Suicidal (?) addiction to TV. Death from TV Serials?

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

Even the wrath of Mother Nature could not prevent this Indian family from watching their favorite TV Serial. Paying no heed to the rising flood waters or the the very real danger of electrocution, the family sat in glorious denial of all threats until their favorite TV show was over.

Click to see the photo



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In which country is it illegal to tie a giraffe to a street lamp? (The answer is not what you might expect.)

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

The answer is: The United States -- in the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

Ever loaned your vaccuum cleaner to your next door neighbor? If so, you had better not be a resident of Denver, CO, because that would be a crime. Do you have two indoor bathtubs in your house? Watch out if you live in Prunedale, CA. (I guess, they are not too concerned about "outdoor" bathtubs!) Ever walked backwards after sunset? Don't tell anyone if you happen to live in Devon, CT, as you could be arrested for this infringement of the law. Did I hear you say "Oh, boy"? Hold it right there. If you live in Jonesboro, Georgia, you have just broken the law.

For more wacky laws of our glorious country, read on...

California
It is against the law for women to drive while wearing a bathrobe.
It is against the law for animals to mate publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship.
In some small community, a law was passed that forbid anyone from trying to stop a child from playfully jumping over water puddles.
Apple Valley - it is illegal for ducks to quack after 10:00 PM within the city limits.
Bellflower - the law states that "a drunken man has as much right to a sidewalk as a sober man since he needs it a great deal more."
Bonsall - it is against the law to read the Sunday paper while sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch while church services are in session.
Berkeley - it is illegal to whistle for a lost canary before 7:00 A.M.
Beverly Hills - the law states that "no male person shall make remarks to or concerning, or cough or whistle at, or do any other act to attract the attention of any woman upon or traveling along any of the sidewalks."
Buena Park - the law prohibits males from "turning and looking at a woman in that way" on the Sabbath. If a second offense occurs, the assailant is required to "wear horse blinders for a 24-hour period in public."
Camirillo - it is illegal for any man to purchase liquor without the written consent of his wife.
Carmel - it is against the law to eat ice cream while standing on the sidewalk.
Castaic - the law states that if a dentist accidentally pulls the wrong tooth, then the patient has the right to pull one of the dentist's teeth.
Compton - it is against the law to have hip pockets in pants "since that is a good place to hide liquor."
Costa Mesa - it is illegal to enter a movie theatre within four hours of eating garlic.Covina - according to this local law, a husband is not guilty of desertion if his wife rents his room to a boarder and "crowds him out of his house."
El Monte - it is against the law for a horse to fall asleep in a bathtub unless the rider is sleeping with the horse.
Gardena - it is illegal for any woman to chew tobacco without having the permission of her husband.
Glendale - the law allows horror films to be shown only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
Hesperia - the law states that "no one is allowed to duel if the opponent selects water pistols as weapons."
Inglewood - it is unlawful "for any male person, within the corporate limits of the city of Inglewood, to wink at any female person with whom he is unacquainted."
Long Beach - any female attending a dance "must be found wearing a corset. A physician is required to inspect each female at the dance."
Los Angeles - it is against the law to bathe two babies in the same bathtub at the same time.
Los Angeles - a man can legally beat his wife with a leather belt or strap, as long as the strap is no wider than 2 inches. The wife must give her consent in order for him to legally beat her with a wider strap.
Los Angeles - it is illegal for the customer of a meat market to poke turkey to see how tender it is.
Malibu - it is against the law to laugh out loud in a movie theatre.
Monrovia - the law states that in order to get married, a man must "prove his manhood" by shooting six blackbirds or three crows and bringing them to his prospective father-in-law.
Ojai - it is against the law for a woman to stand within five feet of a bar when she takes a drink in any public establishment serving alcoholic beverages.
Ontario - rooster crowing is outlawed within the city limits.Pacific Grove - bothering the butterflies carries a $500 fine.
Pico River - it is against the law for women weighing over 200 pounds that are attired in shorts to ride a horse.
Pomona - the law states that "no person shall hallo, shout, bawl, scream, use profane language, dance, sing, whoop, quarrel, or make any unusual noise or sound in any house in such a manner as to disturb the peace and quiet of the neighborhood."
Prunedale - it is illegal to have two indoor bathtubs in your house.
Rosemead - it is against the law to eat ice cream in public with a fork.
Riverside - it is illegal to carry a lunchbucket on the street.
Riverside - it is illegal to stick your tongue out "in the direction of" a dog.
San Francisco - there is a law that guarantees sunshine for the people.
Santa Ana - it is illegal to swim on dry land.
Santa Ana - it is against the law for a horse to sleep in a bakery.
Santa Monica - the law states that "any person who shall in the city of Santa Monica use or carry a concealed or unconcealed any bean snapper or like article, shall, upon conviction, be fined."
Temecula - it is illegal to play cards with children or pregnant women on the curb of a street.
Upland - it is unlawful for the owner or keeper of horses, mules, cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs to "run at large."
Ventura - it is illegal to make "ugly faces" at dogs that are found "freely roaming the community".
Victorville - it is against the law to shoot open canned goods with a revolver.Whittier - the law states "two vehicles which are passing each other in opposite directions shall have the right of way."

Alabama
It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a motor vehicle.
It is unlawful to wear a false mustache in church and cause "unseemly laughter."
Brewton - it is against the law to travel along the streets in a motorboat.
Mobile - it is illegal for pigeons to eat pebbles from composite roofs.

Alaska
It's illegal to look at a moose from an airplane.

Arkansas
It is illegal to mispronounce the name of the state of Arkansas while within the state.
The state legislature passed a law that the Arkansas River can rise no higher than the Main Street bridge in Little Rock.

Colorado
The state passed a law making it legal to rip the tags off of pillows and mattresses.
Denver - it is illegal to perform acrobatics that might frighten horses.
Denver - it is illegal to mistreat rats.
Denver - it is against the law to loan your vacuum cleaner to your next door neighbor.
Pueblo - it is against the law to raise or permit a dandelion to grow within the city limits.
Sterling - it is unlawful to allow a pet cat to run loose without a taillight.

Connecticut
According to state law, in order for a pickle to be qualified as a pickle, it must bounce.
The law states that anyone caught biking at over 65 miles per hour will be ticketed.
Devon - it is against the law to walk backwards after sunset.
Hartford - it is illegal to educate a dog.Hartford - it is illegal to walk across the street on your hands.

District of Columbia
It is illegal for small boys to throw stones.

Florida
It is illegal for a single, divorced, or widowed woman to parachute on Sunday.
It is against the law to fall asleep under a hair dryer. The people that break the law and the salon owners can be fined for this.
The law states that if an elephant is tied to a parking meter, it must pay the same fees as a car.
It is illegal to sing in a public place while in a bathing suit.
It is illegal for men to be seen in public wearing a strapless gown.
Miami - it is illegal to molest alligators.
Miami - it is illegal to imitate animals.
Key West - it is against the law to hold a turtle race within the city limits.
Tampa Bay - it is against the law for rats to leave docked ships.

Georgia
Atlanta - It is against the law to tie a Giraffe to a street lamp.
It is illegal for a barber to advertise his prices.
Conyers - an ordinance was passed that prohibits saying the phrase "two fried eggs and a fritter for a quarter" in an attempt to prohibit slang talkin'.
Jonesboro - It is illegal to say "Oh, boy."
Quitman - It is against the law for chickens to cross streets.

Massachusetts
It is illegal to put tomatoes in clam chowder.
The law states that all dogs must have their hind legs tied for the month of April.
It is illegal to deliver diapers on Sunday.
It is against the law to cool one's feet by hanging it out the window.
It is illegal to eat peanuts in court.
It is illegal for anyone at a wake to eat more than three sandwiches.
It is against the law for taxi drivers to make love in the front seat during their shift.
It is illegal to kiss in front of a church. All PDAs (Public Displays of Affection) are illegal on Sunday.
It is illegal to take loins to the theatre.
It is legal to allow one's livestock to graze on public grounds except on Sunday.
Boston - it is illegal to have frog-jumping contests within the city limits.
Boston - it is against the law to take more than 2 baths a month.
Fitchburg - it is illegal for barbers to carry combs in the back of their ears.
Holyoke - it is against the law to water your lawn when it is raining.

