First Dude

That’s Todd Palin, accourding to the Washington Post.

Streisand effect

self-defeating behaviour or unintended consequences of drawing attention to some unwanted material on the internet by suing

seen in The Economist

Great Tits Cope Well with Warming

Now isn’t THAT a headline. And if it was in The Sun, you’d know what to expect. But as it’s in the science section of BBC News, it’s about birds.

What a pile of shit can tell you:

“Fossilised faeces found in a US cave may help solve the riddle of when and how humans came to the Americas.” cf. BBC

I keep wondering if this might even solve the riddle WHY people came to the Americas. And what a remarkable imprint they left!

Oh how I would have liked it!

According to the BBC, there’s a proposal that pupils – at least at primary school age – should no longer be asked to do homework: oh, how would I have liked THAT when I was a pupil.

cellphone novels

Interesting what young people nowadays use a cellphone for: “Until recently, cellphone novels — composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in Japan as a subgenre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, ‘The Tale of Genji,’ a millennium ago. Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.”

quoted from: The New York Times

New Year

Back after a wonderful Christmas holiday in southern Germany, I’m now ready to continue this blog, and wish all my readers a most happy New Year 2008.

Hold the Fart

Now that’s an interesting headline in today’s Slate Magazine!

Here’s the proposal:

Scientists are trying to fight global warming by changing animal flatulence. As emissions from livestock reportedly account for up to half of greenhouse gas emissions in some countries and Kangaroos have stomach bacteria that eliminate methane from their gas, scientists want to transfer these bacteria to sheep and cattle.

need money, steal roof

It’s quite interesting what ingenious thieves come up with: now the actually steal roofs – leaden ones, that is – and not even churches are sacrosanct any more, as the example of Tewkesbury Abbey in England shows.

have cell phone, don’t p*** my pants

Texting your way to a toilet in London

The Associated Press
Published: November 29, 2007

LONDON: A new service promises Londoners they’ll never have to spend much time looking for the loo.
Westminster City Council, which covers London’s bustling Oxford Street, the West End, and the Houses of Parliament, on Thursday launched “SatLav” — a toilet-finding service for mobile phone users.

[...]

What an excellent idea!