Strange World... Strange place

Family Vacations

2009-06-08T08:48:00.001-07:00

Strange-Globe, Strange place indeed. Family holidays have got to be one of the most stressful events in any young child’s experience. I remember once that we arranged a family holiday to Wales (exciting I know). Two days before the vacation my old man decided to strip the engine out of our Triumph because it was making a funny noise and he thought this warranted a complete engine overhaul! Four days later we managed to cobble the car back together using tape and a few bits of string, and without further ado we set off on our majestic voyage to Wales. Now for those who don’t know the M4 runs parallel above Bristol and leads from London to Wales. So we headed up from sunny Devon along the M5 and predictably our car ran out of petrol on the massive M4/M5 intersection. Much shouting and several arguments ensued. The whole situation was resolved when we made Dad run 5miles back down the M5 to the nearest petrol station. On the way he was stopped by the 5/0 as some woman had reported that some nutter was jogging down the motorway against the traffic… Ahh, happy times.

Another traumatic experience involved car hire in Spain, a van and a cliff roadway. Once again we embarked on a family holiday, but this time to exotic location of Alicante. We picked up a minibus at the airport that we had pre-ordered and embarked on our voyage of hotel discovery. Unfortunately, Dad didn’t realise that it was allocation on arrival so we got ourselves thoroughly lost trying to find a hotel we weren’t even booked into. On the way to the hotel we had to negotiate a series of cliff roadways inhabited by manic Spanish drivers. At one point the old man had to reverse the van and we almost ended up backing ourselves off a mountain. It was pretty much an Italian Job scenario, but with a lot more screaming and none of the whole ‘hold on, I got an idea’.

Happy days….

Strange-globe, strange-place indeed.

Snakes on a Plane, Killer Sharks and Giant Octopuses

2009-05-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange-place indeed. Every now and then Hollywood comes out with a truly hilarious project. In the good old days they were called B-movies. They usually consisted of young actors/actresses, bad scenery and effects and even worse plots. Some of the greatest B-movies were made during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Films like The Blob, The Thing and Escape from L.A were amazing B-movies with scope, depth and moments of comic genius, they just don’t seem to make them like they used too.

The Thing has got to be one of the greatest sci-fi B-movies of all time. It’s a nervous, harrowing alien mutating classic with some bad-ass Kurt Russell acting, jam packed with flame throwers in the middle of the Antarctic. There’s nothing like a great mutating alien action flick. Unfortunately for The Thing its opening was overshadowed by Spielberg’s fluffy teary-eyed classic E.T. Years later The Thing reached cult classic status after it was released on Video.

As I mentioned previously they don’t seem to make many classic B-movies anymore. The last one that I saw was Samuel. L. Jacksons improv classic Snakes on a Plane. I thought it was a masterpiece of cheesy action and poor acting, but it worked and it worked well. It was a chewing gum for the brain type of movie that was genuinely entertaining.

Take a look at the newest edition to the B-movie hall of fame. It’s heading to the cinema soon and it just looks completely awful. Game on!

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

Strange-Week for Strange-Globe…..

2009-05-18T04:18:00.001-07:00

Some of our more up-to-date followers might have noticed that the blog was pretty inactive over the last week and for this we most humbly apologise. On Monday I logged into my email to discover that the gigantic machine that is Google had locked Strange-Globe for reasons beyond comprehension. Obviously the all powerful G has some form of electronic system that spins through Blogger and attempts to stop all those people whom it assumes is in breach of the T&C’s. So the blog was flagged and I had to send off some information to get the blog checked by human review. Thankfully humanity has not been fully usurped and it appears that we aren’t completely obsolete just yet, but it’s coming have no doubts about it. So the long and short of it is we were down, but not out and here we are again alive and blogging….

Evolution in Action – Cunning Animals

2009-05-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange-place indeed…. Survival of the fittest seems to have reached new levels as recent research shows that nature is tending towards survival of the slowest! A recent survey from Chile suggests that snails are evolving and surviving with slower immune systems than ever before. The report published in Evolution has discovered that snails with lower metabolisms are at an advantage because they have more energy to spend on other activities such as growth or reproduction. Researchers found that size did not predict which animals survived, but metabolic rate did, with surviving snails having a metabolic rate 20% lower than that of the snails that didn't survive. It appears that the lower each snail's metabolic rate, the greater its chance of survival. That means that nature is selecting for snails that are more energy efficient. Great news for all you couch-potatoes out there.

