What not to eat.

I am quite fond of marzipan and enjoy snacking on almonds. Yet were I to be lost in the wilderness I would be advised to avoid plants that smelt of marzipan or almonds. Such plants are usually poisonous. Plants with very glossy leaves are also best avoided. Unsurprisingly finding food to eat is not as important as staying warm and finding water.

I don't often venture into the wildnerness but it's good to know.

Ingenuity

I have no bottle opener. This has never posed a problem for me before but today I found myself in need of a bottle opener in order to liberate some beer. Naturally I turned to the Internet for advice and was duly informed that it would work if I used the hole in a door jamb. Sure enough I was able to pop the cap off using the hole in the door jamb.

Cheers!

Top of the world

It should not be surprising to learn this but Everest has gone commercial. During the high season 700 people live in Everest's base camp. The camp has hot showers, Internet access and a bakery. There are even fixed ropes leading right up to the summit. Thus you don't need to be that experienced a climber to reach the summit.

Perhaps even I could attempt it.

False friends

When learning a foreign language you will come across a word that you think you know. It looks the same as a word in your native language but yet means something completely different in the new language. For example gush is an Albanian word for hugging each other around the neck. Snags is Afikaans for during the night, sofa means sleep in Icelandic, and purr is Scots Gaelic for headbutt.

Those Scots, eh?

Blast from the past

There were very few people that I actually wanted to keep in touch with from my high school. Much to my regret one of the people I really wanted to keep in touch with I lost all contact with. Today he turned up on facebook. So we had a good old catch up. It was so good to know that he is happy and doing well.

I am so, so pleased for him.

The end of macho?

Today I was reading an article called the Death of Macho. It outlines how the current recession is having a disproportionate impact on men. Of the US job losses around 80% have fallen on men because the economic recession has hit industries that are traditionally dominated by men, construction and heavy industry. The article argues that the New Deal which was introduced to stimulate the American economy during the Great Depression was really designed to prop up the male breadwinner. Indeed the New Deal introduced public works which gave more jobs to men than women. American President Barack Obama's stimulus plan for the current recession is quite different from that of the New Deal.

National Day of Commemoration

Today is the National Day of Commemoration in the Republic of Ireland. Believe it or not I was not aware of this holiday, I guess it was always overshadowed by the riots and the violence of the twelfth. This holiday is designed to remember all the Irish men and women who died in past wars or in service with the UN. It occurs on the Sunday closest to the 11 July as that is the day that the truce was signed ending the Irish War of Independence.