Remember the story of how some Japanese firms base their hiring on a person's blood type? An insurance company based in Salzburg, Austria is hiring people based on their astrological sign! Twenty part-time jobs were offered to those born under the signs of Capricorn, Taurus, Aquarius, Aries and Leo. Anti-discrimination groups protested, and government authorities are looking into the matter.
The company is, however, sticking to its guns and a spokesman explained that the move was based on statistical research rather than superstition.
'A statistical study indicated that almost all of our best employees across Austria have one of the five star signs.
'We only decided to continue with that system and hire the best workers,' the spokesman said.
An investigation by Austrian authorities showed that there was nothing illegal in choosing the employees according to their star signs, as there was no discrimination according to existing laws about gender, age, racial and other equality.
Bibliodyssey has beautiful scans from the book 'Grand Alphabet Amusant' by E Morel, published in France in 1890. Some of the scenes picked to illustrate letters may make you scratch your head! Link -via Everlasting Blort
Dark Roasted Blend has a roundup of art robots and ray guns made of anything and everything. These are just adorable! This little guy was created by Mike Rivamonte; the post features robots from ten different artists. Link
Check out this neat interactive graphic of Twitter chatter during the Super Bowl. You can move the slider to see what people were tweeting during each minute of the game. Mouseover to find out what part of the country tweeted these words. Select subjects on the left to focus on the type of tweets. The screenshot here is from ...well, you can guess. Link -via Digg
The tunnel under Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn was New York's first subway tunnel. It was built in 1844, then abandoned in the late 1850s. For over a hundred years, the tunnel seemed to be only a rumor, until an teenage urban Indiana Jones named Bob Diamond decided to unearth the tunnel once and for all. Link
This one should be easy! Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss challenges you to name all 50 United States in 5 minutes. Spelling counts. Even though I never learned the "Fifty Nifty" song, I did it in one minute and 44 seconds. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/22332
Farmer Paul Coppin tried an unusual tactic to rid his farm of rabbits. He disguised his tractor so he could sneak up on them. Rather than tell you what he disguised it as, I'll let you see on the video. Link -via Arbroath
I just love these miniature artworks by Portland artist Alexandra Peterson! She draws the picture, mounts it on wood, then seals it with "encaustic", which is a type of varnish she makes herself.
My encaustic media is a carefully controlled combination of all natural beeswax and damar resin. Damar resin is from trees that grow in the East Indies. When melted and mixed with the beeswax, it produces a harder, more durable material, with a distinct luminous quality.
Bubble Spinner is not that difficult. You can work out your strategy after only a minute or two, but the rest of your day may be sacrificed to this simple game. The object is to cluster three or more of the same colored balls together to make them disappear. Yes, you've seen games like that, but this one moves around on you! Link -via Buzzfeed
Now, no matter what you think of rock-and-roll, I think you have to keep a nice open mind about what the young people go for; otherwise the youngsters won't feel that you understand them.
Buddy Holly was one of the hottest rock-and-roll stars of the late 50s. He chartered a plane from Clear Lake, Iowa to Fargo, North Dakota, two stops on the Winter Dance Party tour. It took off around 1AM on February 3rd, 1959. That was 50 years ago today. The plane encountered a snowstorm shortly into the flight and crashed, killing the pilot, Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson AKA The Big Bopper. The date became known as The Day The Music Died. Link
Five-year-old Beatrice Rienhoff suffers from a rare genetic disorder that leaves her with very little muscle mass and a range of medical problems. Doctors don't know exactly what's wrong, nor how to help her.
Families facing this kind of medical uncertainty are often paralyzed by their distress. But rather than give in to his anguish, Hugh Rienhoff made an extraordinary decision: He would dig into Beatrice's genetic code and find the answer himself. A biotechnology consultant by day, Rienhoff has been an avid student of clinical genetics since he earned his medical degree nearly 30 years ago. Now he has used this expertise to transform his Bay Area home into a makeshift genetics lab. Surrounded by his children's artwork and bookshelves loaded with his wife's political literature, Rienhoff set about sequencing a number of Beatrice's genes, preparing samples using secondhand equipment and turning to public databases to interpret the results. On the desk in his attic workspace are a pair of white binders stuffed with charts detailing 20,000 of Beatrice's base pairs; the data for nearly 1 billion can be accessed from a nearby PC. Whenever he has a spare moment, Rienhoff sequesters himself in this cluttered, carpeted room and sifts through his daughter's DNA, one nucleotide at a time. He is hunting for the single genetic quirk responsible for Beatrice's woes—an adenine in place of a guanine, perhaps, or an extra cytosine in a key location. If he can find the culprit, he figures, maybe he can find a treatment, too.
