UK: How pickpockets trick your mind
Pickpockets use much more than sleight of hand, says Caroline Williams, they hack your brain’s weaknesses.
My mother has eyes in the back of her head. She also taught me from an early age to be suspicious of strange men, especially when they give you presents. Which makes it all the more surprising that a “nice man” bearing flowers managed to swipe 20 euros from her purse, while she was holding it in her hands and looking straight at it. ... (Read more)
BBC
Spain: Want to live longer? Switch off your TV
People who watch three or more hours of television daily may be twice as likely to die prematurely than people who watch less, according to a recently published study by Spanish scientists. ... (Read more)
The Local
South Korea: Korea’s cigarette prices among the world’s lowest
Cigarette prices in Korea remain some of the lowest among 41 major economies around the world, recent data revealed on Monday.
According to Korea Institute of Public Finance, the average price of best-selling Korean cigarettes between 2012 and 2013 was 2,500 won ($2.20) a pack, one sixth of the price set in Norway at $14.50 per pack. ... (Read more)
The Korea Herald
Austria: 12 things Austria gave the world
What wonderful inventions, discoveries, or traditions do we have Austria to thank for?
As Harry Lime says in the classic film noir The Third Man, set in war-torn Vienna, “In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” But can Austria claim to have produced more?
From the sublime to the mundane, from music, to cake, to physics, to postcards ... (Read more)
The Local
Iceland: Something In The Water
If you’re a carbon-based life form, you probably need water. If you’re a perpetually dehydrated carbon-based life form, like me, then you probably need a lot of water. And if you’re a perpetually dehydrated carbon-based life form who recently moved to Reykjavík, also like me, then one of the first things you probably noticed when you got here was the unmistakable whiff of sulphur almost every time you turned on a faucet. ... (Read more)
Reykjavik Grapevine
UAE: Fly (or crash) an A380, then go shopping
Budding pilots and curious daredevils can fly the prestigious Airbus A380 in Dubai, within a realistic flight simulator, at a second location in Dubai.
The new Airbus 380 simulator, the second such gear open to the public here, enables a “total immersion experience” in an enclosed cockpit, such that even real pilots can train in them, according to its promoters at the Magic Planet, City Centre Mirdif. ... (Read more)
Gulf News
Hawaii: Service dogs and service humans
Jerry Seinfeld once said,“On my block, a lot of people walk their dogs and I always see them walking along with their little poop bags. This, to me, is the lowest activity in human life. Following a dog with a little scooper. Waiting for him to go so you can walk down the street with it in your bag. If aliens are watching this through telescopes, they’re going to think the dogs are the leaders of the planet.”
Everyone knows the term service dog ... (Read more)
The Garden Island
*Image of slice of Sacher cake in plate with coffee via Shutterstock
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