Ding Huang demonstrates the art of paper cutting
Laura Reynolds looks at the habits of exam-weary students
James Tompkinson discusses the benefits of using Facebook for revision
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Firstly you might want to not read on if you suffer from pogonophobia, which is to say, a fear of beards. Now I know I’m slowly running the risk of making this a weekly look at weird things on the internet and I’ve thought long and hard about it, but in the end it’s in the public interest for me to share with you www.thebeardcommunity.com, take a look at the site if just for the mission statement which made my housemates and I extremely happy. The website itself just seems to be a huge photo forum where you can upload pictures of yourself looking swish with your facial hair.
Anyway back to the facts- honestly, it’s an effort to retain the focus with such high quality research material around. The average man has about 15,000 facial hairs which grow at a rate of five inches a year, if left unattended the average man’s beard would grow to 27.5 feet and stopping it getting there by shaving takes up 3,350 hours in a lifetime.
The longest beard ever was grown by Hans Langseth who died in Norway in 1927. At his death his beard was 17 and a half feet long. The longest beard in the world at the moment is ‘maintained’ (if that’s the right word) by Shamsher Singh of Punjab, India and was 6 feet long last time it was measured. The women are letting the side down a little here as the longest beard on a woman measured a (frankly poor by comparison) 11 inches, still I suppose Vivian Wheeler of Wood River, Illinois deserves some credit for overcoming certain gender obstacles to achieve her world record.
We’ve been very light hearted up to now but certain persons of the beard persuasion maintain that the wearing of facial hair can have serious ramifications. Let us pause for a moment and examine ‘beardism’: A survey in America found that bearded politicians achieved 5% fewer votes than their squeaky-chinned adversaries and on this side of the pond in the running for the 2000 Mayor of London elections Labour candidate Frank Dobson was advised to shave off his beard, his response was “get stuffed” and he lost… draw your own conclusions members of the voting public.
So we take with us this week the superiority of the beard: Girls, envy them and boys, keep counting down the days until you can be the proud cultivator of a beard all of our own.
p.s. I think we can be pretty sure that next week’s column is going to feature moustaches rather heavily.
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