I saw a couple of signs on the wall. The first one looked ok: It read “Wet Paint”. I didn’t touch to see if it was really wet or not.

The next further down the corridor was a sign that went a bit further, and read:

I went back and took photos of the two signs!

The internet and social networking is redefining how communicate. New words are created everyday and are being popularized by online communications.

To continue the expansion of the vast collection of words and phrases, on it’s 100th anniversary, the Oxford English Dictionary, has added some more technical words to embrace the social-networking crowd. The new 400 words including cyberbullying, sexting, retweet, textspeak and woot have been added in the 12th edition of Oxford English Dictionary

In a statement, the OED has described itself as a word curator and claimed to be progressive and up to date with the current trends of communication.

Earlier this year, OED had added the common shortcuts like LOL and OMG. A new verb to search in internet ‘to google’ made into the dictionary in 2006.

Calgary city by-law officers have asked a 65-year old Calgary resident, Helen Amber, to remove all the wildflowers she has grown in her garden. The City official say that the wildflowers are a threats to local flora and should be removed to protect

The Alberta’s Weed Control Act mentions some plants (weeds) are prohibited to be planted in Alberta. Some flowers in Amber’s garden banned by the Weed Act are plants like Canada thistles, scentless chamomile, oxeye daisies and blue weeds.

Calary Sun says that Amber had received a 24-hour notice from the officials on Aug. 3 and she is protesting the decision of City officials.

It is true that thistles and other weeds are extremely difficult to control or kill – they spread faster than can be controlled. I think, Helen should should consider a green house to grow them, instead of fighting.

Buford, probably the smallest town in the world, has a population of 1. Yes O  N  E, 1.

The sole resident, of the Wyoming, US town is a 60 year old, Don Sammons, who runs a Gas station, liquor store, and hot dogs, all in one.

The town founded in 1866, the town once had a population of 2,000. The majority of the railway worker moved, leaving the whole town empty. Don moved to the town in 1980 with his wife and son. His wife died and he is all alone now. But, his business draws nearly 1,000 people everyday.

The self-claimed The Mayor of Buford has a site to tell about his business:

Sitting at 8,000 feet, Buford is also the highest town in elevation on Interstate 80, the main cross-country route between New York and San Francisco.

In New Zealand has banned to name the newborns to be named Lucifer. In the similar manner, naming a child Messiah is also not allowed.

New Zealand’s Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has rejected three different parent’s attempts to register newborns Lucifer. New Zealand

It is told that, in the past two years, the registrar has denied more than a hundred names. Some of the rejected names include names with slashes (\), asterisks (*), full stops (.) and names similar to different titles like – Bishop, Knight, Baron, Judge, General, Justice, King, Duke and Mr were also rejected.

The registrar had to formulate the new rule when there were protests in 2008 after approving the names like Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter.

It is not only New Zealand that is trying to regulate it’s people to ban some names, the Dominican Republic, a judge proposed a ban on names that were either confusing or gave no indication of gender.

In Sweden, a court approved Google and Lego as baby names, but denied naming kids Superman, Elvis and Metallica.

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Odd names banned in New Zealand

Inspired by Facebook, an Israeli couple have named their daughter ‘Like’. I guess, Like is much better sounding name for a girl. I hope she, will be most ‘liked’ girl in school.

There was an Egyptian dad who named his son Facebook to honor its contribution to the Egyptian revolution. I think, Like is a much better sounding name than Facebook.

The couple Lior and Vardit Adler were seeking for some unique name and were even considering some Chinese names. But, they finally decided to go with Like as the mother Vardit liked the sound of it.

Some comments people made on news about naming their kids with such ‘unique’ names:

Years ago, I named my son MicroSoft, and now he can’t get a date. Girls turn away when he introduces himself, (Hi I am micro soft).

I won’t be surprised if somebody names the kid ‘Reply’, ‘Comment’ or likes in future. (via Huffingtonpost)

The 2011 edition of Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added two most commonly used abbreviations used in online chatting and communication – LOL, OMG. With the rise of short text messages and micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, such short forms are gaining popularity day-by-day.

According to OED website, these new words LOL (laughing out loud) and OMG (Oh my God, gosh, goodness, etc.)  join the other previous entries like IMHO (in my humble opinion), TMI (too much information), and BFF (best friends forever) in the dictionary.

Internet generation has created a lot of new and widely popular words waiting for their entries in the official dictionaries. In 2006 to google was officially added to Webster and Oxford Dictionary. Similarly

Dictionaries usually add new words but never take them out even if they are obsolete.

