We Have Our Eye On You

In some of the backwaters of Europe, where the 19th century hasn't yet ended (never mind the 20th century), the 'Evil Eye' is still something to ward against.

Nazars - Common Across The Lands
 Of The Former Ottoman Empire

 
So even in Greece and many former areas of the Turkish, Ottoman Empire, eye amulets called Nazars are sold in nearly every store.

Criminal Stupidity And Other Shorts

As I have mentioned before, the stupidity of thieves never fails to amaze me. Take Christopher Miller who robbed the Stride Right shoe store in Toms Rover New Jersey USA in 1999. He was caught and convicted, and spent 15 years in jail. Apparently the thought of this failure to commit the perfect crime festered on his mind over those long 15 years because .....

Christopher Miller - Stride Right Obsession?

..... Yes, you have already guessed it, but I'll say it anyway.The day after his release he walked back into the very same store, where he was met by same clerk behind the counter (who Mr Miller didn't recognise), and he proceeded to rob the store again of $389 and the clerks cell phone. He was caught and sentenced to another 16 years in prison. he claimed later that he wasn't a numbskull, as “I didn’t even realize it was the same store until after I got arrested”

Manpo-Meter

When Lao-Tzu wrote in the  the Tao Te Ching that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," little did he know that it would lead to the world taking 10,000 paces a day .... 

Chairman Mao's Long March Inspired By Lao-Tzu's Single Step .....

... well not directly of course. It was in fact via the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Dog Soldiers

In a story that had been remarkably low profile on the mainstream TV (to whit, non existent), until it couldn't be ignored anymore, it appears that there is a very good reason why Libya (and other countries of that ilk) are such basket cases .... its that many of their male inhabitants are backward animals.

At least that's all we can conclude from these crimes, perpetrated not in their own benighted countries, but over here, courtesy of the Her Majesties Government and the Ministry of Defence.

Libyan Ambassador - Mr Mahmoud Nacua - Visited
The Libyan Recruits At Bassingbourn Before Problems Started ...

Seemingly, in another act of stupidity that UK politicians seem to find oh so easy to commit, it was decided in 2015 that the Ministry of Defence would train some of the Libyans fighting in the power struggles in Tripoli, Bengahzi and Misra .... the idea was that they would be loyal soldiers for the regime we back (well one of the two regimes claiming power anyway ... probably the one currently based in Tobruk, and poised for exile in Egypt).

Super Chimps

Like most people I had been peddling the old trope that Chimps were five times stronger than humans. That in fact that chimpanzees are superhuman strong.

Chimp Kong, Not Quite As Strong As King ......

This idea had apparently been fuelled by a 1923 study, that claimed one chimp could pull nine times its own body weight. Later studies suggested they could only pull two to four times their weight but the idea had been planted and stayed in the public conciousness and as a fact in been a feature of pop-culture.