I want to spend a penny, not go to the shop: nurses to be taught euphemisms
“Norfolk hospital organises lessons for foreign nurses to avoid cultural misunderstandings with patients.
Foreign nurses are receiving a crash course in euphemism after bewildered patients expressing the wish to “spend a penny” found themselves being escorted to a hospital shop. Norfolk’s Queen Elizabeth hospital has organised special “adapting to life in Norfolk” sessions for Portuguese staff whose otherwise excellent English results in too-literal translations of everyday expressions. Patients, particularly the elderly, face being met with incomprehension when complaining of “feeling under the weather”, suffering “pin and needles” or experiencing problems with their “back passage”.
Local expressions such as “blar”, meaning to cry, and “mawther”, meaning “young woman”, are also likely to see mystified nurses flicking in vain through conventional phrasebooks. The distinct Norfolk brogue provides another linguistic obstacle for the recruits hired by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS trust. “One of the things people from overseas had difficulty with was our euphemisms such as ‘spend a penny’,” said a hospital spokesman. “In the past some of the new recruits from abroad, when patients used the expression, were taking people to the hospital shop.”
“They all speak exceptional English, but that doesn’t necessarily cover the type of English spoken in Norfolk. We have many different phrases and sayings in this part of the world. A lot of patients are elderly and use what can only be described as quaint phrases and descriptions, especially for body parts and common illnesses.” The hospital has organised two-hour induction courses in dialect, idiom and colloquialism, covering phrases such as “spick and span”, “higgledy-piggledy”, “la-di-dah” and “tickled pink”. Other useful terms on the agenda are “jim jams”, “a cuppa” and “elbow grease”. Nurses are being asked to write down any confusing phrases they hear on the wards so they can be discussed in follow-up meetings.”
Read more at The Guardian (Thanks @UKgnome)
Great Guerrilla Advertising
“Guerrilla Advertising is an unconventional way of performing promotional activities. Usually very funny or subtle, it’s a great way to promote a business with a low budget and generate buzz. But you’ll need lots of creativity.
Here are some great guerrilla ads examples. They are simply brilliant.”
Vacuum cleaner ad:
Inventive mobile carrier ad:
See more at Funnymos (Thanks Tracey)
Cows given waterbeds to improve milk
“A dairy farmer has supplied his herd with waterbeds to encourage them to produce better quality milk. Cows at Brue Valley Farms, in Glastonbury, Somerset, are also treated to classical music in the milking shed. The cattle can spend up to 18 hours a day lounging on their specially-designed rubber beds, which are cleaned and filled with 50 litres of fresh water every day.
Bosses at the farm, which has been producing Farmhouse Cheddar for half a century, say their unusual methods have helped to produce a better quality product.
Robert Clapp, Director of Herds, said: “In order to make the best possible cheese you need to be completely ‘cow centric.’ “It’s not about what is best for the farmer, but about what is best for the cow. “Our herds enjoy top quality treatment and in return they create delicious, creamy milk that goes into producing the best quality Farmhouse Cheddar.” The 35-year-old added: “We treat our cows as individuals and care for every aspect of their lives including socialising and comfort as well as obvious needs such as food and health care.”
To celebrate fifty years of cheesemaking, the team at Brue Valley Farms has developed an extra-mature Farmhouse Cheddar. The new recipe will be sold exclusively in Marks and Spencer’s supermarkets.”
Read more at The Telegraph
The Pizza Burger: A 2,500-Calorie ‘Fat Bomb’
“Burger King is set to launch the Pizza Burger – a two-in-one dish that contains more than 2,500 calories and is four times the size of the chain’s Whoppers.
The meal will delight fast-food fans when it is exclusively introduced at Burger King’s Whopper Bar in Times Square, New York, next month. Besides the beef and a 9.5-inch sesame bun, the Pizza Burger is topped with pepperoni, mozzarella, Tuscan pesto and marinara sauce. It also comes in six slices, just like a pizza.
According to blogger Me So Hungry, it is the perfect mix between a pizza and a burger. “The visual highlight was the New York Pizza Burger… it’s not bad. Tastes kinda like pizza, but also like a burger,” the blogger said. It has been dubbed the “fat bomb” because, for $13 (£8.40), customers can bite into 2,520 calories – the recommended daily intake is 2,500 calories for men and 2,000 for women.
One Pizza Burger contains 144g of fat – 59g of which is saturated. It also has 3,780mg of salt, which is more than double the daily limit for adults. John Schaufelberger, Burger King’s vice president of global marketing, insisted the Pizza Burger is “intended to be shared”. But he also admitted that it “demonstrates the type of menu offerings our guests can expect”. According to Mr Schaufelberger, the Pizza Burger is a homage to New York, the home of Burger King.”
