OK, you’ve got to see the Google Map of Point Roberts, Washington. It’s called an exclave, meaning it is a territory legally attached to another territory with which it is not physically contiguous. The only way to go from Point Roberts to other cities in the US, not by boat, is to drive through Canada! In fact, there is only one school in Point Roberts which only teaches K-2nd grade, so resident children need to take a 40 minute bus trip through Canada to get to school every day.

Point Roberts assumed its present political status in 1846, when the Oregon
Treaty extended the 49th parallel as the boundary between American and British
territory from the Rocky Mountains to Georgia Strait.

Of course, due to its close proximity to Canada, there have been talks about it being incorporated into Canada as far back as 1949, but this came to a head in 1973 when The Americans had threatened to cut off the Canadians’ water supply, and hung up signs saying “Canadians Go Home.” This is a sentiment I can get behind!

There is no hospital, doctor, dentist, pharmacist or vet in Point Roberts, but they do enjoy low crime rate (from having to go through customs twice to get there!) and some of the mildest weather in the Pacific Northwest due to their location in a a depression created by Vancouver Island.

Other notable exclaves include Alaska; and parts of Minnesota such as the Northwest Angle and Elm Point, Minnesota.

Source: Mostly Wiki.

Vince’s last name is ‘Offer.’ I’m not sure if he changed it to Offer when he started in infomercials or if it was just coincidence. I’d also belive it was a sign.

And aside from doing a masterful job selling ShamWow! and SlapChop, Vince also directed and starred in Undergroud Comedy Movie. If you’re not familiar with this gem, it has 2.8 stars on IMDB and is on the worst 100 movies list.

Litigation history with UCM:

On Sept. 23, 1998, Vince Offer filed a suit against 20th Century Fox and the co-directors of There’s Something About Mary, Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Offer
claimed that 14 scenes in Mary were lifted from his film. The Farrellys released this statement: “We’ve never heard of him, we’ve never heard of his movie, and it’s all a bunch of baloney.”
In 2000, Offer sued Anna Nicole Smith for $4 million. Offer claimed that Smith had agreed to be in his movie, but backed out in 1996 over fears that appearing in the movie would be detrimental to her career.
In 2004, Offer sent out a press release through prnews.com announcing his intention to sue the Church of Scientology. Previously, in 1997, while production was ongoing, the Church of Scientology allegedly began a large-scale smear campaign against Offer and his film (Offer was a Scientologist at the time). The director claimed the Scientologists’ “Celebrity Center” in Hollywood labeled him a “criminal” (based on the rules of Scientology) and threatened his Scientology friends in the movie business with “condemnation” punishment that could be lethal to their careers if they did not write malicious reports against Offer.

Source: Wiki

That is, breast reduction for men.

Procedures are up 44% over the previous year. Which sounds like a lot, but actually there were only 320 procedures performed.

Maybe that’s because it takes up to 3 months to heal. Ouch.

Source: The Independent

Marine One is the call sign for any Helicopter that carries the President of the United States.

Some Marine One Trivia:

• Presidential helicopter transport is always handled by the special Marine squadron called HMX-1. There are over 700 Marines in the squadron.
• There are over 20 different aircraft in the current fleet, and there are several different models. The largest can transport 15 people. All of the helicopters are set to be replaced in the next few years.
• Any time Marine One flies, it is accompanied by 2 – 5 decoy helicopters. The choppers fly in a “shell game” pattern to throw off would-be attackers.
• Whenever the President travels in Air Force One, a detachment of helicopters flies with him, regardless of whether helicopter travel is planned or not.
• Wherever Marine One lands there is a ceremonial Marine Guard waiting to greet him. One time Bill Clinton requested an impromptu landing in the Grand Canyon and was surprised to see a Marine waiting to greet him.
• When the helicopter lands on the South Lawn at the White House, there are 3 precisely positioned discs, each 6 feet in diameter, that the pilot must land the wheels on. This ensures that the helicopter is in the correct position. The discs also help distribute the weight of the helicopter, so that it doesn’t make holes in the lawn.

Bonus Trivia: The United States is the only country that provides its chief executive with his own transportation anywhere in the world.

Source: National Geographic Channel

During a short lived attempt at a career in politics.

Source: Politico

Heavy Water is water that has a slightly different composition than regular water.

Normal water is made up of 2 Hydrogen and 1 Oxygen atoms. Heavy water is also made up of 2 Hydrogen and 1 Oxygen atoms, but the Hydrogen atoms are a Hydrogen isotope* called Deuterium instead of regular Hydrogen.