Reinhoff's research hasn't cracked the mystery yet, but he has found a treatment that helps his daughter somewhat. Along the way, he also became an advocate for other parents who are looking for answers to their children's baffling conditions. Link
A duvet cover goes over an ordinary blanket to turn it into a comforter. Forum member cherry_blossom55 made this awesome duvet cover for her boyfriend, who is a chemistry major. It has the entire periodic table of elements on it! She ran each square through a printer to attach the proper element. See lots more pictures of the process at Craftster. Link -via Unique Daily
You know about the Miss America and Miss Universe beauty pageants. You are probably also aware of child beauty pageants, bodybuilding contests, transexual pageants, and pageants for married women. Then there are the odd beauty pageants. Last August, an Italian priest proposed an online beauty pageant for nuns. One day later, he rescinded the idea under pressure from local and religious authorities. But there are plenty of other beauty pageants that stray far from what you are used to.
Miss Klingon Empire
The Miss Klingon Empire beauty pageant has been held annually for ten years now at the Dragon*con event in Atlanta. This image of the 2006 winner is from Flickr user elemess. Also see a video report of the most recent pageant.
Miss Hooker
The Miss Hooker 2008 pageant was what you'd think -a beauty pageant for prostitutes, but there were no real prostitutes in the running, just actresses putting on a show, arraigned by artist Natalia Fabia. But what a show! The eventual winner went by the name Miss One Dolla No Holla. See more pictures here.
Miss Plastic Surgery
A Miss Plastic Surgery pageant was held in China in 2004. It was a one-time-only event, in which all contestants were required to have undergone some type of plastic surgery. The pageant was launched in reaction to an earlier scandal in which a contestant was disqualified from another beauty contest because she had used cosmetic surgery.
Ms. Pregnant
You don't have to let a little thing like pregnancy stop you from entering a beauty pageant. The Ms. Pregnant pageant celebrates beauty with a bump. And yes, they parade in bikinis!
Miss Subways
A New York advertising agency held a pageant from 1941 to 1976 called Miss Subways. The winner was featured in ads on trains and stations. The tradition was revived in 2004, when Caroline Sanchez-Bernat was crowned Miss Subways.
Zombie Beauty
A Zombie Beauty Contest is held annually at the Phoenix ComiCon. This year's pageant was just a couple of weeks ago. Heather, the winner, is pictured here. See pictures from last year's zombie pageant at Flickr.
Most Beautiful Bottom
The Most Beautiful Bottom in the World contest was launched in 2007 by the underwear manufacturer sloggi. It is open to both men and women, and the winner for each category gets a modeling contract. See a video of the 2008 competition in Paris. This photo is from the 2007 contest in Munich.
Miss Landmine
Miss Landmine is a beauty pageant for women disabled by landmines and other war-related injuries held in Angola. The pageant, created by Norwegian artist Morten Traavik, celebrates pride and empowerment over physical perfection.
Prison Pageants
In the Miss Spring beauty pageant held in a Siberian prison near Novosibirsk, participation can mean freedom, as the parole board takes community activity into account when deciding who to release. A 2006 film, Miss Gulag is a documentary about the Miss Spring pageant. Other prison beauty pageants include Miss Captivity, held in a Lithuanian prison, Miss Prisoner held in Bogota, Colombia, and Miss Prisoner in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (image credit: Fabio Cuttica)
Miss Jumbo Queen
Thailand hosts the Miss Jumbo Queen pageant for big beautiful women. The pageant grew out of an elephant conservation project.
The aim of the contest is to select the contestant who best exhibits the characteristics of an elephant, by virtue of her grace, elegance and size, to help promote elephant conservation causes in Thailand.
However, it appears that the last Jumbo Queen was crowned in 2005.
Harvest Festival Queens
Local harvest festivals have the funniest names for ordinary beauty pageants. Who could resist putting such gems as Miss Meat Pie, Miss Hell Hole Swamp, or Miss Worm Gruntin' Queen on their resume? Pictured is the Gilroy Garlic Festival queen.
This looks almost too good to eat! This football stadium was made from common snack foods. Holy Taco has an ingredient list and illustrated instructions. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Tommy Tutone made the phone number 867-5309 {wiki} one that everyone remembers -if they were around in 1982 when the song was a hit. Now that phone number is up for sale, available to someone who lives in the same New York area code. A disc jockey who had the number for years is selling his business and the phone number on eBay. http://fe19.story.media.ac4.yahoo.com/news/us/story/ap/20090201/ap_on_fe_st/odd_jenny_s_number to story. Link to auction. -via Fark