Read more at Sky News (Thanks Liam R)
Recycled Chewing Gum Turned Into Chewing Gum Bins
“Tired of gum-plastered streets, Anna Bullus decided to design and install chewing gum receptacles made, naturally, from recycled chewing gum. Her pink “Gumdrops” now appear in five UK locations and Six Flags Theme Park in New Jersey.
Though she won’t reveal the gum rubber’s exact contents, Bullus told The Guardian that eight months in a lab allowed her to perfect her technique, making gum first into a foam and then a used-gum pellet, before extracting a polymer modestly called BRGP (Bullus Recycled Gum Polymer). Perhaps it’s not surprising that you could turn gum into plastic, since the “nonnutritive masticatory substance” that gives gum its chewiness can include butyl rubber, used in inner tubes.
If her Gumdrops can keep gum off the streets, such bins might save British taxpayers an estimated £150 ($300) million per year–that’s what the government spends now on steam hoses, freezing machines, and corrosive chemical street cleanings. Plus Bullus says the Gumdrops, once full, can provide fodder for more Gumdrops and other plastic products. She told The Guardian: “The amazing thing is you can use it for any plastic product…. I’d love to do some Wellington boots, for example. Gum boots, in fact.””
Read more at Discover Magazine
Bible gets Twitter makeover
“In the beginning was the word. And then came 140 words. And at the rate that Twitter versions of the Bible are developing, there could be more than 140,000 words in the next few months.
Rivalling the speed of Creation, as described in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, tweeting the holy book has spread rapidly across the internet since the Guardian highlighted a Durham evangelist’s daily version last week.
News of Chris Juby’s almighty precis of scripture’s 800,000-odd words to 1,190 daily tweets (@biblesummary) has prompted other versions from eastern Europe to the US, as well as a wider airing for similar projects already under way.
Among these is the “Twible”, tweeted daily by American author and academic Jana Riess, who shared Juby’s feeling that the good book needed better reading, but with added jokes.
While Juby’s Twitter Bible plays things straight, the Twible adapts the Old Testament to the light-hearted quipping familiar in everyday Tweets. The story of Moses in Exodus, chapter two, for instance, is reduced to: “Baby Moses: I’m cool with floating down the Nile in a basket, but who is this Egyptian chick I’m supposed to call Mom?”
Riess, who converted to Mormonism as an adult, started condensing after hearing an Easter Sunday sermon that included a tweet of the Bible’s opening words in Genesis, chapter one. Unlike 32-year-old Juby’s staid version, which tops off the actual text’s “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth” with 17 equally straightforward words, Riess’s effort is played for laughs.
Using the online abbreviations BRB (be right back) and LOL (laugh out loud), it read: “Day 1: Lighting system installed. BRB. Days 2-6: Some assembly required: sky, plants, cows, people. Left humans in charge, LOL. Day 7: Siesta.”
Riess tracked it to another Twitter Bible project called What Would God Tweet (@WWGT), by an anonymous prophet called The Holy Ghostwriter.
“I wanted to find humour in the good book too,” says Riess. “The project started with the one key hermeneutical (interpretative) question I felt no one was asking about the Bible: what would the Onion say?”"
Read more at The Guardian (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
Futurama Writer Created And Proved A Brand New Math Theorem Just For 1 Episode
We all knew the writing staff of Futurama was brainy, but this is something else. To work out the ridiculous brain switching plot line from last night’s hilarious episode, writer Ken Keeler (who also just happens to have a PhD in mathematics) ended up writing and proving an entirely new theorem. This is probably the most impressive bit of side work from a TV writer since a writer ofDesperate Housewives discovered a new species or the staff of Full House developed a vaccine for a specific strain of syphilis.
In the episode “The Prisoner of Benda,” the Professor and Amy use a new invention to switch bodies. Unfortunately, they discover that the same two brains can’t switch twice and have to come up with some equation to prove that, with enough people switching, eventually everyone will end up in their rightful form. This, of course, leads to much hijinks as well as the grossest sex scene the show has ever done (take that, Prof. Farnsworth and Mom!).
Check out the full description of the theory here.
The Diana Conspiracy – an alternative viewpoint
When you put it like this you see the Diana conspiracy claims in a different light. From the awesome Mitchell and Webb look.
Amusing Mirror Prank
“Replace the mirror in a bathroom with a window pane, place a set of identical twins in identical rooms opposite each other and proceed to prank everyone who walks in. Theyve all become a vampires!”
Via Break (Thanks Katherine)
The Fun Theory
The Fun Theory site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better. We’ve blogged some of the videos in the past, but be sure to check out the full collection over at http://thefuntheory.com/.
Below is ‘The Scratch Mat’.
“Most people enter a building without cleaning their shoes, often resulting in dirt all over the floor.
Could this nuisance be removed by making the activity fun to do? We think so.”
http://thefuntheory.com/ (Thanks @sureality)
