I was skeptical about the claim of a "mosque built of of gun parts," but a quick Google yielded the artist's name (Al Farrow) and a photoset at Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/70423810@N00/sets/72157610120205438/

With a nod toward ecumenism, the artist has also built a cathedral and a synagogue out of gun parts and bullets.

Might be worth blogging...

The principle involved here appears to be very similar to that being done with the "Galaxy Zoo," where the public is invited to classify galaxies.

More info here: http://www.neatorama.com/2008/11/18/its-a-galaxy-zoo-out-there/

The webpage requests an email address to which to send the answer. You can offer a throwaway address, but if you just type in as;ldfjasdf@aol.com or other random letters, it will then display the answer on the page.

Alicia, the link for "image credit" in the post offers the following: "The most famous depiction of the 1833 actually produced in 1889 for the Adventist book Bible Readings for the Home Circle - the engraving is by Adolf Vollmy based upon an original painting by the Swiss artist Karl Jauslin, that is in turn based on a first-person account of the 1833 storm by a minister, Joseph Harvey Waggoner on his way from Florida to New Orleans."

So presumably the scene is somewhere along the Gulf Coast.

It's "British English," explained here -

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/spend-a-penny.html

and was part of the introduction at the BBC video.

Better yet, here's the homepage -

http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/museumen.html

These devices are discussed under "air acoustics."

Here are links for several of the devices:

http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/en/waalsdor.html

http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/en/littleli.html

@Pink Coat - I believe you're correct. I've revised the post and sent an email to the contact person at the museum so they can consider changing their provenance records.

Thanks.

The original Humpty Dumpty poem does not specify that H.D. is an egg. The reason for this apparent omission is that when the rhyme was created in 1810, it was intended to be a RIDDLE for children (Humpty fell off a wall but couldn't be put together again - why would that be?).

So when the ending is changed to put H.D. back together, it destroys the original purpose of the word puzzle.

@TomTom23 re "Where does the link contain the text you've quoted??"

The "Writing..." paragraph is the second paragraph at the "link" link. The "Just..." paragraph is the sixth one.

???

I think if Skipweasel had viewed the video at the link he/she might have been less critical of the product. The video is an ad for the product; it clearly shows children using the aluminum ramp to launch their ball, and as shown in the video, even with bumpers elevated in the gutters, a badly aimed ball still will reach the gutter without striking a single pin.

I bowl several times per week and can attest that the process can be frustrating for small children even with the ramp and the bumpers. As far as preventing skill acquisition, understand that 4- and 5-year olds are not going bowling to develop skills or even to compete. They are there as part of a social activity - typically a birthday party - and they receive (and expect) no instructions from the hassled mommies who are chaperoning the group.

These balls are not meant to be purchased by individuals for personal use; they are for bowling alleys to keep in stock to make the game more enjoyable for young customers in the hopes that those children will then return as teenagers when they have the motor skills and strength to perform competitively.

Chay, if you click on the "link" button you will find the announcement of the V%A achieving the "one million" milestone...

Only 826 more until 23,456...

My previous comment re Hitler and Godwin's Law had a broken link.

Here is the Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

This and other internet laws are discussed at the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6408927/Internet-rules-and-laws-the-top-10-from-Godwin-to-Poe.html

Hitler.

Posted to keep this discussion thread in compliance with Godwin's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law)