News of the Weird

[FactionHeir]

Time to get rid of bad habits...before they explode

[Gregoshi]

Time to get rid of bad habits...before they explode

More ammo for the gum control lobby. Are they sure it wasn't a jawbreaker?

[Crazed Rabbit]

This time it isn't news of the weird, but news that is weird. From the New York Times, Of Color | Stylish Gifts. A section devoted to gifts for "colored people".

Somali fashion, do-it-yourself henna kits, children's books that draw inspiration from the lives of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor: it's not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season. Here are some possibilities.

Since, you know, "colored people" don't like the same things the rest of us like.

CR

[Gregoshi]

From the New York Times, Of Color | Stylish Gifts. A section devoted to gifts for "colored people".

Since, you know, "colored people" don't like the same things the rest of us like.

Why not CR? Everyone's always dreaming of a White Christmas.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I just want to clarify I was being sarcastic, and I'm not sure if Gregoshi was not being serious as well.

CR

[Major Robert Dump]

I really want the "Wise Latina" shirt.

[Gregoshi]

I just want to clarify I was being sarcastic, and I'm not sure if Gregoshi was not being serious as well.

CR

I noted your sarcasm and I was definitely not being serious either. Yours was a springboard for my pun.

[CCRunner]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4725887

The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will consider a bill that would allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prohibit any bowl game from calling itself a "national championship" unless the game is "the final game of a single elimination post-season playoff system." The subcommittee is expected to vote on the proposal on Wednesday after a line-by-line consideration of the bill.

Great to see our congress is focusing on the real issues

Not really news of the weird, but it doesn't really deserve its own thread.

[Lemur]

For the dog owner who can't stand the idea of a dog with plumbing ... Rear Gear.



Is your pet feeling left in the dirt because of his/her unsightly rear? I’ve got them covered... Rear Gear is handmade in Portland, OR and offers a cheerful solution to be-rid your favorite pet’s un-manicured back side.

Rear Gear comes in many designs including a disco ball, air freshener, heart, flower, biohazard, smiley face, number one ribbon, cupcake, sheriff's badge, dice, and you can even make yours custom, so there’s a Rear Gear for everyone.

Get yours today here at etsy or write me an email and support small business! Please contact me if you'd like multiples... Make sure to note which style you'd like in the shipping notes and enjoy

[Hosakawa Tito]

From the Department of Oxymorons. A work in progress...

[Pannonian]

Octopus snatches coconut and runs

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Underwater footage reveals that the creatures scoop up halved coconut shells before scampering away with them so they can later use them as shelters.

Imagine buying a coconut, opening it, only to find the kraken hidden within. We're not safe.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Don't you hate it when you misplace that remote?

While being examined, the tipsy student turned over in bed, and inadvertently changed channel on the ward's telly.

[Furunculus]

which euro politician has the most hilarious name?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/da...ame-in-europe/

[Louis VI the Fat]

which euro politician has the most hilarious name?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/da...ame-in-europe/

Man, those people in the comments have no sense of humour. Goebbels and Tiny Kox? That's hilarious. I'd so be giggling uncontrollably for the whole of their speaking time.

[Furunculus]

Tiny Kox is an unfortunate name whichever way you look at it. :D

[InsaneApache]

Tiny Kox is an unfortunate name whichever way you look at it. :D

Presumably with a microscope.

[Crazed Rabbit]

The true story behind Berlusconi's recent injury:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

EDIT: Slate's The Explainer column has a list of unanswered questions from 2009. Some great stuff!

What would be the citizenship of a baby born to astronauts on the way to or from Mars (or on the Moon)? Let's make it extra-complicated and presume the parents are of different nationalities.

is it leagle to own a phone sex company in new york state****how do i protect my self what other things do i need to do i have girls lined up and ready to go ,,,,,,, just want to be leagle dan

I don't care about NASA and the space station stuff any more. Am I the only one? Should I care?

CR

[Hosakawa Tito]

Here's a pic of a snow moose.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And what could be rarer than a snow moose? How about 2 together?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[InsaneApache]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A diminutive, slightly stooped old woman gets on to a train, unnoticed by most of her fellow travellers, who are probably more concerned with whether there is going to be snow on the points at Letchworth, or whether the buffet car is going to run out of shortbread.

The chap on her left is a bit more interested, however. He takes her picture as she makes her way down Platform 11 and gets on the 10.45 from King’s Cross; but then that’s because he is a member of the train staff, and he knows that under the orange and white coloured headscarf, it’s the Queen. (Memo to Royalty Protection Department: if the Queen was attempting to travel incognito, it would probably be best not to opt for the old head scarf disguise. No one in this country wears head scarves any more, except for the Queen, three dowager duchesses and a woman in Knightsbridge).

It is a relatively little-known fact that when the Queen travels to Norfolk for her Christmas break, she travels by scheduled train. It is an unashamedly Royal one, however: not only does it start at King’s Cross, but it takes the Queen all the way to King’s Lynn (by which time, if she were human, she might be wondering: wouldn’t Queen’s Cross be a rather good name for a station? Or Queen’s Lynn? Or Queen’s anything?).

