Category: In the News

the horror of brussels sprouts

In the news a few days ago, a zookeeper fed brussels sprouts to the gorillas, but found that it wasn’t a good idea:

ZOO managers have taken Brussels sprouts off the Christmas menu after the vegetable caused an attack of flatulence in their gorillas.

The staff at Chessington Zoo fed the giant apes on the seasonal favourite as they are filled with nutritional goodness.  However, they hadn’t reckoned with the gassy qualities of the tiny veggies.

Now the zoo has issued an apology after guests at the zoo expressed their horror at the potent smell that started emanating from the gorillas’ enclosure. …

“I don’t think any of us were prepared for a smell that strong.”

Did you notice it said “an attack of flatulence”?  Apparently it can be used as a weapon!

BTW, I don’t think humans should eat brussels sprouts, either…  I’m fairly certain they aren’t meant to be food…

an extra second in 2008

Some of you are probably preparing your New Year’s Eve celebrations / parties for tonight, but if so, you need to know about this.  An extra second has been added to the end of 2008, to keep atomic clocks accurate.  So when you’re all counting down the last 10 seconds, you have to allow an extra one or you’ll be celebrating 2009 prematurely.

Just thought you’d like to know…  🙂

(Personally, I wish they’d add an extra Saturday every so often… and to keep that from throwing off all the automated systems, they could delete a Monday or two… I’m sure most people wouldn’t mind.)

If you’re curious why an extra second was added to the year, it’s because the Earth is slowing down.   Yep, its rotation is actually slowing.  Who knows what will happen if it eventually stops?

update on the Swedish Christmas goat, 2008

For the new readers here, I want to let you know about a Christmas tradition in Sweden involving a giant straw goat.  And by giant, I mean over 40 feet tall.  And part of the tradition is that the goat gets burned down by arsonists almost every year.  However, last year they started putting some serious flame-retardant materials on it, so it hasn’t been burned down since.

Here’s what I wrote on it last year: the Swedish Christmas goat.

The city officials there probably think they’re quite clever in their current plans to prevent the giant goat from burning.  But what they don’t realize is that if the goat never burned, it wouldn’t be famous at all.  So with each year that it isn’t burned, it will become more obscure to the rest of the world.

And for the record, I could make it burn…  Nothing is truly fireproof, if you have the right stuff for the job…

And as you might’ve read in some recent comments, plans are underway to start a similar tradition in Mango-Man’s yard.  He doesn’t see the awesomeness of this plan yet, but we’ll eventually convince him (or just build it anyway and let him witness it first-hand).   🙂

impressed by throwing shoes

The other day an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad, Iraq, took his shoes off during a speech by President Bush and threw them at the President (and now faces up to 15 years in prison).  That’s crazy, right?   But the story has taken an even crazier turn.  An Egyptian man was so impressed that he has offered his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to that journalist.  The father said, “I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him.”  The daughter is okay with this idea, saying, “This is something that would honor me.  I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero.”

To that, I have to say, WHAT?!?

Even if you agree with the journalist’s idea of throwing your shoes at President Bush, how can you support it THAT much?  That guy is NOT a hero!

The world is a crazy place…