(*In simple terms, an isotope is a variation of an element with the same number of protons and a different number of neutrons. It’s the same element, just a little different.)

The result is water that is heavier, i.e., has more mass, than regular water. For instance, ice made from heavy water would sink in regular water. The freezing and boiling points of heavy water are also slightly different than regular water. It freezes at 3.81°C (38.86°F) and boils at 101.42°C (214.56°F).

Heavy Water is used in nuclear reactors because the additional mass slows down fast-moving neutrons released by nuclear fission so they have more time to react with the nuclear fuel.

Heavy Water is also slightly toxic, since the additional mass that is a benefit in nuclear reactors is bad for your body. You don’t want it to take longer for the chemical reactions in your body. They are designed for regular water.

However, it would take ingestion of a lot of heavy water to cause problems. Your body is mostly water, you see, and you’d have to replace a lot of the regular water in your body with heavy water before you saw trouble.

I guess that’s why you can buy Heavy Water Vodka.

Source: The Straight Dope and wiki

Scientists in the US have “teleported [information] between two separate atoms across a distance of a meter.”

It’s all quite heady, so you’ll have to read the article for more info if you want it. But what I took away was that there are people out there working on teleportation, and that’s awesome.

Source: Yahoo News

And let me tell you, the bar was set very low already.

Let me start by saying that I generally have a very libertarian (small L) view when it comes to Pornography, Prostitution, Strippers, etc. Though I wouldn’t want a brothel in my neighborhood, for the most part, what goes on between consenting adults is their business. That doesn’t mean I don’t judge, it’s just that I don’t think these types of things should necessarily be outlawed.

I’ve also always had an odd opinion about strip clubs. I actually have more respect for a strip club than I would for say, a night club or dance club, because at least at the strip club we’re just calling it what it is. There’s no pretense or pretending. Everyone knows what’s going on.

However, the prostitute in question here seems to have convinced herself that she’s not a whore, she’s just conducting a “social experiment.” Uh huh.

She wrote an essay, entitled “Why I’m selling my Virginity,” where she attempts to explain her side of the story. I’m sure you’ll be surprised that she got a degree in “Women’s Studies.”

Some choice tidbits:

At the university level, I was given permission to think differently and form a moral code of my own design. College opened my eyes.

Deflowering is historically oppressive—early European marriages began with a dowry, in which a father would sell his virginal daughter to the man whose family could offer the most agricultural wealth. Dads were basically their daughters’ pimps.

…idealized virginity is just a tool to keep women in their place.

For me, valuing virginity as sacred is simply not a concept I could embrace. But valuing virginity monetarily—now that’s a concept I could definitely get behind.

I’m not a whore – I am just fighting against the social constructs that are designed to keep women down. So I’ll get back at them by selling my Virginity on the Internet using a fake name.

If you want to be a whore, be a whore. But don’t pretend it’s anything more than that. It’s not a victory for women everywhere, it’s just another shameful example of the warped thinking that exists on college campuses.

I’d never given much thought to how a doorbell works. And then today I took one apart.

We had 2, you see, and one was in the way of a picture that we wanted to hang. (The size of the house really didn’t warrant a second bell anyway.)

Turns out there is really a bell in there. Well, more of a chime, really. Ours had 2. One that corresponded to the ding, and one that corresponded to the dong.

The bell/chime is a rectangular piece of metal. When someone pushes the doorbell button outside, a little hammer hits the chime. Elegant, yet simple. I like it.

I was at The Home Depot today and took a shortcut down the spray paint aisle. I wasn’t looking for spray paint, but a section caught my eye.

It was the Rust-Oleum Specialty line, and they had some really cool stuff. Some of these were spray paint, and some were regular brush-on paint.

• Chalk Board – When it dries, it creates a chalkboard surface.
• White Board – Same thing, but a white board (dry erase) surface. I’m thinking if I had kids, I’d put this all over their bedrooms.
• Magnetic – A primer that creates a magnetic surface. You can paint over it with latex paint or even their chalkboard paint. You could create a magnetic spot on your wall and hide it with regular paint.
• Stainless Steel – Spray it on your refrigerator to upgrade to a Stainless Steel finish for a fraction of the cost. I obviously haven’t done this, so I don’t know if it is crap or not.
• Countertop Paint – Tired of those old laminate countertops? Don’t replace them, just paint them. It comes complete with Antimicrobial Protection.

Again, no idea if these work as advertised, but thought it was at least a cool concept.

Now I just have to figure out which wall I want to make magnetic.

More Info: Rust-Oleum.com