A Welsh View

Peculiarosities

Probation Card Found at Burglary Scene
Romanian Football Club Demands Refund After It Traded A Player For 15kg Of Pork Sausages
Drunk Woman Takes Venetian Water Taxi For Joyride

Read more Peculiarosities at Peculiarosities.com.

Radio 3 To Broadcast 13 Hour Opera

The Guardian: Radio 3 to air 15-hour Ring marathon

It is the most grandiose, largest-scale work in the history of western music. It took 28 years to write, involved a theatre being specially built for it, and its composer meant it to be performed over four nights. But now BBC Radio 3 is giving listeners the chance to hear Wagner's entire Ring Cycle in just one day - all 15 hours of it.

The Ring Cycle by numbers

· 4 operas: Rheingold, Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung

· 100 musicians in the orchestra, including six harps

· 18 anvils of different sizes would be used (not to mention a cow horn and a thunder machine)

· 9 hours in which a high bass would be needed to sing Wotan - an impossible feat for any singer

· 13 basic scene locations, or thereabouts, from the gods' mountainous home to the depths of the river Rhine

Beer Bottle Snow Sculpture

Now that is my kind of sculpture. More snow sculptures here. [via]

Video: Pitbulls Are Nasty

[via]

What If Microsoft Had Designed The iPod Packaging

What the iPod's packaging would look like if Microsoft had designed it. [via]

The 2006 Real Ale Society Beer Festival

I'm off to the 2006 Real Ale Society Beer Festival in Cardiff Uni tomorrow. I've been going for the past few years and is probably the best in the area. Whilst it doesn't have as many beers as the Welsh Beer Festival it's a much better atmosphere. Expect some pictures on Flickr. If you're in the area pop in for a pint.

Yay! Rainbow Is Back

BBC: Kids' favourite Rainbow returns

Popular children's show Rainbow is to return, 14 years after it was taken off TV screens.

The series, which featured George the hippo, Bungle the bear, loudmouth Zippy and human pal Geoffrey, will be repeated by digital channel Nick Jr.

Rainbow, which also featured singers Rod, Jane and Freddy, was screened by ITV from 1972 until 1992.

Re-runs dating from 1982 will begin on Monday as part of the channel's evening nostalgia programming.

Don't know what Rainbow is? View this hilarious unaired clip (read script). Unfortunately, the other episodes of Rainbow weren't as funny.

I Think She'll Get An 'A'

[via]

Woman Bakes Life-Size Bread Model Of Naked Body

Local6: Woman Bakes Life-Size Bread Model Of Naked Body

A British woman baked a life-size model of her own naked body out of bread and watched an audience eat it, according to a Local 6 News report.

Sharon Baker, of Epsom, Surrey, used 24 eggs and the largest oven that she could find to complete the life-sized artwork for an exhibition in London's Docklands.

Baker decided to bake the model after she lost one of her best friends to breast cancer.

Click here to view more pics and a video.

Windows Live Local: StreetSide Edition Goes Live

Go check it out. I'm eager to take a trip around San Francisco and relive my holidays there.

Chocolate May Help Lower Blood Pressure

Good news! Eating chocolate may help reduce blood pressure. Whilst it's too early to conclude it was chocolate that led to better health in tests that were conducted, there's a possibility that it did help. Of course, eating too much chocolate will make you fat, so don't go gorging on that 200g bar of Dairy Milk just yet.

StreetSide Team Interview

Apparently StreetSide will be launched at 12pm PST so keep an eye out here. In the meantime why not watch Channel9's 40 minute interview with the Virtual Earth team who give the lowdown on StreetSide.

Related: More information about the technology behind StreetSide.

Windows Live Local Preview: StreetSide Edition

Windows Local Live (formerly Virtual Earth) will soon allow you to 'drive' around two US cities. Windows Live Local: StreetSide Edition will initially cover Seattle and San Francisco but should be expanded in the future to includ other US cities.

StreetSide allows you to sit inside a car (and possibly other vehicles or maybe by foot) and tour the downtown areas of each city. Watch out for a preview release later this week. [via and via]

Is There Any Point In Pinging Technorati?

