The Darwin Awards are sarcastic honors given to different persons after they “did a service to humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool”. These awards got their name from the evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin, and they are given to people that died in a very stupid fashion. Those who give the awards consider that those persons who died in such an idiot way, didn’t deserve to live on and it is just like in the Theory of Darwin – only the strongest survive.

But they deserve a Darwin award, so that people can remember their mistakes and be careful not to do the same. Those who run the site are careful to verify the submitted stories because many emails send by the readers are just fictional stories. There were a few awards given to stories that were found out later to be false, but they have been “grandfathered” to keep their awards.

www.darwinawards.com is the official site of these awards, and now here are some examples of silly ways to die:

-         juggling with hand grenades (even that happened to someone in Croatia, 2001)
-         leaving a lit cigarette in a warehouse that was full with explosive (Philippines, 1999)
-         jumping out of an airplane to film skydivers, and forgetting to take his parachute (US, 1987)
-         a police man making a reenactment of a murder, and forgetting to unload the gun, and then shooting himself in the stomach
-         playing the Russian roulette with a semi-automatic gun that automatically loads the next bullet into the chamber
-         crashing through a window and falling from a big height in order to demonstrate that the window is unbreakable…and many more others that can be found on the site.

In case you are a fan of these awards, and you want to show this to others too, then you can buy some objects from the Darwin awards gift shop. You will find a lot of interesting objects here on this site: http://www.officialdarwinawards.com/shop/ . For example you can buy some notepads, and each one has a cover of a deadly circumstance presented in one of the Darwin awards. The price for a notebook is 11 dollars. Or you can buy a greeting card for 7 dollars, each one with a sarcastic message, similar to the situations presented in the Darwin awards. So you can send a greeting card like this to someone that you don’t quite really like, saying to him that you kinda wish his death. Or you can but a notepad that also comes with some matches for 5 dollars, illustrating a man lighting a dynamite. Some really popular items from the site are the Darwin Awards condoms, that come in a matchbook and they are loaded with funny quotes and stories. A pack of 4 condoms has a price of 13 dollars.

You can also buy a silver emblem like those found on cars, only this one illustrates a fish floating belly-up (so a dead fish). This illustrates the mechanism of natural selection and on the back side you will find a tongue-in-cheek history of the Fish Emblem family. It costs 6 dollars. There are also three models of T-shirts that you can buy from the site, each one with a price of 16 dollars. One of them illustrates a soldier sitting on a box filled with TNT and lighting a cigarette, another shows a silly man juggling with grenades and the other shows a man cutting a branch of a tree, while he is sitting on the end of the branch. And the other items that you can  buy from the site are the three volumes of the Darwin Awards book. The first one is called “Evolution in action”, the second volume is “Unnnatural selection” while the third is the “Survival of the fittest”. These books are presenting all sorts of funny and silly stories of people who did very stupid mistakes that caused their death or injury. Each of the books costs 15 dollars.

Buckingham Palace is the official residence of the British monarch in London. The Palace is destined for state occasions and royal entertaining, a place for all officially visiting Heads of State, and a big tourist attraction. Many of us may seen Buckingham Palace from the outside, with the famous changing of the guards, and many of us are curious about the inside.

But, this article is about the Buckingham Palace Gift Shop and because of that we’ll present you some details only about it. For start we have to mention that the gift shop is located in the back of Buckingham Palace, in the 35 acre garden and it looks like a temporary building with a large white tent top. About the gift shop, we can tell you that it was large with several areas.

The gift shop was large with several areas and charming products made especially for Buckingham Palace. If you are going to visit the Buckingham Palace you must bring home at least some gifts from here. For example you can find at Buckingham Palace large series of pearls. Of course, pearls are made from a royal gem and are pretty affordable for us “humans”. Like we already mention, there are available a large series of styles, with many colored pearl necklaces and varied shapes of freshwater pearls. What is characteristic for the Buckingham Palace is how the pearls are displayed in the gift shop: the entire back wall of the gift shop is occupied with pearls, with some other jewels interferences.

