Unusual articles to keep you reading for Thanksgiving Weekend

Wikipedia: Unusual articles

Someone has taken the time to compile a massive list of the weird and wonderful articles on Wikipedia.

Such as what?
For starters, how about:

Traditions and anecdotes associated with the Stanley Cup	An ice hockey trophy with a long history of abuse, superstition, and tests of buoyancy.
Snail racing	Ready, steady, slow!
Squirrel fishing	A sport of skill and patience.
Teddy bear toss	A Christmas tradition in minor league hockey.

Bovine bingo	A different way to play bingo.
Bummer and Lazarus	Two stray dogs that roamed the streets of San Francisco, California, in the early 1860s and were exempted from local ordinances.
Chicken hypnotism	Have you ever wanted to hypnotize a chicken? If not, why not?
Chicken sexer	A person who has been specially trained to determine the sex of chicken hatchlings.

Gef the talking mongoose	A poltergeist-like creature which claimed to have been an 80-year-old Indian mongoose, alleged to have haunted a Manx cottage during the 1930s.
Jackalope	A cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope.
Jersey Devil	A mythological creature said to inhabit the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Emerald Cockroach Wasp	A wasp that can ride a cockroach and drive it, too.
Exploding head syndrome	Some people hear a massive explosion that wakes them up after being asleep for an hour or two.
Fatal hilarity	Is there really anything so funny you can die of laughter?
Female hysteria	A once-common diagnosis of a range of symptoms in women, cured through masturbation to orgasm.

Can't sleep, clown will eat me	A stock phrase that's become a popular joke-explanation for insomnia.
Cartoon physics	An explanation of the laws of physics as they have come to be (mis)represented in cartoons.
Cuteness in Japanese culture	It's not just Hello Kitty

Gimli Glider	Due to an input error, a Boeing 767 plane runs out of fuel mid-flight and becomes a glider.
Guided rat	Implanted electrodes let researchers "steer the animal over an obstacle course, making it twist, turn and even jump on demand."
David Hahn	A 17-year old known as the Radioactive Boy Scout, he irradiated his back yard attempting to build a nuclear breeder reactor from spare parts.

Now these are just a few of these strange Wikipedia articles, but rest assured there are plenty more. Have a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving weekend everyone!

Thank you again for your great links, Kottke.

Ask the Spice Girls to play your hometown... or Baghdad

Spice Girls official site
Those delightful Spice Girls have reunited, and are touring the world spreading their cheerful sounds and nausea.
They have a few dates chosen, but are encouraging their fans to vote on cities for their world tour. The jovial pranksters of Fark are encouraging readers to vote for a Spice Girls show in Baghdad, and I would encourage you to do the same.


Why, oh why do the have to start the reunion tour in Vancouver? The horror.

Today's Link source: the pranksters of Fark

Superman and Spiderman team up in Bollywood? - Week of YouTube: Day 4

Indian Superman Part 2 - Youtube

There's something that's obscenely great about being able to access obscure video content from anywhere in the world, whether it's cheesy singing and dancing, anime, or reports from the locations of breaking news.

Of course, when anyone teams up in Bollywood, there's bound to be entertaining song and dance productions. This video clip is no exception with Superman and Spiderman (Spiderwoman?) flying, singing, dancing and busting heads. Only on Youtube.

Today's Link source: The Youtube filter, Videosift

im on ur stove makin gas

LOLcat

from

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/07/20/im-on-ur-stove/

Yummy cartoon!

Left-Handed Toons (by right-handed people)

Bride and Groom start fighting, large brawl ensues

Forget the bouquet: Bride tosses groom

Barbara Stanton and Jonathan Klopp celebrated an aikido (Japanese martial arts) wedding in Baltimore. It was a non-traditional wedding in an aikido dojo, where the bride and groom took turns throwing each other, and the guests, onto the training mats.

Congratulations to Brian and Sandra Palmquist, whose wedding on July 14, 2007 was beautiful, well-planned, and very, very peaceful.

Online Funnies Page

Comic Strips (from angadi.org)

When you read a daily newspaper, there's always the funnies page, where you can read all your favourite daily cartoons, like Dilbert, Peanuts, Ziggy, For Better or For Worse, Non Sequitur, Doonesbury, and B.C. For whatever reason, the funnies page didn't make the transition to the web as gracefully as the other sections of newspapers.

Angadi.org publishes a page of links to the daily comic strips, but they also have a page with scripts that load all the strips on to the same page. There is no dynamic page with the day's comics, but you can manually change the URL with the date information in the format: mmddyyyy. They have all your favourite cartoons like the ones listed above, and the creator, Raghu Angadi, accepts suggestions for additions to the site.

Unfortunately, they don't have the always hysterical Marmaduke comic. For the big ol' great dane, you'll have to go here.

