StrangeSights

In case you didn’t know, Easter Monday this year co-incided with April Fool’s Day and it seemed everyone had a gag or two up their sleeve. Here is just a small sample of some of the pranks we came across:

• YouTube announced that its entire catalogue of films would be deleted - turns out the whole site was just a competition launched to find the best video clip and the search has come to an end;

• Google launched its new scent search app, Google Nose, which comes with the ability for you to search by smell, as well as its new extension of Google Maps - a feature to find treasure;

• In Australia, Google Streetview launched a new service - Schmick - which enables you to transform your home into the house you’d like it to be with a few simple clicks of the mouse;

• Sony launched Animalia Tech - technology aimed at your pets - think headphones for your cat, a laptop for your dog; and,

• Skype, meanwhile, launched a new service allowing you to speak to you loved ones in…space;

• Virgin boss Richard Branson announced his airline had plans to launch a glass-floored plane - the world’s first - a story which was apparently picked up and run on Chinese television.

Let us know of any you found particularly good!

• A German travel agency is reportedly selling tickets for an comet fly-past. Bonn-based Eclipse Travel has joined with charter agency Air Partner and airline Air Berlin to offer 88 people the chance to be among those on a two hour flight aimed at giving them a relatively close-up view of comet Pan-STARRS as it passes within 100 million miles of Earth on 16th March. The plane will zig-zag at a height of 11,000 metres where the atmosphere is clearer and cleaner (and hopefully above the clouds).

• Could your grass do with a coat of paint? Pictures have reportedly emerged from the town of Chengdu in China’s south-west showing local government workers spray-painting some grass green with a chemical solution called the ‘Top Green Turf Greening Agent’. The dye - which is apparently non-toxic - has also been used in a range of other localities including golf courses.

• If you see a Yeti while in the Himalayas, you may capture or film them but do not shoot them (unless you need to in self-defence). Such was the advice issued by the US Embassy in Nepal in 1959. A memo released by the National Archives in the US late last year detailed a series of three regulations for would-be Yeti hunters to abide by. They include the amount needed to be paid to the Government of Nepal for a permit to hunt the Yeti (5000 rupees); that the Yeti should not be shot at; and, that any news and reports which may “throw light” on the existence of the creature should be surrendered to the Nepalese Government.

• Much as they were busy hosing down reports of UFOs in the mid-20th century, a recently declassified document shows the US Air Force drew up plans to build its own flying saucer in the 1950s. Called Project 1794, the plans (which can be seen here) show a disc-shaped craft designed for a vertical take-off and landing which could reach a top speed of Mach 4. A Canadian company was even apparently contracted to build the craft.

• Thousands of people from across the country converged on the small township of Millmerran in Queensland for the Australian Camp Oven Festival last weekend. The biennial event, which was first held in 1999, celebrates life in the bush and its feature events include a camp oven cook-off and damper throwing competition as well as workshops, billy boiling competitions and, of course, sheep shearing demonstrations. For more on the festival, see www.australiancampovenfestival.com.au.

• OK, we’re a little late with this one but we still thought it worth a mention. In celebration of its 50th anniversary in Australia, the Lego company has created a series of Lego constructions depicting 10 great moments in Australian history. The scenes, which were selected following a survey of Lego fans, include everything from Steve Irwin holding his son Bob in one hand while feeding a croc with the other, Cadel Evans winning last year’s Tour de France, the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973 and the praise for the film, The Castle, following its release in 1997. You can see a full gallery of the winners here.

• Remember when, some time ago, StrangeSights ran a piece about odd theme parks? We may have a new contender with the proposed Napoleonland near Paris in France. While the focus of the proposed park will reportedly very much be about the victories of the former Emperor Napoleon (and built on the site of his last victory at the Battle of Montereau against the Austrians in 1814), a re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo (in which Napoleon lost to the Duke of Wellington) has been mooted as has a water show celebrating the defeat of his fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar (it was won by the British Admiral Lord Nelson, but at the cost of his life). Other proposed attractions include a re-creation of the guillotining of Louis XVI and a ’ski run’ through a battlefield.

• First there was a Lego man in space. Now a model of a space shuttle has flown close to the edge of space in an experiment involving a helium balloon. Built by a Romanian man, Oaida Raul, with the backing of Melbourne venture capitalist Steve Sammartino, the Lego space shuttle, which was superglued together, reportedly took off from Germany after failing to receive clearance to take off in Romania and soared almost 40 kilometres into the sky before returning to earth.

• Around 850 ‘human mattress dominoes’ gathered in New Orleans in the US earlier this month to smash the record for, you guessed it, the largest game of dominoes involving humans falling back onto mattresses. Apparently the previous record of 550 was set in Belgium in 2011. The record aside, another positive outcome was that the mattresses involved had been donated and were destined for charities.

