StrangeSights

• 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”.

• 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.

• 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.

• The heart symbol (meaning to love) has entered the Oxford English Dictionary as one of more than 45,000 new words and meanings added to the latest version of what is considered by many to be the most authoritative English language dictionary in the world. Among the other new entries are “Tinfoil hat” (used with allusion to the belief that such a hat will protect the wearer from mind control or surveillance); the 10 or five or one “second rule” (allowing for the eating of a delicious morsel that has fallen to the floor, provided that it is retrieved within the specified period of time), and “IMHO” (in my humble opinion) as well as Australianisms “flat white” (a style of espresso drink with finely textured foamed milk) and “tragic” (a ‘boring or socially inept person, especially one with an obsessive interest or hobby).

• Finding the walk between golf holes a bit hard lately? Forget the buggy, a course in Germany has introduced a 150 metre travelator to take golfers up an admittedly rather steep hill from the first green to the second tee. Known as the “magic carpet”, the travelator at the course in Schloss Auel Golf Club near Cologne reportedly works in all weather and starts automatically when a player - and buggy - hop on board. The introduction of the travelator has apparently met with the approval of the (one imagines, rather tired) club’s members.

• It’s a busy life being a member of the police SWAT team in Beijing so there’s little time to find that someone special. To give officers a helping hand, police chiefs reportedly launched a match-making service at an annual Police Open Day recently, posting pictures of 54 unmarried recruits on large boards in a police station in the hope of catching the eye of some of the visitors. Such was the interest, police have already vowed to repeat the service in the future.

• Britain’s medieval peasants were twice as wealthy as people living in the world’s poorest countries today, according to the findings of new research. A team at the University of Warwick has put the average income in the late Middle Ages, expressed in 1990 dollars, at around $US1,000 compared with only $US249 in Zaire, $US479 in Burundi and $US514 in Niger. The team found that even on the eve of the Black Death, which killed thousands when it first struck in 1348-49, incomes were more than $US800 per capita.

• They’re the words and phrases we love to hate. According to The Marist Poll in the US, “whatever” is the most annoying word or phrase used in conversation today with 39 per cent of the respondents putting it top of their list for the second year in a row. “Like”, as in “like wow”, comes a close second with 28 per cent followed by “you know what I mean” (15 per cent), “to tell you the truth” (10 per cent), and “actually” (five per cent).

• It’s a find worthy of Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, and this time it’s contained in the eyes the Mona Lisa. An Italian researcher has reportedly claimed to have found tiny letters in the famous painting’s eyes which he believes may reveal the identity of the woman whose portrait Leonardo Da Vinci painted. According to Silvano Vinceti the letters are invisible to the naked eye but high resolution imaging shows that the painting’s right pupil contains the letters LV, for Leonardo da Vinci, and the left pupil the letters B or S or the initials CE, possibly letters corresponding the name of the sitter. The find could cast into doubt that commonly held belief that the woman is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant. Vinceti, meanwhile, plans to announce his theories next month.

• Those badly spelt signs annoying you? Take heart. Two Americans have just released a book about a journey they made travelling across the US correcting spelling and punctuation. Jeff Deck, a write and editor, created the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL), and in early 2008 set off on a 73 day journey in which he and several companions targeted signs outside shops, public buildings and parks, rounding up stray apostrophes and fixing wayward spelling (and learning a lesson about always asking for permission to fix a sign along the way). Together with one of his companions - Benjamin D. Herson - he has subsequently written the book about the experience The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World. Bad spellers be warned!

• A month long water pistol tournament has just come to an end in the UK. Known as StreetWars, the “water pistol assassination” tournament kicked off in New York in 2004, and has since visited numerous cities including, during August, London (which also played host to the tournament in 2006). As many as 300 players were expected to take part. Concerns have reportedly previously been expressed over the appropriateness of such a game.

• It’s the ultimate in train sets. A house has gone on the market in Lincolnshire that comes complete with a more than 300 metre long model railway, complete with scale trains, castle, fairground and a full-size fish pond. The owner reportedly spent years creating the backyard playground.

• We’ve already heard of island archipelagos designed to resemble palm trees or maps of the world. So why not a city shaped like a rhino in Africa? That’s the design planners in southern Sudan have reportedly come up with for their capital, the city of Juba, while a second city, Wau, is to be designed around the shape of a giraffe.

• We love words on StrangeSights, so we’re bringing you a couple of word-related stories. First up, comes the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English complete with freshly added words. The latest group (what to call a group of words - a paragraph?) include the ‘vuvuzela’, that annoying horn from South Africa, ‘cheeseball’ (something lacking taste, style or originality), ’staycation’ (a holiday at home), and the probably overdue term ‘climate change’. Meanwhile, staff at the Oxford English Dictionary have revealed some of the ‘words’ which never made it onto the hallowed pages. These reportedly include ‘wurfing’ (surfing the internet at work), ‘polkadodge’ (that awkward dance we have when trying to go around someone in the street), and ‘nonversation’ (a pointless chat).

• OK, it’s a little overdue but still worth mentioning. Seen on a sign outside a church in Wimbledon during the tennis championships this year: ‘What’s Jesus’ favorite score in tennis? Love all’. Have you come across any clever signs outside churches (or anywhere else for that matter?) Why not let us know?