Month: November 2020

Mysterious Monolith Appears in Utah

Aside Markozen.com Bizarre

A helicopter survey of bighorn sheep living in the wilderness of Utah led to the unexpected discovery of a mysterious monolith which had suddenly appeared planted in the ground. According to a local media report, the weird find was made this past Wednesday by officers with the Utah Department of Public Safety as they helped the state’s Division of Wildlife Resource with their annual creature count. As they flew over the southern part of the state, one of the biologists aboard the chopper noticed something highly unusual which brought their work to a sudden stop.

“We just happened to fly directly over the top of it,” pilot Bret Hutchings recalled, “he was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!’ And I was like, ‘what.’ And he’s like, ‘There’s this thing back there – we’ve got to go look at it!'” The source of all the excitement was a puzzling metal monolith standing strikingly out of place in a cove of the state’s iconic red rocks. Understandably curious about the object, the team proceeded to land the helicopter and investigate it up close. “We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears,” Hutchings laughed, “then the rest of us make a run for it.”

Fortunately, the ten-to-12-foot tall rectangular metal object was not dangerous, though it was undoubtedly mysterious. The team observed that it did not appear to have fallen from the sky and, instead, was likely planted in the ground. As for its purpose, they initially suspected that perhaps it was somehow connected with NASA, maybe as a means of contacting satellites, but ultimately concluded that it appeared more likely to be some kind of artwork rather than a scientific instrument.

For now, the monolith remains in place, although the group has opted not to reveal its precise location lest ill-equipped thrillseekers journey to find it and wind up needing to be rescued from the remote location. It remains to be seen whether or not the nature of the odd object will ever come to be known or if it will simply vanish as quickly as it appeared with the meaning behind the monolith forever a mystery.

Nazi UFOs? Very Interesting.

Aside Markozen.com Science Fiction, War

Is it possible that an evil race of Aliens allied with the Nazis during World War II?  That would have been a formidable alliance to deal with.  Especially if the Aliens provided the Nazis with UFO technology.  I can’t see a P-51 Mustang defeating a souped up UFO.  But then again, maybe the Americans and Russians had their own Alien benefactors.

In science fiction, conspiracy theory, and underground comic books, there are a number of stories or claims regarding Nazi UFOs (in German: Rundflugzeug, Feuerball, Diskus, Haunebu, Hauneburg-Geräte, VRIL, Kugelblitz, Andromeda-Geräte, Flugkreisel, Kugelwaffen, Reichsflugscheiben). They relate supposedly successful attempts to develop advanced aircraft or spacecraft in Nazi Germany prior to and during World War II, and further claim the post-war survival of these craft in secret underground bases in Antarctica, South America or the United States, along with their Nazi creators.

Nazi UFO tales and myths very often conform largely to documented history on the following points:

  • Nazi Germany claimed the territory of New Swabia in Antarctica, sent an expedition there in 1938, and planned others.
  • Nazi Germany conducted research into advanced propulsion technology, including rocketry, Viktor Schauberger’s engine research, flying wing craft and the Arthur Sack A.S.6 experimental circular winged aircraft.
  • Some UFO sightings during World War II, particularly those known as foo fighters, were thought by the allies to be prototype enemy aircraft designed to harass Allied aircraft through electromagnetic disruption; a technology similar to today’s electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons.

Meanwhile, what have the Americans been up to?

 

Below: either a crashed Alien UFO, or the Americans testing a back engineered UFO that they tried to fly.

 

Las Vegas Weddings

Aside Markozen.com Offbeat

Las Vegas weddings refers to wedding ceremonies held in Las Vegas, Nevada, which came to be known as the “Marriage Capital of the World” because of the ease of acquiring a marriage license and the minimal costs involved. The city continues to be known as a popular wedding destination for the same reasons, but also as a result of the various types of weddings available.

Nevada marriage licenses are considered notoriously easy to get; there is no blood test or required waiting period. Las Vegas has streamlined the process further. Once a short form is completed and submitted to the marriage license bureau along with $77.00 cash or money order and a government issued photo identification, a marriage license may be obtained within minutes until midnight every night.

Within one year of receipt of the marriage license a wedding ceremony must be performed in order to have a legal union, and marriages are legal and binding throughout the United States under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, as well as most other countries.

There are approximately 120,000 weddings in Las Vegas in a year.  That is roughly 330 wedding ceremonies per day.

