(A sculpture made from butter by Jim Victor)

People wrestle. In tofu. And there is photographic evidence. For those of you at work, there are boobs visible in the photographic evidence: Be forewarned!

Where fresh water comes from.

Related articles:

1. The morning coffee, mustaches and the dark flow
2. Linkless
3. The morning coffee, balloons and bingo

So each day, rather than spend the whole day searching for a job I would make sure to spend part of the day exploring the city. Find new places, wander around different areas. For the most part, I went camera-less — and as I had not yet picked up the photography bug, it was something that I rarely regretted.

One day, when I was wandering around Soho, I walked past a door with a funny sign. I’ve always wanted to go back and take a picture of it, but whenever it occurs to me I just have not been able to find it.

So thank you, Internet, for bringing the photo to me.

(Found at Black and WTF)

Related articles:

1. Short URLs – are they evil?
2. Who said anything about hard work?
3. If you’re reading this, you are holographic

An interesting essay on fashion and copyright, courtesy of guest bloggers Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman at Freakonomics.

A discussion on the difficulty of defining exactly what sex is. The best part of it? 23% of those questioned who were male and over the age of 65 did not consider a penis penetrating a vagina to meet their definition of “sex”. Now I’m curious, readers — what is the bare minimum for you to consider something to be sex?

Related articles:

1. The morning coffee and the world’s strongest vagina
2. This morning coffee is rushed
3. A year of coffee

Related articles:

1. Keep Trekkin’
2. The morning coffee on Buddha and porn
3. The morning coffee wants your moon rocks

And now, your infographic of the week:

(by Chon Hon Lam)

Related articles:

1. Social browsing on the iPhone
2. The morning coffee cannot log on to Facebook
3. Short URLs – are they evil?

No related posts.

(a glow in the dark beard, by Erin Dollar, and available for purchase)

Europe’s little green men are invading the United States.

The danger of Welsh translations.

Related articles:

1. Imprisoned – a tale of two countries
2. The morning coffee cannot log on to Facebook
3. The morning coffee finds it illegal to die

It turns out, this is not true.

Instead, there is jetlag. You are tired, at strange times.
There is more work to be done than expected, because you have been gone for a week and a half, and there is a resulting backlog in things-that-must-be-done.
And that laundry needs to dry. You cannot just throw on the next load. The presently-drying-laundry must be dealt with first.

On top of all this, blogging takes time. Come up with idea. Expand on idea. Do a bit of research. Find links. Find photos. Ensure that you are being suitably opinionated — somebody ought to take offense at it, or you’re no blogger.

So you get to Wednesday. You have plans — after all, you have not seen friends in a couple of weeks. You have twenty minutes to write something in order to keep up with your blog schedule.

You are still on the “come up with idea” step.

This is the result.

Enjoy?

Related articles:

1. The big bad blog and Steve
2. We Need Bloggers!
3. The Joy of Scheduling

(Sculpture by Adrian Tranquilli)

Do you use an ad blocker when you browse? If so, do you realise that you have a negative impact on the sites that you visit?

Neurobiologist Dario Ringach participated in a panel at UCLA, in which he expressed his own belief that research conducted on animals (which he no longer does himself) has a role in the answering of scientific questions. Because of this, animal rights activists have started to harass his children. That’s right — these activists are so upset that Ringach believes that it is worthwhile to cause pain to innocent animals if it betters humankind, that they (in turn) cause emotional pain to his innocent children.

I believe that’s what the kids call “hypocritical” these days.

Related articles:

1. A morning coffee for the children
2. The morning coffee and the World of Warcraft
3. The morning coffee keeps forgetting to drink blueberry juice

Probably not.

In countries where they do not speak English, this is then followed by the ritual stamping (and return) of the passport.

In countries where they do speak English, they ask questions. Perhaps this is because I’m an English speaker, so the questions will be understood. Or maybe only English-speaking countries bother with further examination. Regardless, British, Canadian and American border agents always ask me questions.

For the most part, they’re the same.

Americans ask why I’m there, and how long I’m staying.

Canadians are confused as to whether I’m visiting or returning. (Both, of course. I am returning for a visit).

Then there are the British. They ask questions that make little or no sense. After a red eye flight, with no sleep for nearly twenty-four hours, I tend to stumble over these questions. It is surprising that it has never delayed my re-entry.

On my first entry, they asked me a question about my visa application. I figured it was normal. They continued asking this question repeatedly over the next year. I was sure it was normal. In fact, one agent told me that there was a note on my file, which required them to ask this question. He took it off, and since then the questions have been more creative.

Q: “Do you still work in the same place?”
A: “…”

This one of the more common ones asked at the UK border. My visa is not tied to any particular job, so the answer does not actually matter. But the problem is that it doesn’t make sense. I work at the same job as I did when I left the country last. I work at the same job as I did when I last applied for a visa extension. I do not work at the same job as I did for the previous visa extension. Nor do I work at the same job as I did when I first applied for a UK visa.

Timelines matter. And jetlagged individuals do not deal well with non-specific questions.

Q: Why are you a resident?
A: Because I live here.

One of the answers you need to give when entering the UK on a non-EU passport is how long you are planning to stay. I do not have an answer, so I write “Resident” on the card. The border agent did not seem happy at that response. Perhaps she thought I was being cheeky, but it’s either that or “because I have a permit”. And she was looking at the permit.

Q: What qualification do you have?
A: …

The border agent literally asked that. Singular. Qualification. I thought he meant visa, so I told him. No, qualification. I told him about my bachelor’s degree. Could I have given him my project management qualification instead? Change management? Work experience? I am qualified to enter the country by virtue of the visa. I have many qualifications when it comes to the workplace.

Q: Where are you coming from today?

This question is not just asked in the UK. It is asked everywhere. And it is the hardest question to answer. Ten hours on a plane … am I coming from Toronto? Montreal? Kuala Lumpur? Atlanta? It’s hard to remember.

And if you had a connection, you might choose your original point of departure, rather than the most recent. Then the border guard is confused — no planes from that location have arrived recently.

By far the worst question for the frequent traveler. You’re wandering through an airport, following the signs towards the exit. You’ve just left a tin can where you spent the last twelve hours or so. You haven’t slept. You smell. You just want to clean yourself and sleep.

Where are you coming from?

Related articles:

1. The visa blues
2. Polling problems illustrated
3. Mr Topp and the Big Bad Tache