Pennsylvania
According to state law, it is illegal to have over 16 women living together in one house because that "constitutes a brothel."
According to state law, it is illegal to sing in the bathtub.
A special ordinance prohibits homemakers from hiding dirt or dust under the rug of a home.
York - it is illegal to sit down while using a water hose.

New York
According to law, it is a misdemeanor to arrest a dead man.
It is illegal to flirt with a woman, punishable by $25 fine.
Albany - it is illegal to play golf on the street.
Carmel - it is illegal for a man to appear in public with pants and shirt that do not match.
Greene - it is against the law to eat peanuts and walk backwards when a concert is on.
New York City - it is against the law to have an unclothed mannequin in a store window.
New York City - according to the law, "it is legal for a woman to ride the subway topless since it is legal for a man to ride the subway topless."
Staten Island - it is illegal to water your lawn with a sprinkler.

Texas
According to state law, "when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone." Apparently, a state senator did not want a particular law passed, so he added this ridiculous law onto it, but no one noticed it, and so both laws passed.
Abilene - a city ordinance states that "it is illegal to idle or loiter within the corporate limits of the city for the purpose of flirting or mashing."
Commerce - it is illegal to climb a telephone pole unless you are payed to do so.
Corpus Christi - it is against the law to raise alligators in your home.
Galveston - it is illegal for camels to wander around freely.
Plano - it is against the law to sale foam alligators at parades.

Washington
It is illegal to have possession of a lollipop.
A small community passed an ordinance that stated the following: "It is mandatory for a motorist with criminal intentions to stop at the city limits and telephone the chief of police as he is entering town."
Seattle - it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon that is longer than 6 feet.
Spokane - it is illegal to purchase a television on the Sabbath.
Wilbur - it is illegal to ride an ugly horse.

How to become a Human Light Bulb? It's very easy!

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

Anyone can become a human light bulb by following the simple instructions given below.

All you need is a Woolen sweater and a Fluorescent light bulb.

Put on the wool sweater. In a dark room, rub the fluorescent light bulb briskly against the sweater.

The fluorescent light bulb will glow, because the friction creates a static charge strong enough to cause the gas inside the tube to fluoresce.

Here are some related Bizzare Facts:
- On the 1960s television show The Addams Family, electrically-charged Uncle Fester makes a light bulb illuminate by simply placing it in his mouth.
- The fluorescent bulb is more economical and energy efficient than the incandescent bulb, which wastes up to 80 percent of its energy generating heat.
- While Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the first incandescent lamp using carbon for the filament, English inventor Joseph Swan patented his incandescent lamp using carbon for the filament in 1878, a year before Edison.
- When cartoon characters get an idea, an incandescent light bulb goes off over their heads—never a fluorescent bulb.
- Thomas Edison, nicknamed "the Wizard of Menlo Park," was expelled from school in Port Huron, Michigan, after the schoolmaster incorrectly diagnosed him as being mentally retarded. Edison was actually partially deaf, the result of a bout with scarlet fever.
- Lightning travels between a hundred and a thousand miles per second, generating a temperature up to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, six times hotter than the surface of the sun.
- American park ranger Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times between 1942 and 1977.

Edible glass

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

You can make edible glass at home. Here is how.

What You Need
Butter
Baking sheet
One cup sugar
Heavy stainless steel or nonstick frying pan
Large wooden spoon

What to Do
Butter the baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. Put the sugar in the frying pan. With adult supervision, set the pan on a burner at low heat. Stir the sugar slowly as it heats up. The sugar will slowly turn tan, stick together in clumps, and begin melting into a pale brown liquid. Continue stirring until the sugar melts into a thick brown liquid. Pour the brown liquid into the cold baking sheet. Let cool.

What Happens
The melted sugar hardens into a sheet of edible sugar glass.

Why It Works
Sugar is made of crystals, just like glass, which is made from sand.

Bizarre Facts
- Most glass is made from a mixture of silicon dioxide (the main ingredient in sand), soda (sodium oxide), and lime (calcium oxide).
- Silicon dioxide is one of the most inexpensive, most plentiful materials on earth.
Fiber optic cable is made from glass and carries far more information than the same size wire cable.
- Fake glass windows and fake glass bottles broken over the heads of movie stars in Hollywood films were originally made from sugar. Today, they are made from a special resin.
- Glass can be made more fragile than paper or stronger than steel.
- Butter was probably discovered by accident. When milk is transported in containers, the agitation naturally makes the cream congeal.

Mr. Eat-It-All
Gastroenterologists have confirmed that Michael Lotito of Grenoble, France, has the uncanny ability to eat and digest glass and metal. Since 1966, Lotito has eaten seven television sets, six chandeliers, a computer, ten bicycles, a supermarket cart, a Cessna aircraft, and a coffin. He has been nicknamed Monsieur Mangetout—French for Mr. Eat-It-All.

How Scotch is the Scotch Tape?

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

The name Scotch Tape actually resulted from an ethnic slur foisted upon manufacturers of the tape—although the product does not have any connection with Scotland or the Scottish.

In 1925, the automobile industry, eager to satisfy American's craving for two-tone cars, had difficulty making a clean, sharp edge where one color met another. Richard Drew, a laboratory employee primarily involved with abrasives used to make sandpaper at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (better known as 3M), developed a two-inch wide strip of paper tape coated with a rubber-based adhesive. To cut costs, the tape was coated with only a strip of glue one-quarter inch wide along the edges, instead of covering the entire two-inch width. Unfortunately, the tape failed to hold properly, and the painters purportedly told the 3M salesmen to "Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put adhesive all over the tape, not just on the edges." The 3M company complied, but when the salesman returned to the automobile paintshop, a painter derogatorily asked him if he was still selling that "Scotch" tape, launching a tradename based on an ethnic slur denoting stinginess. The name, like the improved tape, stuck.

In 1929, the Flaxlinum Company asked 3M to develop a water- and odor-proof tape to seal the wrapping on insulation slabs in railroad refrigerator cars. Drew coated Du Pont's new moisture-proof cellophane with a rubber-based adhesive, which, while not strong enough for insulation slabs, was marketed as Scotch Tape to the trade as "the only natural, transparent, quick seal for 'Cellophane.'"

After cows ate the resin-coated fabric on the rudder section of a 1946 Taylor craft airplane, the plane's owner, Edward Bridwell, used Scotch Tape to repair it.

Ornithologists have used Scotch Tape to cover cracks in the soft shells of fertilized pigeon eggs, allowing the eggs to hatch.

Landlords in Bangkok, Thailand, have used Scotch Tape to repair cracks in the walls of tenants' apartments.

Because the end of Scotch Tape tends to stick to the roll, camouflaged by its transparency, John A. Borden, a 3M sales manager, invented the tape dispenser with a ledge to keep the end of tape away from the roll and incorporating a serrated edge to cut the tape.

During the Depression, banks first used Scotch Tape to mend torn currency.

During World War II, 3M stopped selling Scotch Tape to civilians because the military wanted it all. At least one American munitions factory used transparent tape as a conveyor belt to move bullets.

During World War II, England's Ministry of Home Defense used more than ten million yards on windows to minimize flying glass during air raids.

In 1961, 3M engineers perfected the tape so it would never yellow or ooze adhesive. Scotch Magic Transparent Tape, with its matte finish backing, disappears when applied. It's water resistant and you can write on it.

Scotch Tape has been used as an anti-corrosive shield on the Goodyear Blimp.

The Scottish tartans used to designate Scotch Tape were exclusively designed for the 3M Company by New York color consultant Arthur Allen in the 1940s.

Scotch Tape, the best selling tape of any kind in the world, is found in virtually every home and office in the United States.

Credit Card trivia

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

MasterCard was originally called MasterCharge. The word master implies predominance, while the word charge means to purchase on credit

In the 1930s, oil companies offered motorists a "courtesy card" to use service stations across the country, and department stores began offering customers "revolving credit."

In 1950, tarpaulin salesman Francis Xavier McNamara founded Diners Club, the first multipurpose credit card offered by an intermediary between the vendor and buyer, popularized by an article in The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town."

The Franklin National Bank in New York offered the first bank credit card in 1951. Numerous credit cards issued by independent banks quickly followed, but, by the mid-1960s,

MasterCharge and BankAmericard (renamed MasterCard and Visa in the 1970s) dominated the field.

