El Rodafonio – The Craziest Musical Contraption Ever Created

Yes, indeed. It's New Year's Eve - time for some music, good cheer and reflection on the events of the past year. Hey, great to see you. Thanks for dropping out of cyberspace. I managed to hold onto your spot at the VIP table despite the crowds so grab yourself a mug of coffee, a virtual treat and let the music begin!

The street theatre scene in Barcelona was completely transformed in 2010, with the invention of the Rodafonio – perhaps the weirdest musical contraption in the world. Created by renowned designer and musician César Alvarez Bayer, it consists of a gigantic wheel that’s four meters high and only 15 cm wide, like a huge waffle iron.

The wheel can accommodate a crew of five – the members of the Catalan music band ‘Factoria Circular’. Three musicians sit inside the wheel in their respective metal circles, playing their musical instruments – a guitar, a saxophone, and a set of drums – to various tunes, while occasionally spinning inside the giant wheel. The other two members are actors who pedal the wheel into motion, bringing the huge mechanical device to life.

Whoa! Sounds like a party to me. Where do they set off the fireworks?

See ya, eh...and party hearty this New Year's Eve all the while managing to stay off the radar, if you know what I mean!

Bob

Comment and picture from Tomas in Toronto about yesterday's 'open-air urinals':

I have seen similar open public street urinals in Amsterdam. However those are probably 100 years old.

Of course my brother and I had to use these... and here is a picture. I should have taken one with feet visible.

My reply:

Thanks Tomas...but a 'selfie' would be too much information!

Happy New Year!

Bizarre Open-Air Urinals Spark Criticism in Australia

G'day. mate! How are ya going? Got time for a mugga and an ANZAC bikkie or two? Well, good on you! Lean on your coffee and I'll tell you a John Dory about a problem-solving solution in OZ...

After nearly a decade of trying to manage public urination in a busy nightclub strip, Australia’s Gold Coast City Council finally hit upon an idea – temporary outdoor urinals. The loos are primarily aimed at drunken men who tend to relieve themselves in front of businesses and in alleyways. But the ingenious solution has sparked disgust among locals, who find the urinals ugly and offensive.

According to Councillor Lex Bell, these urinals are the only way to manage the problem of public urination that has plagued Cavill Mall and Orchid Avenue in Surfer’s Paradise, southeastern Queensland. Authorities simply do not have the manpower to fine all the people who urinate in public in these areas and don’t have the authority to arrest them.

“We cannot arrest such people – we don’t have the power, so the thought was if we put urinals in places where the inebriated people have to stagger past, they may well use them. When people are staggering from nightclubs, they won’t seek out public toilets – even if they are there,” he explained.

Bloody Hell! That's a cracker, mate!

See ya, eh!

Bob

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Well, hello there! Thanks for taking time to spiral down from cyberspace for a little joy juice and a virtual treat (not to mention the exclusive company, eh!). Coffee's hot and the VTs are out of this world. Got a couple interesting entrepreneurial ventures to tell you about that show the spirit of creative capitalism is alive and well...though the products may not be.

1. Meg C Jewelry Gallery of Lexington, Kentucky, introduced a limited line of Kentucky-centric gold-plated necklaces and earrings in June (recently touted for Christmas!) -- each dangling with genuine Kentucky Fried Chicken bones. All stems were picked clean from KFC wings, washed, dried, sealed with varnish and conductive paint, copper-electroformed, and then electroplated with 14k gold. Small-bone necklaces go for $130 (large, $160), and earrings for $200 a pair -- and according to Meg C, accessorize anything from jeans to a lady's best little black dress. [Louisville Biz Blog, 12-10-2014]

2. "Ethical" fur designer Pamela Paquin debuted the first of her anticipated line of roadkill furs recently -- raccoon neck muffs ("I can literally take two raccoons and put them butt to butt (so they) clasp neck to neck") that will sell for around $1,000. Raccoons yield "luscious" fur, she said, but her favorite pelt is otter. The Massachusetts woman leaves her card with various New England road crews ("Hi, my name is Pamela. Will you call me when you have roadkill?") and does business under the name Petite Mort ("little death" in French, but also, she said, a euphemism for a woman's post-orgasm sensations). [Washington Post, 12-5-2014] 

So, how many animals do you think get killed on the streets of the USA every year? Whatever your guesstimate, go higher: according to Culture Change, it’s  approximately 1 million a day, or 365 million a year. By comparison, Born Free USA reports that approximately 50 million animals are killed every year for their fur. (As Culture Change puts it, “only meat-eaters take a larger toll than its motorists.”)

