As I got more and more unreliable doing the Unusual Wikipedia Monday and Wikipedia decided to delete the Unusual Articles page, I thought it time to lay this series to rest.

We’ve had good times. Now they’re done.

Okay, I know, I know, it’s monday and where’s the unusual wikipedia? Well, the answer’s: not here. It’s the last days before christmas which means that I have a lot of tests and exams. Which wouldn’t keep me from doing it, but they disputed the redirect of the collection of Unusual Articles again and I really don’t have time to search for some weirdness myself. Therefore, Unusual Wikipedia Monday is on pause until further notice.

But I promise that I will post some actual content soon – I have a couple of books and a few films, which still need reviews. :)

Isn’t it sad that I have to learn about this probably great Viennese group via Wikipedia? So, I hear you asking, what’s the deal, other than their name is translated to “The first Viennese Vegetable Orchestra”?

Well, actually, that’s their deal.

Their instruments, which are all of their own invention, include carrot recorders, clappers made from eggplant, trumpets made from zucchini, and numerous others, which are amplified with the use of special microphones. The instruments are made from scratch just one hour prior to each performance using the freshest vegetables available, then all ninety pounds of vegetables are cooked into a soup following the performance.

I know that you’re anxious to see them in action, which you can do here. Or maybe you just want to listen while looking at a picture of them in action?

Ambiente Verde

 The things in this world… I don’t know what to say… Let them speak for themselves:

who had the idea?
we don’t remember. it is not the idea that matters it is the realization. the idea was born and carried out by a group of people, who came from different musical backgrounds (improvisation, electronics, pop, rock, punk, contemporary,……) and have worked together before in various projects.

are you all vegetarians or vegans?
no we are not. don’t ask again. we’ve heard this question 3 million times.

are you serious about your music?
yes we are. this is not a just-for-fun project. 

If you say so…

We all know that myths are widespread and every culture has them. Usually, these myths are old and the superstitious and out-of-control explanation of events since forgotten or scientifically explained.

The myth of the Popobawas starts out like any other. It’s nighttime. Weird shadows. OH NOES! A monster! It attacks! Sexually! Aaaarrgh!

But there’s four things special about this particular brand of bat-like incubus:

1. He’s gay.

He attacks men as they sleep, overpowering them, holding their face to the floor and forcefully raping them in the anus for up to an hour or so.

2. He just loves publicity.

The victims are threatened with repeated, and longer, sodomizations if they do not let their friends and neighbors know of their experience.

3. He’s really young.

A popular origin story of Popobawa proposes that in the 1970s an angry sheikh released a djinni to take vengeance on his neighbors. The sheik lost control of the djinni, who took to demonic ways. [citation needed]

4. He’s somehow connected to the elections in Zanzibar.

Reports of Popobawa attacks rise and fall with the election cycle in Zanzibar, although victims argue Popobawa is apolitical.

Unfortunately, due to his really being ugly, the Popobawa will never join his cousin, the vampire, in the popularity charts. Or would you want to read a story, where a young girl falls in love with this mysterious guy?

There’s names and there’s names. I like to think that I was pretty lucky, being born as a girl. Apart from the fact that gender changes are terribly expensive, my parents would have called me Jodok had I become a boy. And I would have hated them for eternity if they had done that to me.

Other people were not so lucky. And I’m not sure if their gender would have changed anything. Here’s a round-up of the really weird stuff.

Nicholas Barbon. Yeah, I know. Not that awkward. But his second name is Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned. But what can you expect, his father’s name was Praise-God Barebone. I’d say, the nuttery lies in the family.

Parents using their children to prove a point? Never a good idea. But condemning a child to being named Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 [pronounced Albin] is cruelty in it’s purest form. The parents didn’t want to officially name Brf, in protest against the Swedish Naming laws.

Because the parents failed to register a name by the boy’s fifth birthday, a district court in Halmstad, southern Sweden, fined them 5,000 kronor. Responding to the fine, the parents submitted the 43-character name in May 1996, claiming that it was “a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation.” The parents suggested the name be understood in the spirit of ‘pataphysics. The court rejected the name and upheld the fine.

Because his father, a sailor and emigrant, didn’t want to be reminded of anything English, Thursday October Christian was the one who always got beat up in school.

