Its quite obvious that the companies that picked these names didn’t think about it twice, and most certainly did not consider the meaning it would have in other countries than their own!

Continue reading →

I thought the worm smoking a hookah pipe in Alice in Wonderland was interestingly far fetched, but I heard today that there’s a guy in Taiwan with a pet snake, which actually smokes cigarettes!?!

The owner of the snake smokes a packet or two cigarette per day, and the snake apparently went after a stub which the guy dropped on the floor, and took a drag!? Now the snake smokes one cigarette in the morning, and one at night.  This whole (very entertaining) story according to 5fm, on my way home this afternoon.

This is the picture which is suppose to prove it – I know its conveniently small!!  But its all that I could find.  Not sure if this is real – what do you think?  I think its BS!

When I was younger, I heard the story of people eating monkey brains in a very gruesome manner. The story went something along the lines of this… Like I say, the story, because I’m not too sure that this is true. I found this article which claims that it is true though, and that this practice is still popular in restaurants in Southern China.

A delicacy in a China involves people eating monkey brains while the monkey is still alive. A special table with a hole in the middle, and a vice is used to stick the monkey’s head in, is then clamped so that he cannot move (at this time the monkey is still alive).

The top of his skull is then sliced off,(while he is still alive!) and then boiling oil is poured into the brain. Not sure where the space is for the oil – maybe they scoop out some of the brain to make space for the oil?
Its said that the hungry guests then indulge in the bubbling brains, similar to fondue?!

In Western popular culture, the consumption of monkey brains is repeatedly portrayed and debated, often in the context of illustrating exotic cultures as exceptionally cruel, callous and strange, with the following variations:

The brain is eaten cooked
The brain is eaten raw (occasionally directly out of the dead monkey’s skull)
The brain is eaten fresh, spooned out of the skull while the monkey is still alive

FORTUNATELY I do not have a photo to accompany this post.

The thousand-year egg is an ingredient in some Chinese cuisine dishes. The egg is made by “preserving” chicken, duck or quail eggs in a combination of ash, salt, clay as well as lime and rice. The egg is left for several weeks or even months to “mature”.

Needless to say the egg changes colour (as shown in the picture below) If you want more gross info, you’re welcome to read up on Wikipedia. They go on explaining how the whole process changes the PH levels of the egg, and how – after the process is completed – the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulphur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste.

I cannot imagine that ANYONE would want to eat this, but indeed this is considered a delicacy!

Every once in a while a tale so bizarre that it can only be described as weirder than fiction walks through the doors of the Daily Dispatch. Monday was such a day. It came in the form of Peddie chief traffic officer Johann Jooste, who took these pictures. See below for the story he had to tell…
Jooste said he was in his office at the Ngqushwa Municipality when he heard a commotion and went outside to see what it was all about.
“At first, I thought the driver was ferrying the cow on the bakkie’s roof. Then the driver got out, and told us that he was here to report an accident,” an incredulous Jooste said.
Apparently, the driver hit the cow on the N2 outside Peddie and the animal flipped right over, landing on the tough little Nissan 1400’s roof.
The shocked, but uninjured driver proceeded to the traffic department, with the cow on top of the bakkie.
Jooste said the unfortunate animal suffered serious injuries and was to be put down.
“In all my 29 years as a traffic officer, I have never seen something like this,” Jooste added.
All the DispatchOnline team can say is: “Only in the Eastern Cape.”

Source: E-mail from a colleague, however, origin seems to be DispatchOnline

I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve been told that certain members of the ruling classes are weird, but this might be the first time you’ve heard some of these exceptionally strange tales of royal weirdness.

The Cucumber King of Burma

In 931, King Theinhko of Burma ate the cucumbers of a local villager without asking first. The angry farmer murdered Theinhko and then took over the throne as King Nyanng-u Sawrahan. The queen welcomed him, in an effort to prevent political unrest. Nyanng-u was forever after known as ‘The Cucumber King.’ He
reigned over Burma for 33 years until he was overthrown.

