Who knew that Australia possesses the last surviving crop seeds of certain varieties of Lebanese chickpea? Sparing us the nightmare scenario of a future devoid of farting hippies, Australian farmer and scientist Dr Tony Gregson has preserved these and other seed samples in the Arctic environs of that mother-of-all spice racks, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
But seeds? Snow? Doom? (Okay, doom in the sense of ‘doomsday, preparation for’, but still.)
Is the ‘con’ in ‘chili con carne’ short for ‘consequences’?
The southern African state of Malawi is undertaking a review of its penal code which, depending on the outcome of a legislative amendment being debated next week, may mean I have to strike it from my wishlist of travel destinations.
According to Google Analytics, someone visited my website immediately after typing the search phrase “where to buy flatulence underwear melbourne australia”.
There’s nowhere I can go from there.

From a US patent for a flatulence deodorising pad that sits in your underwear (in, the patent helpfully informs us, “the anal area”).
The background notes make for compelling reading (the charcoal cloth of which the pad is made was originally developed to defend soldiers against chemical warfare), but I particularly like the idea that somewhere there’s an illustrator whose specialty is the infographics of the fart.
(Google Patents, via Amy and Aaron Edgar)