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From The Human Centipede wiki article:

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is a 2009 horror film starring Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura and Dieter Laser, directed by Tom Six.^[1] It tells the story of a crazed doctor who surgically joins three victims together, mouth to anus, to create a “human centipede“. The film has won several awards at international horror film festivals, but has received mixed reviews from critics.

The doctor explains that he is a world renowned expert at separating conjoined twins, but dreams of creating new beings that share a single digestive system by joining separate individuals via their mouths and anuses. He explains that his previous experiment, a “3-dog”, died. However, he explains how he will attach the three human subjects to each other to create a “human centipede”. Once the operation is complete, the doctor begins training the centipede to perform tasks. Katsuro, as the front part of the centipede, refuses to do as he is told, and the doctor beats him. When Katsuro has to defecate, Lindsay is forced to swallow his excrement and the doctor watches with great delight. However, Heiter eventually becomes irritated after being kept awake by the centipede’s constant screaming and realising that Jenny is dying from blood poisoning.

Directing

When seeking funding for the film, Tom Six did not initially let on that the victims of The Human Centipede would be joined by mouth to anus, fearing that it would put off potential investors, and his backers did not find out the exact details of the film until it had been completed.^[8] Additionally, the actors themselves were not presented with a completed script prior to signing onto the film, instead only being given an outline of the film’s storyboard.^[13]

Effects

Throughout the production process Tom Six stated his intention to create a film that was “100% medically accurate”,^[13] consulting a real-life surgeon during the creation and filming process.^[14] Six has claimed that whilst initially reluctant to take part in the film because of professional reputation, after reading the script the surgeon consulted took a very strong interest in the procedure, devising a method that he believed would work in real life. Six claims that by using an IV drip to supplement the diet of the middle and back parts, the centipede would be able to survive for “years”.^[7][15]

From the Tió de Nadal wiki article:

The Tió de Nadal (roughly “Christmas Log”), also known as “Tió” (trunk or log, a big piece of cut wood) or “Tronca” (”log”) and popularly called “Caga tió” (pooping or defecating log in English), is a character in Catalan mythology relating to a Christmas tradition widespread in Catalonia.

The form of the tió de Nadal found in many Catalan homes during the holiday season is a hollow log of about thirty centimetres length. Recently, the tió has come to stand up on two or four little stick legs with a broad smiling face painted on the higher of the two ends, enhanced by a little red sock hat (a miniature of the traditional Catalan barretina) and often a three-dimensional nose.

Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), one gives the tió a little bit to “eat” every night and usually covers him with a little blanket so that he will not be cold at night.

On Christmas day or, depending on the particular household, on Christmas Eve, one puts the tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to “poop” (the fire part of this tradition is no longer as widespread as it once was, since many modern homes do not have a fireplace). To make him “poop”, one beats him with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal.

The tió does not drop larger objects, as those are brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candies, nuts and torrons. Depending on the part of Catalonia, it may also give out dried figs. When nothing is left to “poop”, it drops a salt herring, a head of garlic, an onion or “urinates”. What comes out of the tió is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone present.

Here is a song of the “caga tió”:

From the My Bed wiki article:

My Bed is a work by the British artist Tracey Emin. It was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize. It consisted of her bed with bedroom objects in an abject state, and gained much media attention. Although it did not win the prize, its notoriety has persisted.

The artwork generated considerable media furore^[1], particularly over the fact that the bedsheets were stained with body secretions and the floor had items from the artist’s room (such as condoms, a pair of knickers with menstrual period stains, other detritus, and functional, everyday objects, including a pair of slippers). The bed was presented as it had been when Emin had not got up from it for several days due to suicidal depression brought on by relationship difficulties.^[2][3]

Two performance artists, Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi, jumped on the bed with bare torsos in order to “improve” the work, which they thought had not gone far enough. They called their performance Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey’s Bed. The men also had a pillow fight^[4] on the bed for around fifteen minutes, to applause from the crowd, before being removed by security guards.^[1] The artists were detained but no further action was taken.^[1] Prior to its Tate Gallery showing, the work had appeared elsewhere, including Japan, where there were variant surroundings, including at one stage a “hangman’s noose” hanging over the bed. This was not present when it was displayed at the Tate.^[5]

My Bed was bought by Charles Saatchi for £150,000 and displayed as part of the first exhibition when the Saatchi Gallery opened its new premises at County Hall, London (which it has now vacated). Saatchi also installed the bed in a dedicated room in his own home.