Well how about that! See, there are possibilities all around you just waiting for your delicate creative touch to turn something most people would discard into something other folks will pay good money for.  Is there a Roadkill Café in your town? Add a little Bearnaise Sauce, a bottle of wine and Whoa Bubba! You've got yourself a feast!

See ya, eh!

Bob

This Guy Has Been Driving Backwards for the Last 11 Years

G'day to you! I trust you are enjoying / surviving the holidays and taking time to relax periodically with a refreshing mug of coffee and a seasonal treat... virtual or otherwise. Haven't made my double double butter tarts yet but one of these days I'll get to it. We just got back from Ajax-by the-Lake and now catching up on all the things that need to get done. While you are relaxing with your mugful, here's a story about an unusual taxi driver...

Indian taxi driver Harpreet Dev is well-known in his hometown of Bhatinda, Punjab, for his amazing reverse driving skills. The 30-year-old has been driving his cab in reverse for the past 11 years. Harpreet is so used to it now that he says he doesn’t trust himself to drive forwards anymore! He even has a special government license that allows him to drive backwards in any state in the northern part of India.

Harpreet’s passion for reverse driving started in 2003, when his faithful Fiat Padmini  got stuck in reverse gear late one night. “I was outside the city, I had no money, so I thought of driving the car backwards until Bhatinda,” he said. “Then I drove backwards and later on I gained confidence.”

That’s when he realized that he was really on to something, so the next morning he painted the words ‘Back Gear Champion’ on the side of the car and redesigned its gearbox to have four reverse gears and only one forward.

His next step will be English lessons so he learns how to spell the word Champion!

See ya, eh!

Bob

This Adorable Bird Is Apparently a Vicious Brain-Eating Zombie in Disguise

Hi there! Trust you had a great Christmas and if you celebrate Boxing Day, that you survived the hoards of mad shoppers. Ready for a mug of coffee and a virtual treat (question mark). My computer is suddenly giving me odd characters like É and it is too early for the brain to fool around with settings.

This little bird may look lovely but don’t let its appearance fool you for. In reality, it is one of the most vicious creatures in the world. Also known as ‘The Zombie tit’, this chirping ball of feathers is a killing machine with an insatiable hunger for brains.

Scientists generally agree that modern birds are direct descendants of fierce dinosaurs like the T-Rex and Velociraptor. Of course, most of them are so small and their feathers so pretty that it’s hard for people to actually associate them with the monstrous creatures depicted in films like Jurassic Park.

However, their predatory instincts have definitely passed the test of time, and this holds true for the tiny Great tit, as well. So what’s so scary about this seemingly harmless bird? Well, just that it is known to routinely seek out other birds and bats, crush their heads and feast on their brains!

Descendants of fierce dinosaurs, eh(question mark). Sure, I can believe anything...if itès on the Net!

See ya, eh!

Bob

The World’s Longest Burning Light-Bulb Has Been On for 113 Years

Well now. You're looking bright and cheerful this Boxing Day. Survived another turkey overload in fine style, did you? Yeah, me too. Got time for a coffee and a virtual treat or are you still full from yesterday? Hey...speaking of bright and cheerful...

With most of us having to replace light-bulbs every few months, it’s amazing that the Centennial Light-Bulb at Fire Station No. 6 in Livermore, California, has been burning continuously ever since 1901.

The exact date the centennial bulb was turned on is unknown, although its birthday is usually celebrated on June 18. However, we do know that it has been alight 24 hours a day since then, shining a dim light over the fire engines. 

Apart from the few power outages it has faced in the last 113 years, the unbreakable light-bulb has only had two breaks – one in 1976, when it was moved from one fire station and installed in another, and one in 2013, when it was off for 9 3.4 hours. When the bulb was moved, almost 40 years ago, people were so cautious not to break it that they severed the cord, instead of unscrewing it, and transferred it with a full police and fire truck escort. The whole business lasted just 22 minutes, after which it was back to business as usual.

