funny pictures and bizarre news

Calling someone “the cat’s pajamas” means they’re especially special. They’re truly terrific. They’re, well, the cat’s pajamas. No question it’s quite a compliment. As for who coined it, well that’s open to debate. With very few exceptions, cats don’t wear pajamas. Mavens’ Word of the Day explains that doesn’t really matter, because felines have nothing to do with the phrase. “The cat’s pajamas…was a very popular expression in the 1920s, associated with the daring and unconventional jazz-age flappers.”

Mavens’ mentions that sportswriter and cartoonist Tad Dorgan may have come up with the phrase. This would make sense. Dorgan was known for making up interesting expressions that were pleasing to the ear.

For what it’s worth, the reasonably reliable Wikipedia also credits Dorgan and lists several of his other creations, including “the bee’s knees,” “for crying out loud,” “hard-boiled,” and the oft-forgotten but no less worthy “twenty-three skidoo.”

We’ve been meaning to answer this one for weeks, but stuff kept coming up. First, the dog needed a bath. Then we ran out of garlic salt. Then we got sucked into a Lifetime TV-movie we’d only seen twice before. Before we knew it, we’d wasted the day rather than seizing it. So without further delay, here are some tips to help you avoid making the same mistake. This article by Jennifer Koretsky lists 10 ways to overcome the evils of procrastination. Her advice, in no particular order: prioritize, delegate, and reward yourself. She also mentions the importance of breaking up large tasks into more manageable ones. For example, don’t dust your entire TV at once. Just dust the upper-right corner.

All kidding aside, you can better manage your time if you understand why you’re procrastinating in the first place. Are you afraid of failure? Are you waiting to be “in the right mood”? Don’t. It’s a cliché as well as a commercial, but if you turn off the TV and just do it, you’ll achieve your goals and feel good about yourself in the process. Not even a relaxing day on the couch can promise you that…

Count on ants to be the first uninvited guests to show up at a picnic. Their party-crashing feats show just how productive and important they are and hint at why they thrive in just about any habitat.

It hasn’t always been an ant’s world. Scientists estimate modern-day ants first evolved about 120 million years ago. But the fossil record suggests that ants at this time weren’t the prevalent insect that they are today. Not until 60 million years later, when some ants adapted to the new world of flowering plants and diversified their diets, did the critters achieve ecological dominance.

Since then they’ve had a successful run of the planet [Image Gallery].

Scientists estimate that about 20,000 ant species crawl the Earth. Taxonomists have classified more than 11,000 species, which account for at least one-third of all insect biomass. The combined heft of ants in the Brazilian Amazon is about four times greater than the combined mass of all of the mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, according to one survey.

Everybody knows ants

Ants rule because of the many different ways in which they have adapted to work and eat.           

Even their appearance and where they live contrasts from one ant to the next. They can be as tiny as the millimeter-long Oligomyrmex atomus or as big as the aptly named 1.5 inch-long Dinoponera. They come in a range of colors from yellow and red to black. They exist in deserts, rain forests, and swamps—anywhere but the coldest and highest places on Earth.

“Nearly all human languages have a word for ant,” said Philip Ward, an entomologist at the University of California at Davis. “It’s a universal idea. That’s not true for many insects.” Ward published a primer on ants in the March issue of the journal Current Biology.

Range of behaviors

Many ants feed from flowering plants rich in carbohydrates. Some species of carpenter ants construct defensive shelters around the base of plants, to guard against other insects and protect their food supply.

Ants that live in hot, dry habitats have come up with ways to survive long periods of drought by storing food. The popular children’s science kits, Uncle Milton’s Ant Farms, are run by the hardy Pogonomyrmex californicus seed-harvesters that, in the wild, collect huge stockpiles underground. Honey pot ants use their own bodies as storage containers.

Some ants fight for nourishment. Thick antennae on the heads of army ants withstand battles against other ants. Trap-jaw ants, Odontomachus, snap shut their predatory jaws so quickly you can hear it click. Slave-raiding ants steal babies from their neighbors’ nests.

Females do all the work

A family of ants employs queens, gardeners and bandits that have developed specialized tools and skills to get their respective jobs done.  Within each species, division of labor varies depending on an individual’s age and sex.

