1. In many cultures certain people are thought to be taboo and are not to be touched. In 19th century Siam, it was absolutely forbidden for a commoner to touch the queen. To break this rule carried the death penalty. One day Queen Sunandha Kumariratana was in a boat which capsized, plunging her into a river. Though there were many people who might have come to her aid it would have meant their own death to touch the royal body. She died at the age of 19, along with her daughter.
2. In the ancient world the colour purple was a rarity. The word purple derives from the Latin Purpura, and that from the Greek Porphrya. The Greeks knew only one source of a purple dye, a secretion of a certain type of sea snail. To make up any significant amount of dye it was necessary to harvest vast quantities of snails. This made the resulting dye hugely expensive. For centuries only the very rich could afford purple. In many cultures the colour became so associated with royalty that commoners were banned from wearing it. (Source: Listverse.com)
Lingo of the day
"Unrest at an adult [such as a prime minister] using teenage talk isn't new," writes Max Cryer. "Ray Waru's brilliant new book Secrets and Treasures (of the NZ Archives) reproduces a 1949 complaint from the NZ National Council of Women taking exception to 'slang expressions' being printed in a magazine story: 'swiped', 'dunno', 'hang of a -' and 'footy'."
Hugging ban in Aussie school
