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TSA Watch / Carry On Policy / TSA / Strange Things / → All Tags

TSA States The Obvious: Hand Grenades Are Not Carry-Ons

Today In stupid TSA happenings, the TSA Blog answers a question which, we're sure, is on the mind of most travelers: "can I take my hand grenade on the plane?" Way to be irrelevant again, TSA.

Now being the TSA blogger is probably not the most creative of jobs, and we don't even want to imagine some of the idiotic questions that get asked of TSA agents, but anyone who can't figure out for themselves why a hand grenade shouldn't be on a plane—filled as it is with innocent people and fuel—needs to be rocketed straight to the top of the "No Fly" list.

To answer the question at hand, the TSA "Blogger Bob" states that no, hand grenades are most certainly not allowed, but neither is anything that even resembles a grenade:

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Iceland Travel / Iceland / Museums / Strange Things / → All Tags

Who Says Icelandic Museums Aren't Interesting?

If you're one of those travelers who thinks museums are boring, you obviously haven't swung by the Icelandic Phallological Museum, 300 miles northeast of Reykjavik. It's admittedly a bit out of the way, but this is the world's largest collection of phallic specimens.

Wherever you look in this museum, you'll see a penis. They have samples from whales and walruses, hamsters and seals, but as yet, no humans. However:

It should be noted that the museum has also been fortunate enough to receive a legally-certified gift token for a future specimen belonging to Homo Sapiens.

Apparently the guy who gave the gift token is a 93-year-old and a plastic replica is standing in until he's ready to hand over the real thing.

Related Stories:
· Iceland's Penis Museum Pulls in the Crowds [Vagabondish]
· Icelandic Phallological Museum [Official Site]
· Iceland Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ollie Palmer]

Sasquatch / Adventure Travel / Museums / Strange Things / → All Tags

Mysterious Travel: The Sasquatch Museum

Just the other day, one of our friends dared us to explain cold fusion, so we stepped into the bathroom, Googled it on our mega-phone and then hit everyone with some fusion facts that blew their minds--and got us a free beer. Point being: There aren't many mysteries left in the world.

That's why were huge fans of stuff like The Sasquatch Museum, six hours north of San Francisco in the hairy heart of redwood country. Adding to the mystery of Bigfoot, the website for the museum boasts no street address, leading us to believe once you arrive in Willow Creek, you can't miss it.

What you can expect at the museum is a bevy of Sasquatch paraphernalia ranging from plaster casts of found foot prints to real video footage. Some say the beast is the age-old prank of a man in a gorilla suit, but die-hard believers such as Sasquatch champion and lifelong chronicler Bob Titmus say otherwise: An entire wing of the museum is dedicated to Titmus' archaeological findings.

Sasquatch has always been purported to be a shy creature, so we don't expect to find him hanging tough at the local Eureka brew pub, but catching up with his exploits at the museum would be almost as much fun.

Related Stories:
· The Bigfoot Museum [Official Site]
· Strange Things coverage [Jaunted]
· UFO Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: cmccartney]

Strange Things / Weird / Death / Andrew Cuomo / Crime / → All Tags

NYC "Bodies" Exhibit Might Shut Down Thanks to Questionable Corpses

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has reached a settlement with the company behind the gruesome "Bodies" exhibition at the South Street Seaport in NYC, requiring them to disclose to visitors that the dead people they have on display could be

Chinese prisoners who may have been victims of torture and execution.

The settlement also requires Premiere Exhibitions--the company behind the show--to issue refunds to anyone who can prove that they paid to see the "Bodies" exhibit in New York and would've skipped it if they knew the people they were ogling might not have consented to being put on display.

Oh, it gets worse...

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Airplanes / Strange Things / India Travel / HOWTO / → All Tags

HOWTO: Fly Without Taking Off

Some of us jump on and off flights so often, it's easy to forget that plenty of people might never get the chance to set foot on a wobbly set of aircraft steps. But an enterprising retired Indian Airlines engineer named Bahadur Chand Gupta has come up with a neat solution to help spread the joy of sitting in a cramped airplane cabin eating horrible food.

Gupta bought an old Airbus 300 a few years ago and has now assembled it in a Delhi suburb. Now he, his wife and a few staff pretending to be airline stewards don their uniforms every Saturday for the flight that doesn't fly. They sell tickets for about $4 to people who want to experience life on an airplane but can't afford to get airborne.

Gupta makes pilot announcements (including turbulence warnings), his wife and friends serve airplane food and push their trolleys up and down the aisles and the plane goes nowhere. It's better that way: The aircraft's missing a wing and half its tail. But that doesn't stop the enjoyment. We're wondering if they make the experience more authentic by throwing in the odd vomiting passenger or screaming child.

Related Stories:
· Tickets Take Off, Plane Stays Put [news.com.au]
· Don't Catch a Plane, Pull It [Jaunted]
· Travel Stories in New Delhi [Jaunted]

[Photo: Keenan Pepper]

Health / Art / Strange Things / Blogs / → All Tags

Galerie Dentaire

There are combination bars/beauty parlors in many major cities, but only très hip Montreal has a combination art gallery/dentist's office. (At least, we assume it's unique.) Galerie Dentaire, recently highlighted by Montreal blog Midnight Poutine, was inspired by similar art/commerce-type spaces in London. There's also a massage therapy practice downstairs, perhaps for nervous buyers. The gallery's current show features painter Jean-Guy Laplante.