Ants looking after the brood and working inside the nest tend to be younger, while those defending the nest and foraging outside are older. Like all the social species of the insect order Hymenoptera, female ants do all of the work; males just spread their genes around.

“Males are little flying sperm missiles,” said Alex Wild, an entomologist at the University of Arizona.

All ants are social, but some species have developed complex social societies while others remain more primitive. While some ants hunt in parties, the Australian bulldog ant hunts in simple solitude, using its big eyes as opposed to complicated chemical cues.

“The colonies are small. There’s not much morphological difference between the queens and the workers,” said Wild. “They have not developed many ‘ant-y’ traits.”

Vampire ants

The ancient Dracula lineage diverged from their ant ancestors before the advent of food-sharing behavior and the ability to regurgitate food. Instead, they poke holes in the abdomen of their larvae to suck on the blood of their sisters.

Unlike other social species like bees and wasps, most ants lack wings and have evolved an arsenal of chemicals to facilitate communication on the ground.

“Being wingless places a constraint on foraging,” Ward said. “They have to collect all of their food on the ground, so that means that ground-based communication is very important.”

Chemicals cues call for dates, alarms, and food locations. When she’s ready to mate, the queen of some species will climb to a high point, stick her rear in the air, and release a pheromone that catches the attention of the guys.

Ants emit alarm pheromones from a gland in their mouth if something disturbs their nest.

“It causes the ants to flip out,” Wild said. “It’s a cue for ants to grab their larvae and run below ground to safety. Defenders of the nest start running around with their mandibles open ready to bite and sting things.”

Communication is the key

Humans can sense these pheromones, too. Bright orange citronella ants, found only in North America, make a strong citrus smell. Not all pheromones smell so sweet, however. Members of the Pheidole group stink of feces when alarmed.

Ants lead the way with chemical cairns, mapping trails and recruiting fellow workers to follow paths to provisions.

“The success of ants is in the way they have figured out how to use their social behavior to maximize a way to bring in resources,” Wild said. “They’ve developed systems of communication so that they can rapidly communicate. That’s why you get massive numbers of ants at your picnic.”

The French already enjoy a 35-hour work week and generous vacation. Now the health minister wants to look into whether workers should be allowed to sleep on the job.

France launched plans this week to spend $9 million this year to improve public awareness about sleeping troubles. About one in three French people suffer from them, the ministry says.

Fifty-six percent of French complain that a poor night’s sleep has affected their job performance, according to the ministry.

“Why not a nap at work? It can’t be a taboo subject,” Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said Monday.

He called for further studies and said he would promote on-the-job naps if they prove useful. France’s state-run health insurance provider will send letters explaining the importance of good sleep. The Health Ministry’s Web site offers tips on how best to get a good night’s rest.

The ministry’s online “Passport to Sleep” recommends cutting down on coffee, tea, colas, and athletic activity after 8 p.m., shunning TV time or working late in the evening, and listening better to the body’s own sleep signals, such as yawning.

Bertrand said sleepiness causes 20 percent to 30 percent of highway accidents across France each year.

Seismic activity is tearing Africa apart and scientists are geared up to watch the ripping landscape in an unprecedented set of observations.

It’s liable to be a long, slow investigation.

The African and Arabian plates meet in the remote Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia and have been going through a rifting process—at a speed of less than 1 inch per year—for the past 30 million years. This rifting formed the 186-mile Afar depression [image] and the Red Sea.

Occasionally, the buildup of pressure can lead to bursts of cataclysmic activity. In September 2005, a chain of earthquakes caused hundreds of deep fractures, as reported that year [image]. In some spots the ground shifted some 26 feet [image], and magma, enough to fill a football stadium more than 2000 times, was injected into a crack between the two plates.

More recent analysis showed that the Red Sea is parting as part of the phenomenon.

“Much of the activity between the continental shelves takes place deep underwater at the mid-ocean ridges,” said Tim Wright, a geophysicist with the University of Leeds, UK.  “Ethiopia is the only place on the planet where we can see a continent splitting apart on dry land [image].”

