Can't Possibly Be True, Can It?

Well, hi there! Thanks for taking time to stop by! A treat to see you as always. Busy up there in cyberspace is it? Take a few moments...hoist a mug of coffee and munch on a virtual treat while I relate a couple of items I saw in the news that you won't believe..."

First: Comprehensive Pentagon studies of America's nuclear missile infrastructure released in November (following disturbing reports of readiness failures) included the revelation that nuclear warheads had to be attached with a particular wrench, even though the Air Force owned only one with which to service 450 missiles housed at three bases. Consequently, one official told The New York Times, "They started FedExing the one tool" back and forth. No one had checked in years, he said, "to see if new tools were being made" -- typical of maintenance problems that had "been around so long that no one reported them anymore." [New York Times, 11-13-2014] 

I guess there are no hardware stores anywhere near US Airforce bases, eh.

Second: London's Daily Telegraph reported in November that a gardener hired by the House of Commons had spent a day pulling color-changing leaves from trees on the Westminster Palace grounds -- because it would be more cost-effective than to rake them up after they fell. The gardener (whose name sounds right out of a James Bond adventure -- "Annabel Honeybun") said she had 145 trees to service. (A local environmentalist lamented denying autumn visitors "one of the few pleasures at this time of year.") [Daily Telegraph, 11-14-2014] 

One supposes Ms Honeybun's scientific analysis of the situation would have involved figuring out how long it takes to rake up all the leaves, dispose of them, clean up and enjoy a nice cup of Brooke Bond or Typhoo tea with a bikkee or two and measuring that against the alternative of plucking said leaves from 145 trees, including fetching the ladder from the storage shed, propping it up against each tree, plucking the ugly red, orange and yellow leaves, moving the ladder countless times to ensure no leaves were left unplucked, then moving on to the next tree, following the same procedure 145 times (not to mention deciding whether a leaf should be plucked that day or left until the next week when it would likely have turned another shade...followed by disposing of the leaves, returning the ladder to to the shed and then proceeding to have her cup of tea and bikkie.)

What about the psychological cost and emotional trauma caused to the public by disallowing them the pleasure of burying themselves in the above- mentioned leaves.

Thank goodness for actuarial science, what!

See ya, eh!

Bob 

Welcome to Ifrane, Africa’s Little Switzerland

Hey there! How're you doing? Good to see you. Move over a little, will ya, please. I need to get to the coffeepot. It was -10C this morning when we woke up - outside, I mean, not inside. B-r-r-r! I have visions of palm trees and tropical breezes! Since we're talking cold though, we may as well keep going. Here's something I knew nothing about...

Ifrane is a small town and ski resort in Morocco, famous for its European style and its similarity to the tourist haven of Switzerland. Developed by the French in the 1930s, Ifrane is so reminiscent of the Swiss Alps that it is fondly referred to as ‘Africa’s Little Switzerland’.
 

The town is located at an altitude of 5,460 feet above sea level in the Middle Atlas region. Its neat red-roofed houses, blooming flower beds, lake-studded parks, and snowbound winters present a huge contrast to Morocco’s narrow, maze like streets and old, earth-colored buildings. It is truly a wonder that such lush greenery, cedar and oak forests, and pasturelands can even exist in the midst of the hot and dry climate of the region.

The history of Ifrane can be traced back to around 500 B.C. when it was the capital of an ancient Jewish Kingdom. It was called ‘Oufrane’ then, which comes from the Berber language, meaning ‘caves’. It is believed that Jews fleeing from King Nebuchadnezzar found refuge there, and in later centuries, Arabs and Romans found their way there too. Soon, Ifrane became an important stop for caravans coming from the Sahara Desert, carrying goods like amber, ostrich feathers and other riches.

During the protectorate era, Ifrane served as an administrative town for the French government. Just as the concept of ‘hill stations’ were developed by the British in India, the French were attracted to Ifrane for its cool climate during the summer. They converted the town into an ideal settlement for expatriate European families – it was designed to make its foreign inhabitants feel at home. Hence, the architectural style and even the trees and flowering plants were imported from Europe.

When Morocco gained independence, the locals moved into Ifrane, infusing it with a bit of their own culture. They enlarged the town, built a mosque, a public market, and added other amenities. The prestigious Al Akhawayn University was established in Ifrane in the mid-1990s. Many of the old chalet houses have been torn down and replaced with condos. Still, there are plenty of high-pitched red roofs dotting the town’s landscape.

