Friday, August 27, 2010

Best Restaurant Ever......Ninja New York!

I found this and thought it was super cool....almost makes me want to come out of restaurant retirement! I love when they jump down from the celing!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

White Witch of Jamaica


Annie Palmer,"the white witch" was born in France in the 1700's. She was an orphan, who was so small she was barely 4 feet tall. She married a man in England, then moved to his sugar plantation in Jamaica, Rose Hall.

Every morning she would go out onto a small balcony where below all the slaves would be assembled. While having her breakfast, she would issue her orders..including punishments and executions. It is said she murdered her husband, and two other husbands after. She also had a habit of taking slaves into her bed, then murdering them when she tired of them. It is not known exactly how she got into Voodoo but can be from a nanny when she was young, or some of her slaves in order to earn her favor.

Her demise came by the hand of her Overseer, a slave who's daughter was to be married to a young man. Annie had called for him to her bed. The Overseer started preparations to try to protect the young man, thinking she would play with him for a couple of weeks like usual. For some reason, Annie killed him the first night, and the Overseer went on a rampage. He prepared a voodoo grave in the back of the house, confronted her killing her and sacrificing his own life. The slaves took her body and burried her, as well as destroying all pictures of her in a voodoo ritual.

When I took the tour of the plantation, it was really sad. They showed where the slaves were imprisioned in the basement waiting for execution. Also, on some of the walls in the bedrooms it is said that it still had bloodstains on it when it was renovated in the 1970's.

Johnny Cash had a house on the grounds, and it is said that it was one of his favorite places. He also wrote a song about Annie.

Look into the Abyss



This is just something I found kinda funny. It's an installation art peice from a Czech artist named David Cerny. You climb the ladder and stick your head in the arse. There you will see a video of two Czech politicians feeding eachother slop all to the music,"We are the Champions".

Monday, August 9, 2010

Kiss the Toe




In Dawson City, Yukon, there is a famous drink....the Sourtoe Cocktail. It is made from liquor spiked with a preserved human toe! The Downtown Hotel is home to the Sourtoe Cocktail club, to become a member your lips must touch the toe.

Started in 1973, the task is to drink a beerglass full of champagne with the toe, now you can have it with whatever drink you choose....yeah coolaid! The great thing is it is a steal of a deal....only five bucks to join! You get a certificate and everything, something interesting to add to your resume or school application!

The Club has used over eight toes, all donated. The first toe was from a miner named Louie Liken, a trapper who lost it because of exposure in 1920. He kept in a jar of alcohol, and a few years after his death it was aquired by the bar. Unfortunately, in 1980 a miner was trying for a Sourtoe record and on the 13th glass his chair tipped backwards and he swallowed the toe.

You definately have to check out their website: http://www.sourtoecocktailclub.com/members.html

Their online shop has some really cool things like chocolate sourtoes!!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Turks&Caicos eh?


Just came across something kinda interesting, something about adding Turks and Caicos to Canada!

Apparently, at various times during the last 100 years various Canadian Politicians have suggested some form of union between Canada and Turks&Caicos. This is because of the large number of Canadian tourists to the islands,it's British colony roots,and historic trade links.

Surprisingly, the government was still looking at the possibility of this union March of last year! One of the earlier problems was how they were going to designate the islands because it wasn't a province. Nova Scotia voted to invite Turks&Caicos to join the province in 2004, should the islands ever become part of Canada.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Inside Ourselves




I saw this exhibit in Las Vegas a few years ago. It's hard to describe the different feelings you get while looking through it. You can easily spend a couple of hours going through it, especially if you stop to read the different information on what each body is displaying. Alot of the bodies are displayed in various active poses. The bodies are all donated by the people themselves with the understanding that the bodies are all anonomous.They use a ploymer preservation process developed in the 1970's. The most interesting thing I found was the blood vessels and the nerve's and such, and I admit the deformaties too. The grossest thing was definately seeing a person's entire skin by itself laying on a table...really discusting and amazing how much skin we have and how thick! I really had the urges to touch them, which is prohibited, but funny enough at the end they have a heart you can touch if you want and I was too grossed out.

By the way Bodies the Exhibition is held in cities all over the world!