SATURDAY FUN - Odd News

- Maine lawmakers on Wednesday approved legalizing switchblades for people with one arm, moving close to becoming the first state to make such an exception to laws that ban use of the spring-action knives.

Backers of the measure say legalizing switchblades would eliminate a need for one-armed people to be forced to open folding knives with their teeth in emergencies.

***

- A mayor in Germany is attracting interest from other cities after he installed a special park bench for town teens who refuse to sit properly.

After residents of the southwestern city of Eppelheim complained teenagers always sat on the top of benches, rather than on the seat itself which they dirtied with their shoes, Mayor Dieter Moerlein came up with the idea of putting the seat on top.

***

- New diets for cows and sheep could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, research funded by the Department for environment, food and rural affairs shows.

Feeding the animals maize silage, naked oats and higher sugar grasses could reduce the amount of methane they produce, the study by Reading University and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences showed. (and the humans ??)

***

T'S Kate Mi-doll-ton! A toy of Prince William's bride-to-be is snapped at Buckingham Palace before going on sale yesterday.

The limited-edition £35 Princess Catherine Doll has a copy of Kate's blue Issa engagement dress, gold shoes and bag and a pink fascinator hat.

It is available at London store Hamleys.

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

1. Weatherwise it's a rollercoaster here for the moment, there is frost in the morning and in the afternoon a T-shirt is too warm. Therefore lots of people have catched a cold.

2. At "After" Acqua Gym tea, we discussed cheap flights ! One had spent a weekend in Barcelona just for a party at friends for a return flight cost of 27 € (39 $) taxes etc. included. For that you can't spend a weekend here at our coast which is only 150 km away, while from Brussels to Barcelona you have 1344 km (835 miles) !

More and more students do it too, and instead of dancing in Brussels, they go to Italy, France or Spain or other destinations, that's cheaper than a going out in Brussels.

3. I too will take this company and fly from Brussels to Marseille where Claudie my "virtual" friend will pick me up, she has invited me for a week ! Isn't that wonderful. She lives near the Côte d'Azur and I am sure the sun will shine ! When we skyped together I was sitting here with a thick pullover and she just wore a little summer dress with strings !

4.


Once again we had a birthday celebration in our painting class so our coffee break was nearly longer than the class itself. We also said good bye for 2 weeks because the Easter holidays will start today.


5. The rest of my time I spent with creating new headers for my blogs and change the color to something more "spring". And for the second time in my life I painted other stuff than my pictures, I did some modern art work by painting our "Bistro" table and seats, which really needed to be refreshed. They were green now they are black and here they are exposed !



Before, drying, and the finished art work !

THE ZODIAC SIGNS

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

Letter "Z"

Thanks to this meme today I have learned that the zodiac system was developed in Babylonia, some 2,500 years ago, during the "Age of Aries". Whatever that was, history is a very vaste domain.

Wikipedia told me that the term zodiac derives from Latin zōdiacus, which in its turn comes from the Greek ζῳδιακὸς κύκλος (zōdiakos kuklos), meaning "circle of animals", derived from ζώδιον (zōdion), the diminutive of ζῶον (zōon) "animal". The name is motivated by the fact that half of the signs of the classical Greek zodiac are represented as animals (besides two mythological hybrids).

Isn't that interesting ! The Greek writing reminded me Athens when I was looking for a street and all street names were written in greek.




Modern zodiac signs, short and space saving



and from the 16th century, rather romantic

In the English language fortunately the latin names are used rather than the English translation, sounds also more chic. I think you agree with me and prefer to be

an Aries than a Ram

a Taurus than a bull

a Gemini than simply Twins

only I would prefer to be a crab than a cancer (nobody loves cancers)

the latin Leo doesn't sound so good than being a Lion (shout Leo and a lot of dogs will arrive)

and definitively it's better to be a Virgo than a "Maiden" (but not for too long)

a Libra than "the scales" (which makes me think of Weight Watchers)

a Scorpio than a scorpion (everybody would run away)

a Sagittarius than an Centaur with his human front and horse backside

a Capricorn than a "Goat-horned" fortunately it's not a horned goat

an Aquarius than a Water Bearer, how commun !

and definitively being a Pisces sounds better than being a "Fish"

And thanks to your zodiac sign you know exactly what happens to you today for example.

I am a cancer or a crab and for today I have the choice between

1. "You're apt to be in a good mood today, Cancer. The roller coaster of feelings you've been on is finally coming to a stable platform. Get off the ride and enjoy the comfort of solid ground."

2. "The good news you receive on the job today may not be totally unexpected, but it still can be quite exciting, nonetheless. Naturally, you will have hard work to do as you follow up on your end of the deal, but the most demanding tasks may already be done".

I think the first one sounds better, as I don't care about a job I am retired.