Today's Link source: popurls.com

iPhwned

Today's Link source: iPod hacks

Ever Feel Guilty About Pirating Music? Here's the Solution. [pic]

nuttersmark.com

Today's link is a cartoon.

In essence:
1. Download Music
2. Send $ to Artist
3. Cut Out Middleman

Today's Link source: Digg

Kitten War!!

Kittenwar! May The Cutest Kitten Win!

Kittens go head-to-head, and you vote for the cutest kitten in the pictures. It's perversely fun and addictive, even for dog-lovers.

Today's Link source: Some guy that doesn't like his neighbours stealing his wireless connection, and decides to mess with them by automatically routing their web browser to Kittenwar (with instructions)

Drunk City Of Montreal Worker Ruins Bar Mitzvah

Yesterday's news story about "Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo" was awesome. THIS story had me in stitches!



read more digg story

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

Yep, in today's news from the Associated Press, Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo .

It's probably the best news headline I've ever seen.

How to make a ninja mask out of a t-shirt

Ninja Mask Lessons

When I taught English in Japan, sometimes my students would ask me why I came to Japan. I would often tell them that, "I came to Japan to meet ninjas." Unfortunately, I never met a single ninja in Japan. Perhaps it would serve them well to learn how to make a ninja mask from a t-shirt.

Today's link demonstrates this important skill in just 7 easy steps, including photographs. After completeing the steps, "Now you are a ninja."

I just think it's great that he took all the pictures with a Christmas tree in the background!

Today's Link source: Popurls (via del.icio.us)

Web's Top 25 Pranks and Hoaxes

Top 25 Web Hoaxes and Pranks - PC World

Yep, the classics are all here, including:
- the guy on the World Trade Centre with the jet approaching,
- Bill Gates will send you a check when you forward the email,
- the sick kid that wants to set a world record for greeting cards,
- Microsoft buys the Catholic church (and Firefox),
- Bert (from Sesame Street) hanging out with Osama bin Laden, and of course
- the Nigerian gentleman that needs your help with a wire transfer.

There are also lots of hoaxes that I hadn't heard before.
I think it's interesting that people are starting to write lists and histories of the culture and social events on the internet, rather than the history of technology and products.

Chuckles abound.
Today's Link source: Yahoo! News

What are the weirdest music videos of all time?

The Strangest Music Videos Of All Time

Yep, watch and vote for the strangest music videos in the history of the universe.

I hear you asking, "What kind of strange videos are we talking about here?" Well, the Genre Formerly Known As Electronica is represented by many of the top videos, including Aphex Twin, Bjork, and The Prodigy. Rockers Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, They Might Be Giants and YouTube fave, OK Go are here, as are TV celebrities David Hasselhoff and Leonard Nimoy. There are lots of other crazy videos by people you've never heard of, including Zlad, Tunak Tunak, and Klobbermeister.

Hours of YouTubing music video fun!

Create your own comics

ToonDoo - The Cartoon Strip Creator

ToonDoo is a new really easy way for you to create your own comic strips. You can upload your own photos, use some of their photos or drawings. Click and drag things around, then copy the code and put it on your website or blog.
Dead easy. Let the hilarity ensue.

Worst Art contest

International Pavel Jerdanowitch Painting Contest

In their words: "The contest is named after the founder and supreme master of the Disumbrationist School of Art. The challenge is to produce the worst picture ever painted."

Worst picture ever painted, eh? It's actually quite the challenge.

There are lots of examples from the 2006 contest, as well as the current 2007 contest.
It's pretty strange that when some people try to make truly horrible paintings, they create something that might "pass" as an actual, legitimate painting. It's amazing at how far these "artists" have to go to create something that is truly terrible. It's LOL humourous!

The sweet irony is that because of the notoriety of this "event", the brilliance that it takes to create a horrible painting and the irony of it all, the top entries would probably become "Art".

The 9 Drawbacks to Being an Evil Villain

The 9 Drawbacks to Being an Evil Villain

Becoming an evil super-villain is a bad idea. Do I need to say any more?

Support the farmers of boneless pigs

Boneless Pig Farmers Association of America

So apparently McDonald's going to take the McRib (also very strange site) off of its menu in the USA, and this will negatively impact the farmers of "boneless pigs." Linkjockey's pick today is the Boneless Pig Farmers Association of America as they encourage you to support them in their fight.

I'm not exactly sure if it's quirky viral marketing, a fan-site, or just plain weirdos, but it is a pretty strange site.

Happy Chinese New Year!
2007 is the Year of the Pig.

Why are ninjas so tough?

The Inverse Ninja Law

Why is it that one ninja can defeat an army of adversaries, but struggles against a single, weaker opponent? Because of the Inverse Ninja Law, that's why!

Wikipedia has a full scientific explanation of the Inverse Ninja Law. It also has an explanation of why minor characters are unrealistically ineffective in combat against more important characters; the Stormtrooper Effect.