According to shoe firm MBT, flip-flops 'injure 200,000 people a year'.
(The injuries range from trips and falls, joint pain and other conditions linked to long-term use, and it costs the NHS (National Health Service) £40m a year! Yes these innocuous looking pieces of cheap, flimsy plastic are death traps in disguise. Personally I can't bear that horrid little bit that you're meant to stick between your big toe and the next toe. It's painful and it never feels secure.)
29 Jul 2010
28 Jul 2010
Interesting Place - Maywood
Maywood is America's (and possibly the world's) first completely outsourced city.
(Following major cash-flow problems and the threat of bankruptcy, the city of Mayfield in the USA has outsourced every single public service; from the management of parks and libraries, to the book-keeping at City Hall, and even the running of its police department. The number of people it now has on its payroll? A big, fat zero. I think I would like to outsource my housework.)
Source: The Independent
(Following major cash-flow problems and the threat of bankruptcy, the city of Mayfield in the USA has outsourced every single public service; from the management of parks and libraries, to the book-keeping at City Hall, and even the running of its police department. The number of people it now has on its payroll? A big, fat zero. I think I would like to outsource my housework.)
Source: The Independent
27 Jul 2010
Interesting Fact - Longevity
A genetically engineered organism that lives 10 times longer than normal has been created by scientists in California.
(They deleted two genes and put the organism on a calorie-restricted diet. If scientists could apply this DNA tweak to humans it would mean we'd live to over 800 years old. Of course it's probably a long way off, the organism in question was a fungus, and apart from a couple of men I know, this wouldn't be easy to transfer to humans.)
(They deleted two genes and put the organism on a calorie-restricted diet. If scientists could apply this DNA tweak to humans it would mean we'd live to over 800 years old. Of course it's probably a long way off, the organism in question was a fungus, and apart from a couple of men I know, this wouldn't be easy to transfer to humans.)
26 Jul 2010
Interesting Fact - The Romans - Podcast
According to Ray Laurence, the author of Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome, the top 10 passions of Ancient Romans were the following:-
- Binge Drinking
- Getting Naked
- Grand Designs
- Older Women
- Younger Men
- Singing and Dancing
- Violence
- Collecting Things
- Food
- Pleasure
25 Jul 2010
Interesting Food - Tomatoes
The average harvest of tomatoes per hectare of land in Italy will tumble from 80,000kg last year to an average of 60,000kg this year.
(The cause is, of course, the weather: The heavy rains in June flooded the fields and prevented roots developing, and the exceptionally high temperatures in July have weakened the tomatoes, which dry up, making flowers and fruit fall. The good news is that because of the same weather conditions the outlook for the grape and olive harvests is good, assuming there are no more freak weather conditions.)
(The cause is, of course, the weather: The heavy rains in June flooded the fields and prevented roots developing, and the exceptionally high temperatures in July have weakened the tomatoes, which dry up, making flowers and fruit fall. The good news is that because of the same weather conditions the outlook for the grape and olive harvests is good, assuming there are no more freak weather conditions.)
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