Disappearing soil
"The planet is getting skinned," Tom Paulson writes in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "While many worry about the potential consequences of atmospheric warming, a few experts are trying to call attention to another global crisis quietly taking place under our feet. Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than three feet of topsoil - the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and
appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth. 'We're losing more and more of it every day,' said David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington. 'The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 per cent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture.' "
To boldly throw
A paper airplane is to be launched from the International Space Station to mark a new dawn in space travel, the Daily Telegraph reports. The 20-centimetre spacecraft, designed by a Japanese professor of aerospace engineering and origami masters, has a rounded nose and is made of silicon-treated heat-resistant paper. Tests have suggested that it could survive the descent to Earth, being launched at Mach 20, but slowing to Mach 7 as it falls through the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere. It will have a message, in many languages, asking the finder to return it to the Japanese Origami Airplane Association.
Kids and clowns
Young patients in children's hospital wards are more likely to be terrified than jollified by the clowns painted on the walls, the British newspaper Metro reports. All 250 children questioned for a study said they disliked clowns, and even those as old as 16 found them scary. "As adults, we make assumptions about what works for children," said Penny Curtis from the University of Sheffield, which carried out the research. "We found clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them frightening and unknowable."
Secret girl talk
In Japan, this is some of the latest on-the-job jargon used by women, as compiled by Spa! magazine:
Tabitomo (travelling companion): an illicit lover.
Yuryo bukken (excellent property): a real-estate term used here to mean a male colleague considered a possible romantic interest.
Kakurenbo oji (hide-and-seek prince): a man who ignores his female colleague until just before it's time to knock off for the day.
Katorina: a man who wreaks havoc on the office environment. So named for the hurricane that devastated New Orleans.
Ichigo (strawberry): a pimply complexion.
Tight fundamentals
Recent news about underwear:
Pantology: "It's quite a selfish thing, but men really do take a lot of pride in what they wear underneath their trousers," says Nick Ede, a lifestyle consultant who, with the U.S. brand Jockey, recently penned Pantology, a man's guide to choosing the right underwear. "Pants accentuate your body." And Elisabeth Eliasson of the brand Bjorn Borg told the Independent: "Women have been in corsets, but men don't like to suffer. They can't stand it if the fit is too tight. Everything has to be elastic enough, but at the same time not be tight. Men are very sensitive about their underpants."
Pantorexia: "Why are we starving our bottoms of the resources - like an extra yard of material - to stay comfortable? Why have we succumbed to pantorexia?" writes New York Daily News columnist Caitlin Moran, who favours roomy underpants for women. "I have seen women walking around with anything between two and eight buttocks ... This enforced deformity is not the fault of the pants. They are little guys, simply overwhelmed by the task that faces them."
Word watch
Bridal blindness disorder: The sudden, inexplicable way brides lose their sight (if not their sanity) when choosing bridesmaid dresses. "How else to explain," writes Joseph Amodio in Newsday, "the shocking number of god-awful dresses that faithful friends and relatives are forced to wear, marching lockstep a few feet ahead of the chick all in white?"
Functional water: Water that is loaded with added nutrients, vitamins and extracts. Promises of brighter skin, stronger nails and extra vitamins have lured customers, says June Potter, soft-drinks buyer for the British supermarket chain Tesco.
Knork: A combination knife and fork. The outer tines are tapered to a fine, but not sharp, cutting edge. "This is perfect for parties or any other event at which people eat standing up or holding their plate," The Associated Press says.
Lobe job: "Having offered everything from little toe removal to vaginal 'rejuvenation' and elbow lifts, the wonderfully weird world of cosmetic surgery has delivered a new body part for deranged people to agonize over," Emine Saner writes in the Guardian. "In New York, surgeons and dermatologists are reporting an increase in the number of women having earlobe procedures, mainly for lobes that have drooped after years of wearing heavy earrings."
Thought du jour
"Mind not only what people say, but how they say it; and if you have any sagacity, you may discover more truth by your eyes than by your ears. People can say what they will, but they cannot look just as they will; and their looks frequently [reveal]what their words are calculated to conceal."
- Lord Chesterfield