In other animal news scientists have recently discovered that as well as humans and apes, certain birds also have the ability to create and use tools. Members of the Corvid family such as crows, jays and ravens are able to fashion hook-shaped tools in order to literally fish for food. Take a look at this great video of Betty the crow shaping a tool and then using it to get food, it’s quite remarkable really.

In other animal news it appears that shrimp stock are on the decline due to overfishing and possible global warming effects. Scientists have studied the mating habits of the shrimp which are interconnected with the spring surge of phytoplankton bloom. Temperature rises in the sea appear to have a knock-on effect to this surge which adversely affects the food source of the emerging shrimp populations.

Strange-Globe, strange-place indeed.

Denied Religious Customs...

2009-05-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed… Many cultures throughout the world have unusual burial practices and customs. Many of these are due to religious ideas and doctrines which have become imbedded within their culture. The western world has always bounced between cremation and inhumation when burial is concerned. The history of European culture has significant swings between all sorts of different burial techniques. The Egyptians mummified their corpses and enshrined them in magnificent burial tombs. The ancient Greeks had very precise rituals concerning the treatment of the dead. In Sophocles Antigone the heroine becomes distraught due to the lack of respect given to the corpse of her brother Polyneices. She is later put to death due to her insistence in giving her brother a decent funeral. Such lack of respect and ill care towards a death is often an incredibly sensitive matter in all cultures, often it is seen as an affront to both the gods and the person if burial is not concluded in the appropriate manner.

In recent news a devout Hindu lost his battle with the High court in London for the legal right to hold an open air cremation. Open air cremation has been an integral part of Hindu ritual for centuries. In 2006 Davender Ghai, a devout Hindu, petitioned the Newcastle City Council to allow him the right to have an open air cremation, but the petition was denied due to environmental and social factors. Feeling that his religious freedoms had been impeded, Davender appealed to the High court invoking Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects religious freedom, and Article 8, which covers the right to private and family life.

Unfortunately for Mr Ghai his appeal was denied and the original verdict was upheld. The High court ruling once again highlights the UK’s slide towards a totalitarian nanny state where individual freedoms are slowly, bit by bit being eroded into oblivion. It’s a sad state of affairs really. I doubt many people would object to Mr Ghai’s cremation as long as it wasn’t held in their own backyards, but instead Mr Ghai has been forcefully denied his religious beliefs which are ironically protected by the very PC laws that the government used to deny his application.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

Politically Correct Furniture

2009-04-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

Strange-globe, strange place indeed. Being an internet junkie often has its plus points. You tend to find out all the news from across the world sooner than anyone else. Google alerts often leads you to places you would never ever consider going. Once there the majority of the time you can leap from link to link, discovering all sorts of weird and wacky stuff.

Here on Strange-Globe we like to uncover as many bizarre things as we can find and it’s even better if it involves a crazy video. This week’s video concerns a furniture store in the southern heartland of Carolina. Questions about racial equality have always been a bit of a taboo subject in the states. However, as we can see from the election of Barack Obama (woo go democrats!) things have started to change.

We knew that this video was going to be controversial. Anytime race is discussed controversy ensues. The video attempts to portray the difference between racial and racism. The video doesn’t promote hatred or intolerance instead it highlights the absurdity of political correctness. The designers also wanted to reinforce the idea that it is ok to be proud of your race and culture, and discussing it should not be considered such a taboo.

Throughout the video the hosts continually suggest that these beds and this sofa are for both black and white people, there is no differentiation between race and the advert further commits itself to racial equality by adding Hispanics too. I think it’s a great video, so without further-ado here’s the Redhouse advert and a few words from its creators.

Here are the creators of the Redhouse advert and their rationale behind the advert.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed

Last Night A Bra Saved my Life….

2009-04-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed. Over the years you hear of many strange events where unlikely inanimate objects save lives in the most peculiar situations. There’s the age old war story where the guy gets shot, but the bullet hits his bible or his cigarillo box instead of blowing a whole through his chest. These events are so unusual that people even make songs about. I mean who would have thought that last night a vinyl flinging DJ would have saved my life? It’s pretty amazing really when you think about it. Most of the time I think it just happens to be a matter of the right place at the right time.