Craig Brown wrote a satirical piece about My Bed for Private Eye entitled My Turd. Emin’s former boyfriend, former Stuckist artist Billy Childish, stated that he also had an old bed of hers in the shed which he would make available for £20,000.

From the Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi wiki article:

Two Naked Men Jump into Tracey’s Bed

Their best known performance occurred at 12.58 p.m. on October 25, 1999, when they jumped on Tracey Emin’s installation My Bed, a work incorporating an unmade bed, among other memorabilia, in the Turner Prize at Tate Britain. They called their performance Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey’s Bed (although in fact they kept their trousers on). They had in mind including some “critical sex” as they considered “a sexual act was necessary to fully respond to Tracey’s piece”, although this part of their intention was not fulfilled. A visitor reported, “Everyone at the exhibition started clapping as they thought it was part of the show. At first, the security people didn’t know what to do.”^[2] It was not clear to some whether the action was part of Emin’s display or even a protest against the current visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Another visitor commented, “After a few minutes of hopping about and shouting I think they ran out of things to do. If they had tried to wreck it, or stolen the vodka or her knickers, I might have felt differently. It made my weekend.”^[3] The men only had time to start a pillow fight and attempt a swig from one of the empty vodka bottles next to the bed, before they were apprehended. The police and security guards were booed when they took the pair away. Chai and Xi were arrested for their action, but no charges were pressed, since neither the “gallery nor the artist had any desire to bring the matter further”.^[3]

Chai considered that, although Emin’s work was strong, it was nevertheless institutionalised and said, “We want to push the idea further. Our action will make the public think about what is good art or bad art. We didn’t have time to do a proper performance. I thought I should touch the bed and smell the bed.” He had various words written in Chinese and English on his body, such as “Internationalism”, “Freedom” and “Idealism”. Xi said that the work was not interesting enough and also that he wanted to push it further, increasing its significance and sensationalism. Words written on his body included “Anarchism”, “Idealism” and “Optimism”.^[2]

One of the words prominent along the length of Chai’s torso was “Anti-Stuckism”. This was surprising as the Stuckists had themselves been critical of Emin’s art. However, Chai and Xi’s explanation is that they were not anti Emin’s type of work (which they merely wanted to “improve”—”We are simply trying to react to the work and the self-promotion implicit in it”), but were opposed to the Stuckists, who are anti-performance art.^[4] According to Fiachra Gibbons of The Guardian, the event “will go down in art history as the defining moment of the new and previously unheard of Anti-Stuckist Movement.”^[3]

The Tate’s official pronouncement was “The work has now been restored and the exhibition will open to the public as usual at 10 a.m.”, but they would not be drawn on the nature of the restoration.^[3]

Other performances

In 1997 they erected fake street signs in an attempt to mislead high profile visitors to the Venice Biennale. At Goldsmiths College in London they scattered £1,200 around a room to point to the commercialism and greed of the art market (the audience scrambled on the floor to pick up the money).^[3]

In spring 2000, the artists returned to the Tate, this time to Tate Modern, in an attempt to urinate into Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, which is a urinal laid on its back and signed “R. Mutt”. The Tate denies that they managed to do this.^[5] The sculpture is now enclosed in a transparent box.

