August catch-up: a modern sculpture I like, a new rule for life and a tribute to Boy George
Half a dozen things you may have missed in the becalmed weeks of the summer holidays
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Your support makes all the difference.1. I hadn't seen this sculpture before. It is called "Freedom" by Zenos Frudalkis, and it is outside the GSK headquarters in Philadelphia. (Via Wayne and Tom Chivers.)
Alan Brown commented that it "seems unrealistic ... Han Solo collapsed when he first came out of the carbonite".
2. I compiled the Top 10 Laws of Life a year ago, including Chivers's Law ("If you can go online and call your government a fascist regime, you are not living under a fascist regime") and Muphry's Law ("If you write anything criticising editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written"). With three more laws listed in a supplement, which included Poe's Law ("Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humour, it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won’t mistake for the real thing"). Tom Bennett has now proposed that Hassey's Law should be added to the statute book. This is named after Nick Hassey, and holds that, "All internet articles that say 'the evidence says' must link to the evidence." Thanks to John Blake.
3. Rare but glorious, as Damian Counsell pointed out. On Labour List. "For a change, you should read the below-the-line comments (especially Andrew Old's) and dismiss what's above the line."
4. Tom Freeman wanted to know if anyone had done this one (right) yet? I don't think so. (I wrote about the original "Keep Calm" poster, which was printed but never displayed during the war, five years ago.)
5. Penultimately, and thanks to Sarah:
"What does a cheese say when it sees itself in the mirror? Halloumi."
6. Finally, thanks to Sarah again:
"Friend of mine threw a lump of cheddar at me. It wasn't mature."
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