An average of 200 million credit cards are used every day in the United States.

Americans charged a total of $480 billion on credit cards in 1990. That's equal to $1 million every minute.

The typical American credit card holder carries nine credit cards and owes over $2,000.

In 1983, MasterCard became the first credit card company to introduce the laser hologram on its cards to combat counterfeiting.

In 1988, MasterCard became the first payment card issued in the People's Republic of China.

In 1990, Citibank, the largest issuer of credit cards in America, made over $610 million in profits on its Visa and MasterCard operations, according to Spencer Nilson, editor of The Nilson Report, an industry newsletter.

According to Consumer Reports, 80 percent of all purchasing in the United States is done on credit.

The magnetic strip on a MasterCard holds two or three tracks of information. The first track contains your name, expiration date, card type, and data such as your PIN and credit limit. The second track holds your account number, start date, and discretionary data. The third track holds information for ATM use.

The first six digits of your account number indicate the company that issued the card. The second four digits identify region and branch information. The last five digits are your account number (the last digit being a check number for security purposes).

As of 1994, there were 238.9 million MasterCards in circulation worldwide. 135.6 million of those were held by Americans.

"men and female women..." - A true Traveller's Tale from India 1909

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

Akhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter in India to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi. It was also reproduced under the caption "Travelers' Tales" in the Far Eastern Economic Review.

"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with lotah in one hand and dhoti in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on platform.

"I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station. This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honor to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers."

Any guesses why this letter was of historic value? It apparently led to introduction of toilets in trains !!

And my point on it is that, never hesitate to do what you want to do. Who knows? It may even change the world around you.

If you like Limericks

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

There was a young woman names Bright
Whose speed was much faster than light.
She set out one day
In a relative way,
And returned the previous night.

There was a woman in Riga
Who went for a ride on a Tiger.
There returned from the ride
With the lady inside
And a smile on the face of the tiger.

There was once a farmer from Leeds,
Who ate six packets of seeds.
It soon came to pass,
He was covered with grass,
And he couldn't sit down for the weeds!

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "let us flee!"
"Let us fly!", said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

A mouse in her room woke Miss Dowd.
She was frightened, it must be allowed.
Soon a happy thought hit her
To scare off the critter.
She sat up in bed and meowed.

As a beauty, I'm not a great star.
There are others more handsome by far.
But my face, I don't mind it,
Because I am behind it.
It's the folks in the front that I jar.

There was once a fellow named Dave
Who lived in a miniature cave.
He said I admit
I can't stand or sit
But think of the money I save.

There was a young fisher named Fischer
Who fished for a fish in a fissure.
The fish with a grin
Pulled the fisherman in.
Now they're fishing the fissure for Fischer.

What you don't know about sushi

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

I’d consider myself a knowledgeable sushi addict-fanatic, but I was caught by surprise to learn– “good sushi are made from fish which is at least a few days old.” Woa, really? I’m one to rarely eat at sushi buffets or $1 sushi places open on Mondays, but I guess it’s a bit like a good aged steak, a bottle of aired wine, or the secret to really good Asian fried rice (it’s gotta be a day old).

If your a sushi fan curious to learn more about the wonderful world of sushi, give this article a glance or listen to a great interview(54 mins) with author (The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket) and foodie Trevor Corson.

Audio Interview here.
WiseBread Article via spluch

Think you know a thing or two about sushi, eh? Yeah, I thought the same thing until today. Today is when Trevor Corson, author of The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket made a guest appearance on my local radio station to dispell some commonly held myths about sushi.

Now, I’ve traveled to Japan, and I’ve eaten at some good sushi establishments. I’m not an expert by a long shot, but I thought I knew a thing or two about raw fish (sashimi) and the rice beneath it (sushi). But alas, ’twas not the case.

Fresh isn’t necessarily better
No, I don’t recommend you save money by buying week-old sushi or anything. That said, I was always under the impression that the freshest sushi was the most recently deceased. Not true. Like beef and lamb, fish actually has to age slightly in order to achieve a full, rich flavor.

The reason for this, according to Corson, is that the enzymes in fish flesh start to break down the muscle once a fish dies. And that breakdown actually creates smaller molecules that are detectable as flavorful by the human tongue.

Corson goes into a brief but fascinating discussion of glutamate (that’s the G in MSG), a flavor that is designated as the fifth “taste” that the human tongue can detect. The Japanese call this flavor umami, which we translate into English as savory. Much of Japanese cuisine’s flavor comes from fermented or aged produce - soy sauce, natto, bonito flakes, and miso are all created through some practices that we, as Westerners, might consider unsavory.

Fresh fish is delicious if you just caught some trout and cooked it over the campfire with some lemon and butter. But try to eat the same fresh fish raw, and you’re likely to be disappointed.

Most of the sashimi that we eat in restaurants has been flash frozen using liquid nitrogen. This process kills many of the germs and worms that can develop in fish flesh, but doesn’t cause any physical deterioration of the meat.

When you go into a fine sushi establishment and order the freshest daily fish, you aren’t eating fish that was caught the same day, or even the day before. If you’re eating good sushi, the fish is at least a few days old.

You’re not supposed to use chopsticks
Dammit! The one skill that I can use across East Asia, and it doesn’t even apply?

Lots of sushi that we eat in American sushi establishments comes in the “roll” format. Traditional sushi is eaten in the nigiri format - a little polyhedron of loosely-packed, slightly sweet and tangy sushi rice topped with a thin slice of raw fish. Ever notice that the sushi sort of breaks apart when you dip it in that little bowl of soy sauce and then try to pick it back up with your chopsticks? That’s because you are supposed to eat it with your hands.

I kid you not. Traditional sushi lovers do exactly that. Corson has a guide of how to eat sushi on his web site. The sushi rice is not usually packed very tightly together, which is why it falls apart when you try to eat it with chopsticks. The method for eating sushi is more or less to hold the sushi piece like it’s a computer mouse, slowly flip it over, and lightly drench one side in the nikiri sauce (soy, depending on where you are eating) provided.

By now you’ve probably seen that comedic video of Japanese etiquette that pokes fun at the traditions and mannerisms that surround sushi consumption. It turns out that much of the behavior is as baffling to the Japanese as it is to Americans.

Give the video a watch, but just note that the fact that they are eating the sushi with their hands is not meant to be a part of the joke. You’re actually SUPPOSED to go in, sit at the bar, and eat with your fingers. I’m not saying you won’t get some weird looks - I’m just saying that that’s what the experts do.

The wasabi you are eating… isn’t wasabi
Turns out that real wasabi is difficult to grow and even more difficult to properly package. So what you eat at Sushi N More is actually horseradish powder, mustard, and green food coloring.

Also, you’re not technically supposed to be drowning your sushi in soy sauce. Good restaurants provide their own nikiri, which is like a house-brewed soy sauce that the chef should use according to what he (it’s almost always a he, although this is finally changing) is preparing. In fact, your raw fish should be brushed with a flavored broth that needs no additional flavoring.

Now, if you are eating at an authentic sushi restaurant, these things matter. However, if you are at an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet, eating bricks of mealy rice with slabs of flavorless fish, then you’ll be forgiven for soaking your sushi in a bucket of soy sauce and pseudo wasabi. Hey, I’m not passing judgment.

Traditional sushi doesn’t contain tuna
Tuna and salmon, which are BIG sushi hits in the US, aren’t traditional sushi choices because they spoil very fast. Fatty tuna, while melty and wonderful to American sushi lovers, is eschewed by the sushi snobs in Japan. Traditional sushi is technically whitefish, like halibut, snapper, or even clams and raw octopus (the Japanese sushi foodies, true to form, sometimes eat squirming live octopus - don’t try this at home).

Spicy tuna rolls, never a favorite of mine, are one of the most popular sushi options in Seattle. They are also how chefs get rid of crappy bits of tuna.

Corson appears to be very open-minded, and avoids any judgment of those of us who occasionally get our sushi fix from crappy rice rolls at Safeway or Whole Foods. Although he lived in Japan and has eaten some of the finest sushi the world over, his fascination with sushi really stemmed from the fact that you can now get find this delicacy in small towns in Ohio.