From the Default (finance) wiki article:

When a debtor chooses to default on a loan, despite being able to service it (make payments), this is said to be a strategic default. This is most commonly done for non-recourse loans, where the creditor cannot make other claims on the debtor; a common example is a situation of negative equity on a mortgage in common law jurisdictions such as the United States, which is in general non-recourse. In this latter case, default is colloquially called jingle mail – the debtor stops making payments and mails the keys to the creditor, generally a bank.

From the James Wesley Rawles wiki article:

Without setting a specific timeframe, Rawles was one of many who predicted the end of the housing bubble in the United States, urging his readers on August 14, 2005 to “Sell any rental or non-retreat vacation houses that you own. Take your profit now. It is better to be a year too early than a day too late. Keep that money on the sidelines, with at least a portion of it in precious metals. Then after the bubble bursts, you’ll have the chance to step in with cash and buy at perhaps as low as 40 cents on the dollar versus the currently over-inflated prices. When you eventually do decide to buy, concentrate on productive farm land in a lightly populated rural region.”^[25]. In August, 2005, Rawles correctly predicted mortgage holders “walking away” from houses and turning in the house keys to their bankers—what has now been dubbed “jingle mail”.

From The Greenbrier wiki article:

The Greenbrier is a Mobil four star and AAA Five Diamond Award winning luxury resort located in the town of White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States.

Every U.S. president from Dwight Eisenhower through George W. Bush has stayed at the resort’s presidential suite,^{[citation needed]} although not necessarily while in office.

The Greenbrier is also the site of a massive underground bunker that was meant to serve as an emergency shelter for the United States Congress during the Cold War.

The Bunker

In the late 1950s, the U.S. government approached The Greenbrier for assistance in creating a secret emergency relocation center to house Congress in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The classified, underground facility, dubbed “Project Greek Island”,^[8] was built at the same time as the West Virginia Wing (an above-ground addition to the hotel), from 1959 to 1962. For thirty years, The Greenbrier owners maintained an agreement with the federal government that, in the event of an international crisis, the entire resort property would be conveyed to government use, specifically as the emergency location for the legislative branch.

The underground facility contained a dormitory, kitchen, hospital, and a broadcast center for members of Congress. The latter had changeable seasonal backdrops to appear as if members of Congress were broadcasting from Washington, D.C.^{[citation needed]} A 100-foot radio tower was installed 4.5 miles away for these broadcasts. The convention center, used by The Greenbrier guests for business meetings, was actually a disguised workstation area for members of Congress complete with hidden, 30-ton blast doors. The walls of the bunker were made of reinforced concrete designed to withstand a nuclear blast in Washington, D.C.

The center was maintained by government workers posing as hotel audiovisual employees, and operated under a dummy company named Forsythe Associates. Many of these same workers are now employed by the hotel and, for a time, gave guided tours. The complex is still maintained by The Greenbrier, and the facility remains much as it was in 1992, when the secret was revealed in the national press. While almost all of the furnishings were removed following the decommissioning of the bunker, the facility now has similar period furnishings to approximate what the bunker looked like while it was still in operation. Two of the original bunks in the dormitories remain.

The bunker was designed to be incorporated into the public spaces of the hotel as to not draw suspicion. Much of the bunker space was visible to the public during for years undetected including The Exhibition Hall in the West Virginia Wing which differs from other public spaces in the hotel due to large concrete columns present for reinforcing. Adjacent to the entrance of The Exhibition Hall is one of the original blast doors which can now be seen openly, the original screen which used to hide its presence removed.

AT&T provided phone service for both The Greenbrier Hotel and the bunker. All calls placed from the bunker were routed through the hotel’s switchboard to make it appear as if they originated from the hotel itself. The communications center in the bunker today contains representatives of three generations of telephone technology used.

Although the bunker was kept stocked with supplies for 30 years, it was never actually used as an emergency location, even during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The bunker’s existence was not acknowledged until The Washington Post revealed it in a 1992 story; immediately after the Post story, the government decommissioned the bunker.

The facility has since been renovated and is also used as a data storage facility for the private sector. It is once again featured as an attraction in which visitors can tour the now declassified facilities, now known as The Bunker.

