baba Doodlius - Learn why sheep are planting hobbit bones in the jungle.

Careful when flying.

2008-05-13T11:55:00.000-05:00

Gokhan Mutlu of New York is suing Jet Blue for more than two million dollars. Mutlu was traveling on a standby voucher. When a flight attendant complained of her jump seat being uncomfortable, the pilot gave Mutlu's seat to her. Mutlu was allowed to sit in her jump seat, but was eventually made by the pilot to sit in the restroom. The pilot insisted that he was in charge of the plane and Mutlu should be "grateful for being on board." Mutlu sat on the restroom toilet for more than three hours. After a bout of turbulence, Mutlu was allowed to return to his original seat. "A JetBlue spokesman declined comment on the lawsuit Monday." Source.

Unrelated, but I was looking at my blog statistics to see what people searched to find me. Someone had found my blog after Google-ing "NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT"
This is the post that explains it. I also am near the top with an un-filtered Google-ing of "nude penguin." I don't want to know, but I bet they were disappointed.

History

2008-05-07T10:06:00.000-05:00

To be a Pontifical Swiss Guard, one must be a Roman Catholic single Swiss man aged 19-30 who is beardless, attended Swiss military school and is at least 5 foot 8.
The Swiss guard was established on January 22, 1506 when 150 Swiss mercenaries pledged their loyalty to Pope Julius II. Now, they guard the Vatican, including the entrance to the Pope's private apartments. Source

Not many people know that the 300 Spartans did not make their last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae alone. Seven hundred to one thousand Thespians stood with them. Source. Other source.

On September 15, 1896, two locomotives were crashed head-on in a publicity stunt in Texas. The event became known as "The Crash at Crush." A similar stunt was successfully performed a few months previously.
For "The Crash at Crush," a special four-mile track was laid and two telegraph offices were built. For the crowd, two water wells were drilled, five tanks of water and several tons of ice were brought in and several hundred faucets were built. Three hundred policemen watched the 30,000 to 40,000 person crowd that sat 200 yards away in a grandstand.
The trains barreled closer and collided. "There was just a swift instance of silence, and then as if controlled by a single impulse both boilers exploded simultaneously and the air was filled with flying missiles of iron and steel varying in size from a postage stamp to half of a driving wheel."
Three were killed and six were seriously injured. Souvenir hunters cleared debris, the railroad made quick compensation and a ragtime song was composed to memorialize the event.
Source.

ouch

2008-05-06T13:45:00.000-05:00

At Old Man Rock Cafe in Queenstown, New Zealand, Sarah Ferguson was served dishwashing detergent instead of mulled wine. When Ms. Ferguson's lips and mouth began to burn, she spit it out. A cafe worker, Bethany Sim, offered to taste the liquid with similar results, receiving burns and possible scarring. The dishwashing detergent had been delivered to the restaurant in a mulled wine container. The incident occurred last July, but the restaurant faces sentencing next month.
<"Under New Zealand's no-fault accident law, victims do not sue for damages. Instead, treatment costs and income loss are met by the country's Accident Compensation scheme."
Source

School is Over!!!

2008-05-01T11:13:00.001-05:00

Nischal Narayanam completed his bachelors degree at 10 and his master degree at 12. In November 2007, he was "the youngest PhD student and . . . on his way to become the youngest doctorate."
When he was 11, Nischal broke the Guiness Book record and memorized 225 random objects in 12.07 minutes. Nischal was also able to relate each random object to its number.
He recalls practicing, “You need intense concentration for sitting at least three to four hours without looking at external things. But I enjoyed it every time I practised.”
Nischal's teacher, Jayasimha Ravirala, set the 2005 record by memorizing 200 random objects. He says, "There is nothing like good or bad memory, it is just a matter of training to tap its potential."
Nischal has written six math books.
Source.
Source
Source

Musician Giovanni Maria Pala believes there is a hidden musical score in Leonardo de Vinci's Last Supper and has written La Musica Celata (The Hidden Music) describing his find. Here, you can hear the music that emerged from the painting.
Because the apostles were in groups of three, the music is played in 3/4 time. Pala says, ""I marked the pieces of bread on the table and the Apostle's hands as music notes. Then I drew a pentagram over the scene between the tablecloth and Jesus' face. I couldn't believe my ears when I played the music. It sounded really solemn, almost like a requiem."
When Pala drew lines between the notes, the Hebrew sentence, "with Him consecration and glory" appeared.
Source: A video showing an interview and the pictures of the music, pentagram and Hebrew sentence.
Source

A quiz day and you-facts

2008-04-25T12:54:00.000-05:00

How good are you at spotting fake smiles? "Most people are surprisingly bad at spotting fake smiles. One possible explanation for this is that it may be easier for people to get along if they don't always know what others are really feeling." Take the quiz here. I got 14 right out of 20.
Burtyic acid is what makes your vomit smell disgusting. It is also found in Parmesan cheese. Take a sense quiz here.
How does a growth spurt work? First, hands and feet expand. Next, arms and legs. The shins grow before the thighs, and the forearm grows before the upper arm. Clumsiness is caused as the brain tries to adjust to the new center of gravity. "[T]he relationship between growth of the skeleton and puberty is so strong that a teenager's developmental age can be measured by looking at the maturity of the bones in their hand and wrist. Source
1. "The average person will shed 40 pounds of skin in his/her lifetime."
2. "The human brain is composed of 75% water."
3. " A person produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in an average lifetime."
4. "A nail takes around 6 months to grow from base to the tip." Source

Old Al

2008-04-23T12:48:00.000-05:00

In 1924, Al Capone was 25 years old. In today's money, Capone had a gross income of $1.27 billion and paid his workers $3,000 a week. Capone's suits cost $60,300, and he spent $603 million on police bribes. Al Capone ruled over 20 brothels, 150 "gambling places" and 161 speakeasies.

Source. In Today's St Louis Post Dispatch "NO Kidding" column, and from this book.

Tidbits

2008-04-15T17:27:00.001-05:00

The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 for the Paris Centennial Exhibition and was planed to be taken down after twenty years despite numerous critics clamoring for immediate removal. In 1907, the French government decided the tower would be permanent, it was too good of a radio antenna to destroy.

