Thoughts For Year End

I keep wondering if the coming year will be referred to as the vision year,or something along those lines since it will be 20/20.
Babysitters are teenagers who behave like adults so adults can go out and behave like teenagers.
Pavlov probably thought about feeding his dogs whenever he heard a bell.
Coffee makes you hyper,but coffee shops are designed for people to chill,whereas alcohol is a depressant but bars and clubs are designed for people to be energetic.
Running from the cops is the ultimate double or nothing.
Monopoly would be more realistic if the player with the most money got to change the rules whenever they like. (Remind you of anyone?)
With those thoughts in mind have a Happy New Year and be kind!

SAD Cows

Most people who live in northern areas experience some level of seasonal affective disorder but what about the animals? I hadn't thought about how the lack of daylight might bother animals too,fortunately a dairy farmer in Russia has thought of it and fitted his cows with virtual reality headsets that show sunny days and green fields. It has been proven that calmer cows produce more milk of a better quality and that is the hope with the headsets. 

Baa-Baa Bra

Rose is an ewe in New Zealand who had triplets,three black lambs. As if that wasn't enough to ask of the poor gal she then preceded to make an ample supply of milk to feed the lambs which in turn caused her udder's suspensory ligaments to stretch leaving her udder to drag on the ground. A local vet suggested getting her a nursing bra to give the ligaments a chance to recover in lieu of surgery or euthanasia. Rose was fitted with a 24 J bra with holes cut for the triplets to nurse through and she eventually made a recovery. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the bra size so for comparison purposes the best guesses for Barbie's bra size are between 32 FF and 20 HH...now try to get that picture out of your head!

Oh Rats!

I couldn't find much information on this which leaves me with several questions. It is a Japanese tradition for window washers to sport costumes when they give the windows a good cleansing before the new year. This year the costumes were a boar and a rat as last year was the year of the boar and the coming year is  the year of the rat. Who knew the Japanese were that into the Chinese zodiac? and who do you suppose pays for the costumes?

Drunken Brainstorm

You know how a person can come up with brilliant ideas while they're blind drunk? Nope,me neither,however a Croatian university student did just that. He was out drinking with friends when they all started telling hangover stories and he envisioned a museum with object collected along with the drunken stories of people's worst hangovers. Six months later the museum opened next door to the bar the friends had been drinking in the night he had his vision. Visitors to the interactive museum can try out beer goggles and share their own stories,but the real purpose is to make people aware of bad things related to alcohol.

Sing a Song of?

Earlier today I read that "Jingle Bells" was not originally a Christmas carol and was more likely written for Thanksgiving. No part of the song ever refers to Christmas. That being said my next thought was why none of the other holidays are celebrated with songs dedicated specifically to them. There are songs that are associated with other holidays,like Auld Lang Syne is often sung at New Years but it is also sung at other times. If Christmas has the market cornered on songs dedicated to it because  it is predominately a religious holiday,then why aren't there an  equal amount of Easter songs? The only Easter song that comes to mind is Peter Cottontail which hardly qualifies as religious.

 

Sweet Charity

The city of Bergen,Norway has one of the most clever charity events I've ever heard of.The tradition started in 1991 when kindergartners,school children,local businesses and volunteers constructed the world's largest gingerbread city. The completed city weighs 1322.77 lbs and consists of homes,trains,cars,boats,international signature buildings and even a football stadium. Once the city has been admired by all it is auctioned off and the proceeds go to children charities. The total amount raised over the years is over 2 million US dollars. Our country needs to find ways to raise money for the homeless and I wonder if this is something that could be done in cities across the country to raise funds.

Auto-correct

I'm sure most everyone has experienced problems with auto correct since it was designed by humans it is not perfect and some versions even seem prone to error which brings me to my question...whatever happened to good old fashioned proof readers? Today's example is a Christmas card where a word was left out giving a completely different meaning to what was being said. One would think that if your business is selling words you would make sure the words were the correct ones. In another related item a store in the UK put chicken on sale for a higher price. Apparently the hamster was asleep in the wheel.

Pink Badge of Period?