The impressive light-bulb is apparently an improved hand-blown incandescent lamp with carbon filament. Debora Katz, a physicist at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., has conducted extensive research on the centennial light-bulb and what makes it so special, using a vintage light bulb from Shelby Electric Co. that is a near replica of the Livermore lamp. “The Livermore light bulb differs from a contemporary incandescent bulb in two ways,” says Katz. “First its filament is about eight times thicker than a contemporary bulb. Second, the filament is a semiconductor, most likely made of carbon. When a conductor gets hotter, its ability to conduct electricity goes down. When the Shelby bulb gets hotter, it becomes a better conductor of electricity.”

Back in those days things were build to last. Planned obsolescence was an unknown system. Of course many things, electronics especially these days, are obsolete before you finish paying for them (as in a phone contract). Mind you, the old style lightbulb has now gone the way of the Dodo Bird with the new spiral type that is supposed to last many times longer and use less energy. Good idea.

Slow down and smell the lasagna, that's what I say! Nothing to do with anything in particular. I just like lasagna!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Bob and Nong wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Ho! Ho! Ho! We're off on Christmas Day to Ajax, ON, near Toronto, to have Christmas dins with my sister, Linda, our 94 year old mum who lives in a senior's home nearby, Linda's three sons, Matt, Mike and Geoff and their respective significant others...and of course, Baker, Linda's 100 lb Great Pyrenees who will be delighted to share any turkey that comes her way!

We have had an eventful year what with me undergoing a triple bypass operation in March; selling our house (to the same folks who we bought it from a year before), moving to an apartment downtown; taking lots of walks, meeting lots of new people and learning more about Cornwall. 

Lots of good times with friends at Thum's Thai Kitchen; Cedar's in Cornwall Square for great Lebanese food; a trip to Upper Canada Village  just 30 minutes away; visits from my Brother Terry and his wife Lynne, my sister Wendy and her husband Rene; a visit from old friends Nid and Tomas who came from Toronto for a weekend. We also visited the Thai Temple in Ottawa (Kanata) to participate in a 'tumbon' - an enjoyable event, food, Thai music and new people to meet.

By chance, I met up with an old friend from Montreal with whom I had lost touch. When we were selling our house, we had a garage sale. I had a baking table at the front of the garage and I saw this older bearded guy and lady (she wasn't bearded) looking around. When he said something, I recognized his voice and said, "You sound like a friend of mine from Montreal named Larry Wells." He stopped dead in his tracks, looked at me and said, "I've been looking for you for 20 years!

Larry and I had shared an apartment in Montreal in the early sixties! They have been camping for seven years each summer not far from Cornwall. Lots of good times and memories to reminisce about. His wife, Lorraine, has been with him for 48 years! Wow! Nong and I are coming up on 27 so that's not bad either, eh!

We spent a fun weekend in Montreal visiting the incredible Botanical Gardens there. Nong has discovered Skype and so she now chats regularly with her sisters in Thailand. I chat with my cousin Robin in England, too. 

Nong's favourite toy this year is her new IPad and I just bought a small Lenovo computer for when we travel anywhere. I need access to the Net when we're away and an IPad isn't the right tool for me. So, I'm busy right now learning to operate a computer than is less than half the size and a quarter the weight of my Dell dinosaur. I also have to load a batch of programs but there's no CD drive on the new computer so I to transfer everything from CD to a Lexar thumbdrive then load them from there to the Lenovo. The Lexar is a 32 GB drive so it can handle everything. Technological progress! Keeps the old brain active, too... and staves off nastiness like dementia and Alzheimer's.

I'm waiting for my first assignment as a volunteer with Tri-County Literary Council and expect to be teaching other seniors how to figure out their computer in TCLC's new Home and Not Alone program. That'll start in January.

I got several books published on Smashwords this year; https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/rwftaylor
... had one small art exhibit at a senior's home and expect to do 2 or 3 in 2015
... joined Focus Art - an art group, 
...looking at joining a writers' group, 
...updating my online school website, www.teachesl.org
...always adding a slew of new images to my art website...
www.bobsartstudio.net (which for some reason, seems to have a big following in Brazil)
...working on a presentation I have been asked to do in Alexandria (Ontario, not Egypt!) on Thailand in April. I was supposed to do it this past April but it was too soon after my heart operation and I wasn't up to it.
...when our friend Shaun packed up and moved to join his wife in Thailand in the fall, I was suffering from 'friend withdrawals' but amazingly or providentially(?), I met a fellow at TCLC one day who is also retired, lives in Ottawa but is in Cornwall during the week, runs a small publishing company and we seem to have hit it off. Lots in common and, believe it or not, he lives on the same street - a block away from Shaun's condo.... Jim and I have coffee/lunch regularly now at The Grind...a neat little restaurant within walking distance for both of us.