As someone who vacillates between wanting the best sushi available, and wanting some sushi for under $10, dammit, I really loved listening to Corson talk about this cuisine. You can buy the book, or just peruse his web site and a few others to get a feel for what sushi is really about. As with most things here at Wise Bread, it’s often about quality versus quantity.

Which doesn’t mean that I won’t still buy it, occasionally, at Safeway. But now that I know I can eat it with my fingers, I’ll be so much more efficient.

The city that said "No" to advertising

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

Sao Paulo: The city that said No to Advertising
The “Clean City” law passed last year by the populist mayor, Gilberto Kassab, stripped the Brazilian city of all advertising. So how’s it looking now?

by Patrick Burgoyne

A city stripped of advertising. No Posters. No flyers. No ads on buses. No ads on trains. No Adshels, no 48-sheets, no nothing.

It sounds like an Adbusters editorial: an activist’s dream. But in São Paulo, Brazil, the dream has become a reality.

In September last year, the city’s populist right-wing mayor, Gilberto Kassab, passed the so-called Clean City laws. Fed up with the “visual pollution” caused by the city’s 8,000 billboard sites, many of them erected illegally, Kassab proposed a law banning all outdoor advertising. The skyscraper-sized hoardings that lined the city’s streets would be wiped away at a stroke. And it was not just billboards that attracted his wrath: all forms of outdoor advertising were to be prohibited, including ads on taxis, on buses—even shopfronts were to be restricted, their signs limited to 1.5 metres for every 10 metres of frontage. “It is hard in a city of 11 million people to find enough equipment and personnel to determine what is and isn’t legal,” reasoned Kassab, “so we have decided to go all the way.”

The law was hailed by writer Roberto Pompeu de Toledo as “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash… For once, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost.”

Border, the Brazilian Association of Advertisers, was up in arms over the move. In a statement released on 2 October, the date on which law PL 379/06 was formally approved by the city council, Border called the new laws “unreal, ineffective and fascist”. It pointed to the tens of thousands of small businesses that would have to bear the burden of altering their shopfronts under regulations “unknown in their virulence in any other city in the world”. A prediction of US$133 million in lost advertising revenue for the city surfaced in the press, while the São Paulo outdoor media owners’ association, Sepex, warned that 20,000 people would lose their jobs.

Others predicted that the city would look even worse with the ads removed, a bland concrete jungle replacing the chaos of the present. North Korea and communist Eastern Europe were cited as indicative of what was to come. “I think this city will become a sadder, duller place,” Dalton Silvano, the only city councillor to vote against the laws and (not entirely coincidentally) an ad executive, was quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribune. “Advertising is both an art form and, when you’re in your car, or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom,” he claimed.

There was also much questioning of whether there weren’t, in fact, far greater eyesores in the city—such as the thousands of homeless people, the poor condition of the roads and the notorious favelas: wouldn’t Kassab’s time be better spent removing these problems than persecuting taxi drivers and shop owners? Legal challenges followed while, in an almost comical scenario, advertising executives followed marches by the city’s students and its bin men by driving their cars up and down in front of city hall in protest.

Nevertheless, the council pressed ahead. “What we are aiming for is a complete change of culture,” its president Roberto Tripoli said. “Yes, some people are going to have to pay a price but things were out of hand and the population has made it clear that it wants this.”

Originally, the law was to be introduced last autumn with immediate effect but it was first delayed until December and then finally introduced in January 2007 with a 90-day compliance period, supposedly giving everyone time to take down any posters or signs that did not meet the new regulations or face a fine of up to US$4,500 per day. Throughout that period, the city’s workmen were busy dismantling around 100 sites per day, occasionally supervised personally by Kassab, a man with an obvious eye for a photo opportunity.

In theory, 1 April was the first day of São Paulo’s re-birth as a Clean City. So what does it feel like?

“I can’t tell you what it’s like to live in a city without ads yet,” says Gustavo Piqueira, who runs the studio Rex Design in São Paulo, “because in a lot of places they still haven’t been removed. In Brazil, every time that some new law comes in, everybody waits a little to see if it will really be applied and seriously controlled, or if it’s just something to fill the newspapers for a week or two.”

In a lot of places, Piqueira says, this has led to the removal of posters but not the structures on which they were displayed. “It’s a kind of ‘billboard cemetery’. I guess they’re waiting to see if the law will really last. If the mayor keeps the law for a year or so, people will start to remove them and the city will, finally, start to look better.”

Photographer and typographer Tony de Marco has been out documenting this strange hiatus in a sequence of images published on Flickr and used to illustrate this piece. The city, he says, is starting to feel more “serene”.

Already the law has led to some strange discoveries. Because the site-ing of billboards was unregulated, many poor people readily accepted cash to have a poster site in their gardens or even in front of their homes. With their removal, a new city is emerging: “Last week, on my way to work, I ‘discovered’ a house,” says Piqueira. “It had been covered by a big billboard for years so I never even knew what it looked like.” The removal of the posters has “revealed an architecture that we must learn to be proud of, instead of hiding,” says de Marco.

But there are downsides—Piqueira worries that much of the “vernacular” lettering and signage from small businesses—”an important part of the city’s history and culture”—will be lost. The organisers of the São Paulo carnival have also expressed concerns about the long-term future of their event now that sponsors will not be allowed to advertise along the route. The city authorities for their part have made it clear that certain public information and cultural works will be exempted from the rules.

After a period of zero tolerance, Piqueira believes that advertising, albeit in a far more regulated form, will start to creep back into the city, either as a result of legal challenges, a change in administration, or compromises between media owners and the city. Already, the council has stated that it would like to see the introduction of approved street furniture such as bus stops, which may well carry ads. As these will no doubt be for the major brands that can afford such lucrative positions, a more sterile, bland visual environment may replace the vibrant, if chaotic streets of the past. Flyposters, hand-lettered signs and club flyers will remain banned while international ad campaigns for global brands on city-approved poster sites will return.

For de Marco, though, “the low quality of the letters and the images on those immense pieces of propaganda” were always a concern, as was “the misuse and occupation of public space. In the weeks before my birthday,” he says, “my visual enemies begin to disappear like the happy end of a motion picture. To see my city clean was my best birthday present and my photos were the record of the feast.”

Meanwhile, according to Augusto Moya, creative director of ad agency DDB Brasil, the ban is forcing agencies to be more inventive. “As a creative, I think that there is one good thing the ban has brought: we must now use more traditional outdoor media (like bus stops and all kinds of urban fittings) in a more creative way,” he says. “People at all the agencies are thinking about how to develop outdoor media that do not interfere so much in the physical structure of the city.”

Moya takes an enlightened view of the law. “As a citizen, I think that future generations will thank the current city administration for this ban,” he says. “There’s still a lot to be done in terms of pollution—air pollution, river pollution, street pollution and so on. São Paulo is still one of the most polluted cities in the world. But I believe this law is the first step for a better future.”

And even if some Paulistanos remain unconvinced, there is at least one group who are certainly not complaining—the city’s scrap dealers, who are set to make a killing from recovering all the old signs and structures.

On The Media (NPR) article

Clearing The Air
April 20, 2007

In January, South America’s largest city officially banned outdoor advertising. Billboards, neon signs, bus-stop ads, even the Goodyear blimp - all were suddenly illegal. Folha de Sao Paulo reporter Vinicius Galvao describes seeing his city as though for the first time.

BOB GARFIELD: On January 1st, 2007, a funny thing happened in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The city of approximately eleven million people, South America’s largest, awoke to find a ban on public advertising. Every billboard, every neon sign, every bus kiosk ad and even the Goodyear blimp were suddenly illegal.

The ban on what the mayor calls “visual pollution” was the culmination of a long battle between the city’s politicians and the advertising industry, which had blanketed Brazil’s economic capital with all manner of billboards, both legal and illegal. Within months, the city has gone from a Blade Runner-like vision of the future to a reclaimed past.

Vinicius Galvao is reporter for Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, and he joins us now. Vinicius, welcome to the show.

VINICIUS GALVAO: Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. It’s my pleasure.

BOB GARFIELD: I’ve seen photos of the city, and it’s amazing to see this sprawling metropolis completely devoid of signage, completely devoid of logos and bright lights and so forth. What did Sao Paulo look like up until the ban took place?

