The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. As pictured in the Puerto Rican castle below:

When it got really cold (not likely here in Puerto Rico, but in the North) the poorly constructed brass balls would begin to shimmy and crack. Some soldiers would use the term to describe a certain temperature. You knew it was bad when the balls were so cold they froze, cracked, and fell right off the brass monkey.

So there you have it... it was never testicles, even though I imagine most modern adaptations have a lot more to do with male genitalia than with 18th C. war-lingo.

Cheers to weird expression with even weirder origins.
-D-
[OriginalPhoto]

So we've all done it. We've walked up to the edge of a cliff, or peered off a tower or bridge, and got the willies! Your legs shake, your stomach reorients itself in a more twisted fashion, the palms of your hands get clammy, and you wait for someone to say that word. The word that always comes up... it might be you, or someone cowering from the edge refusing to look over claiming: "I can't, I have vertigo...I'm a afraid of heights!"

The word you were looking for, in your moment of panic, isn't Vertigo. Vertigo is actually a medical condition that causes loss of balance and a feeling of falling in some cases. It's understandable then to attribute this condition to the panic reflex you get when you dangle precariously from a height...but the word you're really looking for here is simply "Acrophobia". 
Think about the fact that all phobias are Greek-based and the term for "High" or "Heights" is Acro, like the High Court - The Acropolis.
So that's that, the fear of heights is acrophobia, and just remember, it's not the height you're afraid of, it's the fall. Then again, it's never the fall that kills'ya, it's that sudden stop at the end!

Cheers to the English language and all our misuses of it!
-D-

It's like a scene from a weird sci-fi but it's very real. A swarm of caterpillars invade the Dutch town of Rotterdam, decimating the foliage and nesting on anything they can find. It looks like winter without a leaf left on the trees above. The caterpillars, larvae of the ermine moth, cover their nests in a silk-like ooze where they will cocoon and go through metamorphosis before becoming moths.

"Statistics show an increase in the number of caterpillar pests in the last twenty years. The eggs survive much better with the softer and wetter winters. Many people are disgusted with the creepy creatures." So it seems this sticky mess is a weird side-effect of climate change.


Cheers to nature being weirder than sci-fi at times!
-D-
[DutchDailyNews]

Some hackers take to the streets in the UK changing a Tesco sign to reflect a more honest price for fuel. Read the story here.

Cheers to hackers and geek with a sense of humour!
-D-
[BBC.UK]

It has been confirmed that Banksy is indeed still in the LA area. Recent paintings have been uploaded to the official website.
Check out some of the great pieces that have been uploaded.

Cheers to the infamous Banksy!
-D-
[Banksy.co.uk]

Ok, so it's a horrible devastating thing that's happened and it's going to take hundreds of millions to get Australia's prettier cousin out of the mess it's in... All in all those, I can't thank people enough for making the best of a bad situation!

Cheers to the optimists of the world!
-D-
[IMGUR]

As you watch the price of gas climb this week, and the stock market sink, try to remember what it's all for. The growing unrest in the Middle East is, for once, a relatively good thing. The turbulences are all a cause of a growing democracy and change in political powers, and hopefully, the tyranny and dictatorships will be a thing of the past.

Cheers to humanitarian growth.
-D-
[IMGUR]

Have you ever wondered, in the this wide world of ours, just what's failing? What's gone wrong while you sat here, at your computer, browsing the internet aimlessly...

Well here's some good news! You can now keep up-to-date on catastrophic events of the world...LIVE!

Click here for an interactive map of North America or of the entire planet that show information on Power Outages, Plane Crashes, Earth Quakes, Dangerous Storms, etc.

It's a big world out there, and there's always some sort of global fail going on. 

Cheers to technology watching everything, all the time!
-D-
[RSEO]

You're probably familiar with stories about the "Man in the Moon," the supposed face that can be seen in the lunar surface. I personally have never been able to see it; Suppose maybe it's there and I'm just not afflicted with the same pareidolia as the rest of the world... which is unlikely as I believe we all tend to see faces in random objects, all the time. Usually this comes with a bit of Religious hysteria, like seeing Jesus in a dog's butt... but I'm of course referring to the more common cases such as seeing objects in clouds...

In the East however, they don't have as many tales of a man on the moon so much as a bunny. That's right, a bunny on the moon! 

In short, here's how the bunny got there:

 A rabbit, monkey, fox and otter were friends. One day the Buddha came along disguised himself as a hermit begging for alms. The otter took off into the water and brought the hermit some fish. The fox was able to find some milk-curd to give to the hermit. While the monkey climbed a tree and retrieved some fruit and gave it to hermit.
Unfortunately, the rabbit had nothing to give except some grass which the hermit could not eat, so he threw himself in the fire to become a meal for alms beggar.
 Immediately the Buddha revealed himself  and saved the rabbit from the flames. He then rewarded the rabbit by drawing his picture in the moon.

So that's the bunny on the moon.
Cheers to Western and Eastern differences!
-D-
[WIKI]

I sometimes forget that the blog has readers outside of Ontario, so for those who are facing the start to another work week...Happy Bunday to you!

Cheers to furry little things that make our mundane jobs slightly cuter!
-D-
[CrazyFrankenstein]