Funny, it's functionally the same principle as a rodent killing device outlined in a 19th century newspaper article I read a while back, except that used, if I recall, just a tall bucket of water in which a brick is placed; I believe bait was placed on the brick, critter goes after bait, can't jump out, drowns.

Actually pretty impressive. Did they have to audition for a job as well as interview?! Unless they did some serious dubbing or auto-tuning, there's some pretty good singers there, not to mention dancers! On the other hand, is this just a product of their PR department as a promo for the company?

I wonder if the idea of dormitories and roommates might somehow harken back to the "Inns" that seemed to be a combo law school and law firm of old England. (In the course of studying my family history, I've run across many that were lawyers, from the 15th century on.) Mine were mostly at Lincoln's Inn, so I can't speak for the others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_Inn but I was surprised to find that the norm was for those members who had rooms there was to have a roommate (in some rare cases, a man would pay a premium to have a room of his own.) It seems that it was more of a pied a terre for men who had actual homes elsewhere; I don't actually know where the students slept, but if the teachers/lawyers were sharing rooms, the students probably slept all crammed in one room somewhere!

Funny, my first take in looking at the sculpture was, "Cool, reading before they're even born."

Ha! That last comment belittles the alleviation of temporary pain -- something no one who's ever had debilitating back pain would ever dream of. As for "without ever pointing to the cause of the pain" -- well neither do doctors! (Most doctors just prescribe rest and/or pain pills for back pain, which is a whole set of issues in itself.) I've been to chiropractors over the years when I was literally in agony when I tried to move, walking twisted and bent into the office, and upright and pain-free out of it. Yes, dealing with the root cause of stress would be ideal but for people with already over-packed lives, time out to meditate or whatever, just isn't going to happen.

Yes, it is that, but Japan also has a falling marriage rate -- when traditional ideas about what constitute the "right" way to be a woman contrast with modern ideas, many Asian women have decided that marriage in that society isn't all that attractive an option.

I absolutely adore this guy! Fell down the rabbit hole once and watched every video he ever made.

OMG, please don't let Trump see this. It's exactly the kind of thing he'd start commanding be done. (He's gagging to use a nuke.)

First, there are plenty of people who are of Chinese heritage who live in/are citizens of Australia (including my daughter in law) -- I'm kind of surprised that people there are at all suspicious of Chinese students, but, then again, some people will always be xenophobic. Secondly, my kid spent 4 years at a boarding school in New England that is known for its international scope -- and a huge proportion of its international students (well, not huge in actual numbers; it's a smallish school) are from China and become very Americanized very quickly. (I heard one Chinese boy talking about how he wanted to be a rapper.) I've started to wonder (with some concern) how these kids are going to go back to an increasingly rigid China once they've gotten used to the more-flexible US (or for that matter Australia, for those there.) Certainly being fluent in English will be a plus for them in their job market, and having some first-hand knowledge of other countries is always useful, but I wonder if they will chafe at the more rigid hierarchical structure of home once returning there.

To be fair, he could just have been talking about the pictures on the front of the box (which is a really strange image for a tampon box.)

I think this belief is an offshoot of "men like dogs, women like cats" belief (and woe betide a male cat owner, who risked having their manhood questioned.) And, as an extension, if male dog owning is good, then female cat owning must be bad. It's a sort of visceral extension of yin and yang.

I agree, some people are driven, either by themselves or their parents, but a meritocracy is a hell of a lot better than what we have now, as is proven by the moronic malignant narcissist squatting in the Oval Office, where some people prize fame (even if it's mental chewing gum reality TV) and money (even if it's fake (like Trump's.)) Being famous only for being famous makes too many prize vapid fakery. I'd rather have people look up to someone who achieved greatness in some way that matters -- and that generally involves some kind of intellectual curiosity and/or achievement in education.

I believe this is the area in Rome I saw about 15 years ago -- I like cats but my first instinct at the time was that it seemed that when, viewed from above, that many cats seemed not adorable but rather vermin-like.

I'm fairly sure that the second picture is stretching the definition -- I don't think it's actually a kitchen as it looks like just about every doctor's office I've ever been in.