Canada: Happy Birthday, LOL!
May 1989 was the first time we saw LOL used to abbreviate “laugh out loud” (though its use to denote “lots of love” goes back even further).
As The Independent notes, credit for the acronym is disputed. Linguist Ben Zimmer says the earliest citation is from the May 1989 issue of the Fidonet newsletter, while a Canadian named Wayne Pearson claims he first used it on a Canadian bulletin board system in the early to mid 1980s. ... (Read more)
Worldcrunch via The Indipendent
Japan: Princess Noriko to marry priest, lose imperial status
Princess Noriko became informally engaged to a senior priest and will lose her imperial family status after marrying the commoner under a law that some have criticized as antiquated.
Noriko’s engagement to Kunimaro Senge, the 40-year-old eldest son of the chief priest at the Izumo Taisha grand shrine in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, will become formal after the traditional “Nosai no gi” betrothal rite. ... (Read more)
Asahi Shimbun
Italy: Italian football-playing ‘granny’ goes viral
An elderly woman who was filmed playing football with some children on a street in the suburbs of Rome has shot to internet fame after the video was shared thousands of times on Facebook. ... (Read more)
The Local
UAE: Scholarships for four Arab women scientists
Four Arab women scientists, including an Emirati, are to be awarded the L’Oreal-Unesco Pan Arab Regional Fellowship Award, a scholarship worth 20,000 euros, in recognition of their contributions to the advancement of science. ... (Read more)
The Khaleej Times
Indonesia: New profession
A fisherman carries life vests for rent on Pandawa Beach, Badung regency, Bali, on Wednesday. Scores of fishermen have switched profession to work in tourism in line with the rising growth of the industry in the area. ... (Read more)
The Jakarta Post
Sweden: Swede Lego enthusiast to sell collection to save marriage
A Swedish Lego enthusiast is to try and sell his 300kg collection in a bid to save his marriage.
The man, from Varberg in western Sweden, posted an advert on buy-sell website Blocket, titled ‘300kg Lego – save my marriage’. He explained underneath that if someone buys the collection they could make a difference ... (Read more)
Ice News
South Korea: More men treated for hair loss
The number of Korean men seeking treatment for hair loss is seeing an annual increase of approximately 4.8 percent, according to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in Seoul.
The institution said the number of patients increased from 180,000 in 2009 to 210,000 in 2013 ... (Read more)
The Korea Herald
*Image of Himeji castle in Japan surrounded by cherry blossom via Shutterstock
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