Man sues parents for giving birth to him

The philosophy of anti-natalism has been around for a while. It’s the belief that reproduction is bad because it involves bringing someone into this world without their consent and dooming them to potential suffering.

Mumbai businessman Raphael Samuel (aka Nihil Anand) has now taken this one step further by claiming that he’s going to sue his parents for giving birth to him without his consent.

His mother's response: "I must admire my son's temerity to want to take his parents to court knowing both of us are lawyers. And if Raphael could come up with a rational explanation as to how we could have sought his consent to be born, I will accept my fault."

Of course, Samuel hasn't yet found a lawyer willing to take his case. And he fully anticipates that the case will promptly be thrown out. But he's plowing ahead nevertheless.

More details: BBC News

Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 13, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Philosophy, Lawsuits, Birth Control

Follies of the Madmen #412

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 13, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Advertising, 1960s, Australia, Skin and Skin Conditions

Inside-Out Jeans

Back in 2018, I posted about upside-down jeans sold by CIE Denim. This inspired Phideaux to comment: "I guess the next thing is to have them look like they're inside out, as if you got dressed in the dark."

Phideaux's guess is apparently the fashion industry's command, because retailer boohoo.com is now offering inside-out jeans for £15.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 12, 2019 - Comments (7)
Category: Fashion, Denim

Self-described Suicide

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 12, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Suicide, 1930s

The day my kid went punk

1987 ABC Afterschool Special. You might recognize Doc from The Love Boat as the father of the wayward teenager.

IMDB page.

Akron Beacon Journal - Oct 21, 1987

Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 11, 2019 - Comments (5)
Category: Music, Television, 1980s

Mystery Illustration 80

An estate sale? A trade show? What event brings these objects together?

The answer is here.

Or after the jump.



More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 11, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: 1950s

Unicorn Armpit Hair

It's being hailed as the latest beauty trend. All you have to do is dye your pits the colors of the rainbow. Details here.

This must somehow be related to the unicorn food phenomenon we posted about back in 2017.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 10, 2019 - Comments (6)
Category: Fads, Fashion, Hair and Hairstyling

Hangovers Due to Guilty Conscience

In 1973, Professor Robert Gunn advanced this theory.



Twenty years later, he was still pursuing the idea, as you can see in the scientific paper at the link.

To reappraise a prior study of hangover signs and psychosocial factors among a sample of current drinkers, we excluded a subgroup termed Sobers, who report "never" being "tipsy, high or drunk." The non-sober current drinkers then formed the sample for this report (N = 1104). About 23% of this group reported no hangover signs regardless of their intake level or gender, and the rest showed no sex differences for any of 8 hangover signs reported. Using multiple regression, including ethanol, age and weight, it was found that psychosocial variables contributed independently in predicting to hangover for both men and women in this order: (1) guilt about drinking; (2) neuroticism; (3) angry or (4) depressed when high/drunk and (5) negative life events. For men only, ethanol intake was also significant; for women only, being younger and reporting first being high/drunk at a relatively earlier age were also predictors of the Hangover Sign Index (HSI). These multiple predictors accounted for 5-10 times more of the hangover variance than alcohol use alone: for men, R = 0.43, R2 = 19%; and for women, R = 0.46, R2 = 21%. The findings suggest that hangover signs are a function of age, sex, ethanol level and psychosocial factors.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 10, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Science, Experiments, Psychology, 1970s, 1990s, Pain, Self-inflicted and Otherwise, Alcohol

Billboards in space

If Russian company StartRocket has their way, there will soon be no escaping ads. They plan to display them in the sky, from satellites. They hope to have them up and running by 2021.

More details

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 09, 2019 - Comments (8)
Category: Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Advertising, Billboards

Jade Stone & Luv

The sole album from male-female duo Jade Stone & Luv is a lost gem from the heart of the psychedelic 1970s. Composed and self-produced in Nashville, “Mosaics; Pieces Of Stone” went unnoticed by the music industry upon release. Fortunately for us, it didn’t disappear forever, but simply went into retreat, biding its time. While almost unknown outside specialist circles, “Mosaics” has been an underground cult favorite for many years. The combination of top-level songwriting, skillful guitar/keyboard arrangements and soaring vocals is just too impressive to ignore. And beyond these obvious qualities, the album has something subtle and unique, a magnetic power that keeps drawing the listener back. One of Jade Stone & Luv’s earliest advocates was the legendary New York City musicologist Paul Major. Here’s a typical Major impression of the music on “Mosaics”:”Groovy love vibes thru a prism of jade statues in swinging singles apartment complex action… Cadillac with fuzzy dice, feather boa, lotsa cigarette burns, stale perfumed ashen air. This album in the 8-track player at 5 AM with someone you don’t even know passed out in the backseat, as you head to the diner to meet up with an early-bird Lava Lite salesman who deals pills on the side. Bubbly champagne molecules become the plastic vinyl booths in dim-lit dive bars; it’s crackerbox post-war suburban low-rent psychedelic…”

Source of quote.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 09, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Music, Outsider Art, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1970s