Airplane travel causes indigestion, and more

Airplane travel causes indigestion

Flying on an airplane makes it more likely you’ll suffer a bout of flatulence, a new scientific study has concluded. The study, by a team of gastroenterologists, found that changes in cabin pressure alter the volume of gases in our intestines, leading to little eruptions. Trying to restrain the farting from occurring, the doctors warned, could lead to “significant drawbacks,” such as indigestion and stomach pain, though they note that “proximity to other passengers may cause conflict and stigmatization of the offending individual.”

Japan's new teenage fad

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

In a new fad sweeping Japanese teenagers, girls are going out in public with their panties over their heads, says BuzzFeed.com. The teens are using social media to send out photos of themselves wearing panties as unusual face masks, and are even showing up at school or in clubs thus attired. The fad is apparently based on a teen comic book about a character called “the abnormal superhero,” who also wears ladies’ undergarments over his head as a mask. “I really worry about this country,” one Japanese commenter said.

Soil soup, anyone?

A Japanese chef has opened a restaurant in Tokyo serving dishes whose featured ingredient is dirt. The six-course tasting menu at Toshio Tanabe’s restaurant begins with a soil soup, ends with a light soil sorbet accompanied by a sweet dirt gratin, and costs each diner around $110. Tanabe says all his dirt is screened for harmful substances prior to cooking, and is full of healthy minerals. “Humans used to eat soil, back in the day,” he says.