There are loads of other examples of this happening across the world. In 2009 a 30ft fishing boat sank off the coast of the coast of Thailand. The crew consisted of 20 Thai-Burmese fisherman. Two of the crew managed to drift for 25 days in a drinks cool box. The men were eventually picked up after their 25 day ordeal off the coast of Australia. Reportedly their first words were “Can we have a drink please”.

In recent news a Detroit woman was caught in a crossfire during a burglary. The woman apparently was looking out of window when the shot was fired. Fortunately for the woman the bullet smashed through the window and rebounded off the metal wiring of her bra. The lady told police that it was lucky she was wearing her lucky lingerie that day.

Perhaps my favourite lucky escape is this video of a plucky penguin who manages to avoid a whole group of Killer Whales by dashing around and finally ending up jumping onto a nearby sight-seeing boat.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

Daffodils and Alzheimer’s

2009-04-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed. One of the biggest medical curses of the 21st century is Alzheimer’s disease. An estimated 26 million people worldwide surfer from Alzheimer’s disease. It’s an incredibly destructive disease to cope with for both the sufferer and the relatives of those affected by it. Those affected by it at first suffer from memory loss, confusion and mood swings. Gradually over time the patient continues to suffer from memory loss and eventually most body functions decline which ultimately leads to death. The onset of the disease is incredibly difficult to live with; the patient while still generally cognitive understands the degenerative capacity of the disease, anger and depression are common responses to the diagnosis.

In recent years Alzheimer treatment has focused upon a complex substance called Galantamine. Originally this alkaloid was synthetically obtained from snowdrops. However, nowadays a more common supply has been located from Daffodils. In 2008 the Welsh Assembly invested £850,000 in the cultivation of Daffodils for Galantamine production. Although Galantamine does not reverse the problem of Alzheimer’s, it does help slow down the more destructive symptoms caused by the disease.

For centuries flowers have been used to manufacture and synthesis life saving pharmaceuticals. Probably the most common flower used to make pharmaceuticals is the Opium Poppy. The natural properties of the plant were originally used to induce sleep. Nowadays the Opium Poppy is used to create powerful pain killers such as Codeine, Morphine and Noscapine. Without these naturally occurring chemicals the human race would be in a lot of trouble. Mother Nature often provides humanity with inspiration for great new ideas or technological advances. It’s just up to us to harness them successfully.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

Yarrrr there be pirates ahoy!

2009-04-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place, indeed. In days of yore unemployed seafarers and rum drinkers were rounded up and press ganged into the navy. These ‘volunteers’ soon found themselves out on the high seas in an ocean full of buccaneers and stripe-shirted pirates. Of course nowadays the world of piracy is a bit more sophisticated. Modern day buccaneers are more likely to be armed with AK’s and high speed modems, rather than shambling around with cutlasses or annoying parrots.

Pirates seem to be everywhere at the moment; they’re in the media, they’re also on the coast of Somalia hijacking tankers full of oil or humanitarian aid, they’re even in Swedish courts nowadays. In fact the world seems to have gone loopy, there’s even a whole day dedicated to dressing up and talking like a pirate, it’s crazy! In today’s world there are of course easier jobs to find which don’t involve a life of danger on the high seas.

The most recent news reports regarding piracy tend to fall into two categories, those involving digital pirates and those involving ocean bound mariners armed with RPG’s. Today’s news saw the Stockholm district court sentence each of the four organisers of The Pirate Bay, the worlds leading bit.torrent search engine, to a year in prison. The court also ordered the four men to pay 2.4million in damages to various media conglomerates such as Sony. Throughout the trial all four men maintained that they were innocent of any copy-write infringement, insisting that the site never hosted any illegal files and merely allowed users to find bit.torrent files hosted and seeded by others. The trial has attracted a lot of attention worldwide. Music companies and digital publishers are heralding the verdict as a landmark decision in the current war against illegal downloads. However, the verdict has little influence over the actual Pirate Bay site as the servers are currently held off shore and therefore not within Sweden’s jurisdiction. Despite being sentenced to jail and being fined a substantial amount the coordinators of Pirate Bay have vowed to continue with the site in spite of the courts decision.

