Courtesy of / first seen on egghead’s muse,
produced by Transport for London

Pizza Hut: “Sure Mdm. May we have your address please?”

Resident: “errm…”

Pizza Hut: “Sorry Mdm. We didn’t catch your address. May we have your address please?”

Resident: “97 Butt Hole Road. (pause) Yes, this is a real address.”

Pizza Hut: “(snigger) Thank you Mdm. May I repeat your order. Two large Hawaiian pizzas, to be delivered to … 97 Butt Hole Road (chuckle).”

It seems like UK has a host of such ‘humorous’ names: Crotch Crescent, Oxford; Titty Ho, Northamptonshire; Wetwang, East Yorkshire; Slutshole Lane, Norfolk; Thong, Kent; Penistone, South Yorkshire.

I would believe that making phone orders to these places could be such a fun / pain (depend on your perspective).

Please share with me if you’ve chanced upon a research studying the link between ‘road names’ and ‘property value’.
I know it’ll be difficult for me to put my dough down for a house with such ‘interesting’ names.

Read more - NYTimes

Canadian cities have been brainstorming on methods to reduce waste, and Toronto had even considered banning the usage of paper cup in the effort to reduce city waste, with coffee shops across the city giving BYOC (bring-your-own-cup) discounts. Looks like the retailers have identified a product offering opportunity for the niche group who might suffer from the withdrawal symptoms of not being able to use paper cups. [Read more]

Hema - comes to life!

I can’t believe that there’re people who have the time to create this spoof site (granted, I am guilty of having the time to watch the site).

Check out the “spoof” website of German retailer Hema (the equivalent of Carrefour / Walmart) where pots, pans & detergents come to life. [Read more]

Courtesy of fuffer (flickr)

While the world is sinking into recession and companies worldwide are broadly announcing downward revisions to their growth forecasts (if not losses), one segment had stood out as “recession-proof”.

Brioni (high end Italian clothier) had recently introduced the most expensive line of men’s suits in its history - with price tags as high as $43,000. 

However, the true super-rich (the wealthiest 1% to 2% of consumers world-wide) are still spending (even if they are buying fewer things). Individuals in this group have bought 30 of the $43,000 Brioni suits.

On similar length, Hermès (French luxury label) has introduced limited-edition silk scarves inspired by works of the artist Josef Albers at an eye-popping $2,800 each, and Kiton (Italian designer label) is introducing an $8,125 cashmere-and-vicuna sport coat.

Seems like only 98% of the world population is affected by this downturn. I guess I will be contented with my under-$30 windbreaker.

Read more - The $43,000 recession suit (WSJ)

American Idol has the latest winner.

US President Barack Obama.

More than a superstar, defying the economic doom & gloom, Barack Obama’s inauguration ran so high that one ticket broker is asking $20,095 for a single ticket (and we are forgetting the millions that tune in to watch the inauguration from around the world).

For the politician wannabe who would like to create inspirational speeches like Obama, check out Obama Inauguration Speech Generator

Read more - Obama’s inauguration (CNN).

What the Singapore Government proposed today was quite interesting. Perhaps it was due to me not paying attention during the economics classes - but a job credit plan (whereby the Government pay 12% of each employee’s monthly wage to the employers, upto $300 per month, so as to encourage firms to avoid retrenching workers) sounds like a brand new philosophy to me. (Although in substance it may be similar to Obama’s “Making Work Pay” tax credit programme)

Some economic ‘gurus’ may argue that such actions may “distort the labour markets” and adds ‘friction’ to the smooth economic functioning of a competitive firm, whereby redundant/ineffective workers may be kept on the payrole due to such economic packages. However, my word to these ‘gurus’ is to wait till your own job is on the line - where you ponder about how to pay for your next meal - before re-evaluating such economic packages.

Too much blood (read: jobs) have been shed in this global financial downturn. Thank goodness for such plans to save the day for the commonfolks (at least for Singapore)

Read more - US largest stimulus package - US$825bn plan (WSJ)

here’s an interesting variation…

Yes — so long as you spend the money on someone else.

According to a new research by the faculty from Harvard Business School (HBS) and University of British Columbia (UBC), giving other people even as little as $5 can lead to increased well-being for the giver.

That’s the insight into the secret of happiness by the professors Michael Norton (HBS), Elizabeth Dunn (UBC) and Lara Aknin (UBC) in the research titled “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness”.

“While much research has examined the effect of income on happiness, we suggest that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much money they earn,” the researchers explain, “[and] spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself.”

The research found these results to hold in three different studies: (i) a nationally representative survey, (ii) a field study of people with windfall spending, and (iii) an experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves.

[Read more - Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness (actual research)]

[Read more - Spending on Happiness (HBS newsletter interview)]

Courtesy of the ‘ever-reliable’ Onion Network - Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard.

Alex Wissner-Gross, a MIT graduate now at Harvard University, had put in his research that a typical search generates about 7g of CO2.

“”A Google search has a definite environmental impact” and “Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power,” he said.

Alas, an economist would have point out that the concept of opportunity cost. Instead of browsing an encyclopedia to look up for information, one can simply perform an online search and read up on the required information online - thus saving the CO2 associated with the printing of the encyclopedia (which would translate to a large amount of CO2).

Google had also responded, stating that a single search is actually equivalent to a mere 0.2 grams of CO2.

Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, Rewiring the World, has calculated that maintaining a character (known as an avatar) in the Second Life virtual reality game, requires 1,752 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

Now that’s a huge “chunk” of energy!

p.s. this site is carbon-neutral too

Courtesy of Singapore’s FM98.7

Now imagine a playground with just a lone see-saw. You find two happy faces with long lines of grumpy faces behind them… waiting for their turn to play with the see-saw.

That’s disneyland hong kong for you - a disney themepark with one quarter the attractions/size of the other disneylands around the world (err.. sorry for being a little harsh.. i’m sure kids & adults alike do enjoy themselves in disneyland hong kong too).

For tourists visiting hong kong, I’d think that a better choice would be hong kong’s ocean park - perhaps much more entertaining and enjoyable, and definitely a much more unique hong kong attraction.

Doesn’t help that Shanghai is opening another disneyland - Disneyland in shanghai (wsj, $$).

Maybe this one will come with both the see-saw and the swing. One thing’s for sure - we will see more happy faces on the kids.