Ifrane is easily accessible by road, making it a popular tourist destination among locals and international tourists. The town boasts of powdery snow in the winters and cool summers, making it the ideal resort all year round. Free of crime and one of the cleanest cities in Morocco, it serves as the winter playground for the wealthy from the nearby cities of Fez, Meknes, and Marrakech who go there to ski. For the people of Morocco, the experience of a European winter is never too far away!

Interesting! You learn something new every day. Add a little caffeine and you have a 'caffo' day (coined by yours truly sometime ago). Just learning this has already made my day. Onward and upward. Now if I can only get some help figuring out why my computer connects to my wifi but suddenly neither my Note II Smartphone or Nong's iPad won't. Yet my phone will connect elsewhere to a public hotspot. Got any ideas? Let me know!

See ya, eh!

Bob

 

Windowless Airplanes Would Be Like Flying In A Glass Jet

"This is your captain speaking... Welcome about our new windowless jet aircraft. Please fasten your seatbelt and put your tray table in the upright position As soon as we reach cruising altitude, a flight attendant will be by to serve you a rousingly refreshing mug of coffee and a virtual treat." Whoa!

You know those glass-bottom boat tours where you can peer down into the coral reef below?
 
Imagine sending them about 30,000 feet in the air, and you kinda get the idea behind the latest innovation. It's a windowless airplane where the entire inside is filled with screens that show whatever's going on outside.

The effect? It looks like flying through the air in a glass capsule.

Depending on how you feel about flying that could be just about the best flight ever, or maybe the most frightening.

The company behind the concept, Centre for Process Innovation, says this isn't just about giving people a ride that's more like a theme-park experience. Doing away with windows would allow for a thinner, lighter aircraft, saving fuel and reducing both costs and emissions.

Along with revealing thrilling/frightening views of the world, the giant displays can highlight landmarks and provide important flight information. Of course, they can also be used to show ads:

 Yeah, well...never mind the ads, eh. Knowing Air Canada's reliability with entertainment systems, the dang thing wouldn't work half the time so you'd be flying with only the walls to look at - no outside views. That possibility alone would freak a lot of people out.

I would surely love to fly on one of those jets.

Hell, yeah! 

See ya, eh!

Bob

Source: huffingtonpost.com

French Man Develops Pills That Make Flatulence Smell Like Flowers or Chocolate

Well there you are! I knew you would be by sooner or later. Glad you could make it today. How's everything going? All right? Good! Help yourself to a mug of arabica bean juice and a mega muffin from our virtual oven, why don't'cha? Hey...I just got wind of something...

Believe it or not, someone has actually invented a pill that makes your farts smell like roses or chocolate. It sounds like a joke, but according to their inventor, they work wonderfully. The pill is the brainchild of 65-year-old French inventor Christian Poincheval.  

Christian says that he began developing the pills six years ago, after a rather copious dinner with some friends. “We had just come back from Switzerland and we were eating a lot with our friends and the smell from the flatulence was really terrible,” he revealed.

“When we were vegetarian, we noticed that our gas smelled like vegetables, like the odor from a cow pat, but when we started eating meat the smell of the flatulence became much disagreeable,” he added. “We couldn’t breathe so me and my friends decided something had to be done. We needed to invent something that made them smell nicer.”

So he went to see a scientist to look into ways of inventing a natural remedy for the common problem. Together, they researched natural ingredients that would reduce flatulence and after months of experimentation, came up with the recipe for his pills. He began selling the rose-scented ones in 2006, and recently added chocolate for this year’s festive season. It contains vegetable coal, fennel, seaweed, plant resin, bilberry and cacao zest.

Christian claims that the pills are really popular, and he sells at least a few hundred jars every month. “I have all sorts of customers,” he said. “Some buy them because they have problems with flatulence and some buy them as a joke to send to their friends. Christmas always sees a surge in sales.”

The pills are sold on Pilulepet, at a price of €9.99 ($12.5)  for a jar of 60. Even if they don’t work as intended, you have to admit they make great Christmas gifts for wacky friends.

Talk about a neat Christmas gift, eh? And we all know who we would give them to, don't we!

"Care for a chocolate, my dear?"

See ya, eh!

Bob

Sticky Art – A Giant Human Head Covered in Chewing Gum

Hey there! Wonderful to see you. Let me pour you a coffee and get you a virtual treat. Muffin or doughnut? Chocolate? Raspberry? Oatmeal raisin, Bavarian Creme, Cinnamon? Red velvet? or... Say, y'know, some things just don't make the six o'clock news, do they?

