40 FUNNY AND UNIQUE RESTROOM SIGNS

These bathroom signs will give you a chuckle on your way into the loo a.k.a the poo parlor.  Check out a sample of some awesome toilet signs from around the world.

-Leenks

20 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of 9-1-1 Dispatchers

Every day, the U.S. 9-1-1 system receives more than 500,000 calls, and emergency dispatchers are the very first responders. They translate a caller’s situation into actionable instructions so police, fire, or medical teams can respond as quickly as possible. It’s an incredibly demanding job, with some shifts lasting up to 16 hours. That’s a lot of time spent listening to terrified callers in their most desperate moments, and it takes a certain kind of person to survive the stress. Hopefully you never have to dial 9-1-1, but if you do, here are a few things you should know about the person answering your call.

-mental_floss

What Life Was Like in the Chelsea Hotel in the 1990s and 2000s

By the time Linda Troeller moved into the Chelsea Hotel in 1994, it was already well-known for its legendary list of former residents. Jack Kerouac, Sam Shepard, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Sid Vicious were all part of the bohemian culture that predated Troeller’s arrival, but the energy they helped create, one that encouraged community and artistic expression, was still palpable.

-Slate

Take Me To A Useful Website

The ugly truth about cheating according to science

If you’ve ever been cheated on you know how much it sucks, and I do mean really sucks. It’s kind of like being punched in the stomach, making you double over in pain. In the infographic below by The Huffington Post there are some facts about cheating rounded up for your convenience.

-ScienceDump

A temporary marriage makes more sense than marriage for life

In November 1891, the British sexologist Havelock Ellis married the writer and lesbian Edith Lees. He was 32 and a virgin. And since he was impotent, they never consummated their union. After their honeymoon, the two lived separately in what he called an open marriage. The union lasted until Lees’ death in 1916. This is not what most would consider a model marriage. But perhaps because of its unusualness, Ellis was able to introduce an idea that remains as radical and tantalizing today as it was in his time.

-Aeon

Haunting photos show forgotten — and forbidden — buildings in America

The cities of the Rust Belt -- once-vibrant industrial centers that stretched across the northern U.S. and around the Great Lakes -- have receded over the last decades, leaving behind abandoned factories, schools, theaters and other public buildings that served a once much larger population. Many of these buildings now sit quietly decaying until their demolition date, mostly unseen except for a few architects and construction workers.

-The Washington Post

The Chapel of The Holy Cross in Sedona

Jutting out of the red sandstone walls in the Arizona desert, the Chapel of the Holy Cross near the town of Sedona, is a marvel of modern architecture. The Roman Catholic chapel was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude, who drew inspiration for its design from the newly constructed Empire State Building in New York. The chapel is directly over a butte, nearly 200 feet above the valley. The interior is very simple, with nothing more than a few pews and an alter. No traditional services are held within the chapel, as it is meant to be a place of reflection and meditation.


-Amusing Planet

The Trip Planners - The unusual couple behind an online encyclopedia of psychoactive substances

People who are interested in psychoactive cacti, ketamine, and LSD are generally unfazed by strangeness. Any such person will likely know of Erowid, as will most toxicologists and many E.R. doctors. When the site launched, in 1995, it served as a repository of drug-culture esoterica, drawing just a few hits a day. Today, Erowid contains highly detailed profiles of more than three hundred and fifty psychoactive substances, from caffeine to methamphetamine. Last year, the site had at least seventeen million unique visitors.

In October, on the twentieth anniversary of Erowid’s launch, I traveled to the home of its founders, in the Gold Country of northeast California, where the Central Valley gives way to the Sierra Nevada and road signs along I-80 start marking the altitude. The hills are dotted with Gold Rush museums and monuments, along with evidence of a thriving cannabis-growing scene. Local television weathermen refer to the region as the Mother Lode.

-The New Yorker

Viande à chien! On ne change rien, tout va pour le mieux

On n’en parle déjà plus dans les chaumières, mais la semaine dernière, le bacon à l’érable grésillait sur une fausse note. Pensez, l’OMS nous balance dans la mâchoire que les charcuteries sont cancérigènes et la viande rouge, « probablement » aussi. Et on se demande combien on compilera encore d’études pour retirer le mot « probablement ».
 
Il faut dire que les lobbys et les enjeux sont majeurs. Juste en exportation de boeuf, le Canada n’encaisse pas loin de 25 milliards de dollars par an. L’agro-business, c’est comme le cancer-business, c’est du business. Sans états d’âme.

Cela fait 25 siècles, soit depuis l’Antiquité, que les philosophes se disputent stoïquement à savoir si on doit manger de la viande ou non. Empédocle, ce grand anémique, fustigeait déjà les carnistes cinq siècles av. J.-C. Puis, Plutarque, Pythagore, Épicure et Zénon se crêpent la barbe à ce sujet. C’est dire comme le débat refait surface régulièrement depuis et qu’il vaut mieux faire taire la polémique qui antagonise la digestion. On dit que le végétarisme est la diète des philosophes.

-Le Devoir

Sex, Death and Mushrooms

The forest air is sweet and winy with decay. It’s raining hard. I wipe drops of cold water from the tip of my nose, open an umbrella and ready myself for a walk with my old friend Nick, emeritus professor of the history of science and amateur mycologist. For the last 15 years I’ve accompanied him on autumn mushroom hunts; today we’re visiting Thetford Forest, in Suffolk. Both of us carry trugs, traditional English wooden baskets of willow and sweet chestnut, to hold what we will find. Perhaps tiny fungi with hairlike stalks, or lumpy shelves on the trunks of rotting trees, or pale masses like discarded round pillows, or splayed red starfish arms emerging from the ground.


-NY Times

Life’s Secrets Sought in a Snowflake

Until one or two billion years ago, life on Earth was limited to a soup of single-celled creatures. Then one fateful day, a lonely cell surrendered solitude for communal living. It developed a chance mutation that made its progeny stick together, eventually giving rise to the first multicellular life.

-Quanta Mag

Conspiracy theories: why people need to believe that the truth is hidden out there

Why are conspiracy theories so attractive? There is not so much of a difference between conspiracy theorists and the rest of us. We are drawn to the idea of conspiracy because it resonates with us; we understand the idea of people being self-interested and not having our best interests at heart, and having hidden motives and getting together to do shady stuff. Conspiracy theories extend upon that and tap into these assumptions and fears we have about the world. But we all have them, that’s why conspiracy theories make sense to us all.

-The Guardian

Creepy Places That Are Also Tourist Attractions

Truk Lagoon Micronesia.

-Leenks

Inside the Chinese Boot Camps Designed to Break Video Game Addiction

The camo and calisthenics in these photos may call to mind a military academy, but they actually document a rehab center for internet addicts. China has more online gamers—368 million—than the United States has people. Perhaps it's no surprise then that Chinese parents, psychiatrists, and media often describe wangyin, or internet addiction, as a clinical disorder. Sometimes called "digital heroin," it is said to afflict 24 million young people. 

-Mother Jones