Nine Months of French Bastards

King Philip Augustus of France was married to his second wife, Ingeborg of Denmark, in 1193. Sadly, Augustus found Ingeborg to be absolutely revolting and filed for a divorce on the grounds that the marriage was not yet consummated. His wife, however, argued that they had consummated the marriage. As a result, Pope Celestine III refused to grant the king a divorce.

Philip was not easily defeated. He ignored the decision and went on to marry Agnes of Marania.

The pope ordered him to return to Ineborg and to make his point, he imposed an interdict on December 12, 1199. During this time, all churches were closed and the pope determined that as long as the king wasn’t sleeping with his wife, his subjects were not allowed to sleep with theirs. As a result, all children born in this period were deemed illegitimate. The interdict continued until September 7, 1200 –resulting in nine months of bastards born in France. Augustus eventually did return to Ineborg, but not until 1213.

A Dead Woman Crowned Queen

Ines de Castro was a loving mistress to Dom Pedro, heir of the Portuguese throne. Unfortunately, the current ruler, King Alfonso, was paranoid that the pair was plotting against him and ordered Ines to be assassinated in 1355.

When Pedro was crowned as king in 1357, his love for Ines had not yet faded. He sought revenge on the assassins and made them suffer through horrendous tortures. That wasn’t enough though, Pedro was still determined that Ines should take her seat beside him as queen. He had her body exhumed, dressed in proper royal attire and the entire candlelit coronation ceremony proceeded as usual. Ines’s body was anointed and crowned, the subjects were made to swear allegiance to her, and the nobles were required to kneel and kiss her cold, two-years-dead hand.

The Ghastly Death of Mary Queen of Scots

If you ever played Bloody Mary in the mirror as a youth, you know that it is quite a terrifying ghost story. While there are many proposed “Marys” that could be referenced in the story, Mary Queen of Scots has a terrifying ghost story thanks to her botched execution.

On February 8, 1587, Mary was led to the execution block. The executioner, likely drunk, failed to knock off her head on the first blow. Instead, he hit the back of her head, at which time, her servants reported that she muttered “Sweet Jesus.” He managed to remove her head on the second blow and he lifted her head up by the auburn hair on her head, right then, her head fell from his hands, revealing that she actually had short gray hair covered by thick wig. Also strange, her lips continued moving for the next fifteen minutes, likely caused by a nerve damaged during the first execution attempt.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Mary’s dog was discovered to be hiding under her skirts. When the pet was pulled out, it insisted on lying between the shoulders and decapitated head of her body. Eventually, Mary’s servants took the dog, but not until it was thoroughly soaked in its dead master’s blood.

Even for the people of the time, jaded from by frequent public executions, Mary’s beheading was full of exceptionally terrifying surprises.

A Strange ‘Divine Right’

Normally a king’s “divine rights” seem to include things like violating virgins and taking food and money, however, in 1627, Charles I decided to declare rights of a much different nature. He ordered all of his subjects to turn in their urine to official collectors once a day in the summer and once every other day in the winter. These collections were to help the country create saltpeter, a component of gunpowder. Charles also claimed rights to all soil loaded with animal waste. The so-called ‘Saltpeter Men’ were permitted to dig up the floors of stables, slaughterhouses and other areas without permission of the property owners.

Louis The XIV’s Enema Obsession

Imagine trying to hold a conversation with someone receiving an enema. Now imagine that someone was King and he was holding court throughout the experience. King Louis XIV was known for performing this type of activity regularly. The enema was a quite popular medical procedure at this time, but few people seemed to love the activity nearly as much as the king who is said to have received over 2,000 enemas throughout his lifetime – many of them in public.

