Be Inspired
The World’s Toughest Endurance Race?
Iconoculture reports on a new ultra-sports phenomenon it describes as a “mashup of Iron Man athleticism and Burning Man primitivism”. The Tough Mudder one day race is a seven-mile extreme obstacle course complete with barbed wire and fire, designed by the British Special Forces. The Americans have their own version called The Death Race “part [...]
Donate Your Body to a Dungeon
Scottish couple Andrew and Janine Leishman (who are very much alive and kicking) have pledged to donate their skeletons to an Edinburgh dungeon tourist attraction so they can avoid having a funeral. They also want to raise awareness of the shortage of bodies donated to medical science. Read the full article on BBC News.
Camping in Kind
Elderly American retirees have taken to the road and are volunteering in parks and wildlife preserves in return for free accommodation or camping. The motivations are a mix of escape, adventure and necessity as they try to eke out their money. As maintenance budgets are cut, it works for the park staff too and they [...]
35 Best Movie Dance Scenes
The good folks at Flavorwire have compiled a foot-tapping, hip-wiggling chronological list of the Best Movie Dance Scenes, starting with 42nd Street (1933) through to the Jai Ho dance sequence in Slumdog Millionaire (2008) via Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Fame (1980). Watch clips of all the dances on [...]
Deaf Courier Service
Mumbai-based Mirakle Couriers launched its delivery service in 2008 has picked up a number of big clients. What sets Mirakle Couriers apart from its competitors is that all its workers are deaf. Six percent of India’s population are deaf but there are very few employment opportunities as they are shunned. Founder Dhruv Lakra, a former [...]
Chick Lit Rewritten
Flavorwire suggests the new wave of chick lit might be a little less glossy and aspirational in a response to the difficult financial climate, perhaps providing titles such as: The Devil Wears Vera Wang for Kohl’s Banana Republic Brunettes The Madoff Diaries If you can’t identify the original titles, you obviously having been paying attention [...]
Vanity Book Awards
Vanity publishing got a little vainer with the advent of vanity publishing awards. The National Best Book Awards has 150 categories; every entrant is a finalist and some categories have only one entrant. Those lucky winners can then buy a gold star with which to adorn the dust jacket (for a reasonable fee of $69). [...]
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey, the Tudor queen who reigned for just nine days was cruelly beheaded at the age of sixteen; a victim of her mother’s ambition. Or was she? Biographer Leanda de Lisle’s researches suggest that her mother was herself the victim. Read the full article in More Intelligent Life
Be sad: get ice cream
You need one of these in your office… British artist Demitrios Kargotis, has invented Dr. Whippy, an ice cream machine that asks you several questions to ascertain how stressed you are and then dispenses a dose of ice cream depending on how stressed or unhappy you are – the more in need of cheering up, [...]
reSTART Internet Addiction Programme
ReSTART is Washington (close to the home of Microsoft) based internet recovery program. The 45-day program is designed specifically to help internet and video game addicts overcome their dependence on gaming, gambling, chatting, texting and other aspects of Internet Addiction. Co-founded by Cosette Rae, MSW, and Hilarie Cash, Ph, the 6-bed facility provides a family-style [...]
