The World’s oldest jokes
Flatulent wives, bored pharoahs and randy donkeys: the world’s ten oldest jokes have been revealed. Apparently, our sense of humor hasn’t change much since 1900 BC.
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Filed Under Media & Society, Research, Wondering
Too poor for fries
It’s not about caviar and foie gras anymore, the Los Angeles City Council has decided that you have to be well off even to eat burgers and fries. They have just passed an ordinance banning the construction of fast-food restaurants in a 32 square mile area inhabited by 5,00,000 low-income people.
I find it wrong on so many levels, fast food is being treated like tobacco and alcohol, and poor people like secondary citizens.
Filed Under Food
Toilet for boys who are girls
Public places all around the world have one thing in common: toilets designated for girls, and usually, right next to them, the ones for boys. Lately, family restrooms (where a dad can take his little daughter) can be found in many locations. But how about those who don’t really fit in any of this categories? To which bathroom a boy in the outside but girl in his mind and heart should go?
A Secondary School In Thailand came up with a solution: the transgender restrooms.
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Filed Under Diversity, Human Rights, Modern Life
Breast-feeding a banana smoothie
Want to give a taste of delicious garlic, nutritious vegetable soup or a banana smoothie to your brand new baby? Easy stuff; just eat some garlicky food, a bunch of vegetables or a simple banana, sit down, relax, and get ready to breast-feed.
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Filed Under Food, Research, World Health
Lego restoration
In a project that will get him brownie points with both the church, and the World Heritage Organisation, artist Jan Vormann has gone around the town of Bocchignano, Italy, fixing old, crumbling walls with brightly coloured Lego pieces.
It’s a beautiful, surreal piece of work, the kind that makes you want to give up being a writer, and spend your days walking around your city, creating tiny pieces of anonymous art.
Filed Under Art
Learn Well, Die Well
While the government of South Korea is seeking ways to curb the country’s high suicide rate, which has doubled in the last ten years, a smart corporation has already got its plan in place. They’ve developed a ‘well-dying’ program, where people can take classes to understand death - while they are seated in a coffin and trying to dodge dirt. The experience also includes writing a will, posing for a funeral photograph, and lying in a dark, closed casket.
I don’t quite understand how the course would help control suicide, but Hyundai and Samsung obviously do. They are amongst the companies that have booked ‘fake funerals’ to motivate their employees.
Filed Under History & traditions, Modern Life
No more “creative” naming in New Zealand
One of the hardest tasks in life must be to name your child. One of the hardest things is life must be to deal with a name that, to say it somehow, doesn’t quite fit your personality. Fortunately, some New Zealanders will not have to use a lifetime nickname thanks to the embarrassment caused by their parent’s moment of “creativity” when it came to name them because a family court judge did something about it.
Filed Under Diversity, Media & Society, Modern Life