For example, this Canadian commercial features a delightful break-dancing nativity scene.
It's incredibly stupid, yet I enjoyed it very much.
The little potato has come a long way from the Andes Mountains in Peru. Europeans for decades thought it was a decorative greenhouse plant and were absolutely convinced it was poisonous.
The potato's value as a cheap and nutritious food was realized in time for the industrial revolution. Potato crop failures in Ireland triggered large migrations to the United States.
Now, in 2008 special efforts are being made to increase and improve potato cultivation across the world as an important cash and subsistence crop.
Image: do not use potatoes to smuggle drugs. Rather, store spare eyes and shoes inside instead.
I admit that while I like animals as much as everyone else, I am not the biggest supporter of PETA. I'm also not a vegetarian, as the rhapsodic bacon posts have indicated.
However, PETA has published their list of which states offer the most vegetarian and vegan food in prison which is pretty interesting.
Although in my opinion "texturized vegetable protein" is some kind of punishment in itself!
So, you know, if you're a vegetarian on a crime spree, you may wish to consider visiting those fine states.
The image is not quite related to this story, but it is a vegetarian haggis. Non-vegetarian haggis is generally made from offal and other ingredients and cooked in a sheep's stomach. A bit more common in Scotland.
Many of these "foreigners" are agents for good; we exist in a happy symbiosis. Some are actually needed just to keep us healthy. In fact, according to Esquire, the high incidence of certain diseases of the developed world such as asthma, allergies, and cancer may be due to the fact that we don't have these microbial friends.
Recent research has found correlations between such unlikely pairs as:
- Helicobacter pylori, which can cause stomach ulcers, may decrease the likelihood of developing asthma as well as developing esophageal cancer
- Helminths, a kind of worm that has been with humans since the Stone Age, may boost the immune system
- A variant of bird flu can cause a kind obesity in both poultry and humans that strangely includes a low cholesterol score
- A particular strain of Escherichia coli isolated in 1917 prevents colitis. Other strains of E. coli wreak havoc on the gastrointestinal system as food poisoning victims can attest
- Certain kinds of bacteria that produce lactic acid (think yogurt) can bind and neutralize the toxins found in charred meat (large amounts of these toxins are linked to stomach cancers)
- Toxoplasma gondii reproduces in cats - but for humans who live in close contact can be infected, causing neurological and behavioral changes - i.e. crazy cat lady syndrome
The most recent issue has an article about the Manila North Cemetary in the Philippines. Thousands of people live here inside mausoleums. Some live in a family tomb that they own; others live in makeshift homes between the mausoleums. Either way, they are a permanent home.
People live, work, play, learn, and raise their families here.
In this photo, people can pay some money to come sing karaoke, which is set up between two tombs.
If you find this interesting I very strongly suggest you check out their Iraq Issue, which is the most insightful thing I ever read about the country's culture. It discusses everything from the Iraqi diaspora, the sex industry, food, jokes, geography, homosexuality in a Muslim country, interviews with Saddam's lawyer, Uday Hussein's body double, an Iraqi doctor, and counterfeiters all written by people with ties to Iraq. Be aware that there is very strong language, discussions of sex, and very graphic war images. It is VERY worth it though.
Greenpeace had a vote to name a whale (that needs saving, of course).
You will be pleased to know that Mr. Splashy Pants is indeed his name by a wide margin thanks to the voting public.
Developed in 1903 by Lizzie Magie as The Landlord's Game, it later became a teaching tool at top universities' economics departments. Various entrepreneurs, students, and for some reason the Quakers, took interest and occasionally produced and sold their own versions, each tweaked to promote their own economic or religious beliefs about land and property. Legal battles over ownership and rights to the game were fought and not resolved officially until the 1980s. The game is known throughout the world under a variety of names.
Most interesting are Monopoly's wartime exploits. During World War II the company Waddington was the licensed Monopoly distributor in England, and also involved in the producing maps for pilots printed on silk to help them navigate if shot down in enemy country. The British Secret Service in 1941 contracted with Waddington to produce special sets to be included in packages delivered by the Red Cross to Nazi POW camps. These sets were marked with a red dot in the Free Parking space. These secretly supercharged game sets included extra playing pieces such as a compass and file. It came with a hidden escape map tailored to the specific POW camp region. In addition to the standard Monopoly money, real money in the local currency was included - all of these extras were intended to help POWs escape.
Monopoly is at heart a capitalist game with inherent ideas about acquiring wealth and competition. Postwar communists did not approve. The game was banned in Cuba and the Soviet Union, although it was secretly played.
This is probably the best story I read all week!
Images are powerful and cameras are practically ubiquitous, yet these days there seem to be more and more limitations (valid/legal or not) on photography in public and private spaces.
In Chicago there was a short kerfuffle after an artist claimed his sculpture (which was gigantic and in the middle of a park) was copyrighted and therefore couldn't be photographed and images of it could not be sold. Obviously this was silly and was straightened out.
This site though is dedicated to photos taken in forbidden zones from the somewhat immature and banal to the shocking and utterly important. From churches, palaces, museums, and even store displays to actual war zones, the pictures say something individually and collectively about personal rights, ownership rights, and authority.
Need to take some pictures in public? This article summarizes your basic rights in the US. There is also a link to a pdf written by a lawyer that summarizes your rights and what you do and do not have to do if you are stopped while taking photos.
You may have heard of their hijinks before, but the conspiracy is bigger than I thought!
Les UX are a Parisian counterculture urban "guerilla" group with a variety of branches and many secretive projects. Branches include an all-female infiltration team, and teams for photography, radio, database, communications, and restoration. Basically, they tend to break laws and make life better, or at least more interesting.
Last year the restoration branch called Untergunther repaired the clock in The Pantheon, where French heroes are interred. The group broke into the landmark building at night for a year and set up shop including electricity and internet, but were never caught. They broke in one last time to connect the restored clock to the bells which rang on Christmas in 2006. The group was prosecuted but released.
Earlier restoration projects included an ancient crypt and a bunker.
La Mexicaine de Perforation is a branch that occupies underground spaces. Their most famous episode is the subterranean movie theater carved out of rock near the Eiffel Tower. Secret film festivals were held there. It was discovered by the police during training in the city's extensive catacombs. They had tapped into the city's electricity, sewer, and phone network and had set up a movie screen and projector, bar, and things for making couscous. The police returned later to investigate; the entire area had been cleared out. Paris actually has a team of police responsible for the spaces underground, as they are extraordinarily extensive.
French police are worried by this group and its organization. Although they flout the laws, they do not seem to aim at the downfall of society; yet the authorities seem to believe that the group could be a model of how terrorist cells organize and execute projects.
