
Category Archives: amusements
Oddity of the Week: Circles
While sitting at your desk make clockwise circles with your right foot.
(Go ahead no one will see you!)
While doing this, draw the number “6” in the air with your right hand.
Your foot will change direction.
(And if you’re left handed it works for your left foot and left hand as well.)
From: 50 Weird Facts about Humans
Something for the Weekend
Oddity of the Week: Trolls
Denmark Gives Student $430,000 for Research on Legendary Underground Trolls
Despite the state of Demark’s economy the country’s government has awarded a $430,000 grant for a study that investigates the existence of underground trolls (that’s the mythical kind, for those in doubt).
Recipient Lars Christian Kofoed Rømer, a PhD student and part-time anthropology lecturer at the University of Copenhagen, plans to research ‘actual relationships’ between humans and trolls on the Danish island of Bornholm.
Bornholm is well-known for its flourishing tourism industry, which is centred around the belief that the island is inhabited by trolls who live underground and come out at night. They even have a ‘national troll’ named Krølle Brølle (above), who is ‘small and cute’, lives with his troll family on Langebjerg and comes out at night to have ‘many exciting adventures’.
From Oddity Central
Something for the Weekend
Oddity of the Week: Fannies
You just could not get away with this these days!
From: 22 Vintage Adverts That Would Be Banned Today. Look at the other adverts in this series; they’re American but they’re a total hoot!
Something for the Weekend
Rolling Geriatrics
This is such a wonderful picture! The Rolling Stones at the Adelaide Oval preparatory to recommending their Australian tour. Just which geriatrics home have they been let out of for the day?

Mind, they’ll probably still be going strong long after me!
Oddity of the Week: Sex Pistols
We are further away in time from Sid Vicious’s 1977 Sex Pistols than they were from the end of World War 2.

Aside: Bloody Hell! This also means I was born closer to the death of Queen Victoria than to now.
Your Interesting Links
More links to interesting articles you may have missed.
Have you ever wondered how glow sticks work? Well wonder no more because here’s the explanation. I love those aromatic dye molecules; they’re similar to the ones I used when I was a post-grad student.
So chemicals are bad then? Well not so much. Five myths about the chemicals.
Want to avoid getting cancer? The Cancer Code provides a 12 point guide to avoiding unnecessary risk.
OK so let’s have something a bit more light-hearted …

Feral pigeons can be a pain, especially in cities, but wood pigeons (above) make wonderful contribution to our countryside. “That eat excellent”, too!
Rats! Nasty, dirty, disease-ridden creatures aren’t they? Well actually they aren’t dirty at all though rats do carry all sorts of unknown bugs. But then so probably do many creatures. We just don’t know, because we haven’t looked.
What looks like a rabbit, stands on two legs and walks? No, not Bugs Bunny but an extinct giant kangaroo. Yes, this one was basically too big to hop efficiently and was adapted to walk.
And while we’re on strange things in the animal world, here are five surprising facts about squirrels, including that they make jerky!
Most Brits will probably remember the wildlife film from some 15 or more years ago of squirrels beating an obstacle course to get food — if only because a well known brand of beer used it for a commercial! Seems Americans don’t know it, because one journalist conducted a human vs. squirrel battle of wits. And yes, the squirrels won!
Liz Heinecke specialises in hands-on science for kids which can be done at home.
Why is it we all love pizza? What makes it so irresistibly delicious? Turns out it is all down to the chemistry of the ingredients and the cooking.
Anthropologists have been arguing for decades about how the Pacific Islands were colonised. Now it seems that the voyage of the Kon-Tiki was misleading and that the Pacific islands were colonised from the west by skilled navigators, as the genetics suggest.
Back to something more serious for a minute. George Monbiot takes his weekly side-swipe at big business and big politicians.
Meanwhile we’re all getting lonelier as families and communities are becoming more fragmented. And the loneliness isn’t good for us. George Monbiot (again) concludes that our lives are becoming nasty, brutish and long.
Finally I’ll leave you with a couple of less serious items.
First a look at fictional characters who would have been vastly improved by an abortion. At last someone agrees with my jaundiced view of the classics.
And finally Paris’s giant inflatable