The King of Debt

King Theodore of Corsica wasn’t much of a king. For one thing, he wasn’t nobility by birth, he was merely a soldier who asked to be king in exchange for helping aid the Corsicans in a revolt. When the revolt had proven to be ineffective and a the Genovese government put a price on his head, Theodore started to lose popularity amongst his people. He decided that he would be better off ruling overseas.

Unfortunately, once he left the country, he was never able to return to his kingdom. Eventually, he ended up in debtors prison in Amsterdam, and later, London. He was freed from Holland’s prison easy enough, but the only way he could earn release from the London jail was by giving Corsica to his creditors.

When he died in London in 1756, his epitaph read:

Theodore this moral learned ere dead:

Fate poured its lessons on his living head,

Bestowed a kingdom, and denied him bread.

After his death, an opera was made from his tale in 1784. Additionally, ‘King Theodore of Corsica’ started to be used as a nickname for gin, joining the ranks of ‘Cuckold’s Comfort’ as a slang for the drink.

Madness Doth Not A Kingdom Make

Nouvelle France was a South American territory also called the Kingdom of Araucanìa and Patagonia. The area’s first (and only) king, elected in 1860, was Orelie-Antoine de Tounens, a French lawyer. He supported the local people’s efforts to resist takeover by Chile and Argentina. The people of the area, called Mapuche, thought that Tounens may help aid their cause as he was a skilled European negotiator. He helped the locals draft a constitution and mint coins, but Chile largely ignored him. Tounens tried to convince France to come to his aid and after a short investigation, they determined him to be crazy.

He was arrested by the Chilean government within two years of becoming king. France managed to secure his release from prison by convincing his jailers that he was insane. After his release, he was deported back to France and Tounens then spent the rest of his life trying to take over his kingdom again. In 1869, he made it back to the country, but soon returned to France to gather more money. Tounens attempted to return two more times afterward, but both times he was
captured by Chilean authorities and deported. He eventually died in squalor in France in 1878.

His relatives periodically continued to claim their rightful place as ruler of the country, although the most recent heir has renounced the claim. Since the establishment of Nouvelle France, no sovereign state has ever recognized the territory as a legitimate country.

The Long-Lasting Legacy of Nobility

In 1888, Charles-Marie David de Mayrena elected himself Marie the First, King of the Sedang. Marie was an eccentric French adventurer and he arranged his kingdom to rule over a number of small tribes. King Marie declared the official religion of the country to be Roman Catholic although most of its residents were Muslims and he later adopted the Islamic faith himself. He awarded titles of nobility to his supporters during his two-year rule. He attempted to trade his kingdom to the French, English and Belgium governments in exchange for a trading monopoly, but he received little interest. When he tried to return to his kingdom though, the French prevented him from entering any port in Indochina. He died in 1890, and the details of this death remain a mystery –some sources claim it was by duel, others say it was poison and yet other reports argue he was bitten by a snake.

Over 100 years later, the Assembly for the Restoration of the Sedang Nobility was established in Montreal in 1995. This group consisted of descendants of those who bestowed with titles of nobility by King Marie. The organization claims it seeks to “re-establish and promote the social institutions of monarchy and nobility and practice their principles in a world which has largely forgotten them: chivalry, honor, duty, loyalty, respect, enlightenment, tolerance.” At the same time, they are glad to renounce their claims to the territory, admitting it is undisputedly part of Vietnam. Three years later, they changed their name to the Sedang Royalist Assembly. Although genealogists helped the group find an heir of King Marie, the descendant was uninterested in claiming his title. This organization is
still around and is headquartered in Montreal.

Technicalities Galore

What happens when your country’s official constitution and other historical documents fail to mention one small town? If that unmentioned village happens to be Seborga (flag shown above), you may end up with an “independent principality” smack dab in the middle of your country. The area, that should be part of Italy, declared its independence in 1967 and elected the head of the flower growing collective, Giorgio Carbone, to be the country’s head of state or “Giorgio I, Prince of Seborga.” Giorgio is officially addressed as “Your Tremendousness” by his followers.