VINICIUS GALVAO: Sao Paulo’s a very vertical city. That makes it very frenetic. You couldn’t even realize the architecture of the old buildings, because all the buildings, all the houses were just covered with billboards and logos and propaganda. And there was no criteria.

And now it’s amazing. They uncovered a lot of problems the city had that we never realized. For example, there are some favelas, which are the shantytowns. I wrote a big story in my newspaper today that in a lot of parts of the city we never realized there was a big shantytown. People were shocked because they never saw that before, just because there were a lot of billboards covering the area.

BOB GARFIELD: No writer could have [LAUGHING] come up with a more vivid metaphor. What else has been discovered as the scales have fallen off of the city’s eyes?

VINICIUS GALVAO: Sao Paulo’s just like New York. It’s a very international city. We have the Japanese neighborhood, we have the Korean neighborhood, we have the Italian neighborhood and in the Korean neighborhood, they have a lot of small manufacturers, these Korean businessmen. They hire illegal labor from Bolivian immigrants.

And there was a lot of billboards in front of these manufacturers’ shops. And when they uncovered, we could see through the window a lot of Bolivian people like sleeping and working at the same place. They earn money, just enough for food. So it’s a lot of social problem that was uncovered where the city was shocked at this news.

BOB GARFIELD: I want to ask you about the cultural life of the city, because, like them or not, billboards and logos and bright lights create some of the vibrancy that a city has to offer. Isn’t it weird walking through the streets with all of those images just absent?

VINICIUS GALVAO: No. It’s weird, because you get lost, so you don’t have any references any more. That’s what I realized as a citizen. My reference was a big Panasonic billboard. But now my reference is art deco building that was covered through this Panasonic. So you start getting new references in the city. The city’s got now new language, a new identity.

BOB GARFIELD: Well, cleaning up the city’s all well and good, but how do businesses announce to the public that they’re open for business?

VINICIUS GALVAO: That was the first response the shop owners found for this law, because the law bans billboards and also even the windows should be clean. Big banks, like Citibank, and big stores, like Dolce and Gabbana, they started painting themselves with very strong colors, like yellow, red, deep blue, and creating like visual patterns to associate the brand to that pattern or to that color.

For example, Citibank’s color is blue. They’re painting the building in very strong blue so people can see that from far away and they can make an association with that deep blue and Citibank.

BOB GARFIELD: Now, the city has said, having undertaken this effort, it will eventually create zones where some outdoor advertising will be permitted. Do you expect Sao Paulo eventually to just revert to its previous clutter?

VINICIUS GALVAO: Not to revert to previous clutter, but I think like very specific zones, I think they’re going to isolate the electronic billboards in those areas, in the financial center. I don’t think they should put those in residential areas as we had before.

BOB GARFIELD: Now, the advertising industry is obviously not happy about this. They’re complaining that they’re deprived of free speech and that it’s costing them jobs and revenue. But is there anyone else in Sao Paulo who’s unhappy about this? Tell me about the public at large. What’s their view?

VINICIUS GALVAO: It’s amazing, because people on the streets are strongly supporting that. The owner of the buildings, even if they have to renovate a building, they’re strongly supporting that. It’s a massive campaign to improve the city. The advertisers, they complain, but they’re agreeing with the ban. What they say is that we should have created criteria for that to organize the chaos.

BOB GARFIELD: Vinicius, thank you very much for joining us.

VINICIUS GALVAO: Thank you so much.

BOB GARFIELD: Vinicius Galvao is a reporter for Folha de Sao Paulo.

Three countries use non-metric measurement systems

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Three countries use non-metric measurement systems: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.
The rest of the world uses the metrics system. via Wikipedia

Hmm… makes you wonder.

Reality: The U.S. officially supports the metric system. But each state in the union has their right to enforce it and most don’t.

Tunnel house

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Isn’t it great how creativity kicks in when time is running out?

Take for example this incredible and beautiful installation by artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck a few months before this house was to be demolished.

Place: Houston, TX.

I’m guessing they saw an opportunity to do something freaking crazy cool to a space that was going to be destroyed and turned this old house into a trippy wooden warp zone!

Click through the incredible pictures:

Front view

Far view

Side view

Light at the end of the tunnel

Man walking into the tunnel


Men playing in front of the tunnel

Water OVER a Bridge instead of UNDER it? You must be kidding!

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Water Bridge in Germany, where one river crosses over another river via a man-made bridge.

Even after you see it, it is still hard to believe! A What a feat! Why isn't this being touted as one of the Wonders of the World?

It is 918 meters long, took six years to build and cost 500 Euros. A wonderful feat of engineering.

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin.

Click here to see the photo of this bridge:
Photo of the Water Bridge

[You may also copy this URL into your Internet Browser to see the photo of this bridge: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1236/816626484_6cbed73393_m.jpg]

The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers and physicists.

Q) Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?

Answer:

It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

How Accenture One-Upped India

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It leads the pack in tech services, melding offshoring and classic consulting

When the Indian outsourcing upstarts came on strong five years ago, it looked as if some giants of the $600 billion tech services industry would fall like top-heavy palm trees in a Category 4 hurricane. The Indians' combination of high quality and super-low cost flattened the stock prices and revenues of companies such as EDS (EDS ), BearingPoint (BE ), and Capgemini. Even mighty ibm (IBM ), the No. 1 tech services player, has struggled to rebound.

One Western company has come through stronger than ever, though—and it did so by motoring straight into the eye of the storm. Accenture Ltd. (ACN ) has responded so well to the disruptions caused by Indian companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, and Wipro (WIT ) that it stands as a model for how to deal with the downside of globalization.

Accenture adapted quickly by combining the best aspects of the Indian offshoring approach with the company's primary activity, business consulting. By the end of Accenture's fiscal year this August, 35,000 of its 160,000 employees will be in India, where labor costs are less than half those in the U.S., up from only a handful in 2000. That formula not only allows it to compete with the Indian tech companies on price but also, just as important, combines the company's tech knowhow, outsourcing, business consulting, and expertise in particular industries in a way that the Indians can't yet match.

Even Indian tech leaders are impressed. "At one time, I thought we'd be fortunate, and they wouldn't be able to deal with the shift. But they really embraced it," says Pramod Bhasin, chief executive of Genpact, the top player in Indian business process outsourcing.

One need look no further than Detroit to see what disasters can befall a company when it's too set in its ways to recognize a mortal threat. In contrast, Accenture spotted the Indian upsurge early and responded quickly. To block Indian companies from getting footholds in its accounts, it took on lower-end jobs. And it invested heavily in new capabilities to stay ahead of rising competition.

Accenture's strategy is now being recognized as the preferred business model for the global tech services industry. Competitors, including the Indians, are scrambling to replicate it. "This gets companies away from competing on labor costs alone," says analyst Dana Stiffler of AMR Research.

Accenture has long seen itself as a global organization. In 1985, as a unit of Andersen Worldwide, it established financial-services operations in Manila. "We have been operating a global virtual company for decades, so we had a lot of advantages other companies didn't have," says CEO Bill Green, a 30-year veteran. The consulting group split off from Andersen Worldwide in 2000 and went public a year later. The stock price has soared 140% since then. Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS ) analyst Julio C. Quinteros Jr. forecasts revenues of $18.8 billion for this fiscal year, up 13%, and $1.6 billion in profit, up 16%.

HARD TO MATCH
That IPO year was a turning point. Accenture already had large business consulting and tech services branches. But in 2001 top managers committed to aggressive expansion of their business process outsourcing unit, which handles human resources and accounting chores. They expanded rapidly in India and other low-cost countries and ran their far-flung service delivery centers as an integrated global network.

To see how Accenture is offering hard-to-match services, take a look inside the company's Life Sciences Center of Excellence in Bangalore. The sprawling office building houses dozens of medical doctors, PhDs, pharmacists, math whizzes, and statisticians. They work alongside biology grads to prepare clinical trial reports for the world's top drug companies.

These high-skill employees—all of them Indian—coordinate closely with business consultants who are on site with clients around the world. Accenture consultants help clients revamp the way they handle the trials essential to getting new drugs approved by regulators. Once those processes are sharpened, Accenture software programmers in Bangalore design databases and algorithms for storing and analyzing clinical data. Accenture people distribute electronic forms to physicians who conduct the trials. Accenture's physicians review the data to spot errors and, when necessary, get on the phone with doctors conducting the trials. When all the data are collected, they analyze them for safety and effectiveness and write reports. All told, Accenture has cut the average time to prepare reports from six months to a few weeks. Each day saved is worth about $1 million to a drug company.

