One of the weirdest trends is where people pay enormous amounts of money for clothes items that look well-worn or are discards. We know that people are willing to pay more for so-called ‘distressed’ jeans that have holes in the knees to suggest that they are well worn when in fact the holes are created by the manufacturer. Rusty Blazenhoff writes about a more extreme example of this, where an Italian luxury brand company named Golden Goose charges $530 for a pair of sneakers that are worn down and held together by tape.

TThis is an example of ‘poverty chic’, something that rich people indulge in. It is well known that people who are struggling financially or are poor are the ones who try to dress as well as they can, to hide that fact from casual acquaintances. It is people who are rich who can afford to adopt the scruffy look because everyone knows they are rich. If anyone does mistake them for being poor, it is a source of humor to them. It is a form of condescension, a way of saying, “Look at me. I am so rich that I can dress like this.”

The traffic in London is horrible so moped use is booming. Food delivery services use freelance couriers on mopeds to deliver to their clients since they can get to their destinations in a reasonable time. But this has spawned the formation of gangs that attack these couriers, steal their bikes, and then use those bikes to commit crimes. The situation is so bad that couriers are forming their own defense groups.

The BBC gave out cameras to couriers to record what their life is like and captured a series of attacks by gangs.

In these days of cut-throat athletic competition, it is nice to find a sport that retains traditional values. I am talking about snail racing. I had not been aware that there have been championships since the 1960s.
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Via Mark Frauenfelder here is a video of a someone who, after hitting another car because he had his hood popped open, continues to drive with his view blocked until the inevitable happens. (Language advisory)

The death of people one is close to, either family and friends, inevitably triggers feelings of grief and sadness that will vary with the individual. In this article, Brian D. Earp says that how the Stoics mourned may have some lessons for us.

How should we grieve when someone close to us dies? Should we wail and gnash our teeth? Should we swallow our pain? Some would say there is no right answer. You feel whatever you feel, and heal however you heal, and that’s okay. But according to the ancient Stoics – those Greco-Roman philosophers making a comeback as preachers of practical wisdom in a self-help world – there is a correct answer to the question of how we should grieve. And the answer is that we shouldn’t. What’s done is done. There is nothing you can do to change the situation – so move on.

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Today is a Sunday in the fall season in the US and many millions of people will gather round TVs to watch professional football. It used to be the case that Sundays were the only days when they were shown but now you can also see games on Mondays and Thursdays while college games are shown on Saturdays and when their season ends in December, professional football takes those slots too. So basically, football fans can indulge their passions most days of the week.
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Via Seamus Bellamy here is a baby rhino skipping along like his lamb buddy.

The appeal of golf eludes me, though it attracts fanatically faithful players and followers. Its appeal as a spectator sport is particularly baffling since it has all the speed of a chess game. And I say that as a fan of cricket, considered by many to be one of the slowest games on the planet. At least on TV, you get to see various players on different holes. If you are actually on the course, you get to see just a tiny portion of the game. And yet tournaments attract a huge number of spectators to the courses.
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