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Curious Times No. 226
January 8, 2004OR YOU COULD PAY MICHAEL JACKSON'S LEGAL FEES
If you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas, and you happen to have an extra 8.8 trillion dollars lying around, why not put in an offer to buy the entire United Kingdom? England's Office for National Statistics has tallied up the total assets of the UK and found that the value of its buildings, vehicles, machinery, bridges, roads, shares, bank accounts and the land itself add up to almost 5 trillion pounds, or about 8.8 trillion American dollars. Or if a bunch of rainy islands is not your cup of tea, that amount of money could also buy you 41 million Boeing 747's, 2,516 trillion pints of beer, or 14,655 trillion chocolate bars. (AFP)LET'S BANISH "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION"
If you're sick of hearing words like "bling-bling" overused in everyday conversation and in the media, you're not alone. That phrase, along with "punked" and "metrosexual," tops this year's list of words which should be banished from the English language. The annual list, which has been compiled at Lake Superior State University since 1976, is officially called the List of Word's Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. Other "winners" include the the word "X", especially when used by marketers to make their products sound "X"treme. "Embedded journalist", "companion animals" (that would be pets), and "hand-crafted latte" also made the list. Honorable mention goes to computer abbreviations like "LOL" which are used obsessively by people chatting on the web, and any word which headline writers use simply because it rhymes with Iraq. You can submit your nominations for next year's list at www.lssu.edu/banished.FOR THE CORPSE THAT HAS EVERYTHING
A Houston-based company, Celestis Inc., is offering to send the ashes of your dead relatives into orbit on future satellite missions. For the low, low price of between $1000 and $5000 (depending on capsule size) you can send between one and seven grams of ashes aboard a satellite which will orbit the Earth for up to 156 years before crashing back down to Earth in a blaze of glory. And if you're not dumb enough to blow quite that much cash, Celestis, Inc. also offers to send a deep space radio message to a star of your choice for only $24.95. (CNN)CHECK IT OUT THE NEXT TIME YOU NEED HEROIN IN NEW YORK
I can't figure out quite why, but the Gotham Gazette has a series of unusual maps of New York City randomly posted on its website. Some of the stranger ones include "Concentration of rats and mice in New York City 1999," "Asthma Cases by Zip Code, 2000," "Uninsured Kids in NYC," and, my favorite, "Heroin-related Hospitalizations by Zip Code." "More New Yorkers inject drugs (mostly heroin) into their veins than in any other city in the nation," brags the website, "this map shows where they probably live. (www.gothamgazette.com)STAY SINGLE, STAY SANE
Last year we learned of research which suggested that men quickly lose their creative edge once they get married. Now new research suggests that women would also be better off remaining single. A study done at the University of London found that women who stay single enjoy much better mental health than those who are married or have suffered through a broken relationship. Men, on the other hand, seem to benefit psychologically from many short-term relationships, whereas women's mental health got progressively worse with each successive break up. Of all the people surveyed, women who stayed alone after a divorce suffered the most. The researchers concluded that women might be better off staying single their entire lives, rather than beginning and ending multiple relationships. (Herald Sun)JESUS CHRIST HAS BEEN REBORN
Despite a Ukrainian law which allows parents to name their children whatever they wish, the Ukrainian Justice Ministry is still trying to convince a couple to change their son's name from Jesus Christ to something a bit more traditional. "Twelve months have already passed, but the parents have not expressed their wish to change the boy's name," said an employee of the local marriage registry office. And so the boy remains Jesus Christ Vladimrovich. (Ananova)SONGS FROM HELL STUCK IN YOUR HEAD
A marketing professor in Cincinnati has actually begun studying the source of those terrible bits of songs that sometimes get stuck in your head and can't be dislodged. James Kellaris began his research in 2000, and found that this phenomenon (which he has dubbed "earworms") has been suffered at one time or another by every single person on Earth. A study Kellaris wrote for the Society for Consumer Psychology discovered that people who are constantly exposed to music and people with higher levels of neurosis suffer from earworms more frequently, and also that women express more irritation and frustration with earworms then men. Kellaris recently surveyed 500 students at the University of Cincinnati to find the most irritating earworm. Not surprisingly, "Who Let the Dogs Out?" topped the list with 14 percent. Other songs on the list include "We Will Rock You," "YMCA," "It's a Small World After All," and "Whoomp, There It Is." (MSNBC)IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?
Australian scientists have finished an analysis of our galaxy which suggests that as many as ten percent of stars could provide the proper conditions to support life. The researchers defined an area of the Milky Way which they call a "galactic habitable zone" (GHZ), comprised of stars which meet four basic criteria for sustaining life. Using these criteria, the researchers mapped a ring-shaped GHZ roughly 25,000 light years from the core of the Milky Way which included stars which were born at least four billion year ago. The final tally of stars totalled almost 10 percent of all the stars in our galaxy. Dr. Charles Lineweaver, who headed up the study, stressed that this does not mean that complex extra-terrestrial life is probable, simply that these stars have the most potential for life. (New Scientist)
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