Coughing your way to fame

While trying to work on assessments recently I inexplicably had this song in my head. I hadn't heard it for a million years, but it just kept coming to mind anyway so I eventually gave in and listened to it. How's that for fossilizing a problem?

As an extension of my procrastination I looked up James Morrison's bio on the ever-reputable Wikipedia. Apparently his distinctively gravelly voice is not just down to his smoking habit - he suffered a really bad case of whooping cough as a baby. He was only given a 30% chance of survival and even then was expected to be pretty severely brain damaged.

Instead he just has a really great voice. High five for silver linings.

To sleep, perchance to dream

Reptiles sleep, but they don’t dream.

Birds sleep and dream a little.

All mammals dream during sleep.

Info from an article called "Who Needs Sleep?" by Kirsten Weir (Current Health 2, Oct 2005; 32, 2)

Iiiiiiiinternet

The Internet (capital "I") is the largest internet (with a small "i") in the world.

The Suit You Can Wash in the Shower

Looking for a way to save some time? How about getting a suit you can wash while you shower?

The Shower Clean Suit = "dawn of a revolution in business attire"?

Konaka Co. released this one in 2008 so I guess they're actually old news by now.

Suicide prevention

I recently read a very sad article on Japan Today about Japan's suicide rate. Last year, for the 12th consecutive year, over 30,000 people in Japan took their own lives, accounting for 3% of all deaths there. Russia is the only country with a higher suicide rate (and that thought makes me sad too, for the Russians).

After reading about that I heard a radio ad for Salvation Army suicide prevention training and I thought I'd look it up, then I checked out what Lifeline has too, and I came to the realisation that suicide really is no small problem here in Australia either.

According to a very recent Lifeline article suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians under the age of 44.

I had to read that a few times before it sunk in. Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians under the age of 44.

Deaths from suicide are almost double road related deaths for men and women in Australia between the ages of 15 and 44. So every time you read in the newspaper about a young person killed on the road, there's almost two young people you don't read about who've taken their own lives.

Everyone has a role to play in suicide prevention. What's yours?

- You can do something about suicide prevention (women)

- You can do something about suicide prevention (men)

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. There is HOPE.

Catfish = crazy

New learning courtesy of a chickpea.

Catfish have taste buds all over their bodies.

"Catfish are swimming tongues," says Dr. John Caprio of Louisiana State University. "You can't touch any place on a catfish without touching thousands of taste buds. To use an analogy, it's as if the tip of your tongue grew out and covered your body."

Gross.

Apparently their other senses are great too, but this one is the creepiest if you ask me.

Whaling and body language

I'm supposed to be researching for a Japanese lesson plan but keep getting distracted.

An Australian guy (I don't know anything about him, but the accent gives his country of origin away pretty quickly) has a youtube culture series under the username TheJapanChannelDcom. He seems to know his stuff.

I found his take on the whaling issue insightful. He makes some fair points, especially at around 5:53 of the 10 minute video.

I also really liked his short description of some Japanese body language. He does the head tilting and air-through-the-teeth thing (from ~1.43 onwards) really well.