Welcome to Gas, Kansas

Yes, Gas is an actual town. Its motto—"Don't pass Gas, stop and enjoy it!" Wow.

Here is the aquatic carnivorous plant named the "humped bladderwort"!

You're welcome.

Wait, WHAT hotel are we staying at in Vietnam?

Via.
dang dung hotel, vietnam

Do you know what a "wood louse" is?

Fine, I'll tell you. A wood louse is a small terrestrial crustacean with a grayish segmented body and seven pairs of legs, living in damp habitats.

But wood lice aren't always CALLED wood lice. Look at all the nicknames for them in the United Kingdom alone!

Yep, they're known as Chooky-pegs, Flumps, Monkey Peas, Cheeselogs, Chuggy Pigs, Woodwigs, Crunchy Bats, Nutbugs, Slatey Beetles, Chisel Bobs, and OgoPogo (!) among other things! (Via.)

Ride FART!

My name is Bart, so people on the west coast of the U.S. sometimes ask if I was named for BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), which is the regional train service in the San Francisco area.

No, I wasn't. (Dolts!)

A friend of mine is traveling in Italy, and when she made it to the Locarno region, she noticed transit signs for FART. (This stands for the Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi, or regional train and bus service.) Cool, huh?

FYI

There's a guy named "Taco B.M. Monster". He's Danish, and has written scientific studies like this one.

Sheesh, cry me a river, lady!

This reader review of Walter the Farting Dog gives the book one star. The person's main objection is that the dog is named Walter and her son is also named Walter. Thus, people named Walter will be traumatized! (As someone named "Bart", you can imagine how much sympathy I had for this.)

BONUS: I just found someone who actually does have a reason to complain about his name!

"I'll meet you by the Snot Bog!"

Via.

Sweden is a land of great natural beauty and strangely gross names. According to this article, near the town of Horsskog is a swampy area called Snormossen (Snot Bog).

Great!

There are places there named Köttsjön (Meat Lake), Kattsjärten (Cat's Butt), and Rumpsjön (Butt Lake). I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to dive into Butt Lake! There’s a lot of these types of places, like the Yellow Lake, Small Butt Lake and Big Butt Lake (Gula Röven, Lilla Röven, Stora Röven). Along these lines, the town of Mora used to be called Rövhålet (Anus).

Why? Never mind, I don’t want to know.

Ooh, for people who like to drink water, Pissholmen (Piss Island) is the place to go.

Finally, just the sounds of Äs, Middelfart and Horred makes me want to hide my passport!

Sheshatshit: The town without hope

Yep, there's a town in Canada called Sheshatshit. I know this because I was just reading this article about it.

It has a guy named Bart Jack in it, which is pretty cool. (Otherwise, it's just sad.)

Behold . . . the SNOT OTTER

Did you know there's an aquatic salamander known as the snot otter? Me either! But I'm really excited to learn about it, as you can tell. The snot otter is also known as the hellbender, so that means it's got the two coolest names in the animal kingdom. If you'd like to learn more about this awesome beast, please visit Discovery News.

Warning: Incredibly Inappropriate Posting Follows

There is a professor over at the National Institute at Singapore who is very well respected in her field. She is, in fact, an expert in the biochemistry of fish. And she has a name that makes immature people snicker...and that I'm not going to show on this blog!

Good one, Frederick William IV!

Back when the German kingdom called Prussia was around, it had a king named Frederick William IV (1795-1861). As ruler, he got all sorts of requests, and one came from the people of a city called Gumbinnen.

Since their local river was named Pissa, the townspeople wanted to change the city's name to something that reflected that.

King William's response: "Petition granted. [For the new name, I] recommend Urinoco."

Call me a landlubber if you want...

...but I'm still not going aboard the good ship FartButt.

Good Name!

There's a rectal surgeon in Virginia named Dr. Inder Bhat.
(I'm just saying.)

The "Stargazer Fish"— Worst fish name ever?

If you're going to call a fish a "stargazer", it should have kind of an innocent, star-gazing quality. But THIS is what the stargazer fish actually looks like!

"Mommy? I'm scared!"

What a nightmare! Here's what I think of when I look at that mug:

1. Zombies
2. Mummies
3. Anything but stargazers!

The stargazer fish buries itself in the ocean floor and waits for something to swim by. And if anyone messes with it, the stargazer can give an electric shock!

Oh, did I mention its poisonous spines yet?

Photo from National Geographic.