Dental services offered include popular, mild options such as cleaning and whitening. But, yes, you can also get a root canal here. Ouch.

[Photo: Denis/Midnight Poutine]

Related Stories:
· Galerie Dentaire [Official Site]
· Teeth & Art - Galerie Dentaire! [Midnight Poutine]

Animals / Zoos / Strange Things / → All Tags

That's Not A Zebra ...

In a north-eastern China animal park, you can pay a dollar to get your photo taken with a zebra at the moment. In the botanical gardens in Shenyang, visitors are lining up for this great photo opportunity.

But are they lining up because they love zebras, or because this situation is so ridiculous: the "zebra" is a white horse that has had black stripes painted on it. One customer said:

We saw right away that the zebra is fake, but we are here for fun, so it doesn't really matter.

The zoo, on the other hand, is feigning ignorance, repeating that the animal is from Africa so it must be a zebra, and then saying they're not sure if it's a zebra, but "it's not that important." But for animal rights activists and false advertising principles, maybe it is a bit of an issue.

[Photo: Poppy Wright]

Related Stories:
· When is a zebra not a zebra? [Independent Online]
· China Develops Human-Kangaroo Hybrids [Jaunted]

Blogs / Strange Things / → All Tags

Flying Chihuahua Redux and Beyond: Strange In San Antonio

Austin is "weird," but San Antonio is "strange." Big difference there, so you better get it right. After yesterday's life-altering picture of a flying Chihuahua, we stumbled upon Strange In San Antonio, a blog dedicated to documenting all the "odd things that happen in the Alamo City." As you might expect, the Chihuahua is hot news right now.

Additional non-Chihuahua coverage includes news of Santeria pigeon sacrifices, weird weather, and attractions such as the Toilet Seat Museum (pictured above). Quite a bit of the news comes from one local paper, but it seems enough strange stuff happens in San Antonio to keep it interesting.

[Photo: nats]

Related Stories:
· Strange In San Antonio [Official Site]
· Toilet Seat Museum [Strange In San Antonio]
· You Will Believe A Chihuahua Can Fly [Jaunted]

Airports / Airport Hell / Strange Things / → All Tags

Life in an Indian Airport

We've seen it before, both in real life in Paris and on the silver screen with Tom Hanks: occasionally, people get really, truly stuck in an airport.

It's happened again, this time in New Delhi, when two Bangladeshi men without the right visas got sent back from Saudi Arabia sans passports, and India wouldn't let them back in without them. So instead of getting rich in Saudi (that was the plan), the two men spent 48 days of boredom in a Delhi airport terminal. And we can't even find any evidence of WiFi there. That's terminal boredom.

[Photo: seaview99]

Related Stories:
· Delhi Airport Hosts "Terminal Men" For 48 Days [Reuters]
· Bunnies and Airports [Jaunted]

Airplanes / Strange Things / Charities / Public Transportation / → All Tags

Don't Catch A Plane, Pull It

Most of us use public transportation for exactly that, transporting us from A to B. But there's an Indian-born guy in Britain who has another take on the uses of buses and airplanes: he likes to pull them along himself.

Crazy fundraiser Manjit Singh was already in the record books for pulling a double-decker bus with his teeth and pulling a Vulcan bomber with a harness around his waist. So last week he decided it was time to pull a Jetstream 41 airliner using only his ears. The plane weighed about 16,300 pounds and using an ear harness, Singh tugged it for 12 feet.

Yeah, he's trying to raise money for kids in India to get involved in sport, but can't someone just tell him there's an easier way to travel? Or is there a job for him at airports when those little tugging machines run out of batteries?

Related Stories:
· Strongman Pulls 16,300-Pound Airliner [LiveScience]
· Man Pulls Passenger Jet With Ears [Ananova]

Animals / Strange Things / Airport Security / → All Tags

Croatian Misunderstands Chameleons

With the amount of reptile smuggling going on in the world at the moment, you'd really better check your neighbor for wriggling slimy things on your next flight. This week a Croatian man nearly got away with importing 175 chameleons from Thailand, but he got caught in Croatia's capital, Zagreb.

This clever Croatian guy bought the chameleons for about $150 in Bangkok, and was assured that he wouldn't get caught because they could change their color to fit any situation. Customs officials would never see them.

Two problems: some started wriggling and officials wondered why his bag was moving; plus their magical abilities were also in question:

The chameleons were dehydrated and distressed from the flight, and as a result had lost their ability to change colour.

The guy had hoped to resell them (market value in Europe: around $200,000), but he's been charged instead, and should spend some time learning up on biology before his next trip.

[Photo: wgdavis]

Related Stories:
· Croatia Stops Smuggling 175 Chameleons [UPI]
· Travelin' With Crocs [Jaunted]

Festivals / Events / Food / Strange Things / → All Tags

To Do in Austin: Spamarama

Keeping Austin Weird, indeed. This Saturday in the Texan capital, you can congregate with potted pork lovers at Spamarama, a festival dedicated to the Hormel food company's infamous canned meat. Spam is one of those "foods" you either love or hate. Personally, we could go without Spamburgers, but if you're curious, $5 will get you into the party. Just remember that you'll never get those five bucks back.

The Spam cookoff is the fest's main draw. Other events and activities planned include a Spamburger eating contest, a "SPAM JAM® Concert" (?!?), and a few other "SPAMALYMPICS™" contests. Gates open at noon and close at 6 p.m., but the upset stomachs™® last all night.

[Photo: Sluggo]

Related Stories:
· Spamarama [Official Site]