Other pirate news relates to the recent hijack of a ship carrying disaster relief aid that was destined for Africa. In a dramatic scenario the ship’s crew managed to capture one of the pirates. In a trade off the US captain offered to remain as a hostage, and free the captured pirate, as long as the ships remaining crew were allowed to go free. The US captain’s ordeal was soon resolved after US Navy snipers took out the remaining pirates.

In both accounts it’s clear that being a pirate still remains a dangerous occupation and not one for the faint hearted.

Strange-Globe, strange place, indeed.

Too Much Underwear = No Visa

2009-04-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed. So what do you take on holiday, well for starters you grab your suitcase, stuff it with a few socks & pants etc, then you fill it with the rest of your vacation clothes. Well most people do anyway. Others take the bare minimum so that they can shove as many duty free cigarettes in as they can; a few bottles of whisky and a sombrero also normally find their way into any spare bag space. However, here’s a stark warning to all you underwear fanatics – Don’t pack just lingerie, otherwise you might not get into the country! Yep, that’s right if you happen to be going to some sort of lingerie festival or underwear beach party then be careful of how you pack. If your taking two suitcases don’t just fill one with lingerie and the other with clothes otherwise the big men from HM Customs & Excise might just reject your visa and turn you back around.

I am of course talking about the recent news reported from the BBC that states that a Brazilian woman flying from Geneva was deported and denied access to the country as her cases when searched contained only t-shirts, a dressing gown and lingerie. The UK border officials became even more concerned when the woman was asked as to why she was entering the country and she replied “seeing Newcastle city centre”. Of course to any normal UK citizen this would immediately begin to start alarm bells ringing. No one in their right mind would come to England only to visit Newcastle city centre, the streets are definitely not paved with gold and the city centre is certainly not as majestic as say Cardiff or Vienna.

After a quick check the officers also found that the woman had already been turned away from Dublin airport, Officers again suspected the woman of being involved in the sex trade after a series of dildo’s and more lingerie was discovered in her bags. So a warning to all you lingerie enthusiasts out there, be careful what you pack as you might not make it to that all important underwear beach party 2009!

Looks like a good party!

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

My Other Car is an Armchair...

2009-04-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed. Welcome to the crazy and wacky world of extreme furniture sport. Now most people would consider your average sofa to be something comfortable that you sit in every now and then with a nice cup of cocoa, but oh no! Why just sit there when you can drive!

For years now people have done anything they can do to quench their thirst for speed. It doesn’t matter what you drive it just matters how fast it can go. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lawnmower, an ironing board or a Lamborghini. Lawnmower racing has been a progressive sport for several years now and recent reports suggests no sign of it mowing down (har har har). In fact the sport is so big in the USA that there is an actual national Lawn Mower Association. The aptly named USLMRA hold regular televised races where competitors regularly strim it out for the top spot.

If your not into your gardening how about ironing? There are two ways that you can take this, you can either go extreme or go surfing. Extreme ironing involves going to bizarre places, often on top of large rocks, and ironing your socks off. If housework isn’t your thing then you can head to the nearest swell, get your wetsuit on and hit some waves. One safety tip is to not attach a toe-line to your ironing board, or an iron, in fact just leave the iron at home.

Surf (Remi Gaillard) - Watch more funny videos here

If your thirst for speed is just not quenched by any of the above then you only have one choice. Yep head down to the tip, get yourself a sofa and attach a V8 engine to it! Be warned thou if you go on the road you still need a license and number plate. The land sofa record which had been held since 1998 was recently broken by a hand built road worthy sofa that managed to hit a top speed of 92mph.

The choices are endless you can race beds, mowers, sofa’s and chairs. So how does a person get into extreme furniture racing? Well the first thing to do is to find an appropriate piece of furniture, once you’ve done that you can call in the A-Team to ‘convert the chair’. Once you’ve mech’d up then all you have to do is find your nearest furniture event and enlist, it’s so simple you can even do it from your armchair.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

Monster Job Opportunities

2009-04-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed. It’s a big bad world out there and in the middle of a global economic downturn you may be experiencing certain employment problems. Jobs are currently under threat from all angles, a lot of people are currently unemployed, most are having trouble finding new work and companies are cutting jobs and making redundancies at a frightening pace. Employment news from the financial and manufacturing sector is grim. RBS recently announced that they are due to shed 9,000 jobs within the next few months and car companies have been laying people off throughout the year.