But just as important, one client, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WYE ), says it has been able to hand off huge chunks of work to a partner that can perform them even better than it can. "We are launching drugs that otherwise would have been held up by our inability to handle the work," says Robert R. Ruffalo Jr., Wyeth's president of research and development.

Accenture's Indian rivals are rapidly adding new capabilities, such as expertise in specific industries like pharma and retailing. Western corporations increasingly consider the best of the Indian firms when they reengineer how they do business. But Infosys and its Indian brethren have a long way to go to catch Accenture. It has 13,000 business consultants and announced plans on Mar. 19 to double that number over the next three years. Ruffalo, the Wyeth research boss, says he hired Accenture consultants to help out with most of the 70 "breakthrough" projects he has undertaken over the past five years. "There are a lot of good consulting companies out there, but [Accenture] knew us and understood us," he says. "We don't have to educate them again and again."

What are some best bets for eating well?

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What are some best bets for eating well? Mark Glen, a registered dietitian at Mayo Clinic offers his top picks. These 10 health foods are some of the healthiest because they meet at least three of the following criteria:

- Are a good or excellent source of fiber, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients
- Are high in phytonutrients and antioxidant compounds, such as vitamins A and E and beta carotene
- May help reduce the risk of heart disease and other health conditions
- Are low in calorie density, meaning you get a larger portion size with a fewer number of calories
- Are readily available

Apples

Why eat apples? Apples are an excellent source of pectin, a soluble fiber that can lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels. Fresh apples are also good sources of the vitamin C — an antioxidant that protects your body's cells from damage. Vitamin C also helps form the connective tissue collagen, keeps your capillaries and blood vessels healthy, and aids in the absorption of iron and folate.

Almonds

Why eat almonds? These tear-shaped nuts are packed with nutrients — fiber, riboflavin, magnesium, iron and calcium. In fact, almonds have more calcium than any other nut — 70 milligrams (mg) in 23 almonds. And one serving of almonds provides half of your body's Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin E.

Like all nuts, almonds provide one of the best plant sources of protein. And they're good for your heart. Most of the fat in almonds is monounsaturated fat — a healthier type of fat that may help lower blood cholesterol levels.

Blueberries

Why eat blueberries? Blueberries are a rich source of plant compounds (phytonutrients). As with cranberries, phytonutrients in blueberries may help prevent urinary tract infections. Blueberries may also improve short-term memory and promote healthy aging.

Blueberries are also a low-calorie source of fiber and vitamin C — 1 cup of fresh blueberries has 83 calories, 3.5 grams of fiber and 14 mg of vitamin C.

Broccoli

Why eat broccoli? Besides being a good source of calcium, potassium, folate and fiber, broccoli contains phytonutrients — a group of compounds that may help prevent chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. Broccoli is also a good source of vitamins A and C — antioxidants that protect your body's cells from damage.

Red beans

Why eat red beans? Red beans — including small red beans and dark red kidney beans — are good sources of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper and thiamin. They're also an excellent low-fat, low-calorie source of protein and dietary fiber. Red beans also contain phytonutrients that may help prevent chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Salmon

Why eat salmon? Salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids — a type of fat that makes your blood less likely to form clots that may cause heart attacks. Omega-3s may also protect against irregular heartbeats that may cause sudden cardiac death, decrease triglyceride levels, decrease the growth of artery-clogging plaques, lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke.

In addition to being an excellent source of omega-3s, salmon is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and is a good source of protein.

Spinach

Why eat spinach? Spinach is high in vitamins A and C and folate. It's also a good source of riboflavin, vitamin B-6, calcium, iron and magnesium. The plant compounds in spinach may boost your immune system and may help keep your hair and skin healthy.

Sweet potatoes

Why eat sweet potatoes? The deep orange-yellow color of sweet potatoes tells you that they're high in the antioxidant beta carotene. Food sources of beta carotene, which are converted to vitamin A in your body, may help slow the aging process and reduce the risk of some cancers. Sweet potatoes are also good sources of fiber, vitamins B-6, C and E, folate and potassium. And like all vegetables, they're fat-free and relatively low in calories — one small sweet potato has just 54 calories.

Vegetable juice

Why drink vegetable juice? Vegetable juice has most of the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients found in the original vegetables and is an easy way to include vegetables in your diet. Tomato juice and vegetable juices, which include tomatoes, are good sources of lycopene, an antioxidant which may reduce the risk of heart attack, prostate cancer and possibly other types of cancer. Some vegetable and tomato juices are very high in sodium, so be sure to select the low-sodium varieties.

Wheat germ

Why eat wheat germ? At the center of a grain of wheat is the wheat germ — the part of the seed that's responsible for the development and growth of the new plant sprout. Though only a small part of the wheat seed, the germ is a highly concentrated source of nutrients, including niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin E, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, iron and zinc. The germ also contains protein, fiber and some fat.

Why Europe dislikes America

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Excerpts from Andrei S. Markovits' UNCOUTH NATION (Princeton University Press)

Any trip to Europe confirms what the surveys have been finding: The aversion to America is becoming greater, louder, more determined.1 It is unifying West Europeans more than any other political emotion—with the exception of a common hostility toward Israel. In today’s West Europe these two closely related antipathies and resentments are now considered proper etiquette. They are present in polite company and acceptable in the discourse of the political classes. They constitute common fare among West Europe’s cultural and media elites, but also throughout society itself from London to Athens and from Stockholm to Rome, even if European politicians visiting Washington or European professors at international conferences about anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are adamant about denying or sugarcoating this reality.

There can be no doubt that many disastrous and irresponsible policies by the Bush administrations, as well as their haughty demeanor and arrogant tone, have contributed massively to this unprecedented vocal animosity on the part of Europeans toward Americans and America. George W. Bush and his administrations’ policies have made America into the most hated country of all time. Indeed, they bear responsibility for having created a situation in which anti-Americanism has mutated into a sort of global antinomy, a mutually shared language of opposition to and resistance against the real and perceived ills of modernity that are now inextricably identified solely with America. I have been traveling back and forth with considerable frequency between the United States and Europe since 1960, and I cannot recall a time like the present, when such a vehement aversion to everything American has been articulated in Europe. “There has probably never been a time when America was held in such low esteem on this side of the Atlantic” wrote the distinguished British Political Scientist Anthony King in The Daily Telegraph on July 3, 2006, summarizing a survey that revealed a new nadir in the British view of America. No West European country is exempt from this phenomenon—not a single social class, no age group or profession, nor either gender. But this aversion and antipathy reaches much deeper and wider than the frequently evoked “anti-Bushism.” Indeed, I perceive this virulent, Europe-wide, and global “anti-Bushism” as the glaring tip of a massive anti-American iceberg.

Anti-Americanism has been promoted to the status of West Europe’s lingua franca. Even at the height of the Vietnam War, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and during the dispute over NATO’s “Dual Track” decision (to station Pershing and cruise missiles primarily in Germany but in other West European countries as well while negotiating with the Soviet Union over arms reduction), things were different. Each event met with a European public that was divided concerning its position toward America: In addition to those who reacted with opposition and protest, there were strong forces in almost all European countries who expressed appreciation and understanding. In France, arguably Europe’s leader over the past fifteen years in most matters related to antipathy toward America, the prospect of stationing American medium-range missiles, especially if they were on German soil, even met with the massive approval of the Left in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This distinguished the French Left, arguably among the most ardently anti-American protagonists anywhere in contemporary Europe, from all of its European counterparts. That America’s image was far from hunky dory in the Europe of the mid-1980s but still far exceeded its nadir reached since 9/11 and the Iraq War is attested to by the following passage from a Pew Survey:
The numbers paint a depressing picture. Just a quarter of the French approve of U.S. policies, and the situation is only slightly better in Japan and Germany. Majorities in many countries say America’s strong military presence actually increases the chances for war. And most people believe America’s global influence is expanding. The latest survey on America’s tarnished global image? No, those numbers come from a poll conducted by Newsweek . . . in 1983. The United States has been down this road before, struggling with a battered image and drawing little in the way of support even from close allies. But for a variety of reasons, this time it is different: the anti-Americanism runs broader and deeper than ever before. And it’s getting worse.2

To be sure, as this study will be careful to delineate, opposition to U.S. policies in no way connotes anti-Americanism. But even in the allegedly halcyon days of pre-1990 West European–American relations, a palpable antipathy to things American on the part of European elites accompanied opposition to policies.

