Friends? Engineering students from the prestigious Kyoto University of Japan have got no time for friends!
Thankfully, university officials recognize that fact and installed a series of screened seats called "bocchi seki" or "lonely seats" in the engineering school campus lunchroom. According to Asahi News, the seats turned out to be quite popular with the forever aloners:
"If you are sitting at a big table by yourself it's like you don't have any friends and that is embarrassing," said one 22 year-old male student. "When I don't have much time or I'm in a hurry, the lonely seats are convenient," said a 22 year-old female student.
The force of nature known to man as Sharknado continues to swirl through the Interweb. Behold, the Sharknado hair (sharkna 'do?) as seen at Comic Con 2013.
No, horse meat isn't why Wendy's burgers are so darned tasty. They use
demon flesh, instead. Oh vandalism, you can be cute sometimes. Via Obvious
Winner
But they don't call California the Land of (obscured) Sunshine and Opportunity
for nothing! Some clever entrepreneurs turned smog into coins: in 1954,
a man sold "Fresh Clean Desert Air" in balloons for 50 cents*.
Photo: Herald-Examiner Collection photo/The Los Angeles Public Library
(Oct 22, 1954)
- via KCET
(*The idea has legs: Last year, Chinese billionaire Chen Guangbiao launched
a line of canned
fresh air to the residents of China's most polluted megacities.)
One day in 1957, actor Carleton Young was choking on eye-stinging smog
when he thought, "If only we could pack this stuff and ship it someplace."
And thus the Los Angeles Smog Corp. was born!
Young's concept was simple: stand outside with some empty cans on a smoggy
day, wave them around to capture some of LA smog, seal the cans and sell
'em to tourists.
"Genuine Los Angeles Smog. This is the smog used by famous Hollywood
stars. Contains hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, sulfer dioxide, organic
oxides, aldehydes, formaldehydes.
"Made in Los Angeles by Angels. To insure freshness and purity keep
container tightly sealed. Beware of imitations! Accept none but the
pure Los Angeles Smog.
"No pollutants or irritants removed. Packed for Los Angeles Smog Corp,,
Los Angeles 28, California."
Now that's turning lemon into lemonades, and smog into semolians!
I've never seen building components share their emotions this way. Have you? Is there some way we can assure them that everything will be okay? Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
Gotcha! Who needs rod and reel when you've got a spear? Photographer Stéphane Ducandas captured this perfectly-timed photograph off the island of Maré in New Caledonia, a French territory and archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Link - via Picture Correct
Japanese photographer Yume Cyan captured this gorgeous long-exposure photo of twinkling fireflies in the forest near Nagoya, Japan, titled the Last Dance of the Fairies. Take a look at more of Yume's photos over at Colossal
Forget hypnosis or the nicotine patch! A 42-year old Turkish man named Ibrahim Yücel has devised a unique way to stop himself from smoking: wearing a helmet-like wire cage on his head.
İbrahim Yücel, who is trying to kick a 26-year habit of smoking two packets of cigarettes per day, gives the keys of his head cage to his wife and daughter when he leaves home every day. In this way, he is unable to open the cage to smoke during the day, even if he craves a smoke.
He says he was inspired to create the helmet-like head cage by observing motorcycle helmets, after trying without success to quit smoking several times in the past.
This is probably not what the Worcester Regional Transportation Authority had in mind when they printed the side of this bus with the message "Drive Your Message Home with the WRTA."
