Category Archives: Odd

Nazi Germany afraid of a dog

Amused at what the history archives can sometimes produce.  Weird story’s like this make history fun to learn about and research. 

Newly discovered documents have revealed a bizarre footnote to the history of the Second World War: a Finnish mutt whose imitation of the Hitler salute enraged the Nazis so deeply that they started an obsessive campaign against the dog’s owner.

Absurdly, a totalitarian state that dominated most of Europe was unable to do much about Jackie and his paw-raising parody of Germany’s Fuehrer.

The dog, Jackie, was a mutt owned by Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere. Borg’s wife Josefine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog Hitler because of the strange way it raised its paw high in the air like Germans greeting the Fuehrer with a cry of “Heil Hitler!”

Link: New documents: Hitler-mocking dog enraged Nazis. Via: The Finnish Dog That Mocked Hitler.

Radioactive Boars on the rise in Germany

This is an interesting legacy from the Chernobyl disaster where the wild boars in Germany are eating food that has high levels of radioactivity.

As Germany’s wild boar population has skyrocketed in recent years, so too has the number of animals contaminated by radioactivity left over from the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown.

via A Quarter Century after Chernobyl: Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

Apparently, mushrooms and truffles, which the hogs like to eat, are “particularly efficient at absorbing radioactivity.”

via Nearly 25 Years After Chernobyl Disaster, Germany Beset By Radioactive Boars : The Two-Way : NPR.

From the first article link it appears that the wild boars in general are a problem with the article noting some of the recent headlines.

Stories of marauding pigs hit the headlines with startling regularity: Ten days ago, a wild boar attacked a wheelchair-bound man in a park in Berlin; in early July, a pack of almost two dozen of the animals repeatedly marched into the eastern German town of Eisenach, frightening residents and keeping police busy; and on Friday morning, a German highway was closed for hours after 10 wild boar broke through a fence and waltzed onto the road.

Ah the fun of wild animals, boars are at least a little more interesting, here in Minnesota the most common road nuisance is Deer. I was most amused and hope the man is alright by the headline from the Berlin park.

Image from NPR piece, Timm Schamberger/AFP/Getty Images

Dead Animals & Beer, a very odd combination.

I came across this story yesterday in a few places.  It is a very odd speciality brew made by BrewDog Beer based in the UK, who came out with a new small release called  The End of History Beer.  I think the picture included pretty much says it all.  Just weird and never quite seen anything like it before.  I have to say they certainly are a different kind of brewery.  Oh and the price for this now sold beer was $650-$900.

Did we mention that the bottles come in stuffed animals-like stuffed animals that were once alive? The 12 bottles have been made featuring seven dead stoats (a kind of weasel), four squirrels and one rabbit. James Watt, one of the two guys behind BrewDog, put it better than we ever could: “The impact of The End of History is a perfect conceptual marriage between taxidermy, art and craft brewing.”

via It’s the World’s Strongest, Most Expensive Beer — Inside a Squirrel – Asylum.com and Uncrate.com The End of History Beer.

A Jet-powered School Bus.

Stories like these make me really wonder what makes people create things like these.  What would compel you to attach a jet engine from a fighter jet to a school bus?  Maybe an adrenaline junkie or something along those lines? Also curious how much it would cost to acquire an old jet engine and even where you would find that, since bet not a standard item at military surplus stores… But in the end gives us some amusing pictures to look at.

Paul Stender is one daredevil who challenges the limits with his extreme jet powered creations. Paul’s new creation is the jet-engine-equipped School Time Jet School Bus, which is slated to make presence at the Vectren Dayton Air Show.

Powered by General Electric J-79 jet engine straight out of a F4 Phantom fighter jet, the big yellow school bus, which is the largest jet vehicle, does excitingly fast 350mph. This 42,000 hp, 10-foot-high, 35-foot-long bus blasts a 75-foot flame out its exhaust.

via Jet-powered School Time Jet School Bus Sets An Eye On 350mph – Gizmo Watch.

Now we know who to blame for the vuvuzela

I admit that I am not a real big soccer fan, but when I did watch the World Cup this year, the one thing you notice is the incessant buzzing.  Which if you watched any of the games knew that it came from a noise maker called the vuvuzela.  For those who are lucky enough to not have heard it, on the TV broadcasts a large amount of them basically sound like a large group of bees or like I said before an incessant buzzing.  Like it is mentioned in the article it is a part of South African culture, I can except that and came to at least tolerate it during later games.  I just hope they don’t make the jump across the ocean to the United States. Here is a quote below from the inventor of the vuvuzela’s and click the link if you want to read more from the creator.

I invented the vuvuzela 35 years ago but, of course, it’s only since the start of the World Cup that it has become quite so well known globally. Whatever people may say about the sound it makes, it has never been so popular. That makes me proud; I see so many visitors taking vuvuzelas home with them, to Europe, South America and beyond.

via Experience: I invented the vuvuzela | Life and style | The Guardian.

Eggs by the dozen to be banned by European Union?

For all the good that government does, stories like this can make it seem like they really don’t do any good at all.

In the article it mentions the possibly that the rule will not go into effect for a year  or so.  Hopefully they can turn this around and reverse this purposed rule.

With this sort of rule I am just perplexed on what they where thinking when writing this rule.  In the article they have a quote saying important to “provided [information] in a way that is meaningful and beneficial to consumers” like saying 12 eggs or 6 rolls is not.. Odd is all I can say..

For the first time, eggs and other products such as oranges and bread rolls will be sold by weight instead of by the number contained in a packet. Until now, Britain has been exempt from EU regulations that forbid the selling of goods by number. But last week MEPs voted to end Britain’s deal despite objections from UK members….Or that a bag of white rolls has 322g inside instead of half a dozen. The rules will not allow both the weight and the quantity to be displayed.

One major food supplier said: ‘This is hindering rather than helping the consumer, taking away one of the key bits of information. If this goes through it would demonstrate how far removed the legislators are from the real world. It’s bonkers.’

via EU to ban selling eggs by the dozen: Shopkeepers’ fury as they are told all food must be weighed and sold by the kilo | Mail Online.

Hat tip (H/T) to No More Buying Eggs By The Dozen in the UK. neatorama.com

Iceland’s version of Jessie Ventura?

Comedian Jon Gnarr from Iceland sounds similar to the type of candidate pro wrestler Jessie Ventura was here in Minnesota when running for Governor in 1998.  Some one very different, outside the norm, and who allowed a way for the voters to vent their frustrations about the parties that are in office regularly.  That description seems like it matches Ventura and Gnarr well.

A polar bear display for the zoo. Free towels at public swimming pools. A “drug-free Parliament by 2020.” Iceland’s Best Party, founded in December by a comedian, Jon Gnarr, to satirize his country’s political system, ran a campaign that was one big joke. Or was it?

via The Saturday Profile – Icelander’s Campaign Is a Joke, Until He’s Elected – Biography – NYTimes.com.

Gnarr’s party the Best Party ended up gaining 34.7% which was the highest in the Reykjavik city election and his party ended up with 6 of the City Council’s 15 seats.

Mr. Gnarr needed a coalition partner, but ruled out any party whose members had not seen all five seasons of “The Wire.”….The Best Party, whose members include a who’s who of Iceland’s punk rock scene, formed a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (despite Mr. Gnarr’s suspicion that party leaders had assigned an underling to watch “The Wire” and take notes).

Via: NYTimes.com.

I will have to try to remember to follow up on this story and see how Mr. Gnarr is doing in his new job as Mayor of Reykjavik.

I leave you with an amusing video that the Best Party put together showcasing their ideas.