There are numerous options for wedding ceremonies in Las Vegas. The least expensive option, costing $75.00, is to marry at the Office of Civil Marriages.

Most weddings performed in Las Vegas may be a civil or religious service depending upon the wedding venue selected.

Most of the city’s major hotels have wedding chapels and many of the local restaurants offer wedding ceremonies. Weddings may also be performed in one of the local churches, synagogues, at one of the many golf courses, or at a free standing wedding chapel. Drive-thru weddings are also available.

A Drive-thru wedding

The majority of the newer wedding chapels are located on the Las Vegas Strip. A local law in the 1970s made it impossible to build a free standing wedding chapel on the Las Vegas Strip. The older wedding chapels will be found downtown.

Many chapels also offer themed weddings. Common themes include Hawaiian, Fairy Tale, Star Trek, Star Wars, Gothic, Halloween, and weddings with an Elvis impersonator or Michael Jackson impersonator. The Tropicana has offered a “rock star” wedding officiated by former Quiet Riot frontman Paul Shortino. Every year an electronic dance festival called Electric Daisy Carnival held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway offers couples to marry during the festival with varied themes, these packages are an option when purchasing entry, prices range from $300-$700.

Graceland Wedding Chapel is a wedding chapel that has been the site of many celebrity weddings. It is one of the oldest wedding chapels in Las Vegas and claims to be the first chapel ever to conduct weddings performed by Elvis impersonators.

Rockin Insects

Aside Markozen.com Music

I’m not sure why so many music groups have named their bands after insects.  Insects have their role in nature, bird feed, eating dead corpses etc., but insects are really disgusting little creatures.  Now don’t tell that to David Suzuki, he gained his Ph.D studying the organism Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies).  Some people find them interesting.  But to me bugs are bad little buggers.  Always getting into places where they shouldn’t be.

So when these musicians were thinking up a name for the band, why the bug names?  I think the acid and other mind stimulants may have had something to do with it.  I once had a friend who took some magic mushrooms, he described in vivid detail how he hallucinated that he was transforming into a praying mantis.   So I think there is a definite correlation between psychedelics and insect band names.

So here are some bands named after the creepy-crawlies.  m

 

The Crickets

 

Papa Roach  (maybe some connection to a burnt joint here).

 

The Beatles  (it has been well documented that these guys delved into the Lysergic acid diethylamide).

 

Adam and the Ants (these guys actually thought they were pirates, where the ants come in is anybody’s guess).

 

Barking Spyders  (drugs involved here without a doubt).

 

Bees Make Honey (sounds like a hippie band).

 

The Bollweevils,  (never heard of that insect) punk band from Chicago.

 

Centipedes

 

Daddy Longlegs

 

The Flys

 

Iron Butterfly (these guys look like experimenters).

 

The Bees

 

The Scorpions (this band could really rock).

 

I wasn’t sure if I should have included Sting.

I’m sure there are many more insect bands out there that I missed.

Ice hockey game on a rink the size of a soccer pitch

Aside Markozen.com Sports

This is a skating sport that resembles hockey and must be very good for the cardiovascular.  It is called Bandy.

Bandy, sometimes unofficially named Russian hockey, is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team’s goal.

The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football: the game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has eleven players, one of whom is a goalkeeper. A standard bandy match consists of two halves of 45 minutes each. The offside rule is also similar to that observed in association football.

The size of a bandy field is in the range 4,050 – 7,150 square metres (45-65 by 90–110 metres), about the same size as a football pitch and considerably larger than an ice hockey rink. Along the sidelines a 15 cm (6 in) high border (vant, sarg, wand, wall) is placed to prevent the ball from leaving the ice.

Centered at each shortline is a 3.5 m wide and 2.1 m high goal cage and in front of the cage is a half-circular penalty area with a 17 m radius. A penalty spot is located 12 metres in front of the goal and there are two free-stroke spots at the penalty area line, each surrounded by a 5 m circle.

That rink is so big, a fight could break-out in a corner, and it would take 15 minutes for the refs to arrive.   m

That is one big goal cage.  2.1 metres or 7.5 feet high.

Stan Rogers

Aside Markozen.com Music

Stanley Allison “Stan” Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.

Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his finely-crafted, traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and the daily lives of working people, especially those from the fishing villages of the Maritime provinces and, later, the farms of the Canadian prairies and Great Lakes.

