Sideswipe: March 26: What a surprise

Spotted at the Clyde Post Office by Jenny.

Saw losers

After receiving a warning from local authorities about the height of his new fence, which was causing visibility issues, Jason Windus of Santa Rosa, California, decided to hold a party. With help from his friends and a handy saw, he managed to lower the fence and avoid hearty fines and filled his garden with nude mannequins that were clearly visible to his neighbours, who he believed made the complaint, then invited the neighbours to come and join the party and even reserved them seats.

Strange but true

1. Bubble wrap was invented by mistake, when an attempt to create textured wallpaper went wrong.

2. A typical acre (0.40 hectares) of soil contains 400kg of earthworms, 1000kg of fungi, 680kg of bacteria and 400kg of insects.

3. Earlier this year, a thousand people were hired to attend a rally in Kiev against the practice of hiring people to attend rallies and were not paid the money they had been promised.

4. A "verbal vampire" is someone whose incessant, boring talk is so stultifying that it drains the life out of anyone who is forced to listen to them.

(Via Quite Interesting @qikipedia)

On the nose

Photo / Supplied

Many ancient Egyptian statues have one common and disturbing trait — they're missing their nose. And the noses didn't just get destroyed because they were so old or because of being buried for so long, it was a deliberate act done by grave robbers to prevent angry spirits from getting revenge against those robbing the graves. Ancient Egyptians believed that the sculptures were vessels for the people who had passed away and that part of their soul could live in the statue, so that's why they were put in the graves. In tombs, they "feed" the deceased person with food and gifts from this world so that they can enjoy it in the next world. The grave robbers would destroy the nose on the statues so that they wouldn't be able to "breathe" any more. By doing that, they believed the spirits that were inside of the sculptures couldn't seek revenge against those who robbed them. (Via Mysterious Universe)