Death by Lava Lamp
28 November 2004, Washington
We have a new Darwin winner, with the recent demise of a man at the hands of his lava lamp. “Why on Earth he heated a lava lamp on the stove, we don’t know,” said baffled police.

No drug or alcohol evidence was found; Philip Quinn, 24, in his right mind, placed a lava lamp on his kitchen burner and turned up the flame. In due course, he rediscovered this favorite explosive generator of deadly shrapnel. He was found dead in his Kent trailer home, a shard of glass through his heart.

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I love the Darwin Awards. It’s great to laugh at other people’s stupidity. And I love this quote:

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain
stupid.”
-Benjamin Franklin

Look at this. I’m pretty impressed with my virtual piece of artwork. In case you want to know what it is I painted, it’s a sailboat, on the ocean, in a dreary day. And there are a couple seagulls thrown in for good measure. I like it.

This is officiall the first time that I have had my blog translated into a different language. Would you like to see the post in Taiwan-ese (is that what they speak over there?)? I guess you have to have the language pack to see the characters, but you get the jist of it anyways.

Edit- 18:11
Looking back, I didn’t make myself very clear. Some person from Taiwan found my page through Yahoo Taiwan. I didn’t translate it; that person did. I would have used Babel Fish . I know this because of Statcounter (Yeah, I’ll give them a little service mention there. They deserve it.).

Have you ever seen those Travelocity commercials with the Roaming Gnome? They are always on during the Amazing Race. I like the little gnome. He’s cute and funny. So I wanted him as my display picture on the instant messenger. I Googled him, and found some interesting websites. So, the following is old news, but still.

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Garden Gnome Liberation Front strikes Paris show

April 13, 2000Web posted at: 8:25 a.m. EDT (1225 GMT)

PARIS — The dormant Garden Gnome Liberation Front has sprung back to life, stealing about 20 gnomes during a nighttime raid on a Paris exhibition.

“We demand … that garden gnomes are no longer ridiculed and that they be released into their natural habitat,” the Front’s Paris wing said in a statement following its weekend strike.

France’s first garden gnome exhibition in the exclusive Bagatelle park on the outskirts of the capital opened last month and has been a hit with the public as chic Parisians develop a taste for kitsch culture.

The Garden Gnome Liberation Front vanished from the public eye in 1997 after a northern French court handed its ringleader a suspended prison sentence and fined him for his part in the disappearance of around 150 gnomes.

The only suspected sighting of the organization since then was a mass suicide of gnomes at Briey in eastern France in September 1998, when 11 of them were found dangling by their necks under a bridge.

A letter found nearby said: “When you read these few words we will no longer be part of your selfish world, where we serve merely as pretty decoration.”

Now, the sight of 2,000 of the gaudy, colorful creatures dotted around the Bagatelle gardens has clearly proved too big a temptation for the group to avoid.

It warned that it would strike again unless the show was closed and all the gnomes released. Organizers told the daily Le Parisien that they had no intention of bowing to the Front’s demands.

Copyright 2000 Reuters

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It doesn’t stop there. FLNJFrance sounds like a pretty active club (according to what I can make out with my fluent French Freedom). And they’re not just in France:

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Garden thefts cause misery

A HEMSWORTH pensioner who says her only remaining pleasure is her garden has hit out at the “twisted thieves” stealing her precious outdoor ornaments.

The 78-year-old, who lives in the Common End area of the town, has refused to be identified for fear of repercussions.

She has lived in her home for 11 years and, for a long time, has had her garden ornaments regularly stolen.

The last time was on Saturday night. At around 9.30pm, she looked out to admire her handiwork as she had spent the day washing and repainting various garden items.

The following morning, feeders from a wrought iron bird table and a garden gnome had been stolen. She said: “Last year, I bought two chrome planters and they looked lovely, but they didn’t last long. Nothing does.

“What kind of freak begrudges a 78-year-old the pleasure of having a bit of garden to tend to?

“As soon as I attempt to smarten things up a bit, it is noticed and the sticky fingers get to work.”

Neighbourhood police team sergeant Victor Thimm said: “These thefts are cruel and distressing, and we ask anyone with information to contact us on either 01977601097 or 651097.

“We will increase patrols in this area in an effort to prevent this kind of thing happening.”

15 April 2005

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And I might just join FLNJFrance. Those Gnomes must be alive, and must have powers because of this:

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Numbing gnome

Jean Collop, a 69-year-old grandmother, awakened at 5 a.m. to find a burglar on her roof. She ran outside, grabbed a garden gnome and hurled it at the man. The gnome bounced off the man’s head, knocking him unconscious on the roof. Collop then grabbed a rolling pin and her camera and took pictures of the thief as her neighbors called the authorities. When officers arrived the man was still passed out on the roof and six local citizens standing guard on the ground below. The woman said she grabbed her rolling pin because she did not want to break another gnome if the man moved.

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Seriously, how could that old grandma throw a gnome up on the roof and knock the guy unconscious without the help of the gnome itself?

I always grew up believing that the Great Wall of China can be seen from the moon. It’s not true.

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Can You See The Great Wall of China from The Moon?

For some reason, some urban legends tend to get stated and never disappear. This legend even appears as a erroneous Trivial Pursuit question. The legend? Many are familiar with the claim that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space or from the moon with the naked eye. This is simply not true.

From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, such as highways, ships in the sea, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can certainly be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard.

However, when leaving the earth’s orbit and acquiring an altitude of more than a few thousand miles, no man-made objects are visible at all. NASA says, “The Great Wall can barely be seen from the Shuttle, so it would not be possible to see it from the Moon with the naked eye.” Thus, it’d be tough to spot the Great Wall of China or any other object from the moon. Furthermore, from the moon, even the continents are barely visible.

Regarding the origination of the story The Straight Dope’s pundit Cecil Adams says, “Nobody knows exactly where the story got started, although some think it was speculation by some bigshot during an after-dinner speech in the early days of the space program.”

NASA astronaut Alan Bean is quoted in Tom Burnam’s book More Misinformation…

“The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving earth’s orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either.”