Tuesday, December 8, 2015

10 Weirdest Awards You Can Get

An award is something every person craves for. There are numerous awards given in almost all fields out there, from literature to architecture. And there are some awards, absolutely bizarre in their aspects. They recognizes some hilarious and rare achievements. Over the years, they have grabbed the world’s attention and even inspired competition among people to win them or to avoid them. Here is a list of 10 of the weirdest awards around the world.

1. Darwin Awards

Darwin Weirdest Awards Wnner
The Darwin Awards, named after famous naturalist Charles Darwin is given posthumously to those who make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the gene pool, via death or sterilization. In simple words, it is given to a person who dies in the most idiotic way. It was the brainchild of a group of people in the later 1980s and was officially started in 1993, under the leadership of researcher and writer Wendy Northcutt. The concept even became a subject for a film, titled The Darwin Awards, directed by Finn Taylor in 2006.

2. Ig Nobel Prize

Ig Nobel Prize
Founded by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research in 1991, the Ig Nobel Prize is given to seemingly bizarre inventions that make us laugh and think. The awards are given in 10 categories and presented at Sanders Theater at Harvard University. Sir Andre Geim is so far the only person to have received both a Nobel Prize and an Ig Nobel prize. He won the Ig Nobel in 2000 and the Nobel Prize in 2010, both in Physics.

3. Foot in the Mouth Award

Foot in the Mouth Weirdest Awards
The Foot in Mouth Award is presented each year to a person who makes the most confounding comment each year. Founded in 1993, it has been given by the magazine the Plain English Campaign. It was first awarded to Ted Dexter, the then chairman of selectors of England Cricket team. The other winners include Alicia Silverstone, Gordon Brown and Silvio Berlusconi. Welsh politician Rhodri Morgan is so far the only one to have been selected for the award twice. However, former American President George W Bush was presented a lifetime achievement award in 2008 for his continuous baffling remarks over the years.

4. Ernie Awards

Ernie Weirdest Awards
Given in Australia, the Ernie Awards were begun in 1993, and is named after Ernie Ecob, former secretary of Australian Workers’ Union who was infamous for his misogynist remarks. Once he even said that the women come to the shearing sheds for sex. The first award ceremony was in celebration of his resignation from Labor Council of New South Wales. Since then it has been presented annually to people who make misogynist comments. The award has been given across various categories. Famous people including former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Tony Abbott have won the undesirable awards multiple times.

5. Bent Spoon Award

Bent Spoon Weirdest Awards
The Bent Spoon Award, instituted by Australian Skeptics in 1982, is presented to an individual who makes the most preposterous claim of paranormal or pseudoscientific nature. The award is given to only Australian citizens or those who carry out their activities in Australia. The winner of the inaugural award was psychic Tom Wards. The award trophy, yet to be seen by anyone, is claimed to consist of a piece of wood from the Noah’s Ark on which a spoon used in the Last Supper is affixed. The spoon is bent by some extraordinary energy and gold-plated by Atlantean process and the winners must acquire the trophy by paranormal means, a task which is yet to be accomplished.

6. Golden Collar Awards

10 Weirdest Weirdest Awards
The Golden Collar Awards are like the Academy Awards, only they are presented to dogs. It was created in 2012 by the website Dog News Daily to recognise the best canine actors. The awards are given in five categories each year. The winner receives a trophy designed by Simon Tavassoli, depicting an Italian Leather Collar embedded with Swarovski crystals. The award ceremony is also modeled after the Oscars.

7. Bad Sex in Fiction Award

Bad Sex in Fiction Weirdest Awards
Often called the most dreaded literary prize in Britain, this award is presented each year to the author who portrays a sex scene in the worst possible way in a novel. Given by the British magazine Literary Review, it was instituted in 1993 by Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh, the erstwhile editor of Literary Review. The award memento depicts a naked woman draped over an open book. The award’s aim is to discourage the tasteless description of sex in modern literature. It was first presented to Melvyn Bragg for his novel A Time to Dance. Popular writers like Philip Kerr, Ben Okri, Manil Suri and Tom Wolfe are among the winners of the award.

