The Weird and Wonderful Inventions display, which has already opened (and will run until November 10) at the national library in central London, is a showcase of eccentric contraptions and ingenious gadgets. All the weird stuff are from the collection of Maurice Collins who got crazy inventions since 1851 til 1951. He says,

“I’ve got more than 1,200 items and it’s anything that I find a bit peculiar rather than something that would have been successful or other people would collect. I don’t collect sewing machines or typewriters. It’s things that perhaps nobody else would be bothered with, but in some way helped normal people with their lives, like the self-pouring teapot (above left) or the dynamo torch.”

The Weird and Wonderful Inventions collection also includes a brandy bottle lock from around 1880, to stop the servants helping themselves to a swig, and a 1920s wristwatch with a scrolling maps on it (above right) — an early equivalent of today’s sat nav gadgets. There’s also a memorandum clock with slot-in bone memos and bells sounding when time was up were useful for businessmen with meetings and prostitutes alike.

A Lebanese girl has baffled doctors by producing tiny crystals from her eyes. Weird huh?? Since March of this year, 12-year-old Hasnah Mohamed Meselmani has been “crying” crystals at an average rate of seven a day. Although the crystals are as sharp as cut glass, Hasnah says she feels no pain and doctors cannot explain the phenomenon. Watch the video below and see how her eyes produce crystals! So weird! Her father wants her to see specialists in Europe or America to find an explanation. Eye surgeon Dr Nasib El-Lakkis said he will be sending details of this case to an eye surgeons conference in Spain.

Japan is famous for all things weird — and that includes weird ice cream flavors! In the recent 2008 Yokohama Ice Cream Expo, the weirdest ice cream flavor that reigned supreme was *drumroll please* beef tongue ice cream! UGH!!! Other weird flavors on display are eel, octopus, pit viper, chicken wings, cheese, caviar, prawn, horse sashimi, sea urchin, garlic (called “Dracula Premium Ice”), beer and even one with slices of pearls mixed into it! Man, the Japanese sure knows how to make ice creams! LOL! How about you? What’s the weirdest ice cream you’ve ever tried? And will you try the flavors mentioned above if it’s offered for free to you?? Me? I don’t think I’ll try, hehe!

David Piper, an eccentric British millionaire hotelier, who made headlines six years ago after advertising for a wife to become his “lady of the manor,” wants to sell his west of England existence on the auction site eBay and move to London to be closer to his children. His move follows that of Ian Usher, a British-born man living in Perth, Australia who earlier this year auctioned off all his worldly goods, including his home - all for a measly $380,000! The advertisement for the sale explains,

“This sale is brought about as the present lord has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. For sale as a whole or in part… Can include David, the existing eccentric lord of the manor, physically as well to a suitable purchaser.”

Mr. Piper is selling his title of Lord of the Manor of Warleig, two hotels, two Bentleys, a collection of paintings and his large estate for one million pounds ($2 million). He is hoping to raise up to 4 million pounds, although he estimates that the total value of the estates was as much as 6 million before property prices fell. More than 100 bids have been received so far, with the current offer standing at 1.3 million pounds. Bidding closes on August 11. David Piper said he is also offering to introduce whoever purchased his life to some of the women whose “wife applications” he turned down.

Yes dear readers, that’s exactly the name of a nine-year old girl from New Zealand! I have no idea why her parents named her “Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii” but thank God a judge ruled in her favor — she can now change her weird name. Colleen MacLeod, lawyer for the nine-year-old said: “She never told her close friends her real name for fear of being mocked and teased. She told people her name was ‘K’.” Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt expressed dismay about a New Zealand trend of giving children bizarre names and in a ruling made public that cited a list of unfortunate names that he said were embarrassing for children.

Names blocked by registration officials included: Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit. However, the names Number 16 Bus Shelter, Midnight Chardonnay and even Violence were allowed! Pity the children who got these names =( Brian Clarke, registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages said New Zealand law does not allow names that would cause offence to a reasonable person, that are 100 characters or more long, that include titles or military rank or that include punctuation marks or numerals.

These days doing weird researches are the norm — the latest of which was the study commissioned by television channel Dave to find the top 10 oldest jokes. According to the research published by the University of Wolverhampton, the world’s oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and guess what? It’s involve toilet humor! Other old jokes in the top were green jokes — so I guess this means that toilet humor and green jokes have come a looong way Says writer Dr Paul McDonald, senior lecturer at the university, “Jokes have varied over the years, with some taking the question and answer format while others are witty proverbs or riddles.”

