Today in History April 27th

Being someone who loves trivia and facts, be they useful or useless, I present you with:

An Important Event that Happened Today: April 27th

1667: John Milton, famous English poet and writer, sells the copyright for his masterpiece Paradise Lost for a pitifully small sum of 10 pounds sterling. Keep in mind that he was dirt poor and blind by this time.

What's that floating in the water?

I love odd, wierd and off the wall news. Sometimes even the gory bits make it better. Take this one for example. Apparently somewhere in Iowa they're having trouble with organic, chunky, fleshy blobules appearing in the water system. Mmm . . . almost like liquified beef. Yummy.

News Story: Flesh Chunks Found in Iowa Water Lines

Oh we litigious people . . .

Americans have a reputation of being litigious, sue-happy people. I can't dispute that; theorhetically speaking it's a carry over in our culture from Puritanical influences. I'm not hear to rant and rave about the Puritans, though. While Americans do have this reputation, a friend of mine sent me the article linked below that proves not only Americans are sue-happy. Apparently Canada, that friendly neighbour to the north, has a growing streak of litigiousness. Take a read over the article and see for yourself:

http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=356f30ac-6bf6-4f8b-9266-f235501470c4

You may have to cut and paste the link above into your web browser . . . or maybe not.

Other peoples nice stuff

There's this nifty thing folks do here in Australia . . . it's called "Hard Rubbish Day." What happens is that folks leave "hard rubbish", or large or odd particulate matter that won't fit in the wheelie-bin. Think of it this way, it turns suburbia into an ecclectic yardsale . . . with no price tags.
So, in the tradition of hard rubbish day I am going to leave someone else's nice stuff out for everyone else to paw and filander. Here it is:

A good friend of mine has a blog that you might like

http://eldandy.blogspot.com/

Get your hands off of me you damn dirty ape!

So, I personally think that monkeys and chickens are two of the funniest animals in the world. I'd also have to admit that cows and cats can have their humorous times as well but primates and flightless fowl still take top. Anyway, you can imagine my gleeful delight when I stumbled across an article describing, believe it or not, SWAT monkeys. It would seem that the fine state of Arizona might end up training a monkey or two to do the really tough and dangerous jobs most cops wouldn't touch. So, would you like some little spider monkey (like the one from the movie "Outbreak") negotiating your release from a hostage situation? Or, that same monkey being responsible for defusing a bomb strapped to your groin? Hmm . . . what a thought for the day. If you'd like to read the article in question, here's the link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=2&u=/nm/20050420/od_nm/odd_swatmonkey_dc

Science . . . Now that's money well spent!

I just read somewhere recently that a crack team of scientists have explained the mystery behind unpopped pop-corn kernels. Wow! Then again, good money has also been spent on researching the flow rate of various condiments including mustard, ketchup and Thousand Island dressing.
So, who needs a cure for cancer when we have these mysteries of the food world explained for us!

Perhaps some purpose?

I think I have beginner's excitement seeing as this is my second post within 10 or so minutes. Anyway . . . I'm one of those wierd people who love urban legends and really odd news and stuff like "The Darwin Awards." It got me thinking, though . . . Why do people love to read about other people doing outrageously horrible things to themselves or others? Why do people love to be scared? Why are monkeys and chickens the funniest animals?

I can't answer these questions . . . but I do know that those sorts of things are very entertaining.

Also, being a U.S. expatriate living in Australia I was slightly surprised to see how far urban legends (I thought were uniquely American) have spread. Oh, don't get me wrong . . . every country has their unique set, but American legends have spread like wild fire. Perhaps it falls into the Coke-McDonalds-Levis cancer that has spread everywhere. I'll stop there before I become too political.

The Start of Yet Something Else Useless on the Internet

Well hello there! Welcome to my first blog. I'll say some things up front:
(1) I have no pentultimate purpose for this blog
(2) I cannot promise I will post rantings, ravings, observations or other such related writings on a regular basis
(3) I am a slacking procrastinator, hence number (2)
(4) This blog will, at the most, serve the interests of myself . . . and perhaps a few friends
(5) Your attendance at this blog is greatly appreciated and, hopefully, no dangerous cookies, spyware, viruses or the like have been loaded surrepticiously onto your computer
(6) I reserve the right to spel things howevr I danm well pleeze and use grammar English in way whatever me serves best
. . . and lastly . . .
(7) I cannot promise I will be funny, entertaining or in anyway useful so read at your own risk.

So . . . here we go . . .