No thanks, I'll have a Coke.

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Anyone who has seen Japanese games shows on TV knows that they are part of a different world.

But vending machines that doll out used (!) school girl's knickers?

A colleague at work said that he had seen them in Tokyo.  I took him at his word but, when I told Margaret, she demanded proof.

It wasn't hard to find and, for the sceptics, Snopes confirms it to be true too.

It is a different world out there.
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Keep your head still!

I have watched the doves on our powerlines and their heads don't move when the line (and their body) does but I was fascinated by the extent of 'head-stillness' shown by this chook.
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Don't tell Sesame Street...

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Seems the CSIRO attracts them...

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The first and last in this list would have had an interesting time at school.
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Should you be in the Fisheries department?

Some people carry a load through life.
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You said what?

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Driving to work this morning I was following a truck that had the above slogan painted on its back.

Somehow it doesn't sit right.

A lot of meat has Salmonella on it, chicken especially, but the meat doesn't know or care. Doesn't seem to harm the meat itself. It is also found in lots of other places, other than meat. Salmonella is very easily killed by cooking.

I assume that they mean that television poisons the brain, but it could mean that it gives it diarrhoea. Why do politicians and journalists spring to mind when I think of mental diarrhoea?

What would have been a better analogy?

Television is to the brain as...

...Novocaine is to a toothache? (tries hard, can do better.)
...tomato ketchup is to any food? (OK, but dull).
...headlights are to a rabbit?

Suggestions?

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Perhaps I should post this next week...

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I am approaching the Curate's 1200th post and perhaps I should have held onto this for then but I had nothing else to post so impatience won the day.

Above is a screen shot from Wikipedia's entry on wedding anniversaries.

The three columns are "Traditional (US)", "Traditional (UK)" and "Modern (US)".

It was the oak and granite that caught my eye.

"Happy anniversary dear, I bought you a granite headstone!"

[Whack!] "Ow!"
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Hang on. I'm confused...

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One of the 'novelty' gifts I got for Xmas was a measuring cup, just like my Mum and my Granny used to use. Ah, memories!

But, on the outside, was the following sticker:


It seems that they don't make things like they used to!
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The Spear of Fame

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Near my work is a place called "The Spear of Fame - Manufacturers of Fine Ceremonial Regalia".

But what amuses me is that it is directly opposite a brothel called "Butterflies".

I wonder how many Butterflies clients also boasted fine ceremonial regalia?

(No photos; I felt it was risky to be hanging around a brothel with a camera.)
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Sizzling Flying Foxes, Batman!

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Thousands of Country Energy customers lost power last night after a colony of flying foxes flew into a supply line on NSW's north coast.

The incident left 10,500 homes and businesses from Yamba, Maclean and Iluka without power after 9:00pm AEDT yesterday.

Some flying foxes died as a result.

-ABC News

When I was a boy the bat signal shone out at night, right enough but no bats died.

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Ambushed by the obvious...

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The saxophone was invented and patented over 160 years ago.

The various sources differ on the exact date but it was patented somewhere late June, 1846.

And you know what?

I had never occurred to me that the saxophone was invented by a Mr Sax.

Obvious when you know.
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Late developer

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Apparently George W Bush listed "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" as one of his ten favourite books of his childhood.

He was 23 when it was written.

Funny. Embarrassing for George but really it does show how our memories are reconstructions rather than recollections.

Never trust an eye-witness.

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On eels and wallets.

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And now for something different.

Reports that residual electric charge in the eel skin used to make eel skin wallets is demagnetising credit cards.

There it is men, the way to stop your wife spending - buy her a nice eel skin wallet or purse!
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There must be a reason...

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There must be a reason...I just don't know what it is.
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Shit-house Poetry

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Poetry in the loo can cut down on paper use too, says a Japanese group campaigning to save toilet paper as part of the country's battle against global warming.

Simply pasting a "toilet poem" at the eye level of a person seated in the cubicle can help cut toilet paper use by up to 20 per cent, a study by the research centre Japan Toilet Labo showed.

"That paper will meet you only for a moment," reads one poem.
"Fold the paper over and over and over again," says another.
Or just: "Love the toilet".

Now the group is looking to have its posters displayed in 1,000 public toilets.

Perhaps J Cosmo could come up with an offering?
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Nuclear attack on Adelaide?

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In the forelorn hope of finding rain clouds on the horizon, I checked the Weather Bureau's radar site this morning. (More of that later) Above is what I saw.

What the?

What on earth is happening in Adelaide?

I went to the Adelaide radar and the picture is no better:

Have the Martian's finally arrived?

The Kallathumpians bombed the place?

An enormous circular rainstorm, heavier at the edges than the middle?

Need a new valve in their radar?

It's a mystery!
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Boring is as boring does.

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A federal judge has ruled against a US couple who accused Google of invading their privacy by publishing a Street View picture of their house in the Internet giant's free online map service.

In April of last year, a Pennsylvania couple filed suit charging Google with trespass, negligence, invasion of privacy, and unjustly enriching itself by profiting from the photo of their property.

"While it is easy to imagine that many whose property appears on Google's virtual maps resent the privacy implications, it is hard to believe that any -- other than the most exquisitely sensitive -- would suffer shame or humiliation," the judge wrote in the ruling.

Well, maybe the shame and humiliation comes from having such a dull and boring house?

And the plaintiff's names?

Aaron and Christine Boring.
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I don't suppose you have a mineral water?

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A hardline Hindu organization, known for its opposition to "corrupting" Western food imports, is planning to launch a new soft drink made from cow's urine, often seen as sacred in parts of India.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or National Volunteer Corps, said the bovine beverage is undergoing laboratory tests for the next 2 to 3 months but did not give a specific date for its commercial release.

The flavor is not yet known, but the RSS said the liquid produced by Hinduism's revered holy cows is being mixed with products such as aloe vera and gooseberry to fight diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

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Einstein was not the only one with theories!

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How about these for winning theories!

A contest was held for people to submit their theories on ANY subject. Here are the winners:

4th RUNNER-UP (Subject: Probability Theory)--If an infinite number of yobboes riding in an infinite number of four wheel drives fire an infinite number of shotgun rounds at an infinite number of highway signs, they will eventually produce all the world's great literary works in Braille.

3rd RUNNER-UP (Subject: Bio- Mechanics)--Why Yawning Is Contagious: You yawn to equalize the pressure on your eardrums. This pressure change outside your eardrums unbalances other people's ear pressures, so they then yawn to even it out.

2nd RUNNER-UP (Subject: Symbolic Logic)-- Communist China is technologically underdeveloped because they have no alphabet and therefore cannot use acronyms to communicate technical ideas at a faster rate.

1st RUNNER-UP (Subject: Newtonian Mechanics)--The earth may spin faster on its axis due to deforestation. Just as a figure skater's rate of spin increases when the arms are brought in close to the body, the cutting of tall trees may cause our planet to spin dangerously fast.

HONORABLE MENTION (Subject: Linguistics)-- The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian "pahks his cah," the lost R's migrate southwest, causing a Texan to "warsh" his car and invest in "erl" wells.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER (Subject: Perpetual Motion)--When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands buttered side down. It was proposed to strap giant slabs of hot buttered toast, butter-side-up, to the back of a hundred tethered cats; the two opposing forces will cause the cats to hover, spinning inches above the ground. Using the giant buttered toast/cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.
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It must be Japanese thing.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - A 60-year-old man who was thrown into the air in celebration at his retirement party died after his colleagues failed to catch him and he fell to the floor, a Japanese newspaper reported on Tuesday.

He worked for the Kamikaze Pilot's Federation, perhaps?
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