Eyecandy Images
The hazards of ogling
"Figures show distracted [British] motorists cause an average of 2,525 crashes every day," says The Daily Telegraph. "Researchers found drivers crash their cars into lampposts or shunt other vehicles more in the summer when men and women are wearing less clothing. A study of 2,142 drivers found 60 per cent of men admitted being distracted by attractive women while 12 per cent of women said they took their eyes off the road to leer at good-looking men. … Insurance company Direct Line discovered 17 per cent of male drivers admitted knowing their actions were dangerous but said they 'could not help but look.'"
How to treat parents
"National authorities," says China Daily, "issued new standards for filial piety with the aim of providing better care for senior citizens in the modern era, Beijing News reported Tuesday. "The new standards suggest adult children spend holidays with parents, cook meals for and make weekly phone calls to them, teach them to surf the Internet and buy them proper insurance. People are also advised to care more about the mental health of their parents through such ways as helping widowed parents get remarried and listening to parents retell anecdotes from the past."
Manly food sweeps Japan
Although the term "herbivore men" has been in the spotlight because of the "recent focus on a type of gentle, docile man unhindered by social conventions of manliness, the [Japanese] food industry has set out to re-establish machismo and voracious appetites as traits to be sought after," says The Yomiuri Shimbun.
"Restaurants and food makers now frequently use the word otoko (man) in product and service names to highlight 'manly' portions or 'masculine' flavours."
"At the izakaya pub chain Shirokiya, groups of more than two male customers are eligible for Shirokiya Otoko-kai man-parties that feature one-litre mugs of draft beer for ¥500 ($6.30)."
"Hoping to prove that more is manlier, Kimura Drink Co.'s "Otoko no Choiwaru Tsuyo Soda" packs 10-per-cent more carbonation than its regular Choiwaru soda."
Exercising the dog
Some three million dogs across the United States, says The Huffington Post, "were using treadmills in 2010, according to a survey of pet owners by the American Pet Products Association. The group asked about treadmills for the first time in its 2011/2012 survey because the machines were selling so briskly, APPA president Bob Vetere said."
How to survive a shooter
"While most of us have participated in fire drills since we were small children, very few of us have even a remote idea of what to do when faced with someone who is indiscriminately shooting and killing people," writes Joe Taschler of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Security and law enforcement officials call it an 'active shooter,' and a growing number of schools, hospitals and businesses in Wisconsin and across the nation are taking steps to prepare for just such a situation." Some advice:
Take note of the two nearest exits in any facility you visit.
If you are in an office, stay there and secure the door.
Attempt to take the active shooter down as a last resort. Act with physical aggression and throw items.
When law enforcement arrives, put down any items in your hands. Raise hands and spread fingers. Avoid quick movements toward officers such as holding onto them for safety.
Why the bill was so high
"Of all the secrets buried beneath the earth on Sir Walter Drive in Cheshire, Conn., the last thing Grace Edwards expected to find was an explanation for her unusually high electricity bills," writes Hartford (Conn.) Courant columnist Kevin Hunt. "It wasn't a computer, an extra refrigerator or television, as Connecticut Light & Power had suggested years ago, or a central air-conditioning system or even a whirlpool. For 25 years, Ms. Edwards has been paying for the underground electricity that powers two streetlights illuminating a subdivision of maybe half a dozen houses at the end of her street."
How to recapture a kangaroo
Last weekend, three kangaroos broke out of the Rheinböllen Wildlife Park in western Germany, Spiegel Online reports. They used holes under the fence that a wild boar and a young fox had created to get inside. "The marsupials, whose names are Jack, Mick and Skippy, didn't hang around. They hopped off into the night and managed to get 15 kilometres from the park when a passerby spotted them. The last one was caught late on Monday. 'A very fit policewoman hurled herself onto the kangaroo. We've got them all back now,' the zoo's deputy manager Michael Hoffman [said]. 'They're not aggressive at all. We were worried they might get run over.'"
Friending at work? Unwise
"Authorities in northeast Georgia," reports Associated Press, "say a jail deputy was fired and another resigned after they sent Facebook friend requests to an inmate while she was locked up in the county jail. … The Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald reports that the allegations came to light July 23, the day the inmate was being bonded out of jail. [Oconee County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Lee Weems] says the inmate told her boyfriend, who told the sheriff."
Thought du jour
"Scholars should not study so much that they have no time to think."
– Anonymous (Jewish)