In 1822, Charles Babbage invented a steam-powered mechanical calculator called a difference engine. It was never built, however. Each time he started building his machine, he discovered an upgrade and stopped. He then made hundreds of drawings for a punch-card computer the size of a small train which could add and subtract forty digit numbers in a few seconds. His plans were too advanced, however, and his computer was never made. In 1991, a fully functional difference engine was built from his original plans. The first modern computer was built in 1946.

Source: p.138,74
I appreciate your patience with my lack of posts as I wind up my school year. I'm very busy at the moment. Thanks for understanding.

Will the randomness never end?

2008-04-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

Marc Greenbergh created Operation Grow Hair in 1993 to give LA skinheads rounded up by the FBI a "dose of reality." One of the requirements was that they watch Schindler's LIst. Source
Giovanni Caselli, in around 1863, invented the pantelegraph, the first fax machine. It used electricity, pendulums, batteries, treated paper and wires. It stood six feet tall. By 1868, it was transmitting up to 110 faxes per hour. The Prussian invasion of 1870 stopped the use of the pantelegraph. Source.
Concerned about declining birth rates, Singapore's Ngee Ann Polytechnic recently launched a course on flirting and relationships. The course is "Understanding Relationships: Love and Sexuality" and is backed by the government. Student Prakash comments: "I think most people who take the course would find it easier to get a girlfriend." Source
In India, officials in central Madhya Pradesh are currently offering fast-tracked gun licenses to men who have vasectomies. Administrative chief Manish Shrivastav remarks: "Over 150 men have got themselves sterilised since we have offered the gun licence preference. I expect another 100 by the end of this month." source

I never knew that!

2008-03-31T17:01:00.000-05:00

In 1939 President Roosevelt changed the date of Thanksgiving. By moving the holiday a week earlier, he hoped to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost sales. He announced this in August and created a controversy especially among calender makers and football coaches. Twenty three states celebrated Thanksgiving on the old date, twenty three celebrated on the new date, and Texas and Colorado celebrated both. In 1940, Roosevelt returned Thanksgiving to its original date and Congress passed a law banning any future president from changing the date of Thanksgiving. Source
September 1914, German troops were close to taking Paris prompting French military officials to send 6,000 troops to the front. To transport the troops, they called on taxis. Six hundred cab drivers left their passengers and lined up for inspection, transporting the troops and saving Paris. Click here to see footage of the taxis in Windows Media Player. Source
In May 1902 on the island of Martinique, a nearby volcano started to act up near the city of Saint-Pierre. Worried about his party losing power in the upcoming election, the governor of Martinique set up roadblocks to contain the citizens and instructed the newspapers to minimize the danger. Pelee erupted anyway, killing the governor and 30,000 people in less than two minutes. One of the only two survivors was scheduled for execution the next day, and was protected in his underground cell. He later toured with Barnum & Bailey Circus in a copy of the cell. Source: The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 tales from history to astonish, bewilder, and stupefy by Rick Beyer
While everyone knows about the Great Chicago Fire, hardly anyone knows about the deadliest fire in US history: the Great Peshtigo Fire. Killing between 1,200 to 2,400 people in northern Wisconsin, it had the misfortune of occurring the same night as the Great Chicago Fire. Source.

an eyeful

2008-03-17T23:48:00.000-05:00

There are Christian Nudist Convocations. In their July retreat in Tennessee, one member said, "[S]ome people get sent to Africa, some people get sent to South America and the Lord was like, 'I want you to go to nudist resorts.' And I'm like, 'Wow, what an assignment.'" Source.
Judge Richard L. Williams ruled that at a nudist camp for youths, each camper must have a parent or guardian present. According to the New York Times, Williams suggested "[a]n eyeful of naked Mom or Dad. . . is a fair price for admission to nudist camp."

Odds and Ends

2008-03-17T22:54:00.000-05:00

From the makers of the Beer Belly, comes the Winerack (pictured above). An excerpt from their site: "Turn an A cup in to double Ds AND sport your favorite beverage for yourself and your friends! Better than a Boob Job and Cheaper Too! Not to mention the savings on over priced drinks." And as you drink, simply fill the bra back up with air. Classy!
AJ's Cafe in Ferndale, Michigan set a Guinness world record by hosting 50 straight hours of the song Danny Boy. On March 16th, after 24 hours of Danny Boy, cafe owner AJ O'Neil said he wasn't sick of the song. "We had six church choirs in a row," he said, "And when the children sing, it just makes you cry." Source. Source.

Handy Products

2008-03-15T18:07:00.000-05:00

Trouble getting up in the morning? Buy Clocky! If you keep hitting the snooze button, Clocky will drop off its stand, roll around the room, find a "safe hiding place" and start beeping. Or you could just buy the generic "Flying Alarm Clock" which launches a propeller into your room and does not stop beeping until you have returned the propeller to its base.
Ladies! Do you ever need to pee standing up? Buy a P-mate. A sample testimonial: "I am a woman that hunts/fishes and have shared my backside with TOO MANY OTHERS. Thanks for restoring my dignity in the woods."
This website asks: "Are you tired of the 'bobbing' effect on the busy metropolitan sidewalks?" If you too want a hand's-free umbrella, buy a Numbrella!

For $2, you can buy Holy Drinking Water. You can even get a job! Their website says they "are currently accepting applications for blessing [their] drinking water" from ordained clergy.
You may have to wait to buy this, but there is a US patent out for a life-expectancy timepiece. A description: "A timepiece for monitoring and displaying the approximate time remaining in a user's life. . . Buttons or switches are provided to enter and change the stored data so that the approximate time remaining in the user's life can be reset by the user." As to why: "Life expectancy has been a major concern of people throughout the ages. Insurance companies routinely develop and publish actuarial tables to indicate the average lifespans of certain people in specified groups. . . It would also be advantageous to monitor the probable remaining time left in one's life on a yearly, hourly, and even seconds basis." Sign me up!

Thankful yet?

2008-03-07T14:03:00.000-06:00

aquagenic urticaria: allergy to water. If water touches Nineteen-year-old Ashleigh Morris's skin, she breaks out in "sore, itchy red lumps" that last for two hours. She can only take one minute showers, often crying from the pain. Even sweat will make her skin break out. Doctors believe that a heavy dose of penicillin at age 14, caused this. Source

Kleine-Levin Syndrome: a neurological disorder that causes the need to sleep. Arielle Farber, began sleeping 23 hours a day in 1994 at age 13. Approximately a year later, Arielle had "been sleeping a little less excessively than in her past bouts, but has yet to leave the second floor of her home, or see or speak to anyone beside her parents." However, as of March 2007, she has been "incident-free" for the past three years. There is no cure. Source. Source.

trimethylaMinuria: the person smells strongly of dead fish due to a faulty enzyme and build up of TMA, triggered by the majority of foods. Camille, a teacher and former model, grew up smelling like dead fish, no matter how much she showered or how much perfume she used. It led to a very painful life. While there is no cure, Camille manages the smell with a very strict diet, chlorophyll tablets and frequent showering. She says, "I wash with several different products, and I scrub very hard. I use two different kinds of deodorant and a lot of perfume. Before I actually leave the house, I spray all of my clothes with Febreze just all up and down, and I also spray my feet and my socks with the deodorant for my feet." Source.

chimerism: a person is their own twin. Lydia Fairchild's children were going to be taken away from her by the Department of Social Services when her DNA did not match theirs. Knowing her children to be hers, she fought a court battle, eventually discovering that she had chimerism. In essence, "in her blood, she [is] one person, but in other tissues, she ha[s] evidence of being a fusion of two individuals." This occurs when two fertilized eggs with unique DNA, fuse in the womb. She won the battle for her children. Source.

Human echolocation: Blind people using echolocation to "see." Ben Underwood and Daniel Kish both went blind from cancer at the age of two. However, both men learned to make a clicking sound every half second for echolocation. Kish explains: "I have mental images that are very rich, very complex. They simply do not possess the visual element." Underwood can ride his bike, play basketball and "hear" walls. Kish founded World Access for the Blind, a foundation to teach echolocation to other blind people. Source. Source

Speaking of Women. . .

2008-03-01T20:37:00.000-06:00

Traditionally, the majority of drug testing on mice has been on male mice. This is due to the hormones of the female mice influencing test results. Sherry Martz, PhD is director of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences. She explains: "A mouse's menstrual cycle is just four to six days long. . . You have to test each mouse to see where she is." This process is delicately described as "a little like performing a tiny PAP smear."

Source: Now you will have to take this with a bit of faith in me because I could not find this article/information on the Internet. But I happened to stumble across this and could not pass it up. If you pick up "O The Opera Magazine" September 2007, Volume 8, Number 9 and turn to page 214, you will find this information in the article titled: "Of Mice and Women."

Speaking of babies. . .

2008-03-01T20:24:00.000-06:00

Stacey Herald, aged 33, recently gave birth to a 18 inch baby girl. Stacey, who has osteogenesis imperfecta, is only 28.5 inches tall. She describes her pregnancy: "If I laid down, I looked like a snail. . .That's how big my belly was. I looked like an Idaho potato with arms and legs.” Source

What an entrance!

2008-02-29T17:24:00.001-06:00

In India, most train toilets have holes leading directly onto the tracks. When 33-year-old Bhuri Kalbi used the train bathroom, she unexpectedly gave birth. "My delivery was so sudden," Kalbi says, "I did not even realize that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet and onto the railway tracks." She fainted for a few minutes, but when she woke up, she told her family and the train was stopped. The baby girl was on the railway track from 1.5 to 2 hours. She was found close to the tracks with her umbilical chord, uninjured but blue from cold. While she is recovering "quite well," she is in intensive care for her two-month premature birth. Source

under where?

2008-02-22T22:51:00.000-06:00

In Ohio, two eight-year-old twin boys invented bully-proof underwear. Using fabric fasteners on boxers, the underwear rips clean off if a wedgie is attempted. One journalist commented, "Exactly why underwear that can entirely ripped off you by bullies is an improvement over regular underpants remains unclear." The boys appeared on the Ellen De Generes Show and the Early Show. To see a video of the boys demonstrating their invention, go here.

BBC bits

2008-02-21T11:28:00.000-06:00

Thanks to BBC for all of these little tidbits:

Since its release in 1969, it has been said that the children's book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar has sold one copy every minute. Source
According to the biography Room Full of Mirrors, Jimi Hendrix pretended to be gay so that he would be discharged from the army. Source
According to a 2005 British survey, 1 in 6 children think that broccoli is a "baby tree." Source
At Eton, Georgic is a punishment involving copying hundreds of lines of Latin poetry. Source
To preserve flavor, rhubarb is best harvested in dim light. Candlelight is good. Source
In 2007, women in India protested over being asked their "detailed menstrual history" when applying to become a civil servant. Source
Names considered for the Compact Disck (CD) included "Mini Rack, MiniDisc, and Compact Rack." Source

Hissssssss

2008-02-17T15:16:00.001-06:00

For eighty dollars, you can buy a "Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroach Brooch" from clothing-store Black Chandelier. This live cockroach has Austrian Swarovski crystal on its non-sensitive hood and is worn on a leash. The "jewelry" lives about one year, doubles as a pet and comes with care instructions.
Inventor Jared Gold says, "Design without humor is pretentious and soul crushing. . . You kind of bond with the little buddy. They like the warmth and they tickle you. Everyone has a good time."

A random topic

2008-02-17T14:48:00.000-06:00

With six and a half tons per square inch of biting force, sharks have the strongest jaws in the world. They can bite with both their upper and lower jaw.
If a shark looses a tooth, another tooth rotates forward from its rows of spare teeth.Whale sharks have approximately 300 rows of spare teeth, with hundreds of teeth in each row.
In its life, a shark can use over 20,000 teeth. on average, their teeth are replaced every eight days
Dried shark skin used to be used as sandpaper and non-slip grips on sword handles.
In the uterus, shark embryos eat their siblings.
One out of every 30 million people is attacked by a shark

Source. Source. Source.

Not for me

2008-02-14T22:09:00.001-06:00

While this might not be shocking to some, I find it a bit odd. In Brazil, someone felt the need to get 'tentacle suction-cup implants." Source

To be a scientist!

2008-02-13T23:07:00.000-06:00

At the University of California, scientists helped the fight against alcoholism by plying hundreds of thousands of worms with alcohol. They succeeded in finding the gene responsible for drunkenness in worms and hope this will help the study of alcoholism in people.
The alcohol seemed to affect the worms much like humans: " The drunken worms moved slower and more awkwardly than sober ones, and laid fewer eggs." However, as neurobiology professor Steven Treistman of the University of Massachusetts Medical School commented, "'Humans are a lot more complicated than the worm." Source

Molasses

2008-02-08T17:46:00.000-06:00

On January 15, 1919, the North End of Boston was flooded by 2 million gallons of molasses when a tank burst open. The 35 mph wave of molasses was two stories high, killing 21 and injuring 150. There were 3,000 witnesses who testified in the 6-year lawsuit against Boston. The smell of molasses remained for decades. It took over 87,000 man hours to clean up the aftermath (picture above).
"Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was.... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise."

Source: article by Edwards Park from Nov 1983 Smithsonian, "Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919," and here.

Readers of my early blog may recognize this post from Oct 2007. I have re-posted this after being asked (and complying) to remove a source-link and remove a picture by two unrelated people. They said that I was "stealing bandwidth" and "playing havock with [their] visitor stats." Can someone please explain this to me?

voting time

2008-02-06T17:07:00.000-06:00

High-school Juniors and Seniors were asked to name the top 10 famous Americans in history, excluding presidents and first ladies. Here is what they said:

1. Martin Luther King Jr
2. Rosa Parks
3. Harriet Tubman
4. Susan B. Anthony
5. Benjamin Franklin
6. Amelia Earhart
7. Oprah Winfrey
8. Marilyn Monroe
9. Thomas Edison
10. Albert Einstein

to have and to hold

2008-02-05T20:11:00.000-06:00

72 year old Kamarudin Mohammed is a Muslim from Malaysia who has been married 53 times. His shortest marriage lasted 2 days and all but one ended in divorce. His most recent wife is also his first wife. Says Kamarudin: "I am not a playboy. I just love seeing beautiful women." Source.

aborcide

2008-02-04T17:04:00.000-06:00

Douglas Hoffman, aged 60, was sentenced 5 years in prison for killing more than 500 trees in one year. When he and his wife first moved into their house, they had a nice view of the LasVegas strip. But as the trees grew, the view was lost. The homeowners committee, with a list of rules which allegedly take an hour to explain, declined Hoffman's request to swap the trees for shrubs. Hoffman took things into his own hands.
In one year, Hoffman killed more than 500 trees. He lopped the tops off some and sliced some so that they would slowly die. He originally faced 35 years in prison, due in part to the threatening letters from the "USA Organization Militia LLC" he sent to divert suspicion. The letters threatened such things as "razing and burning homes, drive-by shootings, setting off improvised explosive devices and unleashing a weapons cache." Handcuffed to his wheelchair in court, Hoffman said, ""I am not a bad person. I am a good person." His wife said, "Plant life is precious to him. . . It's not a human life, but it's a life. When a bush would die, he wouldn't be crying-upset, but he'd be upset."
Source. Source.

Embarrassed?

2008-01-31T16:19:00.000-06:00

At the Mackay Airport in Queensland, a terminal was shut down when cafeteria manager Lynne Bryant heard a bomb in a garbage bin. The terminal was shut down and the bomb squad was to be called in when an unidentified passenger stepped forward and identified their "adult novelty device." Says Lynne: "It was rather disconcerting when the rubbish bin started humming furiously." Source

Nude

2008-01-29T18:35:00.000-06:00

An East German travel agency is now offering nude flights for $735 (499 euros) from Erfurt, Germany to the Baltic Sea resort of Usedom. The plane crew will remain clothed throughout the flight, but the 55 passengers would be able to strip-down on the plane. This move is an attempt to court the Free body culture (FKK) of Germany. Managing director Enrico Hess says: "It's an unusual gap in the market. . . We're a perfectly normal holiday company." Source

Penguin attack

2008-01-28T15:42:00.000-06:00

Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin was a species of extinct penguin that stood 5 feet 6.9 inches tall (1.7 meters) and weighed 198 pounds (90 kilograms). Fossils have been found both in Antarctica and Zealand. The more modest Icadyptes Salasi penguin stood 5 feet tall (1.5 meters) and lived in Peru. Its skull can seen at the top of the above picture. Source. Source.

randomness is underrated

2008-01-27T13:00:00.000-06:00

According to Ken Parkin, author of Anthology of British Tongue Twisters, the most difficult tongue-twister in the English language is: "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick." Source
In a recent study, 40 of 43 rats consistently chose saccharin-water over cocaine. In a similar test, cocaine-addicted rats preferred saccharin after 10 days. Sugar substituted for saccharin produced the same results. Yet more proof on the addictive power of sugar. Source
48-year-old Wim Hof, the "tantric master," stood in ice up to his neck for 72 minutes. In 2004, he immersed his entire body in ice for 68 minutes. Hof says he uses tantric meditation to control his body temperature. Source
With only two weeks left to serve in prison, a 19-year-old German woman escaped from prison. When her friend, a 17-year-old inmate, was released, she hid in her suitcase. Mr. Weilmann comments: "The girl simply walked out of the building with her friend concealed in her luggage." They were not caught. Source

I've been tagged by Rusin Roundup for the big bang meme. For the rules, go here. I tag anyone who wants to participate.
1-Attitude, the Ultimate Power 2-Juliana's Site 3-Rusin Roundup 4-Grow Rich Along With Me 5-Comedy Plus 6-lynda's loft 7-Amel's Realm 8-MAX 9-Speedcat Hollydale 10-Mariuca 11-Complain Complain Complain 12-Mariuca's Perfume Gallery 13-Life Is A Roller Coaster 14-Sugar Queen's Dream 15-First Time Dad 16-Life 17-My Life 18-The Painted Veil 19-My Thoughts 20-DatCurious.com 21-Little Aussie Cynic 22-A Nice Place in the Sun 23-DatMoney.com 24-Odd Facts

And thanks again to Rusin Roundup for this award.

I would like to pass this award on to R.E.H for commenting on all my posts this month.

vEry intErEsting

2008-01-23T15:27:00.000-06:00

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote Gadsby: "A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter "E". Except for his preface and postscript, nowhere in the book is the letter "E" found. Not an easy feat considering that "E" is the most commonly used letter in the English alphabet.
You can judge the outcome with the first and last paragraphs of the novel.

"If youth, throughout all history, had had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn’t constantly run across folks today who claim that “a child don’t know anything.”A child’s brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult’s act, and figuring out its purport."

"A glorious full moon sails across a sky without a cloud. A crisp night air has folks turning up coat collars and kids hopping up and down for warmth. And that giant star, Sirius, winking slyly, knows that soon, now, that light up in His Honor’s room window will go out. Fttt! It is out! So, as Sirius and Luna hold an all-night vigil, I’ll say a soft “Good-night” to all our happy bunch, and to John Gadsby — Youth’s Champion."

Guilt over blog-neglect is a great motivator

2008-01-21T13:34:00.000-06:00

Meet Louis, the 6-foot Octopus. He was given his Mr. Potato Head toy for Christmas, and loves it so much that he "turns aggressive when aquarium staff try to remove it from his tank." Source.
The Spanish town of Pulpi made a really big salad in September 2007. Dimensions: 20 cooks, over 3 hours prep time, 59 by 15.7 ft container, 14,740 pounds of vegetables. The salad was served free-of-charge in Pulpi's restaurants. Source
Jody Powell and Kenneth Donnell won tickets to a Hannah Montana concert by keeping one hand on a 12-foot, 400 pound statute of Hannah for 6 days. They received catered meals and were allowed one 12 minute break every 3 hours. There were 20 contestants who participated. Winner-Powell says: "It's like a dream come true." Source

WARNING!!!

2008-01-17T16:35:00.000-06:00

From the book: World's Dumbest Signs, Ads and Newspaper Headlines:

Actual Warning Labels:

life saving device: "WARNING! This is NOT a life saving device."
child superman costume: "WARNING! Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly."
a bar of soap: "WARNING! Directions: Use like regular soap."
toilet cleaner: "WARNING! Safe to use around pets and children, although it is not recommended that either be permitted to drink from toilet."
blanket: "WARNING! Not to be used as protection from a tornado."
hotel shower-cap: "WARNING! Fits one head."
Christmas lights: "WARNING! For indoor or outdoor use only."
wheelbarrow: "WARNING! Do not use when temperature exceeds 140 degrees Fahrenheit."

Ack!

2008-01-15T17:15:00.000-06:00

To be remembered for good witting is one thing. To be remembered for bad writing is another. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest, is an an annual contest to see who can write the "best" opening line to the worst novel. Here are just a few of the many winners of 2007:

Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them "permanently" meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee. --Jim Gleeson
LaVerne was undeniably underdressed for this frigid weather; her black, rain-soaked tank top offered no protection and seemed to cling to her torso out of sheer rage, while her tie-dyed boa scarf hung lifeless around her neck like a giant, exhausted, pipe cleaner recently discarded after near-criminal overuse by an obviously sadistic (and rather flamboyant) plumber. --Andrew Cavallari
As the hippo's jaws clamped on Henry's body he noted the four huge teeth badly in need of a clean, preferably with one of those electric sonic toothbrushes, and he reflected that his name would be immortalized by his unusual death, since hippo killings are not a daily occurrence, at least not in the high street of Chipping Sodbury. --Tim Lafferty
What shocked Juliette as she entered the room was not that there was an escaped convict under her coverlet snuggling with her best teddy bear, but that there was a knife through his back, "And who," she wondered out loud, steadying herself against the faux-taffeta wallpaper, "would stab a teddy bear?" --Katie Alender
The highway coiled up and around the mountain like a snake ready to strike because it was being harassed by one of those annoying guys on "Animal Planet." --Brent Sheppard
The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife, not even a sharp knife, but a dull one from that set of cheap knives you received as a wedding gift in a faux wooden block; the one you told yourself you'd replace, but in the end, forgot about because your husband ran off with another man, that kind of knife. --Lisa Lindquist

yipes!

2008-01-11T19:10:00.001-06:00

During a flight in China, passengers began to complain that a man was spending too much time in the lavatory. When the air attendant discovered water flowing out under the door, they opened the door with a key, revealing a half-naked man who asked for shampoo. The passenger said: "I discovered the bathroom had hot water, so I thought of taking a bath, since I hadn't had one for nearly a week." Source

odds and ends on death

2008-01-09T21:37:00.000-06:00

A few contemporary odds and ends on death:

This website is offering a PS3 and a title of "Mr./Mrs. Death" to the person who can accurately predict when Britney Spears is going to die.
A Texas man was shot in the leg and died from loss of blood when his chocolate Labrador retriever stepped on, and fired, his shotgun. Source
A criminal in Michigan hid $300 worth of hunting knives in the waistband of his pants. When confronted by employees, he fled and tripped, stabbing himself in the stomach. Source

I wish I could

2008-01-08T14:28:00.000-06:00

In Monterrey, a 10-year-old boy used industrial glue to glue his hand to his bed in an effort to escape the start of school. His mother called the police after spending two hours trying to free him.
Says the boy: "I didn't want to go to school because vacation was so much fun."Source

Anything you can do, I can do better.

2008-01-06T23:02:00.000-06:00

Toyota has succeeded in designing robots with the dexterity to play the violin and the trumpet. Here is a video of the violin-robot, and here is a video of the trumpet robot which shifts from foot to foot while playing. The robots are 5 feet tall and white. USA today politely commented: "Compared to a virtuoso, its rendition was a trifle stilted and, well, robotic."
Taking things a step further, David Levy of the University of Maastricht predicts that by 2050, humans will be able to have sex with, and marry robots. He predicts that Massachusetts will be the first state to legalize human-robot marriages and compares the it to interracial and same-sex marriages. He also sees marriage to robots being attractive to "shy," "ugly" or "unpleasant" people. Levy predicts that these robots could cut down on pedophilia and human prostitution. Levy says: ""Once you have a story like 'I had sex with a robot, and it was great!' appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I'd expect many people to jump on the bandwagon. . .Love and sex with robots are inevitable. . .The question is not if this will happen, but when." Levy's next paper is on the ethical treatment of robots with regards to sex and love. Source

Inaneness

2008-01-04T21:40:00.000-06:00

According to the Nanguo Morning News, 55-year-old factory worker Wei Mingtang's ears leak air. Thus, with the aid of a pipe, and using only his ears, he can inflate balloons and blow out candles. Source
If you are ever in Alexandria, Indiana, visit the Carmichaels who have spent the last 31 years applying 20,500 coats of paint to a baseball. The baseball now weighs over 2,300 pounds. Source
Allegedly, 1 in every 18 people have a third nipple which often looks like a mole or freckle. Source

Rome

2008-01-03T19:18:00.000-06:00

And now, for a few blips from Rome from the book Working IX to V: orgy planners, funeral clowns, and other prized professions of the ancient world by Vicki Leon

In the Greek city-state of Sybaris, the law required a year of advance notice for celebrations to allow the women to have a full year to shop for the perfect outfit.
Roman cities had public unisex bathrooms. Rome had 144. Under the toilet openings, ran continuous running water. Opposite of the toilet, ran another trough of running water. In that trough were the shared sponges-on-sticks for cleaning up.
In Rome, there were people who specialized in armpit plucking. Somewhere around 1 AD, Roman aristocrats interested in fashion, removed all of their body hair. Requirements for the profession were tweezers, a strong arm and the ability to deal with their customer's pain.

And now, I was tagged by Rusin Roundup for for a New Year's Resolution meme. To save space, to see all of the meme go here. But my New Year's resolution is to focus more on my writing. (By the way, my dream is to be a famous writer some day. I have several novels that I am working on. I only need to finish them and start the publishing process. "Only"-ha!)

And I couldn't help myself. I have to quote Terry Pratchett, who I have been reading.

- "Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards'."

Technically...

2008-01-02T14:27:00.001-06:00

George Washington was NOT the First President of the United States. In fact, he is the 9th. While America was established July 4, 1776, Washington became president 13 years later. Before him, there were 8 men elected "president of the United States in Congress Assembled." Source
Chameleons do NOT change color to match their environment. Instead, they change color depending on their mood. They can also change color from changes in light or temperature. The myth of changing to match their background was started in 240BC and has persisted. Source
Despite the common belief, you can NOT see the Great Wall of China from the moon. Nothing man-made on the earth can be seen from the moon. Jay Apt has orbited the earth 562 times and says: "The Great Wall is almost invisible from only 180 miles up!" The moon is 238,855 miles away. Source
The feminists who protested in the 1968 Miss America Pageant did NOT burn their bras. They dumped them into a symbolic garbage can, but reporter Lindsay Van Gelder wrote an article suggesting the idea of bra-burning and linking it to burning draft cards. The headline writer called the feminists bra-burners, and the myth began. Robin Morgan, who organized the protest says: "We were radicals, but we were very elegant. . . Burning rubber smells dreadful!" Source
There are NOT 50 states in the US. There are only 46. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky are all officially commonwealths. Source

Your vote, Sir?

2007-12-29T16:25:00.000-06:00

When Jeremy Bentham, the "Father of Utilitarianism," died, in 1832, he willed his body to the University College Hospital in London. However, it was willed on the condition that his "dear friend Doctor Southwood Smith" would preserve his body in the manner shown in the picture above. In Bentham's own words: "The skeleton he will cause to be put together in such a manner as that the whole figure may be seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living, in the attitude in which I am sitting when engaged in thought in the course of time employed in writing."
For years, Bentham carried around the glass eyes he hoped would go inside his mummified head. While Bentham's head was mummified, it deteriorated rapidly and a wax head was put on his skeleton instead. However, in 1975, student kidnapped Bentham's real head, demanding a £100 ransom for charity. The college eventually paid £10 and Bentham's head was placed at his feet (see picture above).
Bentham also wished for his body to be present at all board meetings, and tradition has it, that when there is a tied vote, Bentham votes favorably for the motion.
Source. Source.

Welcome Back

2007-12-28T15:23:00.000-06:00

In the 1931 movie Skippy, 9-year-old Jackie Cooper had 3 crying scenes but had trouble crying on cue. One of the scenes involved a dog. The director Norman Taurog, also Jackie's uncle, had a security guard take the dog out of sight. When Norman threatened to have the dog shot, Jackie stayed dried-eyed, so Norman arranged to have a pistol shot heard. After the shot, Norman said, "The policeman has shot your dog. . . [because] [y]ou're more interested in the dog than you are in your work." After capturing Jackie's flood of tears on camera, they gave him ice cream. For his role, Jackie was nominated for an Oscar. Not surprisingly, he is quoted as saying, "No amount of rationalization, no excuses, can make up for what a kid loses -- what I lost -- when a normal childhood is abandoned for a movie career."
Source source

My appologies

2007-12-23T09:30:00.000-06:00

Because of Christmas, I am taking a few days off from blogging. After Christmas, I will of course resume. So a very merry Christmas to all, and be sure to come back after it.
If you are insistent on reading my blog over my mini-vacation, I chose to highlight my favorite post from each week. The oldest posts are at the top.

Allow me to introduce myself - my first ever post
Dinner -about eating metal
You'd Better Clap -the intersection of music and guns
That will win the war -involves a "gay bomb"
Still Loving the game -A Frisbee of death
Wow! -beautiful typewriter art
handy skirt -turn into a vending machine
She did what? -licking Jeeps
Liquid Ham -kosher too
Mugger Angels -and rabbits
oooooooooooooo! -ghosts and Spider-man
Don't play with your food -vegetable orchestra
shhhhhhhh! -a very quiet song
adrenaline and shirts -extreme ironing

adrenoline and shirts

2007-12-19T13:55:00.001-06:00

Ever heard of extreme ironing? Apparently, it "combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt." Some places where ironing has been done: the exact center of the Antarctic, 137m (450 ft) underwater, Mt. Everest, a nudist beach, in caves, while rock climbing, while jumping off a rock face, while hang gliding and while bog snorkeling. In case you are wondering, the irons are battery-powered. Here is a video of extreme ironing and here is a photo gallery from the official site.

paranoid?