Is there any point in pinging Technorati. No matter how many times I send a ping from A Welsh View, Techonrati still thinks that my blog was updated 139 days ago. And I know it's been a while since I last updated my Crimelog blog, but I didn't think it was as long as 104 years ago!

Video: Racer Run Over

Painful. [via]

Peculiarosities

Boy Falls From Roller Coaster After Dare
Crocodile Steals Man's Wedding Ring...And His Arm
Man Takes Revenge On Cheating Wife By Selling Pics On eBay

Read more Peculiarosities at Peculiarosities.com.

Ozum Latest

I had an email from a visitor earlier today who said that I hadn't had an update on the business so here's the latest on Ozum.

We are still setting things up but are now in a position where we can start to look for work. We thought setting up a company was hard but drumming up business is the really hard part.

Above is the logo that we're going with, which is basically a font. We decided that picking a font that we liked was better than trying to think of a fancy logo that didn't really mean anything. The colours are also the ones that we are going to use on the web site, business cards and stationery.

We are still working on the site and at the moment www.ozum.co.uk just has a holding page. It is also on a temporary server (my old PC) which has a crap upload speed (about 12KB/s) so that's the reason for it loading slowly. Until we are ready to host other sites we thought it would be cheaper to use an old PC as a server.

That's about it for now, look out for another update soon.

Update: Apologies for those who have tried to go to the site. The server was switched off last night which made the site unavailable.

Couple Sell Rubbish On eBay

BBC: Waste auction after toilet shock

A couple have become so angry with rubbish being dumped on their doorstep, they are selling it on eBay.

Laurence Collyer and Laura Babb said they have found everything from TVs to used toilets left outside their house in Plumstead, south-east London.

They have not had offers for the junk, which is on for a starting price of £1, but the couple hope their action will make Greenwich Council act.

Sackable Offence?

Is this a sackable offence? [via]

Hidden Passageways

This company will install aBatman style hidden passageway starting at $10,000. They also sell do-it-yourself kits starting at $1,500. [via]

Video: Nascar Crash

I don't think Hollywood could ever recreate a crash as spectacular as this one. [via]

America's Best Restroom

Vote for America's Best Restroom (toilet to us Brits). This year's finalists consist of three restaurants, a casino and an airport.

Crimelog Is Back

I had a go at Crimelog back in July 2005 and found it difficult to maintain it alongside A Welsh View but since I've been able to manage running AWV as well as Peculiarosities I thought I would give it another go. If you are a big fan of crime (like me) then you'll find all sorts of crime covered including tech crime, weird crime, sex crime and funny crime.

The Shotgun Chair

"With over 450 .12 gauge shotgun shells, this chair truly comes Fully Loaded. The bright brass tips create a massaging texture on the top of the chair, much contrary of their intended use. The back of the chair creates a stark contrast to the front with its web of red hulls protruding outward in an intense array of plastic arterial sections."

[via]

IHOP Is Giving Away Free Pancakes

IHOP may be giving away free pancakes on Pancake Day but they are nowhere near as nice as British-style pancakes (probably not unique to Britain). I'm not sure if American's have this style of pancake but out of the times that I've had pancakes in America they have been like the ones you get at IHOP.

Man Hides In Bathrooms, Drinks Boys' Urine

NBC6: Man Hides In Bathrooms, Drinks Boys' Urine

A Central Ohio man allegedly told police last week that he likes to drink the urine of adolescent boys.

Police said Patton goes to family restaurants and movie theaters and waits for boys in a bathroom stall. Investigators said he shuts off the water to the child-level urinal and puts a cup in the bottom.

"He goes back and retrieves the cup and drinks the urine," Detective Ron Fithen said.

"He told us he's been doing it over 40 years, since he was 7 years old," Fithen said.

Police said Patton told them it makes him sick, but that it's almost spiritual to him. He allegedly added, "I like it because it makes me closer to them -- like I'm drinking their youth."

This ranks up there with the most weirdest things I've ever read.

Video: Hit By Off Road Car

Ouch! That's gotta hurt. Luckily for him, he only suffered minor injuries. [via]

Quantum Computer Solves Problem Before Asked

The Inquirer: Quantum Computer solves problem before asked

Boffins at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have got a computer to find out the answer to an algorithm before they actually asked it.

