Editorial: Casual time of the month

Pay-per-tickle

Just when you were convinced the Internet was destroying… Pay-per-tickle

Just when you were convinced the Internet was destroying interpersonal contact, you hear this: According to Time magazine, the Spanish have a new invention: the tickle spa. For just $35 per session in an establishment in downtown Madrid, you can disrobe, lie down and be physically induced to laugh by a professional. Although we question how raising clients’ heart rates and blood pressures by jabbing their sides results in relaxation, we have no doubt what’s on the minds of Pitt’s Stress-Free Zone directors.

Does it come with balloons?

It’s often difficult to transform the fantasy world of film into real life. Star Wars die-hards tried it in 2001 by building a life-sized Millenium Falcon, which collapsed only days after construction. But Utah-based home-building company Bangerter Homes might have had more luck — it just completed a 2,800-square-foot replica of the iconic house from the Pixar movie “Up.” For interested buyers, the asking price is $399,000. Our one question: Now that the FAA has approved the flying car, where are they on the flying house?

Angels and Ditalini

If there are two pictures people never want to show you, it’s those on their drivers’ licenses and their Panther Cards. However, according to MSNBC, Austrian atheist Niko Alm wasn’t bothered by conspicuous ID photos. Last week, Alm was granted a driver’s license in which he’s wearing a pasta strainer. In Austria, head coverings are only allowed in licenses for religious reasons, and Alm associates with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Given Alm’s resounding success wearing food-based religious items to bring about significant societal change and our current dilemma now that the beloved Dozen Bake Shop has closed, we come to one clear solution: all hail the Exploding Cupcake Fairy.

Expanding possibilities

There are certain kinds of growth that we associate with the advent of iPhones. Growth in people’s connectedness to social media, growth in available electronic distractions and growth in Apple product-related snobbiness. And now, thanks to plastic surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Kinsley, we can add to the list growth in breast size. According to the Daily Mail, Kinsley helped develop an app that allows users to see what they would look like with 17 different breast implants — it’s called iAugment. Look out, Ratemyprofessors!