I begin most days by reading news headlines. I like to look at the BBC, an Australian News Source, one from Costa Rica, The Washington Post, the New York Times and our local newspaper, The Rapid City Journal. I often don’t read many of the articles, but check out the ones that catch my eye. It isn’t at all uncommon for the headline to be a bit misleading or for the article to surprise me even after I have read the headline. This process gives me a broad view of what is happening in the world, but I often read as much trivia as substantive news. Sometimes an article becomes the source of a topic for my daily blog. Other things catch my attention, but aren’t enough for a whole blog. So today, being a Saturday that will be busy and full for me, I’ve decided to write about a whole bunch of themes instead of a single one. Here is a collection of things I have learned from reading news headlines.

A week ago I was making a night call with an officer of the Pennington County Sheriff’s department. We got into quite a bit of mud going to a rural address. We had mud on our shoes and lots of mud on our vehicles. Getting muddy is an annual ritual for the officers of Southwest China’s Yunnan province. Each year, on May 1, the people celebrate the May Day holiday by covering each other in mud. The mud is thought to bring good luck. The event originates from an ancient festival of the Va, a local ethnic group. Part of the event is that local police officers stand at attention, in uniform with hats, gloves and sunglasses. Celebrators smear mud on their faces and bodies as the officers stand without reacting to the mud. Something tells me this one isn’t going to catch on in our town.

I am not a fan of cockroaches. We would occasionally see them when we lived in Chicago, and the basement of the apartment building in which we lived had a lot of them. When you turned on the light down there, they would scurry and head for dark corners and crevices. Scientists, however, say that we do not give the insects enough credit. Cockroaches are highly social creatures. They recognize member of their own families and live in multiple-generation family units. They suffer ill health when they are left alone. Very few other insect species have such advanced social skills. What I can’t figure out is why someone would want to spend enough time with cockroaches to find this stuff out. The journal Insectes Sociaux is devoted to the social patterns of insects. The recent article on cockroaches featured both German and American scientists who apparently have devoted their lives to such studies. There are some jobs in this world that just wouldn’t be a good fit for me.

Scott McMurry of Florida received a postcard from his mother this week. It is nice to know that people still receive postcards and that the post office still delivers them. Of course they provide a type of communication that is a bit slower-paced than the world to twitter, text messages and instant communication. The postcard Mr. McMurry received was mailed by his mother in 1957. There is no explanation of why it took so long for the card to arrive.

My days are busy and I am being very careful with the portions of food I eat, but I still prefer to take an hour and go home at lunch. This is very unusual in our fast-paced world. I have many colleagues who eat a sandwich or yogurt while sitting at their desks. I have days when the meetings stack up and we go straight through mealtimes without a break. Central Americans are famous for their siestas. The French are known to take two hours to enjoy a leisurely meal in the middle of the workday. But I caught a short article on Slate.com this week about office workers in Sweeden who go to a dance club for their lunch breaks. “Lunch Beat” gatherings attract upwards of 600 people for mid day dance parties. In 2011, “lunch disco” was officially recognized as a new word by the Swedish Language Council. They may be experts in words, but they sure can’t count. Isn’t “lunch disco” two words?

I’ve been poking fun at those who think the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012. I simply don’t live my life according to Mayan beliefs and I suspect that most who do think interpret the ancient calendar don’t have much knowledge of its original meaning. This week Reuters reported an international poll of over sixteen thousand people. Nearly 15 percent of people worldwide believe the world will end in their lifetime. 10 percent think the Mayan calendar signifies that it will happen in 2012. The United States and Turkey have the highest percentages of those who predict the end of the world. 22% of those polled in each country believe the world will end in their lifetime. That is nearly 1 in four! Here’s the scary part. Only six percent of French residents believe in an impending Armageddon in their lifetime. Do you think it is possible I would fit in better in France than in my own country? Now that is a truly strange thought.

A new world land speed record was set on May 2 in Australia. Stuntwoman Jolene Van Vught traveled from Canada to Australia to set a new world’s speed record for a motorized toilet. After having some problems with the toilet, it was soon repaired and she got up to 75 km per hour (46mph) beating the old record by 7km/h. The BBC reports she was flushed with pride. Even my puns aren’t that bad.

I’ve got dozens more strange bits. There are always new things that I learn from reading the news, but too often they are bits of information that don’t have much practical use. It just makes you wonder. If I did believe that the world was going to end this year, would I be more likely to get into racing toilets?

I don’t think so.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.