Interesting Posts and Articles #51

1. Watermelon has the effects of Viagra. But generalized, not localized.
2. The New York Times discusses size and style of Bucharian houses in Queens:
   

   These residents have complained about the Bukharian tendency to build boldly and big, saying that the new houses are destroying their neighborhoods.
   ...
   “A lot of the houses that are going up there are just simply too big relative to the other houses that are there and have been there for generations. They are out of character.”

"The National Children's Bureau has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.

This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food."

3. Kids who do not like foreign food potentially racist? The Telegraph reports:
   

   "The National Children's Bureau ... has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.

   This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food."
   

4. Kankan Chadash has some interesting posts about Emunas Chachamim and whether not deviating to the right or left includes philosophical pronouncements.
5. Avakesh reposts a funny, anti-Christian satire distributed unwittingly by Christians. Iyov provides a translation. An excerpt:
   

   Be not like unto thy fathers, who by close scrutiny tried to find a deep philosophical meaning in the account of creation, and who had so much to disclose about the first human couple, about the four rivers, the tree of knowledge, the serpent, and the coats of skin which the Lord made them for clothing. Not so thou! Conceive all this literally!

6. A solution to the shidduch crisis, from Kevin and Kell?
7. Orthonomics points to an interesting post on the Yeshiva World coffee room, about how bachurim going to a wedding expect reimbursement for travel expenses.
8. Paying people in India to use the toilet. I've heard this done for small children. It is a good idea. Just don't tell the aforementioned yeshiva bachurim. :)
9. Pop corn with your cell phone? Someone sent me this youtube video by email of people making popcorn by placing kernels between 4 cell phones and calling them. It is fake, as Snopes discusses. It was a viral ad by Cardo Systems. Even though it has a lot of imitators.
   
   
10. The Yeshiva World discusses a possible chareidi boycott of Unilever products "after engaging in a major to’eva add [sic] campaign seeking to attract the nation’s youth." HaAretz has the full story, that in advertising Axe shower gel, "the corporation sponsored a poolside party for teens, DJed by a topless Hungarian disc jockey flown in for the event, and attended by other partially-clad young women." But the article is accompanied by a picture advertising the event, of the topless DJ, with strategically placed arms. In 2004, Unilever had made a billboard advertisement featuring Sarah Jessica Parker more tznius in response to threats of a chareidi boycott. (With before and after photos here.)
11. eLamdan discusses possible ramifications of the placebo effect in halacha.
12. Tzipiyah.com on intellectual property in halacha.
13. The Temple Institute thinks they can clone Parah Adumahs. But have to wait for kohanim who are pure from tumas meis in order to administer it, which would require children being brought up in semi-isolation.