Wright and his team plan to monitor the movement of these plates—one of the fundamental processes taking place on Earth—and determine the properties of rock and magma below the surface. This data will allow them to create a computer model that will simulate how magma moves through the Earth’s crust to make and break continents.

“Afar is the only place on the planet where we can witness the final stages of continental breakup and the beginning of seafloor spreading,” Wright said in an email interview this week. “With this project, we’ll be able to understand how this happens for the first time. It will be first time anyone has collected the integrated, multi-disciplinary observations needed to understand continental breakup.”

As the plates move away from each other, molten rock is seeping into the gaps. This filler cools down to form new land. A million years from now, the Red Sea could come pouring into the crevice.

“It’s very exciting because we’re witnessing the birth of a new ocean,” Wright said. “The new ocean will connect to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.” The Gulf of Aden is an arm of the Arabian Sea situated between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in eastern Africa.

Should the processes occurring today continue, the map of Africa will be forever changed, the researchers say.

“In geological terms, a million years is the blink of an eye. We don’t precisely know what is going to happen, but we believe that it may turn parts of Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea into an island, before a much larger land mass—the horn of Africa—breaks off from the continent.”

Serbia has launched a nationwide media blitz equating smoking with suicide bombing, in its biggest campaign yet to persuade almost four million people in this cigarette-loving stronghold to quit the weed.

Huge billboard pictures show a man strapped with a vest of oversized cigarettes that look like sticks of dynamite, under the slogan “One Smoker, Many Victims”.

Every second man and every third woman in Serbia gets through a pack of cigarettes daily, on average, sending a national total of 1.4 billion packs up in smoke per year.

“Cardiovascular diseases are the number one killer in Serbia, and from our surveys we found that almost all victims were smokers,” said Tanja Knezevic, director of Serbia’s Institute of Public Health, which leads the campaign.

More than half of all Serbs smoke, double the rate of the United States and higher than most other European countries.

Laws exist banning smoking in public places such as hospitals and government buildings, but are routinely ignored by a people long used to the pungent haze of tobacco smoke in every cafe, bar, bus and office.

There is no social stigma attached to smoking, and little financial incentive to quit: a pack costs as little as 50 dinars (39 pence) for domestic brands, making it affordable even on the average salary of 300 euros a month.

“There are many reasons that smoking is so widespread: family background, stress, the bad economic situation,” Knezevic told Reuters.

Most people see it as a bad habit they enjoy, she said, and even when more aware of the health risks they tend not to pay much attention. It does not help either that 45 percent of doctors and nurses in Serbia are smokers, she added.

“Other countries started educating their public decades ago, so I can only hope we can show similar progress in 20 years,” Knezevic said.

“This campaign is very immediate and will also include street events and local celebrities. So hopefully it will get through to people.”

But cigarette vendors did not expect sales to suffer. They thought education would not make much difference as long as cigarettes remained cheap.

“People here smoke more than in other countries because we still feel the effects of the wars of the 1990s, we are still stressed,” said Nikola Suberic, owner of a Belgrade corner shop.

“Getting people to quit smoking is a long process. I guess it will happen here eventually…as long as there’s not another war, that is.”

An 87-year-old man was asked to prove he was over 21 when he tried to buy a bottle of sherry in a York supermarket. The former Lord Mayor of York, Jack Archer, said he was shocked – but flattered – when asked the question by staff at Morrisons in Acomb.

He said: “I don’t look my age but I certainly don’t look young enough to be in trouble for underage drinking.”

Morrisons said staff had to ask anyone buying alcohol to confirm they were over 21, or provide proof of age.

Mr Archer said he often had a small glass of sherry at bedtime to help him sleep.

‘Best intentions’

He said: “I was taken aback really. Afterwards I thought I should have showed them my bus pass and that would have proved how old I was.

“I must admit the lady wasn’t too persistent and I realised she was only doing what she’s been told to do.”

A Morrisons spokesman said: “This is done with the best of intentions and we would hope it is taken in good humour by those obviously over the age of 21, as we do not wish to cause offence and no disrespect is intended.

“We take our responsibility with regard to selling alcohol very seriously and all our stores operate the Task 21 scheme, which addresses the difficulties staff face in being able to determine if a customer is legally old enough to buy alcohol.