However, the climate between then and now has changed fundamentally. The fact that European elites—particularly conservative ones—have consistently been anti-American since 1776 is one of this book’s central themes. But as of October 2001, six to eight weeks after 9/11 and just before the impending American war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a massive Europe-wide resentment of America commenced that reached well beyond American policies, American politics, and the American government and proliferated in virtually all segments of Western Europe’s publics. From grandmothers who vote for the archconservative Bavarian CSU to thirty-year-old socialist PASOK activists in Greece, from Finnish Social Democrats to French Gaullists, from globalization opponents to business managers—all are joining in the ever louder chorus of the anti-Americans. The “European street” has been more hostile to America than ever before. For the first time, anti-Americanism has entered the European mainstream. If anti-Americanism has been part of the condition humaine in Europe for at least two centuries, it has been since 9/11 that the rise of a hitherto unprecedented, wholly voluntary, and uncoordinated conformity in Western European public opinion regarding America and American politics occurred. I would go so far as to characterize the public voice and mood in these countries as gleichgeschaltet, comprising a rare but powerful discursive and emotive congruence and conformity among all actors in state and society. What rendered this Gleichschaltung so different from those that accompany most dictatorships was its completely voluntary, thus democratic, nature. Especially leading up to and during the Iraq War, there appeared an almost perfect concordance among a vast majority of European public opinion, the European “street” by way of the largest demonstrations in European history, the media, most political parties, and many—if certainly not all—European governments. Western Europe spoke loudly and passionately with a unified voice that one rarely, if ever, encountered in such openly contested pluralist democracies.

The Bush administrations’ policies have catapulted global and West European anti-Americanism into overdrive. But to understand this “overdrive,” we need to analyze the conditions under which this kind of shift into high gear could occur. This book is intended to make such a contribution. Its aim is to show that the West Europeans’ unconditional rejection of and legitimate outrage over abusive and irresponsible American policies—not to mention massive human rights violations a` la Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, secret CIA cells, and others of such ilk—rest on a substantial sediment of hatred toward, disdain for, and resentment of America that has a long tradition in Europe and has flourished apart from these or any policies.

Here, in short, is the book’s overall argument: Ambivalence, antipathy, and resentment toward and about the United States have comprised an important component of European culture since the American Revolution at the latest, thus way before America became the world’s “Mr. Big”—the proverbial eight-hundred-pound gorilla—and a credible rival to Europe’s main powers, particularly Britain and France. In recent years, following the end of the Cold War and particularly after 9/11, ambivalence in some quarters has given way to outright antipathy and unambiguous hostility. Animosity toward the United States migrated from the periphery and disrespected fringes of European politics and became a respectable part of the European mainstream. These negative sentiments and views have been driven not only—or even primarily—by what the United States does, but rather by an animus against what Europeans have believed that America is. Anti-Americanism has been a core element, indeed at times a dominant one, among European elites for centuries. The presidency of George W. Bush, the American response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and Bush’s unilateral decision to commence the war against Iraq all led to a dramatic increase in hostility to the United States in Europe’s “respectable” opinion. Moreover, for the first time since World War II, long-standing elite resentments against the United States fused with popular sentiments to create a kind of political and cultural perfect storm: Short-term crises brought long-standing antipathies to the surface. While the politics, style, and discourse of the Bush administrations—and of George W. Bush as a person—have undoubtedly exacerbated anti-American sentiment among Europeans and fostered a heretofore unmatched degree of unity between elite and mass opinion in Europe, they are not anti-Americanism’s cause. Indeed, a change to a center-left administration in Washington, led by a Democratic president, would not bring about its abatement, let alone disappearance.

Chapter 1 features my definition and conceptualization of anti-Americanism. In particular, I argue that anti-Americanism constitutes a particular prejudice that renders it not only acceptable but indeed commendable in the context of an otherwise welcome development in a discourse that favors the weak.

Chapter 2 presents some historical features of European anti-Americanism in order to demonstrate that all of its present components have been alive and well in Europe’s intellectual discourse since the late eighteenth century. In particular, this chapter highlights how integral and ubiquitous the anti-American tropes about Americans’ alleged venality, mediocrity, uncouthness, lack of culture, and above all inauthenticity have been to European elite opinion for well over two hundred years.

Chapter 3 features a bevy of examples from many walks of life that highlight the pervasive and quotidian nature of anti-American discourse among European publics. I have collected all my examples from areas outside of what one would conventionally associate with politics precisely to demonstrate that the European animus against things American has little to do with the politics and policies of the Bush administration—or any other administration, for that matter—and is alive and well in realms that prima facie have few connections to politics. I consider many examples from diverse topics, such as language, sports, work, higher education, the media, health, law and the judicial system, and miscellaneous items (the presence of Halloween, for instance) in seven West European countries to demonstrate that the antipathy toward America and things American reaches much beyond politics and the discourse of one or two countries alone. By analyzing a bevy of newspaper and magazine articles from the 1990s, I hope to demonstrate that the presence and passion of anti-American discourse among Europeans much preceded the administrations of George W. Bush. The West European media report almost nothing that they associate with America in a neutral, matter-of-fact manner. Most things engender a palpable tone of irritation, derision, annoyance, dismissal. Terms such as “Americanization” and its equivalents—“American conditions,” for example— have in the meantime assumed an exclusively pejorative connotation in present European discourse. They have become a Schimpfwort, a derogatory term for anything that one wants to discredit and stigmatize even if the issue at hand might have little to do with the real existing America or its conditions.

To show that these prima facie innocuous put-downs of American things (so what if one dislikes the alleged “Americanization” of cricket, of political correctness, of spelling, of antismoking laws, of family life, of business practices) do cumulatively constitute a palpably negative whole, I then proceed to summarize in chapter 4 the findings of some key surveys of the recent past that leave no doubt that a majority of Europeans have come to dislike America, if not with massive passion, then surely with a tangible opinion that matters politically.

Anti-Semitism is the subject of chapter 5. Rather than viewing this chapter as an in-depth analysis of anti-Semitism in contemporary Western Europe, I devote attention to this phenomenon solely because anti-Semitism has consistently been such an integral part of anti-Americanism and because the virulence in the hostility to Israel cannot be understood without the presence of anti-Americanism and hostility to the United States. Thus, I see my presentation of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism as a subset of my larger discussion of anti-Americanism. Anti-Semitism’s connection to anti-Americanism appears to be empirically forceful and compelling if conceptually far from necessary or stringent. The same pertains to the relation between anti-Semitism and opposition to Israeli policies, even Israel’s existence as a state. While opposition to Israeli policies and to Israel’s existence are in and of themselves far from being anti-Semitic in any conceptually stringent manner, both do in reality— and despite protests to the contrary—often include anti-Semitic tropes and moments. These, in turn accompany anti-Americanism. In this syndrome, Israel, due to its association with the United States, is eo ipso perceived by its European critics as powerful, with both being mere extensions of one another. Being an American ally and also powerful in its own right renders Israel an obvious target on the part of most European critics who oppose both power in general and American power in particular. But there must be something else at work here as well, because America has many other powerful allies that never receive anywhere near the hostile scrutiny that Israel confronts on a daily basis. No European academic has attempted to boycott British—or for that matter Spanish or French—universities because Britain, Spain, and France are American allies that happen to be very powerful and can easily be construed—certainly from the logic of the sanctity of national liberation that has been so central to the Left since the late 1960s—to occupy foreign land in Ulster, the Basque Country, or Corsica, respectively. So it is not only because Israel is an American ally and powerful that it has so massively irked European elites and publics for decades. Clearly, the fact that Israel is primarily a Jewish state, combined with Europe’s deeply problematic and unresolved history with Jews, plays a central role in this singularly difficult relationship. Since this issue invariably accompanies European anti-Americanism and Europe’s irritations with America, it had to be considered in this book.

