marketing misfire
Exodus Health & Fitness in Wellington came up with this poster for Wellington's Round the Bays. They pulled the promo and apologised after complaints, but many of its members sharing their wisdom on Facebook couldn't see anything wrong with telling women to run like you feel unsafe because a man behind your poses a threat.
Pope's wisdom works for all
As an atheist I found Pope Francis' 10 secrets to happiness bang on. Here they are, according to CatholicNews.com:
1 "Live and let live." Everyone should be guided by this principle, he said.
2 "Be giving of yourself to others" he said, because "if you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid."
3 "Proceed calmly" in life. He says "in his youth he was a stream full of rocks that he carried with him; as an adult, a rushing river; and in old age, he was still moving, but slowly, like a pool".
4 "A healthy sense of leisure." The pleasures of art, literature and playing with children have been lost, he said. Families must also turn off the TV when they sit down to eat because that's the time to communicate.
5 Sundays should be holidays. Workers should have Sundays off because "Sunday is for family".
6 Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people.
7 Respect and take care of nature.
8 Stop being negative. "Needing to talk badly about others indicates low self-esteem ... Letting go of negative things quickly is healthy."
9 Respect others' beliefs.
10 Work for peace. "The call for peace must be shouted."
Passwords window to the soul
If you manage to get your friends, or even strangers, to spill their passwords you'll find many are filled with pathos, mischief, motivation and sometimes darkness, says New York Magazine writer Ian Urbina who managed to find plenty of people who did share. There was the former prisoner whose password includes what used to be his inmate identification number ("a reminder not to go back"); the fallen-away Catholic whose passwords incorporate the Virgin Mary ("it's secretly calming"); the childless 45-year-old whose password is the name of the baby boy she lost in utero ("my way of trying to keep him alive, I guess"). Several people said they used "incorrect" for theirs so that when they forgot it, they were prompted with the right one ("your password is incorrect"). To help quell his anger after divorce a man reset his password to "Forgive@h3r." "It worked," he said. Because his office computer demanded that he change his password every 30 days, he moved on to other goals: "Quit@smoking4ever" (successful); "Eat2@day" ("it never worked, I'm still fat," he wrote); "Facetime2mom@sunday" ("it worked," he said, "I've started talking with my mom every week now").
No secrets in quitting the booze. (Via Bad Newspaper)