Canadian novelist and artist Douglas Coupland organized a colorful, albeit sticky, art project in May this year – he invited people to stick chewed up wads of gum on a seven-foot fiberglass statue of his own head.

Located on Howe Street outside Vancouver Art Gallery, the aptly named ‘Gumhead’ statue was a part of Coupland’s ‘everywhere is anywhere and anything is everything’ exhibition. By the time it was taken down on September 1, the statue was covered in gum to the last inch. And it had all melted thanks to the summer heat, resulting in a sweet sticky mess that attracted wasps and bees.

Coupland called it a total success, describing Gumhead as ‘ugly-beautiful’. “At first the added gum looked like jewels against the black,” he said. “And then the Excel chewing gum van parked beside it during the Jazz Festival and took the whole head to the next level. And then we had a heat wave and the gum started to weep. And now it has a 24-hours cloud of bees and wasps around it. It’s a dream.”

Ah, Vancouver. One of my favourite Asian cities and a place where anybody can Excel!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Source: OddityCentral.com

Donate Blood When You Lose a Life in this Video Game!

Hi ya! How's it going? Thanks for taking time to drop out of cyberspace today for a coffee and a little chat. I see you already edging towards the coffeepot so go ahead and fill your mug. Grab a virtual doughnut, muffin or pastry while you're over there. Say... do you play video games? Well here's a new twist on one that can actually help your community.

Blood Sport (no, I am not talking about the Jean-Claude Van Damme film of the same name) is a new gaming system that’s all set to revolutionize the way we donate blood. While traditional blood donation methods can be ‘draining’ to say the least, the makers of Blood Sport have designed a fun process that involves playing video games. You’ll be so immersed in the game that you’ll hardly notice the blood being taken from you every time you lose a life.

Blood Sport is the brainchild of Canadian inventors Taran Chadha and Jamie Umpherson, who are well-known for gaming-related projects like Shoot the Banker, Surrogaid and Prank House. Now, with Blood Sport, they’re “taking the consequences of the gaming world and having them affect you in real life. So every time you get hit in the game, blood will be intravenously drawn from your arm.”

Their new idea, they say, is stupidly simple. “Nowadays, most video game controllers rumble when you get shot in the game,” they explained on their Kickstarter page, through which they’re trying to raise $250,000 CAD (US $222,700). “That rumbling means that an electrical signal is being sent to the controller to let you know you’ve been hit. All we’re doing is re-routing that same electrical signal and using it to turn on the blood collection system.”

So what that means to me is that you'd better get good at playing Blood Sport or you'll weaken and wither away quickly. I can see different versions of the game popping up, can't you? How about Team Blood Sport where, for instance, a Type AB team is pitted against the Type O negatives. Then later the Regional, Provincial/State and National Blood Sport Championships...maybe even, you know...that international body of games held every four years whose name we are not supposed to use without their permission...but their logo is five linked circles. You know the one...

Don't get me started on possible team uniforms, either...
 
See ya, eh!

Bob 

Living with Nature...or...Ewwww -- Gross!

Well, hello there! Thanks for clicking by today. I trust you are in fine fettle and ready for a mugga and a virtual megamuffin. Why not, eh! Say...communing with nature is one thing but we should all keep our own spaces, don't you think? I am sure you have heard the saying that "You are never, if ever, more than three feet away from a spider". Well here are a couple of cases where nature is getting a little too close...

Daniela Liverani, 24, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and British singer Katie Melua recently survived inadvertent, grotesque ordeals hosting, respectively, a three-inch leech and a spider. The leech had found its way into Liverani's nose during an Asian backpacking trip and had poked part-way out several times (though Liverani had assumed it was a nosebleed clot and "sniffed (it) back up"). 

When she finally saw a doctor in October, she said, the leech played peek-a-boo for a half-hour until the doctor grabbed it with tweezers. 

Melua's tiny spider apparently lived in her ear for a week, creating a constant "rustling" noise until her doctor vacuumed it out. She guessed that it came in through old earbud headphones on an airline flight. (Her spokesperson said the singer had no hard feelings and had released the spider into her garden.) [Daily Record (London), 10-12-2014] [The Guardian (London), 11-2-2014] 

Maybe the spider heard her album 'Spider's Web' and just wanted to get up close and personal. Ear! Ear!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Oscar, the Nursing Home Cat Who Can Sense Death Coming

Hi there! Glad you could find a few minute to stop by. Coffee's on and there's a fresh array of delectable virtual treats for you to nibble on. Hey...are you a cat person? Well here's one cat you don't want to curl up next to you any time soon!