Beside the jewelries at Buckingham Palace Gift Shop you can also find different gifts like:

- Buckingham Palace London crystal home decor gift ($40);

- t-shirts in different sizes and printings available like: Buckingham Palace t-shirt, changing the guard at Buckingham Palace;

- posters: You can have every corner of Buckingham Palace on the right poster: Buckingham Palace poster, Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace poster, Buckingham Palace 1909 poster, Palace gates poster, Princess Dianna’s Memory Lane poster;

- accessories: bags (Buckingham Palace bag, Queen’s horse guard Buckingham Palace Canvas bags, National Anthem Canvas bags), embroidered bags, hats (Cavalry hat, Union Jack British Flag Trucker hat, National Anthem Trucker hat), embroidered hats, aprons (Buckingham Palace Chef’s apron, Buckingham Palace apron, Buckingham Palace Custom apron, Cavalry apron, Union Jack British Flag apron), ties (British flag tie, God save the Queen neckties, soldiers guards neck wear);

- for the office: business cards (soldiers guards business card template), mouse pads (Buckingham Palace mouse pad, Household Cavalry mouse pad, guards mouse pad, royalty mouse pad), fliers, rack cards (Buckingham Palace rack card, band rack card).

After Buckingham Palace Gift Shop experience, you’ll find interesting that nowadays the prevalent hierarchy of the past is no longer available. Today you can enter into the queen’s palace and you can buy jewels like hers.

Maine is one of the states of the United States of America. It is found in the region of New England (which is placed in the northeastern side of the US) and it is bordered by the New Hampshire to the southwest, by the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, by the Canadian province of Quebec to the northwest and by New Brunswick in the north east side. It is the 39^th state of the United States of America in terms of surface and the 40^th state by population. It has a surface of 35,385 square miles (91,646 km²) and a population of 1,318,301 (in 2009). The state of Maine is the Easternmost state of the United States and it is famous for its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains and its heavily forests. But it is also know for its seafood cuisine, especially for the lobsters and clams.

The state of Maine has 16 counties, each one with its own towns, villages and other divisions. And since all of them are a part of the United States of America, they are developed cities, which have all the buildings and stores you might need. And if you are a tourist in the United States, you will also need some gift shops from where to buy souvenirs to remember of the trip you made to this beautiful country.

From the information we found on the internet there is a total of 473 gift shops listed in the state of Maine, in most of its cities. And now here is a list with all the cities from this state that have a gift shop, along with the number of gift shops for each one:

