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’Net Junkie Shawn "Speedy" Lopes |
Data overload
has ideal home
on the InternetPop-ups and viruses aside, I believe we've become a better world for integrating the Internet into our daily lives. It's truly one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century and among the handiest tools available to the computer-literate. Sometimes, though, there can be such a thing as too much information. Logging on to www.thatwasrandom.com and clicking its "Random Facts" button will get you a multitude of interesting but ultimately useless data. Case in point: Did you know 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year? Do you care? I thought not. But while we're at it, I'd like to add that an ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain, dynamite is partly made with peanuts and the shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
Engaging the site's "Random Pictures" option will arbitrarily summon a snapshot, most likely one of a humorous or unusual nature. Some photos are manipulated for comical effect, though most appear to be genuine. There's one of a gentleman holding the tail end of a serpent as it winds its way through his nose and out of his mouth (the real deal, from the looks of it), a young man wheeling himself off the roof of a two-story building (hopefully a doctored photo and not the work of a "Jackass" wannabe) and a shot of an unconscious chipmunk clasping an empty bottle of Rolling Rock (your guess is as good as mine).
The fear of shellfish is called ostraconophobia, though I'd have probably gone my whole life without knowing that if I hadn't clicked on the site's "Random Phobias" button. Just so you know, kakorrhaphiophobia is the fear of failure or defeat, neophobia is the fear of anything new and both sesquipedalophobia and hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia -- I kid you not -- are the fear of long words. I'm also told phobophobia is the fear of phobias, though I don't know if I should believe this or not.
Need more useless info? I've learned through the Web site's "Random Laws" feature that mourners may not eat more than three sandwiches at a wake in Massachusetts. In Arizona, it is unlawful to hunt camels. It's illegal for someone to have sex with a porcupine in Florida. And proving we're not above those silly mainland laws, here in Hawaii you may not place coins in your ears. Don't know why. Don't care, either.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
’Net Junkie drops every Monday.
Contact Shawn "Speedy" Lopes at slopes@starbulletin.com.
Note: Web sites mentioned in this column were active at time of publication. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin neither endorses nor is responsible for their contents.