8. Diagram Prize

Diagram Weirdest Awards
The Diagram Prize, instituted in 1978, is a humorous literary award given to a book with the oddest title every year. Its official title is the Diagram Group Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year and is named after the Diagram Group, an information and graphics company based in London. The award is given by The Bookseller, a British trade magazine about publishing industry. Living with Crazy Buttocks, The Joy of Chickens, Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality, Cooking with Poo and Bombproof Your Horse are some of the winning titles. The winner is selected through a public voting on the website of The Bookseller.

9. Pigasus Award

Pigasus Weirdest Awards
The Pigasus Award was founded in 1982 and is given by popular American skeptic James Randi. It is presented to the individuals who make absurd claims of paranormal and psychic activities. The awards are usually announced on the April Fools day. It was earlier known as Uri Trophy, and was named Pigasus award in 1997. The fictious trophy consists of a paranormally bent steel spoon attached to a transparent base of plastic.

10. Big Brother Awards – Weirdest Awards

Big Brother Weirdest Awards
Named after the George Orwell character Big Brother from the famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Big Brother awards are given to individuals, authorities or organisations who commit activities that imperil the privacy of people. Various countries, including US, UK, Japan, France, Spain and Germany, have their own versions of the awards, which are presented by different human rights groups. The awards are organised to invite attention to the increasing privacy violations by the authorities.


Friday, December 4, 2015

10 Weirdest Ice Cream Flavours

Sometimes vanilla is just a bit... vanilla. There are some weird and wonderful ice cream flavours out there, with a croc egg variety - whisked up with milk, cream, sugar and flavourings - the latest to hit the list. Here are just 10 (there are many, many more!) of the kookiest ice cream creations we could find. Would you try them? Read on to decide:

 1. Crocodile egg ice cream

 

This unusual frozen treat has been introduced at the Sweet Spot Artisan Ice Cream in Davo City, Philippines. According to its owner Bianca Dizon, they've been run off their feet with demand for the creamy stuff, which is made from crocodile eggs instead of your average chicken fare.
Bianca claims the crocodile ice cream is "more nutritious than its classic counterparts since it contains less cholesterol", and that croc eggs "provide more protein than ordinary chicken eggs".
She sources the eggs, which are either surplus or didn't hatch, from a nearby crocodile park.

2.  Breast milk ice cream

London ice cream shop The Icecreamists caused a stir when they started selling breast milk ice cream, entitled Baby Gaga. The controversial ice cream flavour was created using freshly-expressed breast milk donations from members of the public, blended with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest.

3. Coronation chicken ice cream

Jacob Kenedy, chef and founder of Italian gelato emporium Gelupo in London, created a coronation chicken-flavoured ice cream for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Speaking about his new invention, Kenedy said: “I didn’t expect it to be so delicious. I thought it would just come out strange.”

4. Bacon ice cream

 

When a fry-up just isn't enough, why not try candied bacon ice cream? The meaty ice cream flavour was created by experimental American cook and baker David Lebovitz, who candied strips of bacon using brown sugar before blending them with cinnamon, vanilla and a splash of dark rum. Apparently his butcher loved it!


 

 

 

5. Smoked salmon ice cream

There’s never a dull moment at Max & Mina's Homemade Ice Cream and Ices in Flushing, Queens. Renowned for their unusual creations (which include beer ice cream and chocolate-covered potato-chip fudge ice cream), their smoked salmon and cream cheese ice cream, inspired by a suggestion from a customer, is surely up there as one of the most inventive.

6. Octopus ice cream

Ben & Jerry’s may be known for their kooky creations but they’ve got nothing on the Japanese. Not content with coming up with wasabi and cactus flavours, adventurous ice cream enthusiasts are going overboard for octopus flavoured ice cream known as Taco Aisu.

7. Garlic ice cream

 

Certainly one to skip on a first date, garlic flavoured ice cream is an ideal treat for those that love those pungent little bulbs. While a touch of honey is often added to the recipe to bring out the natural sweetness of the garlic, the ice cream is actually served as a sauce alongside main dishes like steak.

 

 

 

 

8. Haggis ice cream

Scotland’s national dish continually challenges most palates when served hot, but perhaps trying it cold could make all the difference? Morelli’s ice cream parlour was happy to give the theory a go with its blended haggis ice cream. Also available: Yorkshire pudding flavour and sausage and mash. We’ll pass thanks.