Neville Neville. At least, he only has to remember one name.

Jennifer 8. Lee can be lucky that she’s not in the Temple of Bel-Shamharoth.

Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache and his brother Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedmag Hugh Erchenwyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache. And I’m pretty sure that Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville was somehow related as well. Need I say more?

Well, if you don’t have enough yet, here’s a list of unusual personal names. And there’s Cracked’s 20 Most Bizarre Celebrity Baby Names. (Tu Morrow is all I’m gonna say.)

I’m really sorry, but after spending a weekend with deadra, I didn’t get to write this post yesterday (first, there was deadra, and then there were over 300 items in my reader which needed to be read and which made me forget time).

Anyway, you don’t have to miss your weekly dose of weird, that’s why I’m writing now. [Unfortunately, I’m a little pressed for time, therefore, this entry will be a shorter one.]

Okay, start now.

I guess, we all know the X-Men. I mean, even I do, although Marvel‘s not my cup of tea, usually (thank you, movie adaptations).

Well and one of the biggest themes, probably even a leitmotif of the whole series, is the acceptance of mutants into the society. That’s what they fight for; that someday mutants will be equal to humans. That their humanity will be recognised.

Well, cue Marvel to destroy what the X-Men fought for.

In the US, there’s the distinction between toys and dolls. Dolls represent human figures. Toys non-human. So, the Sigmund Freud Action Figure is a doll. We can argue about Barbie being human/a doll. Finding Nemo Figures are toys.

Now, the thing is, for toys, you have to pay less taxes than for dolls. That’s why Marvel thought it would be great to claim that the X-Men weren’t human after all. And they won.

Their explanations to the shocked fans?

“our heroes are living, breathing human beings— but humans who have extraordinary abilities … A decision that the X-Men figures indeed do have ‘nonhuman’ characteristics further proves our characters have special, out-of-this world powers.”

Well done, Marvel, well done…

Good news, people, good news! After last week’s debacle of the missing directory, it’s back now and hopefully to stay! Things are back to normal, so let’s get a move on! 

*puts on teacher face*
Today, I want to talk to you about a very serious topic. The 335 Year War is one of the longest war in the history of humanity, probably only topped by the Arauco War. But where the Arauco War had actual fighting, the 335 Year War did not depend on such minor details to be a war.

It all started in 1651, when, due to the Second English Civil War, the English Royalist Navy retreated to the Isles of Scilly.

Scilly – I guess I know where I’ll spend my next vaction… Now that they’re at peace…

Netherlands on the other hand, had a treaty with the Parlamentarians. Because the Dutch Navy suffered many losses from the Royalist Navy, while they were “stationed” on Scilly, Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp, a Dutch admiral, decided that the two navies should get together and have a little talk.

He arrived at Scilly and said something along the lines of, “Stop destroying our ships and give back what you stole or I’ll tell my mummy the queen!” The Royalist Navy laughed him in the face. Tromp’s reaction to that was, “Then it’s war!”

By then, the Parlamentarians had taken over Britain. As it would be tactically unwise to declare war on a nation you have a treaty with, the Netherlands decided, they’d only have war with Scilly.

Shortly after, the Royalists had to surrender to the Parlamentarians and the Dutch navy left Scilly, without firing a single shot.

In the ensuing drinking and partying, nobody cared to declare peace. It was only in 1985, when historian Roy Duncan wanted to dispose of the myth that Scilly and the Netherlands were still at war that people noticed it was actually true. So, Duncan invited the Dutch ambassador to come to Scilly and sign a peace treaty and in 1986, peace was finally instilled and the Scillonians could sleep without worrying that the Netherlands would attack for the first time in over 300 years.

Don’t you wish all wars would go about like that?

I’m sorry, I had to finish a project for uni and didn’t get to write the Unusual Wikipedia Monday article. And now I wanted to do it and guess what I found?

This:

The use and purpose of this redirect is currently being discussed by the Wikipedia community. The outcome of this discussion may result in a change of this page, and possibly its deletion in accordance with Wikipedia’s deletion policy.

OH NOES!

Will this be the end of the UWM? Or just a break? Maybe you have found unusual articles that I can write about? Then, please, tell me!

Until I know what to do, UWM is on hold. :(