Giorgio and other members of the village claim that Seborga was never incorporated into Italy. Although it was sold to the king of Savoy and Sardinia in 1729, the sale was not registered. On top of that, the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the 1861 Act of Unification and the constitution written in 1946 all fail to mention Seborga. Scholars have proven that regardless, the area is still part of Italy, but Seborgians defy this logic.

The principality mints its own currency, the luigino, currently valued at $6 – meaning if it were recognized as a legitimate legal tender, it would be the most valuable currency in the world. Regardless of the area’s claim to independence, most of the residents follow the laws of Italy, pay taxes and vote in national elections.

In 2006, a woman named Yasmine von Hohenstaufen Anjou Plantagenet, who claims to be heir to Roman Emperor Fredrick II and the rightful ruler of Seborga, tried to return the ‘country’ to Italy. The majority of villagers were notably upset and Prince Giorgio commented “The girl cannot give away something she does not own.”

Weirdness is not limited to the paupers, as we can clearly see, and it almost seems as though the royals have a strange right to be odd? If it this is any consolation to me, I’m probably not weird enough to be a royal!!

The classical natural wonders are huge and hard to miss – vast canyons, giant mountains and the like. Many of the most fantastic natural phenomena, however, are also least easy to spot. Some are incredibly rare while others are located in hard-to-reach parts of the planet. From moving rocks to mammatus clouds and red tides to fire rainbows, here are seven of the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world.

SAILING STONES

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.

COLUMNAR BASALT

When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity – in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.

BLUE HOLES

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.

RED TIDES

Red tides are also known as algal blooms – sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.

ICE CIRCLES

While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above.

MAMMATUS CLOUDS

True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers – appearing around, before or even after severe weather.

FIRE RAINBOWS

A circumhorizontal arc (properly a circumhorizon arc and never the recent uninformed and misleading term ‘fire rainbow’) is an optical phenomenon. It is not a rainbow, it is an ice-halo formed by ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds.

The complete halo is a huge and beautiful multi-coloured band running parallel to the horizon with its center beneath the sun. The distance below the sun is twice as far as the common 22-degree halo. Red is the uppermost colour. Often, when the halo forming cloud is small or patchy, only fragments of the arc are seen.

There is a myth that the halo is rare. How often it is seen depends on location and in particular latitude. In the United States it is a relatively common halo seen several times each summer in any one place. In contrast, it is rare in mid-latitude and northern Europe.

Though this is an old story, I don’t think it can ever become less disturbing than the first time one heard it.

Armin Meiwes, a computer expert, met 43-year-old Bernd-Jurgen Brandes in early 2001, after Mr Meiwes advertised on websites for “young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter”, the German daily newspaper Bild reported at the time of his arrest.

According to News24.com, a Mozambican woman gave birth to three teacups, Stv aparantly showed photographs of the crockery which the woman gave “birth” to.

The 18 year old woman was 3 months pregnant when she started complaining of labour pains, and gave birth to the three cups on her way to the hospital.

Quoting News24:

The Mozambican association of traditional healers (Ametramo) told the station that there was nothing strange about the story.

Ametramo president Aulerio Demoraz said similar cases had occurred in other parts of the world due to witchcraft.

He said the woman needed to be treated with traditional medicines in order to exorcise the “evil spirits” which made her give birth to the cups.

I’ve been looking for pictures of the cups, but unfortunately couldn’t find any. I’ll post an update when I do get a photograph of it…

Source:  News24.com

Perhaps you’ve heard stories of people auctioning off strange items on eBay, like the homely kid who put his virginity up for bid or the bald guys who offer their own heads as advertising space. But those are nothing compared to some of the items that have made their way onto eBay’s digital auction block.Here are ten of the weirdest things ever to appear on eBay. To qualify for this list, the item or items must have received at least one bid, proving the point that no matter what you have to sell, somewhere there is a buyer for it.
10. Item #191367029: The Internet

If people can sell plots of land on the moon, then why can’t someone sell the Internet? Someone did just that, for the bargain asking price of $1 million. Of course, it was all just a gag and it’s unlikely that this Pay Pal transaction ever went through. But still, it would have been the deal of the century-the buyer was even throwing in free Internet access.

