The link will bring you to a list of very strange 'laws' indeed. It is admitted at the top of the list that the supposed laws have not been verified officially. I suspect many are completely untrue. Usually, when a law seems weird or strange, it is because of the age of the law; when written it probably made perfect sense to the citizens and to the people who wrote it. Many of the centuries old laws in places like England/United Kingdom can seem very strange indeed; some are based on the right of the sovereign to claim various items or privileges in situations when it would never occur to us that anyone but the apparent owner should have such rights. Don't assume that any 'laws' here or in the links are legitimate until you research them yourself.

Here are two apparently true 'weird' laws from the Strange Laws 02 link:

1. Whales are the property of the monarch: This one's true! See, here's the law, 17 Edw. II c. 11
2. Illegal to wear armour in Parliament: This one's true! A Statute forbidding Bearing of Armour (1313)

A republic is a representative democracy, where the people elect representatives to make laws for them. A republic makes decisions democratically by the majority vote of representatives.

In a representative democracy you elect a few to represent you in the decision making, and make decisions for you, rather then you yourself vote on every decision.

(The United States is a republic, or representational democracy, because the people vote for representatives to represent their views in congress. James Madison defined republic in terms of representative democracy as opposed to direct democracy.)

A direct democracy, or pure democracy, is where the people rule directly, voting on every law themselves. It's a form of government ruled by majority of every individual. A direct democracy allows all citizens to vote on every decision.

Direct democracy is where citizens vote directly by ballot to make decisions for the government. Direct democracy originated in Athens.