Meet Oscar, a cat with a supernatural ability to feel when people are about to die. In over 50 documented cases, Oscar, who lives in a nursing home , has curled up beside patients in their final hours, seeing them through to the ‘other side’.

His unique story was revealed by Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, who claims Oscar’s predictions have rarely been wrong in the past six years. In fact, he has even proved medical staff wrong at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island, where he was adopted seven years ago as a kitten.

Dr. Dosa first told the world about Oscar’s rare gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has accurately sensed even more deaths, convincing the geriatrician that it wasn’t just a series of coincidences. 

Dr. Dosa eventually wrote a book about his experiences with Oscar at the nursing home. It’s called ‘Making rounds with Oscar: The extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat’.

Might be a tad unnerving, I would think. The folks in the nursing home probably look anxiously out of their doorways before heading out to the dining room or other elsewhere in case Oscar is wandering the corridors.  Don't want him hanging about. No sirree!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Source: http://www.odditycentral.com/

Dementia Treated Successfully With Anti-Aging Diet

Hi there! How are you doing today? Fit as a fiddle? Yes but...is it in tune? Pour some coffee into your mug and help yourself to a virtual treat while I tell you about how eating less may be able to help some of our mental fiddles stay in tune longer.

Neuroscientists have shown that a calorie-restricted diet almost stops gene expressions related to aging and dementia.

Dr. Stephen D. Ginsberg, who presented the new study’s results at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, said:

“Our study shows how calorie restriction practically arrests gene expression levels involved in the aging phenotype — how some genes determine the behaviour of mice, people, and other mammals as they get old.”

Mice in the study were fed 30% fewer calories, which likely reduced some of the aspects of aging which can lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The life-preserving effect of calorie restriction in animals has been known for some time, but the same effect is not proven in humans.

This study is the first to examine how a calorie restricted diet affects the expression of over 10,000 genes.

Female mice were chosen for this study because, like female humans, they are more susceptible to dementia than males.

The effect of the restricted diet was tested by examining the hippocampal region of the brain, which is one of the first to be affected by Alzheimer’s.

The hippocampus is central to learning and memory, and damage to this area with aging is one of the main causes of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

The results showed that the calorie restricted diet almost stopped the natural rise and fall of almost 900 different genes related to memory and aging.
Exactly how this huge range of changes provides a protective effect against the effects of aging is not yet known.

While the results do not point to a “fountain of youth,” Dr. Ginsberg said it does:

“…add evidence for the role of diet in delaying the effects of aging and age-related disease.”

Anything that wards off or slows down dementia is good news in my books. I suppose eating fewer calories is good for us as well but not always easy to do. 

See ya, eh!

Bob

Source: http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/11/dementia-treated-successfully-with-anti-aging-diet.php?utm

Dubai Is So Rich It Pays People To Lose Weight!

Salam wa aleikum (peace be upon you). How's life treating you? If you live anywhere near Buffalo, NY, you are up to your ying-yang in snow. Now those folks are expecting rain! Here? Bright sun and -6 C at the moment though I hear it may even get above freezing with +15 somewhere this week. Positively balmy! Fill your outheld coffee mug and tease a virtual doughnut or muffin onto your plate while I tell you about ‘Your Child in Gold’.

A weight loss contest held in Dubai this summer promised to pay all its participants two grams of gold for every kilogram of body weight lost. The initiative was dubbed ‘Your Child in Gold’ and followed last year’s ‘Your Weight in Gold’ contest organized by the Dubai Municipality. Over 7,500 winners were declared this year, which will collectively be awarded 40kg of gold worth Dh6 million (over $1.6 million).

“This year the priority was given for families as they will get double the rewards that individual participants will when they participate with their family members,” the official Dubai Municipality website declared. “Each family is allowed to participate with two of their children below 14 years old.”

Families that enrolled with their children were given the chance to win double the reward – two grams of gold per kilo of body weight lost. Over 28,000 Dubai residents enrolled in the month of July. Funnily, a lot of them had to be turned down because their kids weren’t actually overweight.

Where can I sign up? I know a number of 'tending towards the obese' children and I'm willing to adopt them to participate in the contest next year, okay? Do we have to move to Dubai? I can stand the desert heat. 45-59C is enough to melt to pounds off by itself. When's the bus leave for the airport?

Here's a thought...what about sending a copy of this post to your local government and asking them to consider a similar contest. "Hey! Keep it down, will ya! I can here you laughing from here!"

