“According to Pollan, it is naïve to see domesticated animals as victims. Some ten thousand years ago, “a handful of especially opportunistic species discovered … that they were more likely to survive and prosper in an alliance with humans than on their own,” he writes. The results speak for themselves. Domesticated chickens have never been more numerous, even as the Red Burmese jungle fowl from which they descended is disappearing. Meanwhile, if animals have had to make adjustments to live with people, the reverse is also the case. Humans developed the ability to digest lactose into adulthood, for example, only as a consequence of keeping cows”
— http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/11/09/091109crbo_books_kolbert?printable=true
“On June 30, 1937 the Assistant Postmaster General, Sir Walter Womersley, told the House of Commons that the new emergency service would be trialled in London. For reasons now lost to history, MPs burst out laughing at the announcement that the number would be 999 (perhaps because, amid the gathering storm of war, it sounded like a German saying “no” three times).
The Times, however, approved of the number. “Being one third as big again as the Number of the Beast, it has its sinister significance,” it declared. “All cannot be well with him who dials 999.”
If Google can do it, Facebook will try to do it better - the dining experience
In response to the Sri Ram Sene’s harsh tactics of traditionalism, a group of women one late night launched the Pink Chaddi Campaign. It was a joke, really, as they set up a Facebook page for the “Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose, and Forward Women.”
The Protest of the Pink Panties
“The power drink of the moment costs 20 times as much per ounce as Coca-Cola, comes in a tiny bottle and tastes so bad that most people hold their noses and down it in a single gulp.”
“the whole concept of a distinct Highland culture and tradition is a retrospective invention,” cooked up in the 19th century. Much the same can be said of the customs of the “traditional” wedding (the elaborate church ceremony, the white dress, etc.), which were concocted a the same time. In fact, for most of the history of Christendom, a wedding was a low-key affair conducted at home without the benefit of clergy.”
— Most history books discovered to be revisionist and downright distorted. News at 11