9. Cheeseburger ice cream

Hoping to give Max & Mina's a run for their money is Heladeria Coromoto ice cream parlour in Venezuela. While flavours such as calamari, cheese and corn ice cream regularly appear on the 800-strong menu, they really pushed the boat out with their cheeseburger flavour - a blend of burger meat, cheese, French fries and ‘secret ingredients’. It’s like having a Happy Meal and McFlurry all in one.

10. Horsemeat ice cream

Surprisingly the one that weirds us out the most is horsemeat flavoured ice cream from Japan. Basashi ice, sold in Tokyo markets, features chunks of blended raw horsemeat - no, not My Little Pony!

Thursday, December 3, 2015

10 Most Creative Insults: Writers on Writers

1. Friedrich Nietzsche on Dante Alighieri:




 “A hyena that wrote poetry on tombs.”

2. Vladimir Nabokov on Fyodor Dostoevsky 

 

“Dostoevky’s lack of taste, his monotonous dealings with persons suffering with pre-Freudian complexes, the way he has of wallowing in the tragic misadventures of human dignity — all this is difficult to admire.”

3. Vladimir Nabokov on Ernest Hemingway 

 

“As to Hemingway, I read him for the first time in the early ‘forties, something about bells, balls and bulls, and loathed it.”


4. Charles Baudelaire on Voltaire 

 

I grow bored in France — and the main reason is that everybody here resembles Voltaire…the king of nincompoops, the prince of the superficial, the anti-artist, the spokesman of janitresses, the Father Gigone of the editors of Siecle.


5. William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway 

 

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”


6. Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner 

 

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”


7. Henry James on Edgar Allan Poe 

 

“An enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection.”


8. Mark Twain on Jane Austen 

 

“I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”


9. Virginia Woolf on James Joyce 

 

“[Ulysses is] the work of a queasy undergraduate scratching his pimples.”


10. William Faulkner on Mark Twain 

 

“A hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tricked out a few of the old proven sure fire literary skeletons with sufficient local color to intrigue the superficial and the lazy.”


BONUS: H. G. Wells on George Bernard Shaw 

 

“An idiot child screaming in a hospital.”

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

10 Strangest Laws in the World

1. It's illegal to wear a bulletproof vest while committing a crime in New Jersey.

 Seriously? If someone is already planning to commit a crime of killing a person or robbing a bank why would they care to follow the law such as this one...
 

 2. It's illegal to die in the House of Parliament in the U.K. because it's a royal palace and anyone who dies within it is entitled to a state funeral. 

If you look even a little bit sick, they will physically carry you out of the building.


3. In Singapore it is illegal to chew a gum publicly. It is only available in pharmacies and is only for personal use at home. 

 This started when the authorities noticed that there are gums everywhere starting with streets and trains to schools. 

4. You can legally marry the dead in France as long as you were engaged to them before they died. 

Why would they make such a thing legal?



5. Kissing in public is illegal in Dubai. In fact any display of affection is illegal in UAE.

 Many tourists spend a month in jail for just holding hands on the beach.

6. In Moscow it is illegal to drive a dirty car. 

With all the murders and kidnapping, is this really the biggest problem in Russia?

7. It is illegal to be fat in Japan. 

In 2009 they even agreed on the measures the people must not exceed.

8. It is illegal to pick your nose on Sunday in Israel.

Just, WHY?



9. In France it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon. 

 I get that they want to save his reputation and everything but still, who cares?

10. In Samoa, it’s a crime to forget your own wife’s birthday.

This is really cool actually. If you can't kill him, the country will fine him.

10 Weirdest things on Google Earth

1. Bloody Lake? Sadr City, Iraq 33.396157° N, 44.486926° E





2. Mapvertising KFC Extraterrestrial Highway, Nevada  37.646163° N, 115.750819° W



 

4. Desert Pattern 27°22’50.10″N, 33°37’54.62″E

 

5.Firefox Logo 45° 7’25.87″N 123° 6’48.97″W Dayton, Oregon, USA



6. Guitar-Shaped Forest -33.867886, -63.987 Córdoba, Argentina


 

7. Heart-Shaped Lake 41.303921, -81.901693 Columbia Station, Ohio, USA



8. Potash Ponds 38°29’0.16″N 109°40’52.80″W
Moab, Utah, USA

 

9. UTA Flight 772 Desert Memorial 16.864841, 11.953808 Sahara Desert, southern Ténéré of Niger

 10. Rainbow Plane Cathy Terrace Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey , USA