While some researchers urge the public, especially children, to come in more contact with common dirt — and thus presumably boost their immune systems by exercising them against a wide range of threatening thisandthat — other researchers point adults towards the opposite direction. At present, it seems unlikely that these two research camps will soon join hands. […]
Tag: ban
De-apostrophication in Britain
Comes the news, reported by the BBC, that : Apostrophe ban on Devon council’s new street names The apostrophe is being banned from street names in parts of Devon to “avoid potential confusion”. Mid Devon District Council said its new streets had not contained apostrophes for many years, but the policy was now being made […]
Cat fighting, now and then
Fighting words about the Internet’s favorite subject, cats: 1. The project to eliminate cats from New Zealand (described in Slate) 2. The 16th-century German cat bomb (described in The Atlantic), and which is shown in this painting along with a bird bomb:
Why casinos might ban gamblers who have tatoos
A press release from Northwestern University almost hints at why gambling casinos might decide to ban anyone who sports a tatoo: Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed “tattoo electronics” — wireless electronics so flexible and thin they can be applied to the skin and forgotten. “The blurring of electronics and […]
“Clerics drop plan to ban civet coffee”
AFC reports on a controversy involving luak coffee, the subject of a 1995 Ig Nobel Prize. Under the headline “Indonesian clerics drop plan to ban civet coffee“, AFP says: JAKARTA — Indonesia’s highest Islamic body on Tuesday abandoned a proposal to ban Muslims from drinking the world’s most expensive coffee, which is extracted from the […]