All is not lost thou, there is a small amount of evidence that suggests that recession is coming to an end. Whether this is true or not is unclear, even if it is true it will still take a few months before the job market begins to recover. The worst hit industries appear to be blue collar jobs, traders, construction, manufacture and of course financial. In light of this perhaps it’s time to check out a new vocation. How about getting a job as a MONSTER!

Yep that’s right one particular American company has been advertising for monsters, here’s an excerpt

“We’re holding our first annual Halloween Haunt Job Fair in search of the scariest monsters ever! If you love to scare people…we want you!

We are now accepting applications for monsters and other talent, as well as behind-the-scenes positions including scenic and costume builders and technicians, non-scare positions available as well. This job is perfect for those with a 9-5 job, as it runs evenings on Friday Saturday and Sundays in October.
Are you ready to make our guests scream? Fill out an online application.

The next time the guy in the cube next to you puts in fangs and grimaces into a pocket mirror, don’t be alarmed—he just wants to get good at being a monster.”

Why not try it it’s got to be perhaps the greatest job interview ever! However, if your not monster inclined why not try a UK jobs search with a more established recruitment agency. Another suggestion would be to check out this great list of top 10 recession proof jobs. With the world getting more and more concerned about global warming it may be time to start looking for a green vocation.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

Tree-shapers the Future of Furniture...

2009-04-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed. Today on Strange-Globe we are going to dip into the murky world of extreme environmental furniture. Now you make think that planting and growing a tree is a simple thing; put it in a hole, add some earth and water then hey presto! Tree! But you would be wrong. According to the girls and guys at Pooktre.com it’s all about nature and nurture.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I’m looking for some new furniture or a sofa I usually head to a regular High Street retailer like M&S or Argos. But have you ever considered growing your own? I’m sure most people haven’t, but that’s precisely what Peter and Becky do.

In 1986 Peter decided to grow his own chair, he later partnered up with Becky and the art of Pooktre was born. It’s an environmental art form which involves nurturing, cultivating and shaping trees to grow in a specific predetermined pattern. Some of the pictures look phenomenal, the art of Pooktre is truly spectacular, but obviously takes a lot of time and dedication.

A quick Google search led me even further into the world of Tree-shaping. There are various Tree-shaping practitioners across the world, most of their sites and bio’s can be found here on Treeshapers.net. I admire their dedication and commitment to a greener lifestyle, it’s nice to see people out there who are dedicated to tackling climate change no matter how big or small their efforts might be.

Of course if you prefer to take the easy route there are some great guides out there for sofa buying or bed buying, and if you have a green conscience then you can also check out this guide to eco-beds.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

100ft Dalek Invades Northern Ireland.... Rarrr.....

2009-04-07T03:27:00.000-07:00

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed. If you happened to be wandering around Belfast this week then take a look around at the surrounding countryside because you may spot the vanguard of the Dalek invasion. All hail our imperial overlords!

The stunt was pulled off by Dennis Rushe of the Uncharted Territory Group which is currently campaigning on behalf of The Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice charity. It’s a great stunt and I hope they get lots of people on board. They certainly made a stir around Belfast. The Sci-fi convention is hoping to raise lots of funds from all you Cybermen out there so grab your TARDIS and head on out to Belfast.

There are lots of great charities out there which are starting to feel the pinch due the ongoing economic downturn. Most charities like Oxfam now have online charity donation sites to deal with specific causes like disaster relief. You can also help Dennis out by making an online donation to NICH through this link here.

There are some weird and wild charity stunts out there one I particularly like is this sponsored fart for the heart campaign run by the PastyMuncher. Another great charity stunt is organised by CrazyHats. Every spring they run a crazy hat walk for cancer charities. If you’re environmentally conscious you can now donate to the UK’s first climate change charity at puretrust.org.uk. Since their creation they have manages to raise nearly 2 million and are attempting to help the UK go carbon neutral.

Strange-Globe, strange place indeed.

Strange World

2009-04-07T03:11:00.001-07:00

It is indeed a strange world out there, in fact it's a very strange globe that we all live on. Our globe is full of unique organisms and systems that do some very strange and interesting things. Civilization is moving at a rapid pace, it's almost too much to keep up with. So in an effort to keep up with this bizzare and sometimes terrifying world, strange-globe is honoured to present it's readers with all the latest news from around the world.