According to popular science mag Nature, physicist Paul Kwiat has built a Quantum computer which uses 'counterfactual computation' which can infer an answer before it knows the question.

Video: Narcoleptic Weiner Dog

A weiner dog who suffers from narcolepsy. More about narcolepsy. [via]

Stress Testing Firefox

A guy installs 100 different Firefox extensions to see how it copes. Seems to handle it well. [via]

Faces Of Meth

Before and after pictures of meth users. [via]

How To Make A Seatbelt Handbag

A step-by-step guide to making a handbag from a car's seatbelt. [via]

Docs Put Skull In Stomach

A pilot who suffered horrific head injuries in a freak accident was saved by an amazing op to put a piece of his skull in his stomach.

James Heather had leapt over a bannister in a Paris hotel thinking the floor was the same height the other side — but plunged 20ft onto solid marble. The BA flyer smashed the side of his head, broke an elbow and punctured a lung.

But surgeons feared nothing could be done as his brain was swelling rapidly and warned his parents to expect the worst.

Then docs decided to cut a four inch square piece out of his skull to ease pressure on the brain — and they put the bone in his stomach lining to keep the marrow alive. - The Sun

Sherwood Forest Facts

Ten things you never knew about Sherwood Forest, the home of Robin Hood.

Drive In Church

Time has a photo essay of a drive in church in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida. Only n America!

Peculiarosities

Black Cat Credited With Saving Owner
Diver Struck By Propeller While Fishing
Man Who Is Constantly Electrocuted By His Bathroom Suspects Witchcraft Is The Cause

Read more Peculiarosities at Peculiarosities.com.

The Brazilian Bobsled Team

Somehow I don't think this is how the bobsled should be done.

Weird Things That Could Happen To You

A collection of different things that could happen to you such as Foreign Accent Syndrome, Alien Hand Syndrome and Penis Panic. [via]

Video: Tied Down Helicopter

Any idea what's going on here? [via]

Video: Drunk Hamsters

I want what these hamsters have been drinking! [via]

Video: Flying Hub Cap

A car is bouncing at a car show when the hub cap flies off and hits a guy in the head. [via]

Top 10 Strangest iPod Accessories

The top 10 strangest iPod accessories.

Japanese Capsule Hotel

What it's like in a Japanese Capsule Hotel. [via]

Chocolate-Coated Car To Be Displayed At Museum

Mainichi: Chocolate-coated car to be displayed at Aichi museum

A Fiat coated with white chocolate, which was a popular attraction at the Aichi Expo last year, will be put on display at a municipal museum here next month, city officials said.

The white chocolate-coated Cinquecento produced by Fiat, which attracted attention from visitors to Aichi Expo's Italian pavilion, will be displayed at the Seto-Gura museum in Seto from March 18 to 26 as part of the events to celebrate the first anniversary of its founding.

Distillery To Make World's Most Alcoholic Single Malt Whisky

BBC: Distillery makes 'strongest' dram

A distillery on a west coast island is preparing to produce the "world's most alcoholic single malt whisky".

Managers at Bruichladdich on Islay will use an ancient recipe to distil the whisky four times and produce an alcohol content of at least 92%.

Bruichladdich believes it will be akin to a drink described 300 years ago by travel writer, Martin Martin.

The whisky will be distilled on Monday lunchtime and can be viewed on their web cams.

Video: Drunk vs Gravity

Look at him go! [via]

Classic Prince Philip Quotes

Prince Philip (the Queen's husband) is right up there with George W. Bush when it comes to saying the wrong thing. Ever since the Queen's coronation in 1953, Prince Philip has been reeling off humourous and unintentionally insulting quotes such as...

"Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?" - Said to a blind woman with a guide dog.

"Do you still throw spears at each other?" - To an Aboriginal man on Australia's Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.

"If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine the Cantonese will eat it." - Said at a World Wildlife Fund meeting.

Read the rest here.

Video: Ride Inside A Washing Machine

Take a ride inside a washing machine. [via]

Digger vs Bridge

This digger did a good job of driving through this bridge. [via]

MC Hammer Blog

MC Hammer is back, in blog form.