Lots of things on the go...keeping busy...enjoying life and dealing with anything it throws at us. 

Nong and I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Fun-Filled 2015!

See ya, eh!

Bob and Nong

Good deed Luke

Hey there! Great to see you. Thanks for clicking by today. Got time for a mugful of coffee and a virtual treat? Of course you do. Say...done any good deeds lately? Read about Good Deed Luke...

26-year-old Luke Cameron has performed a good deed every day for an entire year, and he says that the exercise has completely transformed his life. The Cheltenham, England resident made the vow when a close friend died from cancer last year, and since then, he has been doing at least one nice thing every single day. He estimates that he has spent close to £3,000 ($4,700) on good deeds in the past year.

“In a world of taking selfies with your besties and Instagramming pictures of your new handbag and Rolex watch, we forget to think about anyone else but ourselves,” he said. “Our generation has forgotten to care about others, because we are too self-obsessed to even care what others are going through.”

Luke runs a website called TheGoodDeedDiary.com, on which he documents every single good deed or kind gesture – ranging from taking the trash out for his elderly neighbor, or baking cakes for his family and friends. He has also purchased meals for several people at McDonald’s, and even paid for a stranger’s petrol just because they stood next to him in the line.

Luke now has over 12,000 followers on his corresponding Facebook page, and more than 6,000 followers on Twitter.

An ambitious undertaking but, you know, looking around, there are opportunities to help out and we don't always see them. One of my good friends in Thailand just died of cancer. Can't promise to do it everyday but maybe I'll pay a little more attention to folks who need a hand.

Helping someone might make me feel good as well, no?

See ya, eh!

Bob

Humans Can't Do Without Chickens!

Hi ya! How's it going where you are? We've got some freezing rain happening here and rain for the next three days... including Christmas Day by the look of it. Glad we're taking the train and not driving 4 hours to my sister's this year! Grab a mug! Fill it with some newly perked coffee and snag a virtual muffin or doughnut at the same time, okay? Got a chicken story for you today...

For most of us, the word "chicken" spells a cold, clammy slab of plastic-wrapped white meat plucked out of the refrigerated section of our local supermarket. But in the ancient world, and in many cultures today, chickens had deep religious and social significance.

Humans can't do without chickens. Chicken is the most popular meat today. Americans eat more than 80 pounds a year, more than pork or beef. So we tend to think people must have domesticated the chicken because it was good to eat, right? Well, no. Scientists now believe chickens were not domesticated to eat in the first place.

Every chicken you see on Earth is the descendant of the red jungle fowl, (pictured above) a very shy jungle bird that lives in south Asia, all the way from Pakistan to Sumatra and Indonesia. It's a small, pheasant-like bird hunters like because it's very hard to find, so it poses a great challenge. The strange thing is that these birds are so shy that when they're captured in the wild, they can die of a heart attack because they're so terrified of humans.

Chicken soup and the flu vaccine have something in common. So Jewish mothers were right!

There have been several scientific studies in the past decade or so that show quite clearly that chicken soup contains something that helps us get over a cold. It won't cure your cold. But it will definitely help take care of some of those symptoms, like a runny nose or fever. In the ancient world, the chicken was considered a kind of two-legged pharmacy. If you had diarrhea, if you were depressed, if you had a child who was a bed wetter, you name it, there was some part of the chicken that could cure you.

When slaves were brought here from West Africa, they came with a deep knowledge of the chicken, because in West Africa the chicken was a common farm animal and also a very sacred animal. The knowledge that African-Americans brought served them very well, because white plantation owners for the most part didn't care much about chicken. In colonial times there were so many other things to eat that chicken was not high on the list.

Whites felt chickens weren't important, so they were often the only animals slaves were allowed to raise in places like Virginia and South Carolina. They would raise chickens and sell them to their owners or to other slave owners. As a result, the chicken business became dominated by African-Americans. Most cooking on the plantations was also done by African-American women.

So whites began to eat more chicken. They also began to like fried chicken. Most people agree that West Africa was a center of this cuisine, where you would fry chicken parts in palm oil. And the slaves brought that tradition to the South. Over time it became one of the most important cuisines of that region.