2007-12-19T12:51:00.000-06:00

Haven't you ever wanted to drive someone insane with postcards? Well here is the e-bay auction for you. According to the description, three postcards (one from 1995 and one from 1996) will be sent by the seller from Poland to your "friend." They will be "rant ravingly insane," but filled with personal details about your friend, thanks to your information. And of course, the signature will be illegible. It is currently selling for $185.
Humorist Brian Sack is the person behind it. Thanks to SNAFU-ed. . . Situation Normal (Situation normal, for people who don't think at all ... and offbeat news, for the rest of us ...) for this post idea.

sniff sniff

2007-12-18T15:15:00.000-06:00

Lynda and David Taylor were separating after three years of marriage, and Lynda was upset when David refused to give her half of the money and the house. So she took her revenge. She sprayed perfume on herself and her daughter. She sprayed Lysol and bug killer around the house. She burned scented candles. She plugged in scented air fresheners. And she emptied lavender sachets. While this may not seem all that severe, Lynda was arrested and charged with aggravated battery. You see, David had multiple chemical sensitivity, and her actions caused him to be "very ill with severe brain fog, headache, numbness and trembling and pain throughout [his] body so severe [he] could barely move." Before this incident, his condition had earned him $150,000 in worker's compensation. Source.

And a big Thank you to the ever-gracious Rusin Roundup for this award. I have to admit, I really like it because I like pirates, and the pictures has a bit of a pirate-y air. I always have a hard time trying to decide who to pass awards on to, so I chose people I hadn't awarded or tagged before. Thus, I would like to pass this award on to:

Grillman and Luna for flattering my vanity with a lovely welcome to their blog, and teaching me about Santa.
AY@tes for making me double-check every time I write his screen-name and earning an impressive 99% nerd score. (I only scored an 80%).
And I Beati because I was not feeling very cheerful today, and the cute pictures on her blog made me melt into a pile of simpering goo.

Do you take yourself for better or worse?

2007-12-17T11:55:00.000-06:00

Ever get tired of searching for that perfect someone who understands you? Why not stop the search and marry yourself?

Liu Ye of China married a cutout of himself wearing a bridal dress. (Pictured above.) He says: "There are many reasons for marrying myself, but mainly to express my dissatisfaction with reality. This marriage makes me whole again. . . [I'm not gay, but I am] maybe a bit narcissistic." Source.
While Dutch artist Jennifer Hoes also married herself, she does not rule out a possible future marriage. She married herself to embrace her own life and believes that the values of an individual's life are the same as in a marriage. In answer to the question we are all wondering: "The wedding night I spent alone and slept like a baby. . . Unfortunately I had no money for a honeymoon, that would have been nice and welcome after the hard work." She argues that her marriage was not a publicity stunt: "I don’t make a distinction between my life and work. . . The wedding, as something of heart and mind, is just as relevant to my work as a cast of my nipples." Source.
Kevin Nadal of New York is a "Filipino-American gay performance artist" who married himself to protest culture's discrimination against singles, specifically women and gay men. He told his parents that he was having a birthday party. Kevin was very pleased with the wedding: "I got a DVD recorder, a nose-hair trimmer, kitchenware, Martini glasses, and a back massager. . . Oh, and I registered for male pornographic magazines, and got those too. I did well." Source.

Nicetown

2007-12-16T12:21:00.000-06:00

In 1996, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) turned their attention to the town of Fishkill. Because they believed it evoked "violent imagery of dead fish," they wanted its name changed to Fishsave. However, the town declined, pointing out that in the original Dutch, "Fishkill" is "Fish stream."
In 2003, PETA offered $15,000 of vegetarian patties to the town of Hamburg, NY, if they changed their name to Veggieburg. PETA's reason: "The town's name conjures up visions of unhealthy patties of ground-up dead cows. . . I hope they get a little chuckle about it, and then I hope they think about it. . . Our offer is serious as a heart attack." Hamburg declined the offer.

Source

shhhhhhhh!

2007-12-15T14:24:00.000-06:00

To be fair, for this post I could just include white space and nothing else. However...

Composer John Cage's piece 4'33" is basically 4 minutes, 33 seconds of complete silence. But supporters of Cage would argue that the experience is different for each listener and the piece includes the sounds of the environment it is played in. Composed in 1952, it can be played by any combination of instruments. Cage explained his piece by saying: "[W]hatever we we are[,] what we mostly hear is noise."

When Mike Batt composed A One Minute Silence, Cage's estate sued him. While Batt payed an undisclosed 6-figure amount to the John Cage trust, he retorted: "Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds."

Here you can see 4'33" performed with a full orchestra. While there is a conductor, he only lifts his baton to give the downbeat at the start of each of the three movements, and occasionally turns pages. Here you can see it preformed by a solo piano who closes the piano lid and sits quietly with a stopwatch. If you are interested in Cage but don't have a large tolerance for silence, you might be interested to see an early work of his called Water Works. Here is is part of Cage's piano sonatinas. Be forewarned, they sound very different than what one is used to.

Source. Source.

A few blips of science (reader discretion warned)

2007-12-14T11:25:00.000-06:00

Here are a few oddish blips to ponder (Reader discretion is advised):

