i.justrealized

To remind people that Pizza Hut also has pasta, Pizza Hut is temporarily changing its name to Pasta Hut.

Pizza Hut rebrands to Pasta Hut

Fifty-year-old restaurant chain Pizza Hut is temporarily changing its name to Pasta Hut in a radical £100m relaunch.

Although it plans to keep the same number of pizzas on the menu, from this week Pizza Hut will introduce eight pasta dishes across its 700 restaurants to support its new positioning. Nine restaurants will change their signage immediately.

Pizza Hut marketing director Claudia Nicholls-Magielsen said it was making the change because research showed that consumers wanted more variety when eating out, and that, on average, the British public ate more pasta than pizza. ‘We want to be as famous for our pastas as we are for our pizzas,’ she explained.

Nicholls-Magielsen admitted that the move was a ‘bit of a shock tactic’ designed to ‘get people to feel differently about Pizza Hut’. (Source: Brand Rebublic)

That, by the way, is the problem of choosing a name that is too specialized like Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut (both have same management). Every one knows you make chicken, that’s great but once they feel like eating something like fish or beef, they most certainly won’t think of you. Same goes with Pizza Hut, if I am going to have pasta, I probably go to Pastamania or something. Just because they remind me of pasta. Pastamania sells pizzas too but I always forget they do.

Insurance agents can sell you anything. You could insure virtually everything I guess. I heard pianist Clayderman, who’s really popular among women, insured his fingers or something. Well, if you’re afraid of alien abducting you, you probably can consider an alien abduction insurance.

Alien abduction insurance

The insurance policy is redeemed if the insured person is abducted by aliens. British Insurance manager Simon Burgess, known for being involved in the bizarre end of insurance, said “Of course, the burden of proof lies with the claimant. Let’s face it – insurance is so tedious that if I can enlighten my dreary life with a bit of humour every now and again, I will.” A policy normally costs around $150 per $1.5 million in coverage as of 1998. Policy offerings vary from $10,000 to $10 million. Some companies offer policies for alien pregnancy, alien examinations and death caused by aliens. (more…)

It’s a rather interesting article. You can view New York Times take on why we have the urge to end it all.

Some interesting notes on jumper-type suiciders:

• With regards to jumping on a suicide attempt, there’s “high degree of impulsivity associated with that method”.
• For generations, the people of Britain heated their homes and fueled their stoves with coal gas. This released very high levels of carbon monoxide. “Sticking one’s head in the oven” became so common in Britain that by the late 1950s it accounted for some 2,500 suicides a year, almost half the nation’s total.
• By the early 1970s, the government phase out coal gas in favor of the much cleaner natural gas. During those same years, Britain’s national suicide rate dropped by nearly a third, and it has remained close to that reduced level ever since.
• In a moment of deep despair or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly - “the execution chamber in everyone’s kitchen,” as one psychologist described it - and that instrument allowed little time for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass.
• Many who choose to jump seem to be drawn by a set of environmental cues that, together, offer three crucial ingredients: ease, speed and the certainty of death.
• “At the risk of stating the obvious,” Seiden said, “people who attempt suicide aren’t thinking clearly. They might have a Plan A, but there’s no Plan B. They get fixated. They don’t say, ‘Well, I can’t jump, so now I’m going to go shoot myself.’ And that fixation extends to whatever method they’ve chosen. They decide they’re going to jump off a particular spot on a particular bridge, or maybe they decide that when they get there, but if they discover the bridge is closed for renovations or the railing is higher than they thought, most of them don’t look around for another place to do it. They just retreat.”
• A man was grabbed after passers-by noticed him pacing and growing increasingly despondent. The reason? He had picked out a spot on the western promenade that he wanted to jump from, but separated by six lanes of traffic, he was afraid of getting hit by a car on his way there.
• Once someone attempts a suicide and survive, they are unlikely to have another impulse toward suicide.

And… On an unrelated note, New York Times has this short paragraph on Scott Anderson, the writer of the article. It says, “Scott Anderson is a frequent contributor to the magazine. His last article was about the war in Lebanon in 2006.” How is an article after 2 years considered frequent.

The Most Absurd Laws from Around the World

1. It’s illegal to call or address a pig as Napoleon in France.
2. It is against the law to sell a doll with a face that’s not human in France.
3. It is illegal to carry a Bible or to talk to someone about Jesus in Singapore. (Is this true?)
4. In Britain, It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament. The reasoning behind this is that technically anyone who dies within the walls of Parliament is automatically granted a Royal state funeral. (Okay, anybody fancies a state funeral?)
5. It is illegal to dress up as Batman in Australia. (What about Superman?)
6. In Finland, Donald Duck was once banned because he doesn’t wear any pants.
7. In Thailand, all those who attend a cinema show must stand up during the national anthem before a film begins.

More at Divine Caroline.

What amazing stage presence. The dog, Gin, did well performing to the tunes of James Bond.

Britain’s Got Talent 2008 - Episode 1: Gin the dog

Well, Britain’s Got Talent is a talent discovery programme. But since the dog is in Britain and it has got talent…