I’ve only taken excerpts from this article. There is a lot more in the full article so if you are keen to read more about how chickens changed civilization, go here: 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141221-chickens-civilization-avian-flu-locavore-turkey-ngfood-booktalk/

See ya, eh!

Bob

What the heck is an Eargasm?

Well, there you are. You had me worried for a minute. I thought you might be stuck in traffic in cyberspace. Glad you made it! Help yourself to a perky mug of coffee and a virtual treat. Try a Vietnamese doughnut, why don't'cha? Speaking of Vietnamese...

The ear has a "G-spot," explained Santa Clara, California, ear, nose and throat surgeon Todd Dray, and thus the moans of ecstasy that Vietnamese "ear pickers" reportedly elicit from their clients might well be justified. 

A San Jose Mercury News reporter, dispatched to Ho Chi Minh City in January (2011) to check it out, learned that barber shop technicians could sometimes coax "eargasms" (as they removed wax) by tickling a certain spot next to the ear drum served by multiple nerve endings and tissue paper-thin skin. 

Said one female client, "Everybody is afraid the first time, but after, it's, 'Oh my God!'"

Said one Vietnamese man, returning home after a trip abroad, and who went immediately from the airport to a "hot toc" parlor for a picking, "(This) brings a lot of happiness." [San Jose Mercury News, 1-23-2011]

So let's see now...if you have both ears done, why that would qualify as multiple eargasms! 

No wonder, Julius Ceasar went about calling out, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Lend me your ears!" Do you think he knew something we didn't until just now...unless you are Vietnamese, of course!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Winter Solstice 2014: What is it – and why will our mornings carry on getting darker?

B-r-r-r! Good day to you. Cold one here...-14C this AM here in Cornwall, ON Canada - the Centre of the Universe! (Yeah? What universe is that and what have you been smokin, there Bob?). If you're half as cold as we are, you'll need a mug of coffee and a virtual treat to get you going so dig in.

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. It occurs when the sun's daily maximum height in the sky is at its lowest, and the North Pole is tilted furthest away from the sun. This results in the least number of daylight hours and the longest night of the year.

The Solstice is celebrated by druids and pagans as the ‘re-birth’ of the sun for the New Year. In the UK, thousands gather each year to mark the occasion at Stonehenge in Somerset.

The Winter Solstice occurs in December in the Northern Hemisphere, and in June in the Southern Hemisphere.

The date itself is not fixed:  the phenomenon doesn't always occur on 21 December in the Northern Hemisphere. Sometimes it arrives in the early hours of 22 December, which will happen next year. The hour also fluctuates: last year's Solstice arrived at 17:11, whereas next year's is predicted to be at 04:38.

Why will mornings still get darker after the Solstice?

A solar day is rarely 24 hours exactly.  The sun therefore lags behind the clock for part of the year, and speeds ahead of it for another.

The length of a solar day varies because the axis of the Earth's rotation is tilted - 23.5 degrees from vertical - and because its speed fluctuates as it orbits the sun, accelerating when it is closer to the star's gravitational pull and decelerating when further away.

It takes a while for the clock and the solar days to align: evenings draw in towards their earliest sunset a couple of weeks before the shortest day, and mornings continue to get darker until a couple of weeks after.

Hey, I know what that's like. Takes me a while to get going in the mornings when it's this cold. 

So what's the good news? Only 13 weeks till spring!

See ya, eh!

Bob

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/winter-solstice-2014-what-is-it--and-why-will-mornings-still-get-darker-9938160.html

In Memoriam...David Kent

Khun Patamaporn, Director of Srisuvit School advised me this morning of the passing of my good friend and colleague, Teacher David Kent, from cancer. When I was appointed Head of the English Programme and Foreign Teachers at Srisuivit School in Banglamung, Thailand, Dave was one of the first teachers to join our new programme.

Dave was an excellent teacher, well loved by his many students. His knowledge and easy-going style were well appreciated by Thai and foreign teachers alike. 

Dave was the voice of reason in the teachers’ room; an enthusiastic participant in our English Camps, student outings and fun festivals such as our New Years and Student Day Event. 

  

Whenever we were introducing a new textbook or school procedure, Dave was the one whose opinion I counted upon and valued the most. I conferred with Dave on many occasions.

He will be sadly missed by everyone in the school and the ex-pat community in the Pattaya area. We extend our sincere condolences to Dave’s family in Great Britain.

Teacher Bob and Teacher Nong