Embarrassed?

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

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

• 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

• 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

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

• 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!!!

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!

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!

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

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

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.

• 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

• 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

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...

• 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