"Meet the LA man who walks people for a living"

"As the digital age makes people more lonely, Chuck McCarthy created a service to stroll with strangers – but the job is more people whisperer than walker."

“The more I thought about it, the less crazy it seemed,” said McCarthy, draining a bottle of water – he now takes hydration seriously – and heading out into the sunshine for another walk, this time with the Guardian trotting in step.

A homemade scrawl across his T-shirt declared him The People Walker, low-budget, mobile advertising. “I’ve been doing walks almost every single day for the past week and I’m getting repeat clients, which is what you want.”

A stroll with this soft-spoken, hirsute hulk seems to be what much of LA wants, judging by the response to his Facebook page and homemade flyers.

“Need motivation to walk?” they ask from lamp posts. “Scared to walk alone at night? Don’t like walking alone at all? Don’t want people to see you walking alone and just assume you have no friends? Don’t like listening to music or podcasts but can’t walk alone in silence, forced to face thoughts of the unknown future, or your own insignificance in the ever expanding universe?”

“I try to listen more than talk,” he said this week, striding past handsome houses in Los Feliz, a leafy neighbourhood near Hollywood.

Dog thinks he has a bunch of friends

"Bored? Attach a chute to your snow machine and drive it off a cliff"

 

From: Popular Mechanics via Roadandtrack.com

"Office puts chips under staff's skin"

"Want to gain entry to your office, get on a bus, or perhaps buy a sandwich? We're all getting used to swiping a card to do all these things. But at Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, they are trying a different approach - a chip under the skin."

"We already interact with technology all the time," he told me. "Today it's a bit messy - we need pin codes and passwords. Wouldn't it be easy to just touch with your hand? That's really intuitive."

Relax... this isn't ISIS

 

I'm just here so I wont get chipped...

io9: "The Radical Plan To Phase Out Earth's Predatory Species"

"Should animals be permitted to hunt and kill other animals? Some futurists believe that humans should intervene, and solve the "problem" of predator vs. prey once and for all. We talked to the man who wants to use radical ecoengineering to put an end to the carnage."

A world without predators certainly sounds extreme, and it is. But British philosopher David Pearce can't imagine a future in which animals continue to be trapped in the never-ending cycle of blind Darwinian processes. It's up to us, he argues, to put our brains, our technologies, and our sense of compassion to good use, and do something about it. It's part of his overarching Hedonistic Imperative, a far-sighted "abolitionist project" set with the goal of achieving nothing less than the elimination of all suffering on the planet. And by all suffering, he means all suffering. (read more)

I thought this was an Onion parody type of article, but, as I read on I came around to the conclusion that it is not a parody. This guy means business.

What do you think? Is this a good idea, or, Is this guy off his rocker?

Pica: "mud mask for the gut"

"Eating dirt is not just some weird fetish in the South. Hundreds of thousands of people eat dirt around the world. Forrester, an assistant professor of photography at Troy University, says he has spoken with shop owners who receive orders from as far away as London."

Eating dirt has a unique history. For starters, it's not a recent phenomenon. There's evidence that our ancestors were eating dirt at least 2 million years ago, when Homo sapiens were still Homo habilis.

In her book, Craving Earth, Young says eating dirt is one component of a disorder known as pica, in which people compulsively crave things that aren't food, like starch, charcoal and ice.

"Cardiac arrest, threats of divorce, broken dentures, thousands of dollars in dental works — none of this deters people when they have these cravings," says Young. "I've talked to women throughout East Africa and the U.S., and they all talk about this stuff with this incredible fondness and enjoyment."...

Paul Schroeder, a geologist specializing in kaolin at the University of Georgia, says while the habit may have evolved as a protective measure, it may be harmful to our health.

Clay's amazing binding properties could backfire and absorb useful nutrients, which is particularly dangerous for pregnant women, he says.

I recall my stepmother had this condition during a couple of her pregnancies. Her sister's husband, Manuel, was a dirt dump truck hauler. He knew where to find the chalk dirt she craved.

"Charles ready for pension, still in line for job"

"Prince Charles plans to claim the government pension he qualifies for when he turns 65 on Thursday, but he still hasn't started the job he was born to do."

The eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II has been heir to the throne since his mother became monarch in 1952, when he was 3. He is the longest-waiting heir apparent in Britain's history, overtaking Queen Victoria's son, Edward VII, two years ago.

Charles became a grandfather earlier this year with the birth of Prince George, the first child born to Prince William and his wife, Kate.

Palace officials said Wednesday that Charles will contribute the government pension to a charity that helps elderly people.

The future king is entitled to about 110 pounds ($175) per week because of his service in the Royal Navy and voluntary contributions he has made.

As Prince of Wales, he certainly doesn't need the pension fund. He enjoys control of the lucrative Duchy of Cornwall, a vast holding established in 1337 by King Edward II to provide income for his heir. It brings Charles millions each year.

AP

"Switzerland’s Proposal to Pay People for Being Alive"

"The proposal is, in part, the brainchild of a German-born artist named Enno Schmidt, a leader in the basic-income movement. He knows it sounds a bit crazy. He thought the same when someone first described the policy to him, too. “I tell people not to think about it for others, but think about it for themselves,” Schmidt told me. “What would you do if you had that income? What if you were taking care of a child or an elderly person?” Schmidt said that the basic income would provide some dignity and security to the poor, especially Europe’s underemployed and unemployed. It would also, he said, help unleash creativity and entrepreneurialism: Switzerland’s workers would feel empowered to work the way they wanted to, rather than the way they had to just to get by. He even went so far as to compare it to a civil rights movement, like women’s suffrage or ending slavery."

Annie Lowrey NYT