Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

I thought a 10k must have a Bush on it?

Who hasn't been to Europe yet, beware the toilets - they don't accord to our mindset!
... Stuttgart, a minor need forced me to attend one of those biotoilets on the street. One-person cabin, very tidy, shiny and clean, packed with sensors, run by a computer.  You insert e2 in the slot, doors automatically open, lights up, you enter, the doors close.
I don't do claustrophoby, however, as I, for all my life, specialise in electronics and soft engeneering, it does make me a bit nervous. Well, I'm done, ready to go, but can't see any button to exit. Nor manuals. Am I an idiot? need instructions?
Trying to apply logic - how the Germans wrote the exec? Well, in again, up the lid, dump the water, lid down. Is any sensor stuck? Repeat the 'subroutine'; doors won't open.
Perhaps I should sit back again, then dump the water? At that again; doors won't open. Doh. Forgot something? Perhaps wash the hands?
Once more the procedure; hands to the tap, water flows, water off, in hope and upset looking at the door - nothing...
Great expectations to spend the night in the posh German dump-closet aren't cheering at all.
Yelling to my comrade who's waiting outdoors (lucky one!): "Zhenia, this bitch won't let me out!"
He's trying to bribe the WC - with another coin into the slot. The machine won't yield, doesn't react. The punches and kicks don't do anything either.
Zhenia shouts: "Hold on! Calling the police!"
Nothing to do - I repeat the process: wash the hands, use the 'dry-air'... The fan off, door open.

The mysterious case of the double toilet

Amusing article, and speaking of humour he writes:
"Russians like to complain and to criticise people in power. But they also love to laugh - and that includes the ability to laugh at themselves.".

I can vouch for that, having once been a fairly frequent visitor.

On Russian toilet design; in one venue I visited I saw another weird toilet system. Look at one of those pedestals, and imagine not a seat, but two foot holds on other side of the bowl; all this in a cubicle where the top of the cubical was about 1m above the height of the toilet. It was all very puzzling to me and somewhat of a relief when I had worked it through.

Just your typical every day conversation about food......

Germany to start spying on US: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-considers-counterespionage-measures-against-united-states-a-953985.html

Talking about weird and wonderful I see that a woman of 25 think it was went to her local police station in South Carolina to report a crime. As they checked they then arrested her due to a warrant for not returning a VHS video hire when she was 18. She then had to spend a night in jail and is not very happy. Is this kind of daftness routine??

Kayla Michelle Finley may be wishing that services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime had been around a little earlier.
The South Carolina woman spent a night in jail last week for failing to return a video she rented -- in 2005.
It was a VHS tape. Of a Jennifer Lopez movie.
Finley, 27, was arrested Thursday in Pickens County, South Carolina, on a misdemeanor charge of failure to return the video.
The movie, "Monster-In-Law," starring Lopez and Jane Fonda as a feuding potential daughter- and mother-in-law, was rented from a video store, Dalton Videos, that is now out of business.

Researchers like Thompson think of the Cold Atom Lab as a doorway into the quantum world. Could the door swing both ways? If the temperature drops low enough, "we'll be able to assemble atomic wave packets as wide as a human hair—that is, big enough for the human eye to see." A creature of quantum physics will have entered the macroscopic world.

http://phys.org/news/2014-02-coldest-universe.html

Quote

Researchers like Thompson think of the Cold Atom Lab as a doorway into the quantum world. Could the door swing both ways? If the temperature drops low enough, "we'll be able to assemble atomic wave packets as wide as a human hair—that is, big enough for the human eye to see." A creature of quantum physics will have entered the macroscopic world.

The term British Isles is controversial in Ireland, where there are objections to its usage due to the association of the word British with Ireland. The Government of Ireland does not recognise or use the term* and its embassy in London discourages its use. As a result, "Britain and Ireland" is used as an alternative description,*** and "Atlantic Archipelago" has had limited use among a minority in academia,**** although British Isles is still commonly employed. Within them, they are also sometimes referred to as "these islands".

How politics "corrects" geography (not exactly "new news"):

I'm not an expert in Ireland's history, but from what I've so far learned, Ireland have mostly played, say, a secondary role in "global politics" - since the Ancient Greek seafarers got to know about the Isle.