The point remains, however, that it is a regular service used by regular passengers. No helicopters for her, or chartered flights. Although this has been her chosen mode of Christmas travel for a few years now, this was the first year that Buckingham Palace has allowed the press to take a photographic record of the event: perhaps the Queen is planning to send a copy of the picture to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.
Times Archive
The Court at Sandringham, 1901: Remarkable scene at St Pancras

It will not have escaped even the most casual of observers’ attention that by the time the Queen was seated in her first class compartment she was looking a trifle short of festive cheer. Glum might even be the word.

Had she forgotten her Senior Railcard? Possibly not. For a monarch who does not carry cash, rail tickets are a fairly remote possibility. (“Yes, Mr Ticket Collector, I’m sure I had when I left home this morning. Let me check my handbag once more. It’s in here somewhere.”)

How about the company? That rather sinister man on her left, perhaps? Has he been eating crisps? Talking loudly on his mobile phone? Putting his feet up on the seat opposite, even?

Oh. He’s her protection officer. She’s probably used to him. Come to think of it, he’s probably got the tickets.

(Should anyone ask, the 95-minute journey costs £44.40 for a first class ticket, and £27.70 for a standard seat. When things get really tight, there is a £16.70 annual saving that can be made without trying).

The one remaining explanation for her sombre expression is one that will endear her to most of her subjects. It’s the family. She is off to Sandringham, where she and the Duke of Edinburgh will be joined by several members of the Royal Family.

Families and Christmas are a tricky combination at the best of times. The fights. The rows over who’s been cheating at charades. The battles for the TV remote.

Then imagine all that, with a house full of Windsors. It’s a life of sacrifice, being Queen.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6960529.ece

Good for Her.

This reminds me of the time I went visiting my father and literally bumped into Harold Wilson. I nearly knocked him over in Bradford Exchange station. He was only a little chap, smaller than me and I was 15 at the time. Not a copper or protection officer in sight, bearing in mind that this was in the middle of the IRA mainland bombing campaign and he was Prime Minister. How things have changed in the last 35 years eh?

He even spoke to me. He said, "Sorry lad, I should watch where I'm going". And so he should have, senile old git.

[Hosakawa Tito]

The older generations always seemed to be of sterner stuff. Think she'll be the last royal to traipse the platform with you commoners ? I do.

It will not have escaped even the most casual of observers’ attention that by the time the Queen was seated in her first class compartment she was looking a trifle short of festive cheer. Glum might even be the word.

Yeah, well, you can pick your friends, but not your family.

[Louis VI the Fat]

My God, it's true! At first I thought it was an urban myth:

Archibald Clerk Kerr, 1st Baron Inverchapel PC (March 17, 1882 in Australia – July 5, 1951) was a British diplomat.

An Australian-born Scot, Clerk Kerr entered the Foreign Service in 1906. He served as Ambassador to China during the Japanese occupation of the late 1930s. From 1935 to 1938, he served as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Iraq. Clerk Kerr was moved to Moscow in February 1942 where he forged a remarkable relationship with Stalin. His work there and at the Big Three Conferences put him at the very centre of international politics.

After the war he was appointed Ambassador to the United States, and was created Baron Inverchapel in 1946. An acquaintance of Guy Burgess and Donald Duart Maclean's superior in Washington, he took their defection to the USSR badly, the shock hastening his early death in 1951.

His personal life has been described as colourful: a close confidant of the Kaiser's sister in the years before the Great War, he was also a disappointed suitor of the Queen Mother before his marriage, divorce, and re-marriage, to a Chilean lady 29 years his junior. Politically on the left, a noted wit and unconventional in manner, he was sometimes suspected of excessive understanding for the Soviet position. His biographer, Donald Gillies, considers rumours of pro-Soviet sympathies highly unlikely.

Clark Kerr is best remembered in the public imagination for a much reproduced note he is said to have written in 1943 to Lord Pembroke while Ambassador to Moscow:

[Hosakawa Tito]

Turtle gas. Baked beans have the same effect on me.

[Vladimir]

Too good...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-genitals.html

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Male Muscovy ducks have evolved super-long penises – with "explosive erection" ability – while females retaliate with antagonistic vaginas

[Pannonian]

Another classic headline for Louis. Daredevils cross the Han river in Korea, walking across on a thin wire, one by one. What headline should one use?

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

[Gregoshi]

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

Sheer brilliance. Perfection.

[Furunculus]

My God, it's true! At first I thought it was an urban myth: Mustapha Kunt

awesome Louis, just awesome. :D

i forwarded that to my parents!

[InsaneApache]

Another classic headline for Louis. Daredevils cross the Han river in Korea, walking across on a thin wire, one by one. What headline should one use?

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

Very good. Not as good as the classic Super Cally Go Ballistic As Celtic Are Atrocious

[Hosakawa Tito]

Keeping the Faith. Awww what a great story.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Louis VI the Fat]

'Skywalkers in Korea cross Han Solo'

Great stuff.

IA - I maintain that somewhere at the Sun, struggling along in shameful anonimity, sits the world's greatest living English poet.


Here's mine:

'Tiger is a Lion Cheetah'

~~-~~-~~<<oOo>>~~-~~-~~

Keeping the Faith. Awww what a great story.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Great story. Feels like a Christmas movie.

Also: http://www.eddieswheels.com/frontwheel.html

[Vladimir]

Well I see my explosive erections didn't get much play.