- Abbot (1)
- Alfred (2)
- Auburn (10)
- Augusta (8)
- Bailey Island (1)
- Bangor (15)
- Bar Harbor (16)
- Bath (6)
- Belfast (12)
- Belgrade Lakes (2)
- Belmont (1)
- Bethel (2)
- Biddeford (1)
- Blue Hill (1)
- Boothbay Harbor (11)
- Bowdoinham (1)
- Brewer (4)
- Bridgton (3)
- Brownville (1)
- Brunswick (5)
- Bucksport (1)
- Calais (2)
- Camden (6)
- Cape Elizabeth (1)
- Castine (1)
- Center Lovell (2)
- Chebeague Island (1)
- Cheserville (1)
- Columbia Falls (2)
- Corinth (1)
- Cranberry Isles (1)
- Damariscotta (7)
- Deer Isle (1)
- Detroit (1)
- Dexter (3)
- Dover-Foxcroft (4)
- East Millinocket (1)
- East Vassalboro (1)
- East Waterboro (1)
- East Wilton (1)
- Eastbrook (1)
- Edgecomb (1)
- Ellsworth (8)
- Fairfield (1)
- Falmouth (2)
- Farmingdale (1)
- Farmington (4)
- Fort Kent (1)
- Freeport (7)
- Gardiner (3)
- Georgetown (1)
- Gorham (1)
- Gray (1)
- Greene (1)
- Greenville (3)
- Hallowell (3)
- Hampden (1)
- Harrison (1)
- Hartland (1)
- Houlton (4)
- Island Falls (1)
- Islesboro (1)
- Jackman (2)
- Jay (1)
- Jonesport (1)
- Kennebunk (5)
- Kennebunkport (30)
- Kingfield (1)
- Kittery (4)
- Lebanon (1)
- Levant (1)
- Lewiston (4)
- Limerick (1)
- Limington (1)
- Lincoln (2)
- Lincolnville (1)
- Little Deer Isle (1)
- Long Island (1)
- Lubec (1)
- Machias (3)
- Madison (1)
- Mechanic Falls (1)
- Medway (3)
- Milbridge (3)
- Millinocket (1)
- Milo (2)
- Moody (1)
- Mount Vernon (1)
- Naples (2)
- New Harbor (3)
- Newburgh (1)
- Newcastle (1)
- Newfield (2)
- Newport (2)
- Norridgewock (1)
- Northeast Harbor (2)
- Norway (4)
- Oakland (1)
- Ogunquit (18)
- Old Orchard Beach (3)
- Old Town (1)
- Orono (3)
- Owls Head (1)
- Oxbow (2)
- Oxford (1)
- Paris (1)
- Peaks Island (1)
- Perry (1)
- Phippsburg (1)
- Pittsfield (1)
- Portland (22)
- Presque Isle (2)
- Randolph (1)
- Rangeley (3)
- Raymond (1)
- Rockland (4)
- Rockport (1)
- Round Pond (1)
- Rumford (2)
- Saco (7)
- Sanford (2)
- Scarborough (5)
- Searsport (4)
- Sebago (1)
- Sherman Mills (1)
- Shirley Mills (1)
- Skowhegan (6)
- South Casco (3)
- South Portland (9)
- Southwest Harbor (1)
- St. Albans (1)
- Standish (3)
- Stratton (1)
- Thomaston (1)
- Topsham (2)
- Trenton (4)
- Turner (3)
- Union (2)
- Van Buren (1)
- Vassalboro (1)
- Veazie (2)
- Vinalhaven (1)
- Waldoboro (4)
- Warren (2)
- Waterville (8)
- Wayne (1)
- Wells (9)
- West Enfield (1)
- West Farmington (1)
- Westbrook (1)
- Whitefield (1)
- Whiting (2)
- Windham (1)
- Windsor (2)
- Winslow (1)
- Winterport (1)
- Winthrop (1)
- Wiscasset (2)
- Woolwich (1)
- Yarmouth (4)
- York (12)
- York Beach (2)

To find the exact address of each of these gift shops, just visit this page: http://www.downtownme.com/maine_gift_shops_42.htm . So if you ever been to one of these stores, tell us all about it! Have a nice vacation!

The Fairmont Empress Hotel (most commonly known as The Empress Hotel) is one of the oldest and also among the most famous hotels in Canada. It is located in the British Columbia province of Canada, in the city of Victoria. And to be more precise it is placed on the Government Street facing the Inner Harbour. It is an iconic symbol for the town of Victoria and it has 460 rooms.

It was built in Edwardian style and it was recently restored to its original grandeur, with antique furniture and many other luxurious decors. It was originally designed by Francis Rattenbury and it was opened in 1908. These days it is considered to be the most photographed attraction on the Vancouver Island. Since it was made by English people, this hotel is famous for its elegant Afternoon Tea which is served to over 75.000 visitors each year. So you can sevour a tea in this hotel in the finest tradition, along with some berries and Chantilly cream, scones, preserves, sandwiches, crumpets, pastries or tarts. And they are all served in silver service in the main lobby.

So if you want just to serve a cup of tea here at this hotel without having to get a room and sleep over night, you can book a table. But you’ll have to do this one or 2 weeks earlier, because the hotel is visited by a lot of people every day, and you might not catch a free place. Since it is a famous and elegant hotel, you can’t dress quite anyway you want. For example tank tops, sleeveless shirts or cut-offs are not allowed and you can dress really elegant, or at least have some jeans (that are not ripped or torn), a shirt and some appropriate shoes.  The seating at the tables begin at 12:30 pm, 2 pm and 3:30 pm, and a table is held for maximum 10 minutes after the reservation time.

Many famous people have passed and slept over at this hotel, and some examples are: Barbara Streisand, John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Bing Crosby, Katherine Hepburn, Roger Moore and many more others.

The year 1965 was one really important for the hotel, because there was a lot of debating on whether to tear down the hotel (which at that time was becoming faded and dowdy) and to make room for a more modern hotel. But a lot of people were against this idea and they were saying that if this hotel would be demolished there will be a great loss in the number of tourists visiting Victoria. So finally in 1966 the decision was announced: the Fairmont Empress Hotel would not be demolished, and it will be restored. So after that, it had begun a 4 million dollars campaign of renovation and refurbishment.