Rogers died alongside 22 other passengers (23 fatalities in all) most likely of smoke inhalation on June 2, 1983, while travelling on Air Canada Flight 797 (a McDonnell Douglas DC-9) after performing at the Kerrville Folk Festival. The airliner was flying from Dallas, Texas to Toronto and Montreal when an in-flight fire forced it to make an emergency landing at the Greater Cincinnati Airport.

Smoke was filling the cabin from an unknown source, and once on the ground, the plane’s doors were opened to allow passengers to escape. Halfway through the evacuation of the plane, the oxygen rushing in from outside caused a flash fire. Rogers was one of the passengers still on the plane at the time of the fire. Eyewitness reports published at the time said that a man of Rogers’ height and build escaped the plane, but then turned and went back inside, apparently to assist in the rescue of others.

His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia.

He sang songs that the average person could relate to.

WHITE COLLAR HOLLER
Well, I rise up every morning at a quarter to eight
Some woman who’s my wife tells me not to be late
I kiss the kids goodbye, I can’t remember their names
And week after week, it’s always the same
And it’s Ho, boys, can’t you code it, and program it right
Nothing ever happens in the life of mine
I’m hauling up the data on the Xerox line
Then it’s code in the data, give the keyboard a punch
Then cross-correlate and break for some lunch
Correlate, tabulate, process and screen
Program, printout, regress to the mean
Then it’s home again, eat again, watch some TV
Make love to my woman at ten-fifty-three
I dream the same dream when I’m sleeping at night
I’m soaring over hills like an eagle in flight

Someday I’m gonna give up all the buttons and things
I’ll punch that time clock till it can’t ring
Burn up my necktie and set myself free
Cause no’one’s gonna fold, bend or mutilate me.

Stan’s version of Farewell to Nova Scotia is the best rendition out there.

The sun was setting in the west
The birds were singing on every tree
All nature seemed inclined to rest
But still there was no rest for me

Farewell Nova Scotia
The sea-bound coast
Let your mountains dark and dreary be
For when I am far away
On your briny ocean tossed
Will you ever heave a sigh
Or a wish for me

I grieve to leave my native land
I grieve to leave my comrades all
And my parents whom I held so dear
And the bonny, bonny lassie
That I do adore

The drums they do beat
And the wars do alarm
The Captain calls, I must obey
So farewell, farewell
To my Nova Scotia home
For it’s early in the morning
That I’m far, far away

I had three brothers and they are at rest
Their arms are folded on their chests
But a poor, simple sailor just like me
Must be tossed and driven
On the deep, blue sea

A unique song to say the least: My Ding-A-Ling

Aside Markozen.com Music, Offbeat

“My Ding-a-Ling” is a novelty song written and recorded by Dave Bartholomew. It was covered by Chuck Berry in 1972 and became his only number-one Billboard Hot 100 single in the United States. Later that year, in a longer unedited form, it was included on the album The London Chuck Berry Sessions.

The song tells of how the singer received a toy consisting of “silver bells hanging on a string” from his grandmother, who calls them his “ding-a-ling”. According to the song, he plays with it in school, and holds on to it in dangerous situations like falling after climbing the garden wall, and swimming across a creek infested with snapping turtles. From the second verse onward, the lyrics consistently exercise the double entendre in that a penis could just as easily be substituted for the toy bells and the song would still make sense.

The lyrics with their sly tone and innuendo (and the enthusiasm of Berry and the audience) caused many radio stations to refuse to play it. British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse tried unsuccessfully to get the song banned. “One teacher,” Whitehouse wrote to the BBC’s Director General, “told us of how she found a class of small boys with their trousers undone, singing the song and giving it the indecent interpretation which—in spite of all the hullabaloo—is so obvious… We trust you will agree with us that it is no part of the function of the BBC to be the vehicle of songs which stimulate this kind of behaviour—indeed quite the reverse.”

In Icons of Rock, Scott Schinder calls the song “a sophomoric, double-entendre-laden ode to masturbation”. Robert Christgau remarked that the song “permitted a lot of twelve-year-olds new insight into the moribund concept of ‘dirty'”.

During a short spoken introduction to the song on the single, Berry refers to the song as “our alma mater”.

The controversy was lampooned in The Simpsons episode “Lisa’s Pony”, in which a Springfield Elementary School student attempts to sing the song during the school’s talent show. He barely finishes the first line of the refrain before an irate Principal Skinner pushes him off the stage, angrily proclaiming “This act is over!”