The oldest joke is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” Second oldest joke is a 1600 BC gag about a pharaoh, said to be King Snofru, that goes: “How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish.” Meanwhile, the oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century and reveals the bawdy face of the Anglo-Saxons — “What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before? Answer: A key.” NICE ONE! Hehe!

And it’s found in Austin! Some New Yorker writer (Hendrik Hertzberg I think) got lucky on a recent visit to the wild city and was able to ride the coolest taxi ever! The Land Yacht bills itself as the city’s only rock ‘n’ roll taxi. And as you can see in the photo, it has lots of gear for a rock party. Inside a taxi?? You betcha! Here’s the description from the cab’s website:

So much BASS it’ll shake yer @ss right outta the seat! Music Videos playin from 4 honkin big video screens right up in your face. Oh, did I mention that you get to CHOOSE the Music Videos you wanna watch?
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And what runs all of this? It ain’t yer garden variety little dvd player in ‘da dash. Full computer setup right in the cab means I can do just about anything you can do with a computer! Over 2 teraBytes of hard drives means I gotz plenty of space for over 15,000 High Quality music videos available at your fingertips!

Author Tom Vanderbilt has a new book coming out and it’s called “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)”. He diligently dug into studies about driving, and uncovered a lot of surprising information about traffic and driving. Here’s some of the weird traffic facts he found:

>> All about honking:
- Men honk more than women, and men and women honk more at women that at men.
- People in “nice cars” honk faster at less-nice cars.
- Drivers in convertibles with the tops down are less likely to honk than those with the top up.
- Drivers honk faster at cars whose drivers are on cell phones.
- Drivers are more likely to honk at people from another state or country than their own.
- Drivers honk less on weekends.

>> On crossing the street:
- After 30 seconds of waiting, most people will begin to cross against the light.
- People are more likely to jaywalk when well-dressed people do it first.
- Pedestrians on cell phones take longer to cross the street, and look at traffic less often.
- More people are killed legally in crosswalks than jaywalking. [OMG! For real??]
- Half of all fatalities happen at impact speeds of less than 35 mph.

>> Miscellaneous weird traffic facts:
- 350 people die every year entering the freeway the wrong way; at least 50 are killed by cars in driveways.
- “Children at Play” signs do not reduce speed or accidents
- The more “Stop” signs a road has, the more likely drivers are to violate them.
- Car drivers drive closer to helmeted cyclists (and further from cyclists who appear to be women).
- Ants obey traffic rules [LOL!]

Wins what?? You will never believe this but she won a FREE space trip!! Yeah, pretty lucky for her! I’m sooo jealous! ^_^ According to reports, a French air hostess picked up a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and found a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere. Mathilde Epron said she had bought a Kit Kat chocolate bar but threw the wrapper in the trash, telling herself that “it’s only others who win.” But hours later, she decided to try her luck, fished the wrapper out of the trash — and found a code marked inside!! SO WEIRD!! And so now, Mathilde will become one of Europe’s pioneer space tourists =)

A spokeswoman for Nestle in France confirmed that the French air hostess had won the prize to take a flight on a four-seater, fighter-sized aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft intended to provide cheap flights into space. Mathilde Epron will first receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.

Yeah, you really can find EVERYTHING on Ebay — even public toilets! LOL! According to reports, Seattle’s five expensive and much-maligned automatic public toilets will show up on eBay as soon as next week. The city’s officials recently decided to pull the plug on the multimillion-dollar self-cleaning toilet stalls as the unisex facilities attracted drug users and prostitutes, and were less cost-effective than regular public restrooms. The toilets can be found at Victor Steinbrueck Park near Pike Place Market, on Pier 58 at Waterfront Park, in Occidental Park in Pioneer Square, in Hing Hay Park in the International District and at 1801 Broadway on Capitol Hill.

Andy Ryan, a spokesman for the utility, said the officials expected to post the toilets on the auction Internet site eBay soon, possibly next week. He said he did not know the details of the upcoming auction, such as whether city officials would establish a minimum price. He declined to discuss the matter further until plans are finalized. The city has spent about $5 million on the high-tech toilets since they were installed in 2004.