Now it's up to you to find out how your day will be ! Choose a nice horoscope for your zodiac sign !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Photoshopped

more participants here

EXPO SOS PLANET IN LIEGE

More participants here

With 3 friends I visited the Exposition "SOS Planet" Liège's new Railway station (see post below)




We entered the exposition and



saw the first part of our globe's beauties, displayed on the walls



Then we entered the icy part of our globe



and saw the slow melting of the ice



huge fossiles were on display



and skulls of enormous animals, we don't have today anymore




I am here in the stone age. One of the Easter Island big statues was also on display



For the first time in my life I saw "shrunken heads". They are not bigger than my fist. I also read the description of the process of creating shrunken heads. It begins with removing the skull from the head. An incision is made on the back of the neck and all the skin and flesh is removed from the crane. Red seeds are placed underneath the eyelids and the eyelids are sewn shut. The mouth is held together with three palm pins. Fat from the flesh of the head is removed and a wooden ball is placed in order to keep form. The flesh is boiled in water with herbs containing tannins and then dried with hot rocks and sand, while molding it to retain its human feature. Then the skin is rubbed down with charcoal ash. So if you want to keep a shrunken head of a family member you particularly like on your mantlepiece, you know what to do ! These heads were made as trophies.

The other picture was a skull with a pig tongue.



The animals became smaller, but still big



and then we entered into today's world. Plastic, cans, wires and mountains of rubbish, with a very true quote : Civilisation die from suicide not by murder"






and this was the end of the expostion. If you want to know more about it please go to the official website here

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of April 2. You never know if you need an alibi ! If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

With 3 friends of my painting group, we went to Liège to visit the Exposition "SOS Planet". We took the train, because the exposition was in the Guillemins station of Liège (Belgium)



Already in the train we had a lot of fun we were feeling like school girls on a school trip, but without teacher ! The Exposition was wonderful ! I first had been a little suspicious, thought it would be a boring thing to safe the world, but not at all it was very, very interesting and absolutely more than well done ! So good, that the exposition was prolonged until July. You really travel through our globe from the very beginning up to today. I will write more about it in a special post.



The Guillemin station in itself is already something to see because it is rather special and is very new. The station was officially opened in September 2009.

The building costs were € 312 million. (312000000 EUR = 444064901.793 USD !!!) Yes you read right ! It had made the Belgians very angry because Liège is not a very important city and it would have been much better to spend this money for the very much needed renovations on the Belgian railways ! (more pictures to follow in "My World") I personally didn't like that thing at all, it looks cold and is not practical at all the wind is blowing through from everywhere and there is nothing special to help handicapped people not even more banks to sit down on the quays. We were lucky because the sun was shining and it was rather warm, but in winter it must be an awful place !

36 years ago we moved into our house. It was the 2nd April 1975. It snowed terribly this day and it was very cold. Our son was a 2 year old toddler which made it not easier ! The electric stove didn't work and I couldn't warm up his food, fortunately there was my still helpful neighbor !



36 years later we had 24°C (75 F) this day



and I repainted the letter box. It wasn't the one we had 36 years before, but another, the green had faded and it badly needed to be refreshed. For the first time in my life I bought paint other than the once I use for my paintings on canvas, and a brush and painted the whole thing in black ! My neighbors came and admired my work, and now I am very proud !
Coming next are 2 garden chairs and a table !

TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORTS !

When my friends and I took the train to Brussels which normally takes 20 min, as usual it was 15 min late because of an electrical problem. Of course we missed our correspondence to Liège and had to wait 40 min to take the next one. Apparently trains are a catastrophe and always late according to Chantal and what is well known by everybody who has to take a train each day.

Her son Michael a police inspector in Brussels takes the train every day to his office which is located in the center of Brussels. One evening on his return the train suddenly stopped so abruptly that the passangers nearly flew through the compartments and found themselves sitting on each other knees. Once the order re-established, they wondered what had happened. Michael not wearing his uniform in private and on his way home, only found out after more than half an hour that a guy had thrown himself on the rails and was dead of course.

By the time the whole police squad arrived to find out if it was a suicide or a crime the train was stuck there in the middle of nowhere. The mobile phones were working high speed and it rang everywhere, family and friends wanted to know why the train didn't arrive. After 3 hours finally they could continue. Fortunately there was a toilet in the train, because that isn't an evidence either in these very slow old trains which only serve the little towns around Brussels.

As soon as the train started to move, a lady fell off her seat and fainted. The train had to stop again to get her out and into an ambulance to be taken to the hospital. She had had a heart attack because of all these emotions. Meanwhile the train was 5 h late.

Dispite the fact that it was a rather sad story we 5 laughed our heads off. According to one of us the worst thing is that if the victim has family it has to pay for these "inconveniences ", which can be very very expensive. So you not only have the grief of loosing a husband or a father or whatever but you also have to pay for it.

Therefore Christie and I decided when we would come home to tell our husbands if ever they wanted to commit suicide to hang themselves on the chandelier and not to use a train, because it would be for free.

Poor Michael who had left his office at 6 pm arrived finally home after 1 am instead of a 30 min ride !