• It is illegal to skateboard on walls “or other vertical surfaces” in Palo Alto.
• Wearing a sweatshirt inside-out is deemed a “threatening misdemeanor” in Half-Moon Bay.
• In 1930, the City Council of Ontario (California) passed an ordinance forbidding roosters to crow within the city limits.
• In Los Angeles, you cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time.
• In California, animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship.
• Peeling an orange in your hotel room is banned in California
• San Francisco is said to be the only city in the nation to have ordinances guaranteeing sunshine to the masses.
• In Cupertino, California, it is illegal to count backwards audibly in hexadecimal. According to Rick Kitson, Cupertino’s Public Communications Manager, this law is not true. “Amongst many lists of strange laws is an item about Cupertino. Usually, this strange law has something to do with a prohibition on audibly counting backwards in hexadecimal.
• Redwood City has outlawed the frying of gravy.
• In Santa Clara, it is forbidden to dedicate parking spaces to the patron saint of television.
• Prostitutes in San Francisco are not obliged to make change for bills larger than $50.
• The city of Mountain View proscribes calling pet fish by “names of aggressive content, e.g. ‘Biter’, ‘Killer’, ‘Sugar-Ray’”
• Bicycles may not be ridden without “appropriate fashion accessories” anywhere in Santa Clara County (de facto law).
• In Blythe, California, a person must own two cows in order to legally wear cowboy boots in public.
• In Los Angeles, a man is legally entitled to beat his wife with a leather belt or strap, but the belt can’t be wider than 2 inches, unless he has his wife’s consent to beat her with a wider strap.
• It is illegal to set a mousetrap without a hunting license.
• Community leaders passed an ordinance that makes it illegal for anyone to try and stop a child from playfully jumping over puddles of water.
• In L.A. it is against the law to complain through the mail that a hotel has cockroaches, even if it is true.
• It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Blvd. at one time.
• It is illegal to whistle for a lost canary before 7 am in Berkeley, CA.
• In California, it is illegal to posses bear gall bladders.
• In California, it is illegal to trip horses for entertainment.
• a few more that maybe got missed above, maybe not
• Women may not drive in a house coat.
• No vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles per hour.
• Many animals are illegal to own as pets, including snails, sloths, and elephants.

Stupid Laws by counties

• Nobody is allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool (Baldwin Park).
• You are not permitted to wear cowboy boots unless you already own at least two cows (Blythe).
• It is illegal to spit, except on baseball diamonds (Burlingame).
• Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine (Chico).
• It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time (Hollywood).
• It is illegal to walk a camel down Palm Canyon Drive between the hours of four and six PM.
• It is illegal for a secretary to be alone in a room with her boss (Pasadena).
• Two bathtubs may not be installed in the same house (Prunedale).
• One may not carry a lunch down the street between 11 and 1 o’clock (Riverside).
• Prohibits elephants from strolling down Market Street unless they are on a leash (San Francisco).
• It is illegal to pile horse manure more than six feet high on a street corner (San Francisco).
• It is illegal to wipe one’s car with used underwear (San Francisco).

UPDATE: Looks like the free offer is only available for UK residents and involves signing up to Currys’ AppUp Centre (not the Intel’s AppUp). The listed price of the game in Intel AppUp is $4.99.

Angry Birds for PC is available in the Intel’s recently launched App store, Intel App Up store for free! There is a catch though – you need to download and install a 30MB Intel AppUp software before downloading one of the most popular game in iOS and Android devices.

The PC app is told to be free for the first 15,000 users or until March, whichever comes first.

Visit Intel AppUp by clicking here.

Until now, the game was only available for Android/Iphone devices and Apple computers running MAC OS.

The game works on Windows XP – Windows 7 machine and runs directly from the folder it is in.

The Bean Stop in Eau Claire Market in Calgary has started serving Kopi Luwak – popularly known as ‘cat poop coffee’. The coffee is made from the beans that have passed through the digestive system of a small, tree-dweller, Asian palm civet, found in Thailand. The beans are retrieved from the waste of the animal to be made into coffee.

The ‘unusual, odd and unique’ product doesn’t come cheap. A single cup will sell for $25 and a 50 gram pack will be sold for $60. People have found the product appealing and have already pre-ordered 25 cups and 11 of the 50 gram tins in the Bean Stop.

If you think $25 is too much, you are wrong. An Australian coffee house has been selling the coffee for AUD50 since 2006. A London, UK, coffee shop is selling a variety named Caffe Raro for £50 since 2008. (Photo credits Wikipedia)