“To further limit any element of doubt, staff at the Acomb store are required to ask anyone buying alcohol to confirm that they are over 21.”

Anyone who appears to be under 21 has to provide proof they are old enough to buy alcohol.

Mr Archer interviewed

“People tend to look at them as if they are sick. They’re not sick, they’re healthy. They need orientation, that’s all.”

It is a Brazilian take on the global debate about models from Graca Cabral, an organiser of Sao Paulo Fashion Week. She insists corporate responsibility and the catwalk are not mutually exclusive.

“We’ve banned girls younger than 16,” Ms Cabral says, “and we’re asking everyone for a health certificate. As a fashion industry we are doing our part.”

And the Brazilian industry needs to.

Last November in Sao Paulo, a 21-year-old model, Ana Carolina Reston, died of a generalised infection caused by anorexia.

At the time of her death, she weighed just 40kg (88lb).

“At home she would eat, but I never knew what she did when she was travelling,” Ana Carolina’s mother, Miriam Reston, told the BBC.

“The modelling agencies should be like a mother to all these girls when they’re away from home,” she argues. “If the agencies could do more to make sure the girls stay healthy, that would be an improvement. You wouldn’t have another Ana Carolina.”

Education

The young model’s death gave a unique Brazilian focus to a debate already raging elsewhere.

Unlike Madrid and Milan, Sao Paulo Fashion Week has stopped short of setting criteria for models based on their Body Mass Index, a form of height to weight ratio.

Instead, the emphasis is on age limits and education.

Ahead of Wednesday’s first catwalk show, more than 100 young models attended lectures on health and nutrition. Each was given a booklet of dietary tips, entitled Eat Well and Without Guilt.

“I think it’s nice of them to teach us about food and to offer support,” says 17-year-old Brazilian model, Fernanda Quilici.

But she acknowledges that her own Body Mass Index is slightly below the level recommended by doctors.

“You don’t necessarily feel under pressure [to be thin],” adds 19-year-old model Amabile Provenzi, “but you don’t want to feel different.

“If your hips are bigger than a beautiful skinny girl’s, you feel you’re breaking the rules.”

Who’s to blame?

Outside the rarefied atmosphere of Planet Fashion, weight loss has become a fixation for increasing numbers of young Brazilian women.

I only became aware of what anorexia was when I lost my daughter Miriam Reston

The internet throngs with chat rooms, with names such as ‘Cursed Food’ and ‘Food is the Enemy of Perfection’.

Some bloggers hold up Anna Carolina Reston as an icon, to be imitated by others, while online tips are exchanged about the relative “benefits” of anorexia and bulimia, affectionately referred to as Ana and Mia.

But to what extent is any of this the fault or responsibility of the fashion industry? Some leading figures believe the safeguards have gone far enough.

“Obviously, I’m looking for healthy models with a healthy energy,” says Reinaldo Lourenco, a Brazilian designer. “But we shouldn’t be prejudiced because models are thin. Some girls are born skinny, others are born fat. That’s life.”

Others say more attention should be paid to social and cultural factors in Latin America’s largest nation.

“In Brazil there are lots of beautiful girls with limited education and training who come from the countryside to work in big cities,” explains top designer Raquel Davidowicz.

“These are simple people. It’s important that the agencies teach them about food and offer medical support otherwise these girls can die.”

At her home in Sao Paulo, Miriam Reston agrees that modelling agencies should take prime responsibility for their young charges. But the bereaved mother also hopes that other parents will learn from her experience.

“These girls are always coming and going, but you have to keep track of them,” says Miriam. “I only became aware of what anorexia was when I lost my daughter.”

Video: Models on the Sao Paulo catwalks!

So the question that do nuns file income tax returns?

Tax season is upon us. Time for every American to break out the tissues and aspirin. And yes, that includes sisters of the cloth.

While the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) states that churches are tax-exempt, it doesn’t necessarily follow that employees of churches are excused from filing income taxes. According to Peter Kershaw, priests and nuns in the Catholic Church are considered employees, or sometimes “self-employed ministers,” and report their compensation as income.

Japan’s health minister has referred to women as “birth-giving machines” in a speech to a local political meeting.