9. Item #277481422: UFO Detector

A prototype manufactured by a Brazilian company, this modified magnetometer is supposed to pick up UFO activity and was proven to work when red and orange balls of light appeared in the skies over Sao Paulo. Unfortunately, it wasn’t 100% guaranteed due to the fact that “the propulsion systems of UFOs are not the same.” Why would the seller want to part with such a unique item? It’s okay-he had two. Final sale price: $135.03.

8. Item #248619068: The Meaning of Life

Someone finally figured it out, and they put it up for sale on eBay. Even with eight bids this incredible find didn’t fetch much, but it was probably the best $3.26 the winning bidder ever spent.

7. Item #1178647016: Russian Test Space Shuttle

This one-of-a-kind item was once offered by a Russian company for $2 million, but was posted on eBay for “a fraction of that.” It’s not known how much they wanted for the scaled-down Bor-5 VKK spacecraft, because the reserve price was never reached. Bidding topped out at $25,200, but perhaps it was the $5,000 shipping price that scared off potential buyers.

6. Item #2961640885: Vampire Killing Kit

The stylish vampire hunter would love this late 1800s European “vampire killing kit,” which included a crossbow with four silver-tipped arrows, an ebony wood stake, a large bottle of holy water and various surgical instruments, among other things. A solid mahogany wood box kept the items secure until they would be needed. Final bid: $4,550.

5. Item #289158639: Real Shrunken Head

Straight from the Jivaro Indian tribe in the jungles of Ecuador to the world’s largest electronic marketplace, a total of 26 shrunken heads were put up for sale. Only 7 people bid on them, with the top bidder paying just under $25. It is assumed that he or she got first choice of the heads, which ranged in color from dark brown to gray.

4. Item #2931457201: Ghost In a Jar

As the story goes, the seller of this item found a rotted wooden box while metal detecting. Inside were two glass jars and a journal. One of the jars was accidentally dropped, causing a black mist of some sort to be released. The other jar and the journal were taken home, and the seller proceeded to be haunted by something he could only describe as “The Black Thing.”

Wishing to pass the jar (and the ghost) on to someone else, he put the still unopened jar on eBay, insisting that only serious bidders would be considered. People must have loved the story, because there were well over 60 bids placed.

Unfortunately, not all of them were serious, because the selling price topped $90 million. No word as to who finally wound up with the jar, or if they too had supernatural visitors. Since this auction, there have been many, many more “ghost in a jar” items posted on eBay.

3. Item #150118191: USAF Hughes AIM-4D Falcon Missile

Yes, a real missile was auctioned off; fortunately, it was disarmed prior to the sale. The bidding reached $3,950, but the reserve price was never met.

2. Item #127658711: Serial Killer’s Fingernails

In 1979, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris cruised southern California on a killing spree that resulted in at least five victims. And now, the fingernails of Roy Norris have been sold on eBay for only $9.99.

Taped to the back of a Christmas card, they were accompanied by a penned note from Norris himself, signed and topped off with the serial killer’s black thumbprint.

1. Item number not known: “Stricken Life” Painting

A rather macabre-looking self-portrait of a man known only as “Harold,” this painting is believed to be haunted. The artist was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in early 2001. Knowing that he could no longer care for his Multiple Sclerosis-stricken wife, he put a double-barrel shotgun against her head while she was sleeping and squeezed the trigger.

He then went into the den and put the shotgun in his own mouth. The house where the murder-suicide took place was eventually sold, and the new owners found the painting. Strange things started happening, such as the family dog sitting in front of the painting and howling, so Harold had to go — on eBay, of course.

by Rob Lee