The old rooms of the hotel contain all sort of stories, some of them quite unusual. Some guests were saying that they seen a little girl who was watching over the bed and floating across the room, while others said that they seen a maid from the 20^th century, which shows up from time to time on the sixth floor and begins the cleaning.

Throughout  its history, the hotel was visited not just by Hollywood stars, but also by kings and queens. In 1989 it was restored again, only that this time they were spend over 45 million dollars. All the guest rooms were renovated and there were added a health club, an indoor swimming pool and guest reception. There were no changes in the exterior aspect of the hotel, and the goal was to restore the Fairmont Empress Hotel to is original elegance.

The hotel is conveniently located close to other tourist sites such as: the Convention Center, the Parliament buildings, the Royal British Columbia Museum and also close to stores, gift shops, restaurants and other local sites. So if you ever been there, please share all your opinions (along with pictures or videos) and tell us all about how it is to visit the famous Empress Hotel.

St. Benedict once said that the monks should work for their living with their own hands, and not beg for money and food from other people. So that’s why all the Benedictine and Cisterician monasteries support themselves in order to celebrate his words. From the early times monks had support themselves through agriculture but these days there many other methods which they use to make money. And here are some examples: cheese making, printing, art, stained glass, and recently retails stores for selling all sorts of objects that are hand made by the monks. And since we live in a world that is dominated by the computers and the internet, the monks themselves have E-stores where they are selling their products.

And one of them is http://www.holyspiritmonasterygifts.com/ . Here on this site you can find all sorts of products made by the monks from different monasteries in the United States of America, products which can be used for all sorts of occasions. You can use them for yourself or you can make them a gift to your loved persons.

The products are sorted on categories, and these are : specials, books, calendar, fruitcake, fudge, gift sets, rosaries, monastery gifts and spiritual enrollments. So now let’s take a look in some of these categories and see what they have to offer. At the “Books” category you will find 6 different books with religious thematic, and these are: Portraits of Grace (for 19.95 dollars), Praying in the cellar (for 15 dollars), What makes a Cistercian monk? (for 9 dollars), The road to Holiness (for 10 dollars), A planet of grace (for 19 dollars) and a Book gift set (which contains both the book Portraits of grace and A planet of grace) for 35 dollars.

If you still haven’t bought a calendar for 2010, or if you wish to have one with a religious thematic, you can choose the “Monastery of the Holy Spirit 2010 Calendar” that costs just 2.95 dollars. In this calendar you will find pictures with this monastery, its monks and the grounds.

If you want to eat something delicious and also healthy, you can choose one of the fruit cakes made by the master fruitcake maker – Brother Patrick and his helping assistants. The cakes are looking really delicious in the images, so we just have to guess that they taste delicious too. So if you are living in the United States of America and you want to try one of these cakes you can order it from the site, and then share your opinions with us.

Some other delicious aliments offered by the monastery are the fudges, and you can find Maple Walnut Monk’s fudge, Chocolate Monk’s fudge and also Southern touch monk’s fudge. And now they are all at a special offer and you can buy a box for just 7.99 dollars.

If you want to make a really interesting and unique gift for a friend, then you can choose a product from the “gift sets” category.  Here there are products from other categories which were combined to make cool gifts. Here you can find: Abbey favorites sample, Apple butter assortment, Fruitcake and fudge assortment, fruitcake and fudge duo, fruit lovers gift basket, fudge sampler, Trappist preserves trio and also first communion gifts.

Or maybe you want to choose some rosaries, and you can find three different models, all handmade by Father Anthony. There are 2 models of bracelet and one of a necklace, and the prices can vary depending on what you choose.

A really fun gift for a religious person would be the “Monastery puzzle” with 80 pieces. It costs 19.95 dollars, and when it’s ready you will have an aerial image of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. It has just 80 pieces so it won’t be so difficult to make.

There are a few more other gifts here on the site, but we’ll let you discover them by yourself. So if you a ordered a product from this site, or even better if you ever have been at this monastery (it is situated close to Atlanta, USA – you can find directions on the site) just share all your opinions with us.