Stupid Punts, Cheesy Bankers and the World’s Wurst Museum!

In what looks likely to go down as the slowest naval engagement of all time, rival punting companies in the historic English town of Cambridge are apparently engaging in a clandestine war for the city's annual passenger river-trade, worth an estimated £2.5m ($4m). The latest move in what the locals dub "the punt wars" has seen two of the flat, pole-propelled craft belonging to one local operator sawn through from end to end. Until now, some punt companies have stuck to using stink bombs or liquid soap to incapacitate their rivals' craft, or have severed mooring chains so that the boats must be found and recovered before they can start work, but this latest escalation of the conflict, which caused £10k of actual damage, is worrying many people. Some are now calling for a limit on the number of punts allowed to work on the river (Guardian).

Meanwhile, in Milan in Italy, the loan-collateral held in the vault at Credito Emiliano is not only protected by inches of steel and high-tech alarms systems, it's also maintained at the perfect temperature and humidity, and turned and cleaned by automated systems to ensure that it keeps its value. That's because Credito Emiliano is offering the local cheese-makers loans of up to 60% of the value of any parmesan cheese deposited with them. With each parmesan wheel worth 300 euros ($400), and local producers typically putting up 2000 wheels in a year in collateral, this has meant the bank has lent nearly 420 thousand euros ($600k) to each customer against the cheese in their vault. Which is gouda news for the local cheese industry (AP).

If there is one food that could be intimately linked with the German city of Berlin, it's the currywurst. A twisted cousin to the American chilli-dog, from a parallel universe so evil even the women have goatees, the Berlin currywurst is a sliced pork sausage served with plenty of powdered curry and cayenne and covered in a spicy, curry sauce and sold by street vendors to the passing trade. So popular is this snack in Berlin that the city has just opened the Currywurst Museum to show off the dish's history to tourists and locals alike. Partly this is to support Berlin's claims to be the birthplace of the currywurst, but it is also hoped the museum will promote the snack in the face of increasing competition from more conventional fast food. As one might expect from a museum dedicated to this singular foodstuff, the cafeteria includes an authentic currywurst stand (Times).

(Images from Wikipedia.)

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Sun Aug 23, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Crime, Destruction, Museums, Pirates

I’ll Huff And I’ll Puff…

From the BBC children's science show "Bang Goes The Theory...", engineer Jem Stansfield builds himself a giant vortex cannon, and tries to knock down buildings made of straw, wood and bricks...



Impressive, though I'm sure the "Big Bad Wolf" would not have had much of a problem if the third little pig had likewise left out the mortar. Mind you, one of these is just what I need to keep the neighborhood cats out of my garden! :cheese:

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Aug 18, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Destruction, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Guns, Inventions, Science, Experiments, Television, Myths and Fairytales

A Is For Atom

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 12, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Destruction, Science, Documentaries, 1950s

Motorhome Demo derby

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 30, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Destruction, Motor Vehicles

Vorsprung Durch Technik?

An accident on Germany's A2 autobahn involving 259 cars has left 66 people injured, 10 of them seriously, but incredibly resulted in no deaths.

The pile-up occurred in the late evening, when a combination of heavy rain and a setting sun hampered the drivers' vision and made the road conditions slippery. The first accident happened near Hamelerwald, and began a cascade of other accidents that over the next two hours grew to span a 30 kilometre stretch of road. It finally took 340 emergency workers well into the next morning to finish dealing with the people and vehicles involved and the clean-up cost is expected to exceed 1.75 million Euros, i.e. $2.5 million (NY Daily News).

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Sat Jul 25, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Accidents, Destruction, Disasters, Motor Vehicles, Cars

Beware the Worm Lizard!

Every day the news brings me reports of some horrible locale outside my safe and beloved New England, where people are subject to floods, volcanoes, earthquakes--and "worm lizards"...?!?

Yes, it's not bad enough that the poor citizens of a certain region in Brazil have to battle flooding, they also have to contend with the evil Worm Lizard!

You can read about their troubles here. The key sentence:

Like 218,000 others across a swath of northern Brazil three times the size of Alaska, the neighbors have fled the worst rainfall and flooding in decades, braving newly formed rivers teeming with anacondas, alligators and legless reptiles known as "worm lizards" whose bite is excruciating.

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 10, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Death, Destruction, Disasters, Horror, South America, Natural Wonders, Weather

Buy Your Own Piece of Armageddon

Be the envy of every other survivalist and have your own converted cold-war Atlas-F missile silo home! You too can live in complete cold war safety and luxury. The converted missile launch site is marketed as a getaway, luxury home, and in my opinion is every survivalist’s dream. The property includes its own private runway, 2000 square foot luxury home above ground with master suite, a private airstrip, and a hangar/garage. Below ground, past the 2000 lb. blast doors and three feet of reinforced concrete built to withstand brutal missile assaults lies two additional stories of space in the converted control room where you will find two additional suites with luxury marble Jacuzzi baths and an escape hatch to your private hangar.




More in extended >>

Posted By: chris_cantwell - Wed May 06, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Architecture, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Buildings and Other Structures, Destruction, Flight, Government, Military, Real Estate, Science, War, 1950s

Annual MIT Piano Drop

The event of this post's title occured a few days ago.



However, because the drop is now an anticipated, regular event, it cannot possibly compare with the excitement of the very first one!

Posted By: Paul - Sun Apr 26, 2009 - Comments (6)
Category: Destruction, Education, 1970s

California State Fair—1913

Sorry about that failed post earlier today. The host seems to have deleted that video. Thanks go to Expat47 for bringing the matter to my notice.

Nonetheless, I've found the essential bit: the train collision.

Enjoy!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 15, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Destruction, Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, 1910s, Trains

The Big Snit

Personally, I would happily watch a TV show titled "Sawing for Teens."

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 02, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Death, Destruction, Disasters, Domestic, Marriage, Games, War, 1980s, North America