See ya, eh. Gotta go. I'm late for my Arabic lesson! "Wa aleikum ah salam (and also peace be upon you).

Bob

Source: odditycentral.com

15-Year-Old Artist’s Notebook Drawings Look Ready to Jump Off the Page

Hey there. I was beginning to wonder where you'd got to, y'know. Thanks for finding time to spiral down out of cyberspace. Soon as you fill your coffee mug and snag a virtual treat or two, I want to tell you about a Brazilian student who, at age 15, is already an incredible artist. 

João Carvalho may be only 15 years old, but his incredible talent more than makes up for his lack of experience. The young artist can completely transform plain paper into ruled notebook sheets with 3D illusions popping out of them.

He starts by drawing blue lines on a blank sheet, but distorts them and adds intense shadows at just the right places, adding depth to his designs and creating the effect of three dimensional shapes that seem to jump off the page.

Some of these shapes include popular characters like Homer Simpson, Scooby Doo, and Jerry the mouse. He also creates effects like ripples of flowing water and wrinkled paper.

This kid has an excellent sense of movement, fluidity, the effects of light and shadow and dimension manipulation. Incredible!

If you have students, kids or grand-kids, show them these drawings.They can look up more of Joao's amazing drawings at http://images.google.com "João Carvalho drawings".

See ya, eh!

Bob

Source: http://odditycentral.com

2014 Darwin Awards

Well, hi there! Good to see you today. I’m tickled pink that you could find time in your busy schedule to stop by. Got a treat for you today. I mean besides the virtual ones on the treat tray next to the ever-present coffeepot. Speaking of which, help yourself while I relay the nominations for 2014 Dilbert Award.  The winner at the end is just unbelievable.....
 

2014 Darwin Awards

Nominee 1: [ San Jose Mercury News]: An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former girlfriends windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.  

Nominee 2: [Kalamazoo Gazette]: James Burns, 34, (a mechanic) of Alamo, MI, was killed in March as he was trying to repair what police describe as a
"farm-type truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a troubling
noise. Burns' clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns "wrapped in the drive shaft." 

Nominee 3: [Hickory Daily Record]: Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death in December in Newton, NC. Awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith & Wesson 38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear. 

Nominee 4: [UPI, Toronto ]: Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his
shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death.? A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early
Friday evening as he was explaining the strength of the buildings windows to visiting law students. Hoy previously has conducted demonstrations of window
strength according to police reports. Peter Lawson, managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest" members of the 200-man association. A person has to wonder what the dimmer members of this law firm are like.
 

Nominee 5: [The News of the Weird]: Michael Anderson Godwin had spent several years awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder
conviction before having his sentence reduced to life in prison. While sitting on a metal toilet in his cell attempting to fix his small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted. 

Nominee 6: [The Indianapolis Star]: A Dunkirk, IN man, using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a muzzleloader, was killed Monday night when
the weapon discharged in his face, sheriff's investigators said. Gregory David Pryo r, 19, died in his parents' rural Dunkirk home at about 11:30 PM.
Investigators said Pryor was cleaning a 54 caliber muzzle-loader that had not been firing properly. He was using the lighter to look into the barrel
when the gunpowder ignited. 

Nominee 7: [Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario]: A man cleaning a bird feeder on the balcony of his condominium apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to his death. "Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheelchair when the accident occurred," said Inspector Darcy Honer of the Peel Regional Police. "It appears that the chair moved, and he went over the balcony," Honer said. 

AND THE WINNER IS...

 
[Arkansas Democrat Gazette]: Two local men were injured when their pickup truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday. Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc, and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock, were returning to Des Arc after a frog-catching trip. 

On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's pickup truck headlights malfunctioned.  The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older-model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis noticed that the ..22 caliber bullets from his pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering-wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet the headlights again began to operate properly, and the two men proceeded on eastbound toward the White River Bridge. After traveling approximately 20 miles, and just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the testicles.

The vehicle swerved sharply right, exited the pavement, and struck a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident but will
require extensive surgery to repair the damage to his testicles, which will never operate as intended. Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. 

"Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his balls off, or we might be dead," stated Wallis. "I've been a trooper for 10 years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me.
I can't believe that those two would admit how this accident happened," said Snyder.

Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia Poole (Poole's wife) asked how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get them from the truck?

Though Poole and Wallis did not die as a result of their misadventure as normally required by Darwin Award Official Rules, it can be argued that Poole did in fact effectively remove himself from the gene pool.

These people walk among us, they breed, and vote...

See ya, eh!

Bob

Honourable mention: