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!

• Ride on mowers might seem to have an obvious purpose - mowing lawns. But to a growing group of ride-on mower enthusiasts, they represent an emerging motorsport. There’s associations in numerous countries - including Australia - which oversee competitions including the annual British Grand Prix for Lawnmower Racing held earlier this month. Competitors are split into a range of categories including those for large tractors, sit-on buggies and machines with a grass-cutter on the front. Racers gather points as they race around the course and mud is seen as a good thing. Organisations in Australia include The Queensland Ride-On Mower Racing Association Inc.

• And you reckoned your last phone bill was high. A French woman recently received a phone bill for €11,721,000,000,000,000 - reportedly the equivalent of almost $15 thousand trillion dollars and almost 6,000 times France’s entire annual economic output. Needless to say, the bill was eventually corrected - back to the €117.21.

• An America man has paid someone to slap him in the face everytime he went on Facebook in an attempt to increase his productivity. Maneesh Sethi, a San Franciscan blogger, reportedly felt he was spending too much time on social media so, turning to Craigslist, he hired a woman to slap him whenever his attention wandered. He has since repeated the experiment a couple of times and reports that it has apparently helped increase his productivity.

• The dogs recently hit the surf in California for the 7th annual Loews Surf Dog Competition. This year saw more than 50 dogs showing their moves on the waves at Imperial Beach in San Diego - they are judged in a range of categories including small dogs, large dogs and tandems (sounds like a page out of Dr Seuss’ Go Dogs Go!) - as well as the setting of a number of new world records including one for the most dogs ever to ride on one board - 14.

• The Welsh community of Monmouth - famous for being the birthplace of King Henry V - has become the world’s first “Wikipedia town”. The move, dubbed Monmouthpedia, means Wikipedia now hosts more than 700 articles about the town and means visitors can use their phones to scan barcodes at places like historical sites, schools, museums and pubs to bring up relevant articles in a range of languages.

• The word ‘bogan’ has reportedly officially entered the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary’s June list of new word entries has apparently included the word which it defines as being Australian and New Zealand colloquial “depreciative term for unfashionable, uncouth, or unsophisticated person, esp. of low social status”.

• Questions are apparently being asked about the citizenship of iconic cat cutie Hello Kitty following the publication of a new book, Hello Kitty’s Guide to Japan in English and Japanese. According to the official biography published by Sanrio, the company that owns the rights to her, Hello Kitty (real name Kitty White) was born in London. But, according to some, Kitty is so knowledgable about Japan in the new guide, which was reportedly authorised by Sanrio, that “the reader can only surmise she is either Japanese or an amazingly bilingual Japanese studies scholar”. The catfight has raised the ire of many in Japan and elsewhere and sparked countless internet debates but so far there’s been no official clarification forthcoming. Stay tuned.

• The voice of former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck has been heard for the first time in 100 years in a series of remarkable recordings digitally restored by the Thomas Edison National Park museum in the US. The recordings, in which Bismarck can be heard reciting parts of songs and poetry in English, Latin, French, and German - including France’s national anthem, La Marseillaise - and advising his son Herbert to “live life in moderation”, was made in 1889 using a wax cylinder phonograph. Discovered in 1957, research on the recordings did not reportedly start until 2005.

• Being able to say words backwards is quite a remarkable feat yet Alyssa, a girl from Oklahoma in the US seems to be able to do so with little effort. In a video clip posted on YouTube which has, yes, gone viral around the globe, Alyssa is seen repeating backwards any word that’s thrown at her. You can see the video here.

• Fancy some sausage and mash. An ATM in London’s east is offering customers the choice of conducting their banking in English - or cockney. The Leytonstone machine reportedly offers those who choose Cockey the chance to obtain a Charlie Sheen (balance on the screen) and the chance to change their Huckleberry Finn (pin number). Cash is dispensed in various denominations including a Lady Godiva (fiver or £5) and a Horn of Plenty (£20).

• It’s an amateur snapper’s dream. An American company has produced a camera that takes images which, if unfocused at the time, can be focused later on. The pocket-sized Lytro uses “light field” technology to capture complete light field data and thus enable photographers to “shoot now and focus later”. The camera starts at $US399 for an eight gigabyte version.

• A mysterious Lego man has washed up on a US beach. The eight foot tall fibreglass Lego man reportedly washed shore last week on a Florida beach but is now being held in police custody until an owner comes forward. Named ‘Ego Leonard’, the figure bears the slogan ‘No real than you are’ on its top. It has been suggested that the man is the work of Dutch “guerilla artist” Leon Keer. A similar figure appeared on a Netherlands beach in 2007.