Recognize the sheep above? Well it is not an ordinary sheep. It is 15% human, having a sheep body and half-human organs. It is the result of £5million and 7 years of research by Professor Esmail Zanjani of the University of Nevada. He created the sheep by injecting cells from human adults into the fetus of sheep. In the future, he hopes to use these sheep for organ transplants. He would inject stem cells from a donor's bone marrow into a sheep fetus, and in two months there would be a transplantable liver, lung and brain. Source
Twins are either identical or fraternal, right? Wrong. There is a pair of semi-identical twins. They are identical on their mother's side but only half-identical on their father's side. This means that two sperms fertilized one egg which split. While one of the children is male, the other one is a hermaphrodite, with "both ovarian and testicular tissue." However, genetically, both children have some male and female cells. While their identities are anonymous, they are reported to be healthy and happy toddlers in the US. Source
Surgeon Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov, chief of the organ-transplanting laboratory of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences, ran experiments. In one, he transplanted the head and forelegs of a puppy onto the neck of an adult dog. The puppy "kept its own personality," lapping up milk and yelping. The adult dog first tried to shake the puppy off of its neck, but soon grew reconciled. They both died after 6 days, but other dogs in his series of experiments stayed alive for 2 1/2 months. Here is a movie clip that shows his experiment. Source.
The above scientist inspired a US scientist Dr. White who attached the living brain of one dog to the neck of another dog. the brain stayed alive for several days prompting the question: With the brain being alive, what was it experiencing? Mr. White then moved on to head transplants using rhesus monkeys. While the head acted on its own, it was impossible to connect all the nerve threads, so it was paralyzed from the neck down. He predicted that in the future, brain dead patients could donate their bodies for the heads of paraplegics. Source
Researching LSD in 1962, the psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West and Chester M Pierce of the University of Oklahoma injected LSD into a male elephant. they believed that LSD would make an elephant go into musth: a condition where elephants "run berserk for a period of about two weeks, during which time {they] may attack or attempt to attack anything in [their] path." They gave a male elephant named Tusko enough LSD for 3,000 people. Sensing Tusko's distress, his mate rushed to his side and tried to support the swaying elephant. 5 minutes later, Tusko collapsed, and approximately 2 hours later he was dead. West and Pierce's take: "It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD - a finding which may prove to be valuable in elephant-control work in Africa." Source
In the 1930s, Robert Cornish of the University of California tried to use seesaws to raise the dead. Injecting adrenaline and anti-coagulants into fox terriers he named Lazarus, 6 minutes after their death he would place them on a seesaw. While some did revive, they experienced blindness and brain damage before dying again within a few hours. He moved on to trying to revive 3 men dead for 5-6 hours. He had no luck. Source.

Spare Change

2007-12-11T19:33:00.000-06:00

This 72,000 square-foot house is listed at $165 million, the highest ever asking price for an American residential property. It includes 41 bedrooms, 8 fireplaces, 29 bedrooms, 3 swimming pools, 22 foot arched ceilings and 1 disco. The house, featured in The Godfather and The Bodyguard, is from the 1920s and sold in 1947 for $120,000. With a view listed as "canyon, pool, treetop," it includes 6.25 acres in the vicinity of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and David and Victoria Beckham.

To put things in perspective:

It would take an estimated 10 hours to quickly clean all of the bathrooms.
Other things that cost $165 million: A Boeing 787 Dreamliner Passenger Jet and NASA's Mars Polar Lander.
Half the world lives on under two dollars a day.
Every second child lives in poverty and 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation

If you like this post, check out one of my older posts including a $14,000 diamond-studded tea bag here.

And by the way, thanks for your patience. I haven't posted recently because of finals week.

Sources: Dec 07 Reader's Digest, poverty facts

Square-y

2007-12-06T09:47:00.001-06:00

Square watermelons were invented in 2001 by a Japanese farmer concerned about consumers not being able to fit the fruit into their fridge. There is no genetic changes in the watermelon, they are simply grown inside a box, and assume the box's shape. The square watermelons end up in the exact dimensions to fit comfortably into a Japanese refrigerator. In Japan they cost a bit more, however, at about $82, three times that of a normal watermelon. Recently, Tesco in the UK (a kind of UK WalMart) has started selling these for around £5, importing them from Brazil. And also recently, an agriculture and applied biotechnology student from Vietnam has produced square watermelons for the lunar New Year. During this time, watermelons are offered to ancestors. The ideal offering is a regular watermelon paired with a square one, as a square represents the earth and a circle represents the sun.
Source. Source.

Fido?!

2007-12-05T19:28:00.000-06:00

Artist Karl-Friedrich Lentze is planning on opening the world's first brothel for dogs. Stationed in Berlin, the brothel will charge $32 and will include Lentze's Jack Russel Tarrier acting as the door-dog. Lentze sees it as art: "It's a form of satire that criticizes society. I used to paint and create sculptures, this is just the next step."

Other artistic endeavors of his include:

He sued the Easter Bunny for causing addiction to chocolate. Lentze said: "The Easter Bunny is a sadistic and unscrupulous offender who preys on people's sweet tooth."
He got permission from the Bonn city council to be buried with a biodegradable inflated sex doll.
He applied for a patent for his devise to straighten bananas. He explained it as: "Depending on the degree of the curve, chunks will be cut out of the banana, which will then be bound back together using biologically safe bandages.

Source. Source. Source. Source.

Odd Facts

The Diving Horses of Atlantic City

religious game show

leech removed from eye, cockney Bible and lost lab

40 minute war and the shoe-fitting fluoroscope

Random Historical Facts

Royal Mistresses part 3 of 3

Royal Mistresses part 2 of 3

Royal Mistresses part 1 of 3

smurfs

Rain

Weird Patents

Electric lice

locked up

no connection

Dust

ack!

Inventions

Another post with an imaginative title

Here goes...

Agr!

Paris and Unicyles

No Theme

For your viewing

For Your listening

Lots of twins and a little Cousins

A very selfish post

What's in a name?

"Dads", balloons, clues and bombs

ancient history

Synesthesia

Thank you all

Sorry

Herring, Einstein, Clinton, Poets and Numbers

Art of 2007

A bit of everything

Unrelated topics

Today on my Google homepage

These museums are far from average.

China

"Should I start trying to match my titles to my posts?" or "It is hard to be creative all the time." or "I pressed enter and posted this too early."

Careful when flying.

History

ouch

School is Over!!!

A quiz day and you-facts

Old Al

Tidbits

Will the randomness never end?

I never knew that!

an eyeful

Odds and Ends

Handy Products

Thankful yet?

Speaking of Women. . .

Speaking of babies. . .

What an entrance!

Read more!

under where?

BBC bits

Hissssssss

A random topic

Not for me

To be a scientist!

Molasses

voting time

to have and to hold

aborcide

Embarrassed?

Nude

Penguin attack

randomness is underrated

vEry intErEsting

Guilt over blog-neglect is a great motivator

WARNING!!!

Ack!

yipes!

odds and ends on death

I wish I could

Anything you can do, I can do better.