In chapter 6, I conclude my study by arguing that Europe’s anti-Americanism has become an essential ingredient in—perhaps even a key mobilizing agent for—the inevitable formation of a common European identity, which I have always longed for and continue to support vigorously, though I would have preferred to witness a different agency in its creation. Anti-Americanism, I argue, has already commenced to forge a concrete, emotionally experienced—as opposed to intellectually constructed—European identity in which Swedes and Greeks, Finns and Italians are helped to experience their still-frail emotive commonality not as “anti-Americans” but as Europeans, which at this stage constitutes one sole thing: that they are “non-Americans.” Anti-Americanism will serve as a useful mobilizing agent to create awareness in Europe for that continent’s new role as a growing power bloc in explicit contrast to and keen competition with the United States, not only among Europeans but also around the globe. Anti-Americanism has already begun to help create a unified European voice in global politics and will continue to be of fine service to Europe’s growing power in a new global constellation of forces in which an increasingly assertive Europe will join an equally assertive China to challenge the United States on every issue that it possibly can. Thus, I argue, for the first time in anti-Americanism’s two-century existence among Europe’s elites— hitherto particularly pronounced among its cultural and conservative representatives—anti-Americanism has now assumed a “functional” role of mobilization and in politics. It now matters because it might in fact affect things. Or to use the language of the social sciences: Anti-Americanism in Europe has begun to mutate from the world of having been almost exclusively a “dependent variable” to becoming an “independent” one as well.

Two important qualifications need mention as this introduction’s closing thoughts. First, anti-Americanism in Europe has always been accompanied by an equally discernable pro-Americanism, which, though less apparent these days, has far from disappeared. From America’s “discovery” by Europeans, it has consistently embodied for them simultaneous opposites: heaven and hell; a desired panacea and a despised abomination; utopia and dystopia; dream and nightmare. Surely, any analysis of Europe’s relations with America, or a comprehensive assessment of how Europeans viewed America over the past 250 years, would necessarily have to include pro-Americanism alongside anti-Americanism. But that is not my project here. I am not weighting European anti-Americanism vs. European pro-Americanism in this book. Of course there were eras in European history during which it could easily be argued that pro-American sentiments outweighed anti-American ones. But even during these times—such as after World War II and during the height of the Cold War—anti-Americanism never disappeared from European discourse and sentiment. This book is not about the history of European-American relations, nor is it an account of how Europeans perceived America over time. Instead, it focuses solely on the very real phenomenon of the persistence and current accentuation of an antipathy that—I believe, as have others—is worthy of an expose´ all its own. While any analysis of the relation between Gentiles and Jews would, by necessity, have to include philo-Semitism alongside anti-Semitism, I believe that the study of the latter all its own is valid. The same pertains to racism. Surely, any solid treatise of relations between or among different ethnic groups or races necessitates a presentation of all aspects of these relations, both positive and negative. However, a study solely of the negative and pejorative—i.e., racism—remains valid in and of itself. The same pertains to a study of anti-Americanism.

Second, this book deals exclusively with the countries of “Old Europe,” featuring Germany and Britain in particular, with France accorded solid attention as well, and complemented with examples from Spain, Italy, Austria, and Portugal (as well as Greece in chapter 5). Obviously, the Scandinavian and Benelux countries would have been worthy of consideration, but a cursory acquaintance with their views of America allows me to believe that the results presented here would not have been noticeably different. This would not have been the case with Ireland’s inclusion since a strong pro-American sentiment continues to prevail on the levels of both elite and mass opinion in that country. However, the book’s most serious shortcoming in my view is its complete exclusion of Eastern Europe because all indications point to the strong fact that my findings there—in terms of both the present and the past—would have been diametrically opposite to the ones I encountered in the western half of the continent. In addition to purely pedestrian reasons for this omission, which pertain to my ignorance of any East European language beyond Hungarian and Romanian, and lack of temporal and monetary resources, one methodologically sound argument might at least partially justify this restricted presentation of Europe: Eastern Europeans’ overwhelmingly positive views of America stem largely from their having perceived the United States as their sole ally against the much-despised Soviet Union. Thus, for this study, the comparability of contemporary anti-Americanism in France, Germany, and Britain is much more conceptually stringent and theoretically compelling than it would be with Poland, Hungary, and Romania thrown into the mix since all the countries considered in this study have furnished, in a political, economic, cultural, and—except Austria—military alliance with the United States, what was once known as “the West.”

All that glitters is not gold. Often have you heard that told. [Shakespeare]

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts.

Here are the facts about the three candidates.

Candidate-A: Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologers. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate-B: He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate-C: He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be your choice? Obviously Candidate-C, right?

Think again!

Candidate-A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate-B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate-C is Adolph Hitler.

"But I do that already!" Exposing the materialistic fallacy.

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

An American consultant was at a pier in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow-fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied only a little while.

The consultant then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The fisherman said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked the Mexican how he spent the rest of his time.

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor.”

The American consultant scoffed, “I am business consultant and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and, with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution.

“You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American consultant replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, senor?” asked the fisherman.

The consultant laughed, and said, “That’s the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public. You’ll become very rich, you would make millions!”

“Millions, senor?” replied the Mexican. “Then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

The Mexican replied, a little puzzled: "But I do that already!"

Can you be your own Grandfather and your own Grandson? The answer is YES. (Read on)

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

I married a widow whom I deeply loved and dated for 3 years. "After a couple of years, my father fell in love with my step-daughter and so my father became my son-in-law and I became my father's father-in-law. Legally now my daughter is my mother and my wife my grandmother.

More problems occurred when I had a son. My son is my father's brother and so he is my uncle.

The situation turned worse when my father had a son. Now my father's son i.e. my brother is my grandson. Ultimately, I have become my own grand father and my own grandson !!!!

Would you teach a young boy to shoot?

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

(The NRA will LOVE this one. - Probal)

It is a portion of National Public Radio (NPR) interview between a female broadcaster and US Marine Corps General Reinwald who was about to address a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military installation.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: So, General Reinwald, what things are you going to teach these young boys when they visit your base ?

GENERAL REINWALD: We're going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery, and shooting.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?

GENERAL REINWALD: I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the rifle range.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be taught to children ?

GENERAL REINWALD: I don't see how. We will be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even touch a firearm.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: But you're equipping them to become violent killers.

GENERAL REINWALD: Well, Ma'am, you're equipped to be a prostitute, but you're not one, are you ?

Hmmmm!!!!

Don't drink cold fluids during or after a meal [Medical advice]

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water. May be it is time we adopt their drinking habits while eating.

For those who like to drink cold water (or anything cold) during or after a meal, this article is applicable to you.

The cold drink will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer.

So it is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

Lessons in logic! (What's a "Workstation"?)

[Note: All posts in this blog are emails received by me from correspondents around the world. The privacy of the source is protected. So feel free to send me whatever you think is worth sharing.]

If your father is a poor man,
it is your fate.
But if your father-in-law is a poor man,
it's your stupidity.
.........................................................................
I was born intelligent -
education ruined me.
.........................................................................
Practice makes perfect.....
But nobody's perfect......
so why practice?
.........................................................................
If it's true that we are here to help others,
then what exactly are the others here for?
.........................................................................
Since light travels faster than sound,
people appear bright until you hear them speak.
.........................................................................
How come "abbreviated" is such a long word?
.........................................................................
Money is not everything.
There's Mastercard & Visa.
.........................................................................
One should love animals.
They are so tasty.
.........................................................................
Behind every successful man, there is a woman
And behind every unsuccessful man, there are two.
.........................................................................
Every man should marry.
After all, happiness is not the only thing in life.
.........................................................................
The wise never marry.
And when they marry they become otherwise.
.........................................................................
Success is a relative term.
It brings so many relatives.
.........................................................................
Never put off the work till tomorrow
what you can put off today.
.........................................................................
"Your future depends on your dreams" .
So go to sleep.
.........................................................................
There should be a better way to start a day .
Than waking up every morning.
.........................................................................
"Hard work never killed anybody".
But why take the risk?
.........................................................................
"Work fascinates me".
I can look at it for hours.
.........................................................................
The more you learn, the more you know.
The more you know, the more you forget.
The more you forget, the less you know.
So.. why learn.
.........................................................................
A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk, I have a work station.
Need I say more?