Quickwrap

Time for another batch of short items:

• From NPR on 3 July:

  It was a big weekend in sports. The World Cup, U.S. Women's Open in Golf and, of course, the 11th annual World Championships in the sport of wife carrying. Forty pairs from eight countries competed in Finland for the title. Husbands carry their wives around an 800 foot course. This year's winning couple, from Estonia, completed the competition with the wife clinging to her husband's back, her legs straddling his neck. For that feat of marital harmony, they won laptop computers and the wife's weight, in beer.

  Not Finnish beer, one hopes.
• On 4 July, NPR covered the annual Solar Egg Frying Contest in Oatman, AZ. This seems appropriate to mention now, given the current nationwide heat-wave.
• Also worth thinking about during the heat-wave is last month's report of a German traveller who was removed from a flight because he smelled bad. Let that be a lesson...
• From NPR's Morning Edition on 13 July:

  An offer of free gas caused two crashes and several fights in Milwaukee after hundreds of drivers lined up to take advantage of a local company's promotion. Given the melee over $30 worth of gas, you'd think more people would telecommute. But only 2 percent work from home full time. A new study finds that if all 25 percent of workers who could work from home did, that would save nearly $4 billion a year in gas.

  Indeed. Many employers think that employees who work from home are somehow "getting away with something". It's time for them to re-think.
• You've probably heard by now that an accidentally live microphone picked up some off-the-cuff comments by King George yesterday, including use of the "s-word" to refer to what's happening in the Middle East. Now, I'm not one to defend the Potty-Mouth-in-Chief, but let's be realistic here: people talk like that. He wasn't talking to the press; he was having a chat with Mr Blair and Mr Putin. Besides, there is a lot of s-word going on over there.
• Also in yesterday's news, Nicholas Minucci was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He could have gotten up to 25 years.
• #1 and #2 split counter rotate, #3 and #4 circulate and 1/2 reset.