Exceelent Articles You've Read Lately

[johnnya24]

Post any good articles you happen upon while travelling in the Internets. NO POLITICS ALLOWED

Link & Caption/Summary

Exceelent and excellent are not the same thing BTW ... in case you haven't been following the other exceelent threads. Exceelent can apparently be taken to mean "interesting", "weird", "shocking", "not very good", "nostalgically reminiscent", "derogatory" ... anything really.

[johnnya24]

The myth of the eight-hour sleep

We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
...
In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech published a seminal paper, drawn from 16 years of research, revealing a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.

His book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, published four years later, unearths more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern - in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from Homer's Odyssey to an anthropological account of modern tribes in Nigeria.

Much like the experience of Wehr's subjects, these references describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep.

[johnnya24]

Slovaks vote to name bridge Chuck Norris

Slovaks have been voting overwhelmingly in favour of naming a new pedestrian and cycling bridge near their capital after 1980s US action film and TV star Chuck Norris.

The two other top names in the running for the bridge, which will span the Morava river and cross the border to Austria, were Maria Theresa after an Austro-Hungarian empress and the Devinska cycling bridge in honour of the closest village.

Chuck Norris @ 71 years old



That bridge will stand forever and a day!

[johnnya24]

Minister praises plan to heat swimming pool from fires of crematorium

At first I thought this has to be an Onion article ... I'm still wondering.

Sir George Young, leader of the House of Commons, said the proposal to warm a Worcestershire leisure centre with heat from a nearby crematorium was a “groundbreaking scheme”.

He said the Government is considering whether the plan could be duplicated elsewhere in Britain.

“The Government is aware of this particular scheme,” he said. “The Department for Energy and Climate Change will shortly be publishing its heat strategy and this will explore the potential for better recovery and reuse of wasted heat in schemes such as this one.”

He added that he would “die a happier man” if he knew heat from his cremation was warming the waters of a local pool.

[Steve]

Slovaks vote to name bridge Chuck Norris



Chuck Norris @ 71 years old



That bridge will stand forever and a day!

No bridge named Chuck Norris would ever let anyone cross it.

[johnnya24]

Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue from 1811

ABBESS: Mistress of a brothel.
BABES IN THE WOOD: Criminals in stocks or pillory.
BLIND CUPID: Backside.
BOB TAIL: Lewd woman. Also an impotent man or a eunuch.
BREAD AND BUTTER FASHION: One upon the other. "John and his maid were caught lying bread and butter fashion."
COLD PIG: Punishment inflicted on "sluggards" who lie too long in bed — pulling off all the bedclothes and throwing cold water on them.
COW-HEARTED: Fearful.
DOCK: Lie with a woman.
DUGS: Woman's breasts.
ELBOW SHAKER: A dice player.
FLASH THE HASH: Vomit.
GLAZIER: Someone who breaks windows to steal goods for sale.
GOSPEL SHOP: Church.
HEMPEN WIDOW: One whose husband was hanged.
HOYDON: Romping girl.
INEXPRESSIBLES: Breeches.
JOLLY: The head.
KING'S PICTURES: Coin, money.
LEFT-HANDED WIFE: Concubine. Based on an ancient German custom where, when a man married his concubine, or a woman greatly his inferior, he gave her his left hand.
NOISY DOG RACKET: Stealing brass knockers from doors.
OVEN: Great mouth.
PIECE: Wench. A girl who is more or less active and skilful in the amorous congress.
POISONED: Big with child.
QUEER PLUNGERS: Cheats who throw themselves into the water in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea.
RESURRECTION MEN: Persons employed by the students in anatomy to steal dead bodies out of churchyards.
RUM DOXY: Fine wench.
SHOOT THE CAT: Vomit from excess of liquor.
SHY COCK: One who keeps within doors for fear of bailiffs.
SNOOZING KEN: Brothel.
STRIP ME NAKED: Gin.
TIT: Horse or smart little girl.
TWIDDLE-DIDDLES: Testicles.
TWIDDLE POOP: Effeminate-looking fellow.
UNLICKED CUB: Rude, uncouth young fellow.
VAMPER: Stockings.
WINDOW PEEPER: Collector of window tax.
XANTIPPE: Socrates's wife, a shrew or scolding wife.
YELLOW BOYS: Guineas.
ZEDLAND: Great part of the West Country where the letter Z is substituted for S.

[johnnya24]

Best And Worse Places TO Be a Woman
Thankfully Internet forums are not on the list, or the BP might get a mention

When more than half of the world's population wakes up on Thursday – the 101st International Women's Day – it will be hard to know whether to celebrate or give in to despair. A British woman will face the prospect of at least 14 more general elections before women equal men in the Commons. But a woman in Qatar will be six times more likely to go to university than the man next door.

The global gender gap defies simple solutions. Eighty-five per cent of countries have improved conditions for women over the past six years, according to the World Economic Forum, but in economic and political terms there is still a long way to go.

Some interesting conclusions ... other than the Scandi's, not too much mention of the enlightened first world among the leaders in gender equality:

Best place to be a politician: Rwanda
Best place to read and write: Lesotho
Best place to be head of state: Sri Lanka
Best place to be a top dog (senior management): Thailand
Best place to be a journalist: Caribbean
Best place for labour force participation: Burundi
Best place to go to university: Qatar
Best place to leave your husband: Guam
Best place to drive a car: India
Best place for high-skilled jobs: Jamaica

[Steve]

A,an,the,some

[johnnya24]

A,an,the,some

... took me a while

[Steve]

... took me a while

My most subtle joke, ever.

[chancellor]

"I Love You, Killer Robots"

Cool article about non-military drones: http://www.slate.com/articles/techno...us_all_.2.html

[The Feral Slasher]

California and Bust

An interesting read from Michael Lewis

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/11/michael-lewis-201111

[DMT]

'The Song Machine' about how urban pop (e.g., Rihanna) music is created. Would have probably been more interesting if I knew any of the songs.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/03/26/120326fa_fact_seabrook?currentPage=1