• 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 started with planking and then owling but StrangeSights continues to learn about more unusual ways which involve people taking images of themselves in odd poses and then posting them online. Here’s some of the others we’ve come across:
- Batmanning: Hanging upside down supported just by your feet (not advised if you don’t want to thump your head on the ground)!;
- Teapotting: Standing in a teapot-like pose - with one hand on your hip and the other bent up like a spout;
- Horsemanning: Named for the ‘headless horseman’, this involves two people who create a picture showing just the head of one person and the body of another; and,
- Photobombing: This has been around for while and simply involves inserting yourself into someone else’s photo or video, whether accidentally or intentionally.
Any others you’re aware of?

• Robots in movies always seem so…well…polite. But the reality may be very different. Scientists at Cornell University in New York recently conducted an experiment in which two ‘chatbots’ - computer programs designed to simulate human interaction - talked to each other. And the result? Not the erudite conversation you might expect but one which quickly descended into bickering as the pair disagreed with each other about almost everything - including whether one was a Christian. But our favorite quote was where one of the chatbots declared: “I am a unicorn”. Follow this link to see the chat.

• We’ve often written about new words on StrangeSights but what about some of those that are disappearing? Lexicographers from the Collins Dictionary have reportedly recently come up with a list of words that have fallen out of use. They include rather odd words like ‘wittol’, a man who tolerates an unfaithful wife; ’succedaneum’, something which is used as a substitute; and, ‘charabanc’, which refers to a motor coach, as well as the more common aerodrome.

• Never taking the loyalty of friends and family for granted, taking time off from work to enjoy the world around you and not bullying people because of their ability or religion or beliefs were among ideas for 10 Commandments for the 21st century thought up by school children in the UK. The children were asked to come up with 10 Commandments as part of the English city of York’s inaugural Festival of Ideas. Three winning entries were chosen, one of which suggested that the 10 Commandments should be produced on banknotes to remind people that while money is important, “there are other things that should take priority in life”.

• It’s a chance to own some movie memorabilia with a difference. A US company has built a replica of Carl Fredrickson’s house from the animated Pixar movie Up and it’s now reportedly on the market for around $US400,000. The four bedroom property, which is located in Utah, was built by Bangerter Homes and fitted out to reflect the 1950s - the era in which the movie property was built. It is painted in the same colors as that featured in the film and even features the same picture of Paradise Falls over the fireplace. While Mr Fredrickson flew his house to South America, this house doesn’t come fitted with balloons.

• Flying cars might seem a long way off but the concept took a great step forward this month when US authorities approved a two seater model that reportedly takes just 20 hours to learn how to fly. Or is that drive? The Terrafugia Transition features wings that fold up automatically after landing and is powered by high octane unleaded petrol.

• Fans of Japanese girl band AKB 48 got a shock this week when they were informed that the band’s newest member, 16-year-old Aimi Eguchi, wasn’t in fact a person at all. Turns out Aimi is a virtual creation, her features a composite of the other band members, manufactured as part of a marketing campaign the band is undertaking with sweet company Glico.

• As far as wrong turns go, it was a big one. An Emperor Penguin was found on Peka Peka Beach on New Zealand’s North Island last week, apparently having made a wrong turn when swimming in Antarctica. The bird, which was eating sand in the mistaken belief it was snow, was taken to Wellington Zoo where it is undergoing treatment before its future is decided. And it’s name? Yep, Happy Feet.

• We all know (or should) that it can be unwise to advertise the fact you’re on a holiday miles from home on a social networking site like Facebook. Ah, hello, burglars. Now a London-based security company, Precreate Solutions, has gone a step further - they’re reportedly offering to update your Facebook or Twitter page while you’re away with comments that make it look as if you’re still, in fact, at home. Don’t they have internet all around the world now?

• Still in the UK, and parents at a Plymouth school have reportedly criticised a proposal to put up child-shaped bollards outside the school as a traffic calming measure, saying the bollards were “too scary” and looked like something out of Dr Who. Surely a Dalek would be just as effective?

• Mr Burns attracted the ire of Springfield’s citizens when he blocked out the sun in The Simpsons. But now come reports of a plan to use artificially created “clouds” to do the same in Qatar, not to extort its citizens for money as was the case with Mr Burns, but to try and keep the ground temperature down during the World Cup in 2022. The mechanical clouds would hover above the stadium in an attempt to deflect some of the sun’s strength during games.

• He’s a real-life transformer. Californian Drew Beaumier - apparently an ardent fan of Transformers when a child - has created a costume, using parts of a children’s toy, that enables him to ‘transform’ into an car. He’s now reportedly hoping to develop the costume to make it available for purchase by mail order.

• As audiences go, it was probably one of the more passive ones. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played to an auditorium filled with potted plants in London this week in an experiment commissioned by TV shopping channel QVC to test the theory that plants grow better when played classical music. The three hour concert apparently included Mozart’s Symphony Number 40.