The other day I saw this picture and didn’t believe that this was a real photograph. I figured that someone had been playing with Photoshop.
But this is a real photo. Zzyzx Road is a small road in California. Here’s a link to the wikipedia entry for Zzyzx, California.
This American man is selling or trading his beard.
It comes in this handy jar…
For more details, follow this link Sorry, the link has died. I wonder if he found a buyer!
Over the last two months, more than 1,000 people worked on building this sand castle. It is 31.7 feet tall. Guinness Book of Records will determine if this is the world’s largest sand castle.
LONDON (Reuters) - Incurable romantic Stuart Conway has spent the last 10 years throwing messages in a bottle into the sea off Britain — but now his local town council says it’s time to recycle.
A quirky eccentric ever eager to spread a little happiness, he has a website offering to print out people’s innermost secrets, pop them in an empty bottle and hurl the lovelorn missives into the English Channel.
The self-styled “postman for emotions” has personally “mailed” almost 4,000 messages — but only a sprinkling of them have washed up on beaches in France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
“Most of them are looking for friendship or lamenting the mistakes they have made,” Conway said of the messages delivered from around the globe to his www.conwasa.demon.co.uk/bottle.htm site.
“They are wishes in the form of prayers,” he says of the messages that he propels into the sea off the southern English resort of Brighton.
But media attention for the offbeat service proved to be a doubled-edged sword. Brighton and Hove Council would like him to desist.
“We appreciate that historically sending messages in bottles can be seen as an exciting and romantic thing to do,” a council spokesman said.
“But in reality it can cause serious injury when broken glass is washed up on the beach. We would suggest that Mr Conway recycles his bottles and investigates some of the many other exciting ways to send messages overseas.”
But Conway, who carefully studies the winds and tides before hurling into action, has no intention of stopping.
“The risk of a bottle risking injuring someone is extremely small. I have no immediate plans to stop,” he told Reuters.
What intrigues everybody is Conway’s motivation and what on earth possesses this 45-year-old retired data administrator to offer his service for free.
“I am an incurable romantic,” he said. “The idea came to me when I was becalmed on a sailing catamaran with my foot dangling in the water. The service is free because the repayment mechanism would destroy the romanticism.”
For this determined individualist perfectly echoes Sting singing the haunting Police hit “Message in a Bottle” with its lovelorn lyrics: “Seems I’m not alone at being alone…Hundred billion castaways looking for a home. I’ll send an S.O.S to the world…”
OTTAWA (AFP) - The Royal Canadian Mint will soon unveil a gold coin worth one million Canadian dollars (850,000 US dollars), an official told AFP.
But the valuable loonie, a sobriquet given to Canadian one-dollar coins, will not go into circulation, said mint spokeswoman Pam Aung Thin.”It’s a new denomination for us,” she said. “However, I doubt you’ll find it in someone’s change purse or ever used in a parking meter.”
Rather, the “very large coin” will be sold to collectors and niche investors, she said.
The mint plans to introduce the coin in April. “Not a lot” will be minted, Aung Thin said.
Like all Canadian coins, it will feature on one side a likeness of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, also Canada’s head of state, she said, refusing to reveal any other design details.
The editor of Canadian Coin News, Bret Evans, told public broadcaster CBC it would be the first of its kind in the world, breaking a record for value.
“The coin becomes an event,” Evans said. “It’s purely being done to get attention, to throw something on the market, to make a statement, which is: ‘Here we are.’”
However, the last time such a special coin was minted, in Austria, all 15 — worth 100,000 euro (130,000 US) each — sold out in less than a month, he added.
This article caught my attention. Why? First, Farley Mowat is a famous Canadian author that lives in my hometown. Second, I’m sure that there aren’t many Canadian pirate ships. Finally, it is a ship with a man’s name! (Even though the ship has a man’s name, they still refer to it as “she”).
The Globe and Mail - February 2nd, 2007
OTTAWA — The conservationist ship named after author Farley Mowat and known for hindering whalers and seal hunters has become a pirate vessel after Transport Canada revoked its registration last August.
According to naval law, the crew of any ship can board the Farley Mowat and detain its crew, said Paul Watson, the founder of the eco-militant group Sea Shepherd.
“If you don’t have a flag, you’re liable to confiscation and seizure by anybody on the high seas,” Mr. Watson said when reached yeserday on the bridge of the 48-metre ship.
The Farley Mowat has been crisscrossing Antarctic waters for weeks as it tries to intercept a fleet of Japanese whalers, a quest Mr. Watson intends to pursue despite his troubles with Transport Canada.
“We haven’t broken any laws, we haven’t broken any regulations,” Mr. Watson said. “We’ve always been registered as a yacht.”
Transport Canada could not explain the revocation last night.
Mr. Watson has a long history of animal-rights activism that sometimes has led him to run-ins with the law. He was convicted last year in a Prince Edward Island court of coming too close to a seal hunt.
Yesterday, he blamed his latest setback on pressure from Japan. For several years, Mr. Watson’s group has been trying to hinder the activities of Japanese whalers who have consistently shunned the terms of an international moratorium on hunting whales.
The activists’ modus operandi borders on brinkmanship and often results in confrontation. Sea Shepherd members are known for placing their Zodiac boats between the harpoon-launching vessel and the whale they want to protect.
This year, however, they haven’t had any luck.
Sea Shepherd believes the New Zealand Air Force has filmed the Japanese whalers in action in Antarctica, but that country declines to disclose their co-ordinates fearing confrontation. The eco-militant group has posted a $25,000 (U.S.) reward for the whalers’ whereabouts.
Another vessel accompanying the Farley Mowat has also had its registration revoked by British authorities. And the conservationists must return to port to refuel in two weeks, risking confiscation of their vessels.
Transport Canada detained the Farley Mowat in 2005 over concerns it could cause pollution.
Reached at his home in Port Hope, Ont., Farley Mowat, the author, decried the latest troubles plaguing the ship that bears his name.
“She’s victim of a conspiracy of the powers that be to take her out of action,” he said. “It think it’s utterly imbecilic.”
Three months after buying a brand new blue Corvette for $6,000 in 1968, Alan Poster had his pride and joy stolen from a parking garage in Manhattan.Unable to afford car insurance at the time, he thought he had lost his prized possession forever.
However, in January 2006 U.S. Customs found the ‘68 Vette in Long Beach, Calif., after authorities flagged the car as stolen. Soon after, with the help of the California Highway Patrol, the customs service and the New York City Police Department, the car was returned to Poster.
“This is definitely a miracle,” said Poster. “In speaking to the police, the odds of them finding me were a million to one.”
With $15,000 in donated parts from Corvette America, Poster has a completely restored the car, which he calls “Reunion Blues.”
Corvette America president David Hall said: “We were able to help him refurbish it to its close-to-original condition.”
Now the reunion/restoration story is part of a national ad campaign for the Philadelphia-based after-market manufacturer and supplier.
Hall explained: “We felt Poster’s experience and continued love for his Corvette were a perfect fit for our Generation ads, which focus on real ‘Vette lovers around the nation. Owning a ‘Vette is a way of life, not just a car . . . and we want to highlight those owners and their stories.”
Poster is planning to use his now famous car to promote worthy causes.
