News

No Facebook, Mr. Burns?

"A public-relations executive recently evaluated the number of Fortune 100 CEOs who had presences on social network sites including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and online information site Wikipedia," Douglas McIntyre writes for Newsweek. "Almost none of the chief executives were involved with the Internet destinations, which should not have been a surprise to anyone with sense. ... CEOs would be mobbed with requests from other Facebook and MySpace members who want to connect with them as 'friends,' as they are known on the sites. Most of these people are likely to be sacked employees and unhappy shareholders. The only large company CEO who could build a positive presence on a social network is one running a company with one shareholder and lifetime employment for all workers."

Use Up Day

In Britain, Caroline Marson is cooking adviser for the Love Food Hate Waste campaign. She has carried out food makeovers to help households deal with the basics of home economics, the Birmingham Mail reports. "[M]y top tip has to be having a designated Use Up Day each week at home. Look in your fridge, search the freezer and go through the fridge and use up everything you can in a meal before you set off to buy any more."

Recession shopping

"One remarkable thing about this recession is the speed of many people's transition from shopping at Saks to cutting out coupons," Christina Binkley reports in The Wall Street Journal. "People with lucrative professions and vacation homes are learning that they have been living closer to the edge than they thought. As a result, many of them are reassessing which expenditures are necessities and which amount to luxuries - and they are learning new consumer skills, such as bargaining, to help them afford what they can."

Meet the press

"A monkey urinated on Zambian President Rupiah Banda during a press conference outside his office in the capital, Lusaka," The Daily Telegraph reported last week. President Banda took the unfortunate incident in good humour. "You have urinated on my jacket," a startled Mr. Banda told the monkey, looking up at a tree. The monkey was one of a colony that has made its home in the trees outside Mr. Banda's offices at Lusaka's State House. "I will give this monkey for lunch to Mr. Sata," he joked, referring to opposition leader Michael Sata.

Meet the critics

Pigeons may appear to randomly target city sculptures with their droppings, but according to a new Japanese study, they have the potential to become discerning art critics, Agence France-Presse reports. Researchers at Tokyo's Keio University say they have found the birds have "advanced perceptive abilities" and can distinguish between "good" and "bad" paintings, recognizing beauty the way humans do. In a month-long experiment, the pigeons learned to peck only at images of "good" paintings by elementary-school pupils, Prof. Shigeru Watanabe said.

Buzz had a groove on

"It was probably one small step for Snoop Dogg but it was one giant leap for Buzz Aldrin when he teamed up with the hip-hop artist to record a rap single," Jacqui Goddard reports for The Times of London. "The white-haired astronaut, 79, has accomplished what he claims is his second great mission - becoming a rap star - with a track commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing next month. The single, Rocket Experience, and accompanying video feature the second man on the moon nodding his head and gyrating in time to the beat as he leans into a microphone to deliver lines such as: 'I'm the spaceman, I'm the rocket man, it's time to venture far, let's take a trip to Mars, our destiny is to the stars.' "

A grenade and a snack

"Indian defence scientists are planning to put one of the world's hottest chili powders into hand grenades. They say the devices will be used to control rioters and in counterinsurgency operations. Researchers say the idea is to replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chili to immobilize people without killing them," BBC News reports. "The chili, known as Bhut Jolokia, is said to be 1,000 times hotter than commonly used kitchen chili. Scientists at India's Defence Research and Development Organisation are quoted as saying the potent chili will be used as a food additive for troops operating in cold conditions."

Thought du jour

"Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question."

- Eric Hoffer