Another post with an imaginative title

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...

(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!

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.