From the Sniffex wiki article:

Sniffex is a now debunked, portable explosives detection system produced by Homeland Safety International.^[1]

An article in the Dallas Morning News in April 2007 suggested that Sniffex is a divining rod and states that “In a test by the U.S. Navy, Sniffex didn’t register when two trucks passed within 20 feet, hauling a half ton of explosives.“^[2] The Navy’s counterterrorism technology task force tested Sniffex and concluded “The Sniffex handheld explosives detector does not work.”^[2] Despite this, the military bought eight for $50,000.^[2]

Although high performance is claimed in advertising for Sniffex, such claims have not been verified by objective double blind testing.^[3] Although the tests were conducted at a public meeting ^[4] by the president of the company, Sniffex did not detect test explosives when the user did not know in advance where they were located. Additionally, James Randi publicly called into question the validity of Sniffex and exchanged correspondence with the CEO offering one million dollars if Sniffex can do what the press releases claim.^[5]

The Sniffex device must not be confused with SniffEx, a prize-winning sensor developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL).^[6] That sensor was originally called “Sniffex” until Homeland Safety International enforced its trademark and asked ORNL to stop using the name.^[3]

In July 2008 the Securities and Exchange Commission filed lawsuits against six company officers for driving “the share price from 80 cents to about $6 by issuing 33 news releases that contained mostly false information about the product and the company’s financial situation to earn a combined $32 million in illegal profits.”^[7] In mid-July one suit was settled.^[7] In addition, the SEC charged Homeland Safety International, promoters of Sniffex, “of being little more than the front for a $32 million stock fraud scheme that enriched insiders at the expense of unsuspecting investors“.^[8] The SEC complaint said the company “installed a figurehead CEO, named Paul B. Johnson, to hide the involvement of two Bulgarian residents who actually controlled the company” and “then issued a series of what the SEC alleges were false press releases.”^[8] One of the press releases included a claim of “‘impressive’” results from tests conducted by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. In reality, the tests were conducted by Johnson himself and the results were inconclusive”.^[8] While the stocks rose the insiders sold, and the stock was trading at one tenth of a penny as of July 17, 2008.^[8] In July Mark B. Lindberg settled with SEC and a week later pled guilty to wire fraud.^{[9] [10]}

The HEDD1,^[11] reportedly a “Sniffex with a battery stuck on it,”^[12] is marketed by Unival Group of Bonn, the same company that marketed Sniffex in Europe.

From the Skunk Ape wiki article:

The Skunk Ape is a hominid cryptid said to inhabit the Southeastern United States,^[1] from places such as Oklahoma, North Carolina and Arkansas, although reports from the Florida Everglades are particularly common. It is named for its appearance and for the unpleasant odor that is said to accompany it. According to the United States National Park Service, the skunk ape exists only as a local myth.^[2] Reports of the Skunk ape were particularly common in the 1960s and 1970s. In the fall of 1974, numerous sightings were reported in suburban neighborhoods of Dade County, Florida, of a large, foul-smelling, hairy, ape-like creature, which ran upright on two legs.

Myakka photographs

In 2000, two photographs of an alleged ape, said to be the Skunk Ape, were taken anonymously and mailed to the Sarasota Sheriff’s Department in Florida. They were accompanied by a letter^[3] from a woman claiming to have photographed it on the edge of her backyard. The photographer claimed that on three different nights the ape had entered her yard to take apples from a bushel basket on her porch. She was convinced it was an escaped orangutan. The police were dispatched to the house numerous times but when they arrived the ‘Ape’ was gone. The pictures have become known to Bigfoot enthusiasts as the “skunk ape photos”.^[4]

From the Club 33 wiki article:

Club 33 is a private club located in the heart of the New Orleans Square section of Disneyland. Officially maintained as a secret feature of the theme park, the entrance of the club is located next to the Blue Bayou Restaurant at “33 Royal Street” with the entrance recognizable by an ornate address plate with the number 33 engraved on it. Club 33 members and their guests have exclusive access to the club’s restaurant, and the premises are not open to the public at large. It is the only location within Disneyland to offer alcoholic beverages, though Disneyland has a park-wide liquor license and has set up bars throughout the park for private events.