• Don’t be alarmed if, after you drop something in a public rubbish bin in London or Liverpool, you hear a disembodied voice thanking you. Or a blast of Handel’s Messiah. Or a burp. News came last week of a plan to introduce a range of talking bins in the city centres to encourage people to dispose of their rubbish correctly by rewarding them when they do. The Keep Britain Tidy charity which is behind the move has even recruited some celebrity voices, including comedian and writer Michael Palin, actress Amanda Holden and former England cricketer Phil Tufnell (his bin will be located outside Lord’s cricket ground and will have home saying ‘ Howzat!’ when someone does the right thing). The bins will start appearing on the streets shortly and there are plans to expand the idea to other cities in the UK.

• Seems like Star Wars wasn’t all wrong after all. Scientists say they’ve spotted a planet which, like that of Tatooine in Star Wars, has two suns and so, two sunsets. The planet, known as Kepler-16b, lies about 200 light years from earth. The scientists say the fact the suns are quite close together means the planet, a gas giant where temperatures range from a frigid -70 to 100 degrees Celsius (not exactly balmy!), would never have continuous daylight.

• A mannequin is reportedly running for mayor in a suburb of the US city of Cincinnati. The life-sized shop dummy, known as BarBe Q, is apparently running on a platform of fighting for small shop owners as they take on fast food chains. Restauranteur Kenny Tessel, who ensured the manniquin’s fame a couple of years ago when he successfully fought a battle against authorities over whether he could display the bikini-clad model outside his restaurant, insists the move is not a stunt.

• It’s proving a tough nut to crack. A riddle embedded in a work of art outside the main entrance to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, remains unsolved 20 years after it was first unveiled to the public. The riddle is one of four contained in Kryptos, an artwork resembling a 3.6 metre high scroll designed by sculptor Jim Sanborn which was put in place in 1990. While the first three puzzles - the answers to which included a poetic phrase and a passage taken from Howard Carter’s account of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun - were cracked within a couple of years of the sculpture being unveiled, the last has proved somewhat harder leading Sanborn to this week release a six letter clue, that the letters ‘nypvtt’ correspond to the word ‘Berlin’. Now all you have to do is work out what the other 91 letters in the riddle mean. If you reckon you know the answer, simple fill in the first 10 letters on Sanborn’s website. Good luck with that.

• Like a Coke? How about a fruit juice? A Japanese company has reportedly created a vending machine that recommends what it thinks customers will like. The new machines use facial recognition software to detect the age and gender of customers and then makes recommendations based on its conclusions. The first machine has been installed at a Tokyo railway station with more to follow.

• So what does the moon smell like? According to former astronaut Charlie Duke - the 10th person to set foot upon the moon, it’s “like spent gunpowder”. He’s been working with a group of artists to create some scratch and sniff MOON prints which are being sold to those looking for something a little different to hang on the wall. The smell, apparently, will last for around a year.

• Looking for an alternative to the chips, chocolate bars and softdrinks usually found in vending machines? A Chinese company has reportedly installed several vending machines at underground stations in the city of Nanjing which dispense live crabs. Not sure how you’re supposed to eat that on the run…

• And the award for the most famous moustache of all time goes to (drum roll please)…artist Salvador Dali. A poll conducted on behalf of the Movember charity - which encourages people to grow moustaches to raise money - reportedly found that 24 per cent of people favoured Dali’s as the most famous followed by wrestler Hulk Hogan (18 per cent) and Albert Einstein (13 per cent).

• Want to be among the first humans to go to Mars? Catch is, it’s a one-way trip. NASA’s Ames Research Centre is reportedly investigating the idea and looking to raise some interest from among the world’s billionaires to help fund the mission which is estimated to cost around $US10 billion.

• Looking for a way to spruce up your town by stymied by the many vacant buildings? Why not adopt the approach of the English town of Redcar which has reportedly placed a series of stickers on the windows of unused shopfronts in a bid to improve the town’s appearance. The stickers depict everything from a furniture store, cafe and restaurant, to a bookshop and even the living room of a house.

Don’t forget to scroll down and have a look at our Strange Contests Special…

• Taxidermy can be an odd art at the best of times but now comes an exhibition featuring one of the strangest collections you’re likely to come across. London’s Museum of Everything is hosting a new exhibition which features works by Walter Potter - a Victorian taxidermist who created tableaux of stuff animals in scenes more reminiscent of human life. These include The Death and Burial of Cock Robin, featuring more than 100 birds such as an owl grave-digger and a widow robin, and others in which squirrels are playing cards and kittens are having tea together.

• Nothing like owning your own German U-boat (well, replica anyway). One of narrow canal boats which traverse the UK has reportedly been converted into U-8047, completing with airlock doors, sonar systems, and a periscope. But given the depth of some of the canals, it’s not envisaged the U-boat will be diving anywhere soon.

• A clown has reportedly been elected to the Brazilian parliament, apparently winning 1.3 million votes, more than any other candidate, to win himself a seat in Congress. Francisco Oliveira Silva, also known as Tiririca (’Grumpy’), ran with the slogan “It can’t get any worse”.

• And lastly, a Russian firm has announced it will launch a four room guest house in space by the year 2016. Orbital Technologies has even reportedly said it might employ celebrity chefs to create the meals which will then be sent up to the guests. Good luck trying to eat them in the weightlessness of space!