For years, the public payphone in Beijing sat underused, eclipsed by the rise of the smartphone. Then on a Saturday in July it began ringing ... and ringing ... and ringing. It rang every Saturday for weeks with a barrageof calls, answered by passing pedestrians. "The air is constantly laced with a stinging, almond-like smell. We can barely breathe freely at home. My throat aches, as if someone is grasping it," a woman named Hong Yu said on the other end of the phone. The pay phone is the stunt to highlight the irony of a hotline in a city hundreds of miles away which has been ignoring cries for help from its own residents. Hong is among 2.71 million residents who live in a coastal city in northern China named Gourd Island, where they say they have been suffering from years of severe pollution emitted by a zinc factory and several pesticides and chemicals firms.
Marg in solidarity
In support of the protests in Iran against the murder of Mahsa Amini, Italian artist Alexsandro Palombo painted an image of Marge Simpson cutting off her iconic hair, on a wall outside the Iranian consulate in Milan.
1. During the French Revolution, being guillotined was referred to as "being given the patriotic haircut", "sticking your head through the cat-flap", "poking through the window", and "sneezing into the basket".
2. In 1871, lawyer Clement Vallandigham was defending a client accused of murder. In demonstrating how the victim might have accidentally shot himself, he accidentally shot himself. He died. His client was acquitted.
3. Trout pout: Victorian photographers encouraged women clients to form "a pretty expression of the mouth" by saying the word "prunes".