To enter Club 33, a guest must press a buzzer on an intercom concealed by a hidden panel in the doorway. (At one time, a member needed only to insert his/her membership card in a slot near the buzzer and the door would open. However, this process no longer works.) A receptionist will ask for their name over the intercom and, if access is granted, open the door to a small, ornate lobby. Guests have the option of going to the dining level via an antique-style glass lift. The lift is an exact replica of one Disney saw and fell in love with during a vacation in Paris, but the owner of the original refused to sell. Undaunted, Disney sent a team of engineers to the Parisian hotel to take exact measurements for use in the creation of a replica; even a sample of the original finish was taken so that it could be duplicated.

Membership

There are two types of Club 33 membership: corporate and individual. As of February 2008 the current membership levels are Corporate Membership, Limited Corporate Membership, and individual Gold Membership. The Corporate and Limited Corporate Memberships allow for transfer of members, while individual memberships are non-transferable. In the late 1990s, Club 33 offered a lower tier of individual membership, the Silver Membership. However, this level of membership was discontinued. As of June 2007, the membership waiting list was 14 years, and membership interest list was closed to new inquiries as of April/May 2007.

The Corporate Membership fee is $27,500 plus $6,100 in annual fees. Up to nine associate members can be designated at an annual fee of $4,650 each. Members no longer in the employment of the corporate member’s company must surrender the membership cards to Club 33. The corporate member may then designate another member of the company.

The Limited Corporate Membership fee is $13,750 with only one member at an annual fee of $4,650. This entitles the corporation to transfer the membership to another employee whenever necessary.

The Gold Membership is for an individual with a member fee of $10,450 and an annual fee of $3,275. Additional use of a membership card is by spouse only, with reservations accepted only from the cardholder, the spouse, or the cardholder’s assistant. The Gold Membership is not transferable.

Tokyo Disneyland’s Club 33

A second Club 33 is located in Tokyo Disneyland. Rather than being located in New Orleans Square, it is located on Center Street off World Bazaar. Members of Disneyland’s Club 33 do not have reciprocal privileges in Tokyo Disneyland’s Club 33.

From the General Mills Monster-Themed Breakfast Cereals wiki article:

General Mills monster-themed breakfast cereals is a series of five current and formerly distributed breakfast cereal brands for the North American market during the later half of the 20th century. The series includes the currently produced Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, and the currently discontinued Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.

Health concerns

Franken Berry was very popular when first introduced possibly because the initial batches of the cereal used a dye that didn’t break down in the body, causing many children’s feces to be bright pink, a symptom sometimes referred to as “Frankenberry Stool.”^[4]

From the Dédé Fortin wiki article:

André “Dédé” Fortin (17 November 1962 – 8 May 2000) was the leader and singer of the Quebec band Les Colocs.

Death and legacy

Fortin committed Hara-kiri, a Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment, in his apartment in the PlateauMontreal. neighborhood of A friend found him in a pool of blood. For days, flowers and messages were left in his memory at his apartment building on Rachel St. Some reactions, however, were more negative: one writer in Le Devoir said that he was “not a hero.”^[1]

Before his death, Colocs manager André Paquin received this poem, later published in La Presse: Condemned by doubt, immobile and timorous; I am like my people, undecisive and a dreamer; I speak to who wants to hear of my fictive country; The heart full of vertigo and consumed by fear.^[2]

Rang Saint-Henri in St-Thomas-Dydime, where Dédé Fortin was born, was renamed “Chemin Dédé-Fortin” in 2006.^[3]

A movie about his life called “Dédé à travers les brumes” was released on March 13, 2009.^[4]