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Last response: in News & Leisure
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May 14, 2012 4:05:17 PM

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/14/1169427...

Quote:
'Poo-machine' attracts crowds at Australia's 'subversive adult Disneyland'

SYDNEY -- Smelling excrement may not be everyone's idea of fun, but for those who like to push the boundaries, Australia's most controversial new museum may be just what they are looking for.

Dubbed "the subversive adult Disneyland", the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is located in Tasmania and features around 400 works of art from Egyptian mummies to Young British Artists including Chris Ofili and Jenny Saville.

But the most talked-about piece is the Cloaca Professional, labeled the "poo-machine." It was built by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye to mimic the actions of the human digestive system.

A series of glass receptacles hang in a row with the machine being "fed" twice a day on one end. The food is ground up "naturally," the way it is in the human body, and the device produces feces on the clock at 2 p.m. at the other end.

The smell is so powerful that not many visitors can take it.

"It put me off because of the overwhelming assault on the senses," said Diane Malnic, a Sydney-based accountant.

'Vomit room'

Yet this was her second visit in five months, following a family holiday in Tasmania earlier in the year. This time, she flew without her husband and children just to have another look at the collection, interested in Delvoye's other pieces.

She took great care to avoid the "smelly" parts and still talked vividly about the "vomit room" which was part of an earlier exhibit no longer on display.

"I wouldn't go back to see them," she said, laughing.

The Cloaca is part of a series of at least five similar machines built by the artist, another of which will soon be exhibited at the Louvre. It is the most hated piece in the museum but also the most visited.

The museum, which opened in January 2011, is owned by eccentric and philanthropist David Walsh, who made his fortune as a professional gambler, and features one of the largest private art collections in the world with an estimated value of around $100 million.


And here I thought Aussies were only famous for shrimps on the barbie, Fosters beer, and strapping fake bombs to buxom young ladies to extort $$ from the parents :D ..

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May 14, 2012 5:19:00 PM

Just goes to show that you just cannot take some people anywhere.

I like Foster's. And because I am working in the Middle East, I can get the "real" brewed in Australia Foster's as opposed to the semi-fake brewed in Canada stuff when I am home in the U. S..
May 14, 2012 5:56:07 PM

You know Foster's is like the Old Wilwaukee of Aussie beer right?
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May 14, 2012 6:28:23 PM

I believe this is the last part Data needed to become fully human.
May 14, 2012 7:10:47 PM

My ozzie friend Opal says, competing with the Kiwis over sheep is the gem of all Oz
May 15, 2012 5:15:25 PM

jsc said:
Just goes to show that you just cannot take some people anywhere.

I like Foster's. And because I am working in the Middle East, I can get the "real" brewed in Australia Foster's as opposed to the semi-fake brewed in Canada stuff when I am home in the U. S..


Yep - I enjoyed even the cheap Canadian version - anything other that the Heinekins that my Vietnamese friends seem to universally buy (my guess is that it is a "status" thing, since Heinies are expensive over in Vietnam). My favorite beer when traveling in Asia is Tiger beer, brewed mainly in the Phillipines. A nice 22-ounce chilled bottle goes well in the 85 degree heat and humidity, and also flushes out the old 'cloaca' too :p ..
May 15, 2012 5:25:15 PM

Oldmangamer_73 said:
You know Foster's is like the Old Wilwaukee of Aussie beer right?


Of course - between Reynod and some others, since I have never been to Australia..

Years ago, when I was a college freshman, I went to U. of Maryland, Munich campus, as my father was stationed in Europe when I graduated from high school. I majored in physics and minored in beer-drinking at the local bierstuben :) . Imagine draft Lowenbrau out of wooden kegs, served by buxom frauleins at the ideal 55 degree Fahrenheit temperature that beer needs for the full aroma & flavor. Not that imported crap full of preservatives mind you. So I have enjoyed the nirvana of beers, in the beer capital of the world :D .

Compared to that, all else is downhill, just some more decidedly so than others.
May 21, 2012 2:27:46 PM

Yet more "interesting" Aussie news :D 

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/1171424...

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Quote:
Australian Olympic shooting gold medalist Russell Mark is set to parade in a lime-green "mankini" made famous by the movie character "Borat" at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics as the penalty for losing a bet.

Mark, who won double trap gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games and silver in Sydney, pledged to wear the skimpy swimsuit worn by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in the 2006 film if Melbourne-based Carlton lost to St. Kilda in the Australian Football League.

Carlton suffered a shock four-goal defeat in the match on Monday night and Mark owned up to making the bet on local radio.

"Oh, I must've been intoxicated. Carlton promise so much and just deliver so little. It kills me," the burly 48-year-old said on Tuesday.

"Anyway, a lot of people would think a mankini might look better than the uniform they've nominated for us, so I don't know if it's such a bad thing."
May 21, 2012 2:34:47 PM

I have learned never to bet on anyone or anything but yourself.
May 21, 2012 5:05:30 PM

I think thats why the phrase here in minnie sooda of you betcha is so popular here
May 21, 2012 5:37:50 PM

I thought that was because you're so close to Canada that you're nearly retarded. :) 
May 21, 2012 8:45:18 PM

Look at it this way, Iowa to the south, Canuckia to the north, people here are trying to hold on
May 22, 2012 1:43:36 PM

Good point. My neighbor is from Minne soda. We were at the store last night and he wanted to buy "pop." That's what I call it also. People have no clue what we're talking about.. they call it Soda or Coke. We have to consistently say "Soda Pop. Pop."

Native Knoxville people are interesting.. Most of the people I know are not from this area. Those are stand out significantly.
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