I knew that there’s a town in Austria called Fucking, however that was too far away to conceivably visit.  A memory from a previous hunt for amusing place names suddenly popped up though: somewhere around Austria or Germany there’s a mountain called Wank (I now know that it’s in Bavaria, not Austria, and it was a little foolish of me to think that Austria held the monopoly on rude teutonic sites).

Now, Google have done a great job with their map application, and one of its purportedly helpful features is that if you type in a place and search for it, if they can’t find a match for what you’re looking for, they offer a list of helpful suggestions in case that’s what you actually meant.

I’m pleased to report that the iPhone’s first suggestion, when presented with the map query “Wank, Austria” is: The Tate Modern.

Again, due to distance, we never did visit Wank – and sadly therefore didn’t have the opportunity to shake hands with any Wankers.  Perhaps another time…

As the name suggests, it’s a giant goat, and it’s built (this is the cunning part) in the town of Gävle.  This is the 42nd time the goat has been erected, and the chief reason for its global popularity is that it has a tendency to be set on fire.  In recent years the Central Goat Planning Committee have deployed preventative measures to ensure that the goat doesn’t get torched – 2006 and 2007 for instance saw the goat coated in a special fireproof substance which is used in aircraft, however according to Swedish news source “The Local”, the committee have not fireproofed the goat this year, as the liquid gave the goat a dull brown appearance rather than the yellow colour that it should be.

Arguably as a security measure, the goat also has a live webcam so you can check to see if it has been burnt down.  You never saw such a Web 2.0 straw goat (for some reason, it also appears to have a blog).

Please enjoy with me now.

Cool, huh?