Skepticurious Interesting & unusual things I find.

23Jun/100

Anyone sick enough to collect or trade products produced by child labor?

I was driving somewhere the other day, and I forget what chain of thoughts led me there, but I wondered, are there any people sick enough to collect or trade products that were known to be manufactured by children? I was imagining it wrapped in the guise of a historical/anthropological interest. Perhaps people could get away with collecting/trading toys made in the 1920s by European child slave labor or something. People seem to do what I'd consider similarly disgusting, like trading in pre-embargoed ivory. Fortunately my Googling led me nowhere, so either it's a unpopular past time or no past time at all (which I hope).

Along the way I did find this useful Retailer Sweatshop Scorecard that rates some of the leading retailers and whether or not they support companies known to use or support child labor. A brief summary gives the following grades to major retailers:

Nationwide Chain Report Card
Walmart F
Target D+
Sears D-
May's C
Kohl's D+
Kmart D
J.C. Penney D-
Federated C

12Jun/100

WTF RU SAYN?

If you're too old, too unhip, or lead to rich and successful a life to pay attention, there's a new language in town, and it's TXT.  You might need a dictionary or online translator.

GENESIS 1:1

In da Bginnin God cr8ed da heavens & da earth. Da earth waz barren, wit no 4m of life; it waz unda a roaring ocean cuvred wit dRkness

See other passages from the bible, and somewhere out there is also the entire bible as translated by the Bible Society in Australia (they have since removed it from their site).

It's interesting to note that the modern TXT language descends from one invented by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1962 short story adaptation of Hamlet entitled 2BR02B. ;)

Of course, like any language it can be abused... such as this guy speaking TXT while driving...

^Q

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1Jun/100

How Dogs Drink : The Secret Revealed

I was shocked to learn how dogs actually drink water.  I don't know what I thought happened, but it sure wasn't this...

Dog Lapping Water:

And in case you're curious why lapping water doesn't work for us humans, here you go:

Human Lapping Water:

^Q