When I think about amusement parks, I usually am devising ways to get out of going to one. I know you may think that makes me a cranky broad, but if you’ve seen one rambling sprawl with acres filled with screaming kids, weary parents and the smell of cotton candy and sweat, you’ve seen them all.

Walt Disney World will never hire me for my scathing admission, but Shijingshan Amusement Park just might. And Love Land in Korea also might give me a shot as their new public relations person as this is more of my kind of thrill ride. And extra goodness for not having to ride a rollercoaster at that one..

My prejudices of amusing parks might just have changed after reading about of some of the most perplexing amusement parks in the world. Now these are my kind of parks although I have to say that I’m not sure Love Land is for kids. Well, I’m pretty sure of it. If the pictures are any indication, you also might need your photo id to get in.

Perfect.

Let’s start there: Love Land is a park about sex. There isn’t getting around it. Statues of people practicing Kama Sutra positions and large rock formations of the male and female human anatomy is graphic and exquisitely bizarre. The park, originally created as an art exhibit for students of Seoul’s Hongik University, in not something you’d want your mom to know you’ve visited.

The most interesting park might be Shijingshan Amusement Park in Beijing which looks very similar to Mickey Mouse’s world but don’t you dare say it’s the same thing because it’s not and park administrators will tell you it’s not. So there..

Yeah, there is the character Duck who suspiciously looks like Donald Duck’s brother and there is a character named Kitty (if you are thinking Hello Kitty, then you are correct, campers) but the park might be more apt to be called Copyright-Infringement-Without-A-Bit Of-Irony land. Creators of the park arrogantly say they aren’t copying favorite cartoon characters for the amusement park, that it’s all about Grimm’s Fairy Tales. They also say that their character who looks identical to Mickey Mouse is a cat with big ears.

Umm, right. Sure. Whatever you want to believe. The slogan for the park takes the guffaw award. “Disney is too far, so please come to Shijingshan.”

Priceless.

Now, I don’t think I have any desire, quite frankly, to go to Dickens World. Let me think, which classic author inspires thrills, joy and your first thought of a relaxing vacation? Charles Dickens you say, well, all-righty then.

Located in Chatham Dockyard in Kent, the English amusement park is filled with the lovely memories of disease, pestilence, dysentery, the elite world of Victorian England and, just for a rollicking good time, starving orphans. They even have a log flume based on Great Expectations.

Cracked Magazine has listed the 9 most Baffling Theme Parks across the globe and that was just a brief sampling. You just can’t make this stuff up.

And it’s fabulous.

Number 1 on their list is a park devoted to cartoon characters throwing up. The Danish themed park named Bon Bon Land is all about vomiting, dog flatulence and poop. You will be titillated by naked cows, mice who are using the bathroom and some of the most messed up stuff you will ever see. I cannot imagine seeing this amusement park making it in the southern United States, but it’s a huge hit in Denmark.
I take back everything I said. I’ve got a destination for my kind of theme park. Sign me up. I’m there.

When it comes to sun protection, humans can’t slather ourselves in mud to preserve our tender skin from the burning rays of the sun, so every year, the Environmental Working Group puts together a list of the safest possible sunscreens.  While the FDA has approved sunscreen additives like oxybenzone (since 1978) and retinal palmitate, the [...]

Like him or not, the late Apple founder Steve Jobs had an interesting life.  He founded a major tech company, was kicked out by the board, then came back to save the company from failure in the ultimate redemption story.  Jobs changed the way we use computers, changed the way we listen to music, and [...]

In the movie The Social Network, Sean Parker asks Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin a question:  ”You don’t even know what the thing is yet.  How big it can get, how far it can go.  This is no time to take your chips down.  A million dollars isn’t cool, you know what’s cool?  A billion dollars.” [...]

When you’re preparing to receive a billion-dollar windfall in the biggest IPO of all time, it’s a smart move to flee the United States.  Eduardo Saverin, who was Mark Zuckerberg’s friend and business partner at Harvard, owns about 4 percent of Facebook stock as a result of his many court battles with Zuckerberg.  That’s going [...]

In 1978, Loretta Lynn brought actress Sissy Spacek onto the stage at the Grand Ole Opry and announced, to the world, that Spacek would be playing Loretta Lynn in an upcoming biographic film.  That movie, Coal Miner’s Daughter, won Spacek the best actress Oscar and helped turn Loretta Lynn into an icon far beyond her [...]

The change was overnight.  Gone were the heavily hairsprayed helmets and greased-down locks of the 50′s.  The product was minimized; the cut was the thing according to Vidal Sassoon, and he crafted some of the most iconic hair styles of all time at his London, England salon.  He would later go on to revolutionize the [...]

Once upon a time, having a game that renders in 3D was a novelty.  Among the best of this first generation of 3D shooters is the Nazi blasting classic, Wolfenstein 3D.  Wolfenstein 3D is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and Bethesda Software has a unique celebration for that event.  Bethesda has published a free browser-based version [...]