Humanity's Humor and Oddities, Advertising, Communicating.

Update:

We are separating out the more frivolous photos, out of concern that they might distract from more serious issues.

See the LITE at Common Thread Roadways Lite:

Surnames, place names, graffiti portion of post now exported to Common Thread Roadways Lite, Surnames, Place Names, Graffiti

Unexpected rest stop portion of post now exported to Common Thread Road Ways Lite, Unexpected Rest Stop .
Others:  go to same site

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 Nonsense and Intellect

Does the nonsense benefit us?

Silly People are Smarter? - if they don't go overboard?

1.  The serious anomaly.

Nonsense and intellect.  See the connection.  See Benedict Carey's article, How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect, at NYT ://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/health/06mind.html/

Find something that defies expectation, defies logic, an anomaly, something absurd, and can you laugh at the disorientation that results? The good news, is that the discomfort at the outset, getting bearings, signifies an ability to find a new pattern, solve a new problem.  Some anomalies have serious intent, others merely fun. 

Here is a deadly serious anomaly.

Geneva, Switzerland. Landmines protest. Near Palace of Nations.

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Is the new image a threat? Threat results in clinging to biases.  How about thinking of death.  The article points out that thinking of death produces a hyper-patriotism, hyper-religionism, and less tolerance. Do a bad job on a test, and watch the heightened feelings of loyalty to the winners.

We want coherence. We will impose a pattern to help us get that. The brain gropes for meaning, while the hands and voice go toward old ritual for comfort.

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2.  The Thought-Provoking Anomaly

The odd Juxtapose. Posejuxta.

Charlie Chaplin at the Fork, Montreux, Switzerland

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Charlie Chaplin was here first. Then came the fork.
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3.  The Literary Allusion

Climbing the walls.

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This bug on the building needs a metamorphosis.  We are in Prague now.

Prague, CZ. Kafka's building bug. Metamorphosis. 

. A literary refresher course.  Meet Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis (the novella, see ://www.themodernword.com/kafka/kafka_works_novellas.html).

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 4. Attention-getting advertising

Liquid recreation.

And back to Poland.  This Pharaoh in the Field is nameless, as to  identity or function.  Until you drive a few miles to the next one, similarly situated.

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Poland, Pharaoh in the Field

Welcome to the Egyptian Bar, waiting just for you with some nice schnappes, just in the next town.