I'm not sure if I'm really out of touch or if maybe this is more of a cultural thing. A Japanese department store specializing in menstrual health asked their female employees to wear a Seiri Chan badge (translates to Miss Period) to let people know they were on their periods. If that doesn't strike you as odd how about the store itself...it has zones for the different parts of the cycle. The blue zone is for women currently on their period,the glittering zone has products for women just off their periods and other products for women building up to their periods are included in the inventory. Did I mention the whole badge idea was hatched by a male executive?

License Please

Today's post is more for the US readers to have something to feel good about. In England and many European countries plus other locations around the world a person needs to license their TV. When I first read about it the reason given was to pay for the BBC but it seems like it would be counterproductive to enforce once the TV police were paid and any other license collection costs. The cost is $200 per year for color TV and $65 for black and white. If you don't watch any live TV or are over 75 the license fee is waived. The fine for failure to pay is $1299.75 plus the risk of prosecution.

How to watch TV legally without paying for a licence

THE following services are still openly (and legally) available to you – as long as you aren’t using them to watch live TV:

On demand TV – like catch-up TV and on demand previews – which are available through services like ITV Player , All4 , My5 , BT Vision/BT TV , Virgin Media , Sky Go , Now TV, Apple TV, Chromecast , Roku and Amazon Fire TV

On demand movies - from services like Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video

Recorded films and programmes- either via DVD or Blu-ray, or downloaded from the internet

YouTube - On demand video clips through services like YouTube

Off the Shelf

I enjoy the creativity parents employ when they are hiding the elf on a shelf,so I have collected some of my favorites to share with you. The top of my list this year goes to a woman who doesn't have children but took the elf to a dark place then shared it so others could use the idea. Coming in second would be the mom who shaved the word "elf" onto her sons head and told him the elf had done it. Then there's the dad who spent two hours wrapping the kitchen for the purpose of hiding the elf...his wife was not amused.

More Christmas Monsters

An earlier post this month told of Iceland's scary Christmas characters,today's post will add to the demonic roster. In most other countries Santa has "helpers" who take care of his naughty list. Belsnickel hails from Switzerland and Germany,he rounds up the children and asks if they have been naughty, if they admit the error of their ways he raps them on the knuckles with his switch,if they deny their guilt they receive his wrath. An alternative figure to Belsnickel is the Christmas woman she throws candy on the ground and when the children rush to pick it up she hits them on their backs with a broom. The old coal in the stocking is sounding better and better!

Now You're Cooking!

A man in Perth,Australia decided to do an experiment using his old Datsun to cook a pork roast. It took the 3.3 pound roast 10 hours to cook,with the highest temperature reaching 177.8 F even though the old Datsun has tinted windows,a rust hole in the roof and the seals around the doors were shot. The outside temp hit 102 F on the day of the experiment,his purpose was to warn drivers not to leave people or pets in vehicles. He figures a quiche would cook in around 2 hours but his next attempt will be a beef roast.
  

Special Delivery

In 1913 the post office begin accepting packages over 4 lbs though they failed to set limitations on what the parcels contained. People being people without specific regulations on package content decided it would be perfectly fine to send the children off to spend some time with relatives. At least seven instances were documented of children being sent through the mail between 1913 and 1915. For 15 cents postage an Ohio couple sent their infant to its grandmother's house. The longest mailed child was sent from Florida to her father in Virginia for 53 cents,she was 6 years old when she was sent 720 miles by mail. Imagine how today's authorities would freak out if people started literally shipping their children off,how times have changed!

Cheaters Never Prosper?

I'm not so sure if this saying still holds water considering the current state of affairs in the US,but I digress. A teacher became fed up with students cheating on exams by going to the restroom and using their phones to find answers so he came up with a diabolical plan to catch them. The cheaters were using a website called Chegg which supplies answers to exams and homework so he made a two part question with the second part being impossible to answer,then he went to Chegg and placed an answer to the bogus question. 14 out of the 99 students taking the exam were caught because they answered the bogus question. They all received a entirely earned 0 and were also reported to the university for violating their academic honor pledge.

Something For Everyone?

For those hard to shop for people on you gift list I present the gift guide to bizarre gifts.