Three reinventions of the umbrella

Change your preferences Having difficulty reading this email? View it online       Afternoon all, As the days get rainier, it makes you realise that the umbrella is a bit rubbish.A little bit of wind and it turns inside out. Before it breaks. So some new designs are cropping up. This one is designed to withstand incredibly strong winds:               Whereas this one returns to its original shape if blown inside out:               And if it breaks, this umbrella is made of just six parts so should be easier to fix:               Whatever umbrella wins favour, it's safe to say that Songxia will continue to dominate the making of them.               Can the umbrella be improved?         Here’s a surgery horror story. You go under and then the qualified doctor is replaced by someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. This is what is claimed to have happened in a botched plastic surgery operation in South Korea. There’s so much demand to get nipped and tucked that unqualified surgeons are cashing in. There's been a slew of court cases involving patients complaining they have had their face rearranged, just not in a good way. Victims of a craze for cosmetic surgery When Mary Harper last went to Mogadishu she saw more Turkish flags than Somali flags. What’s more is that Somalis call their daughters Istanbul and their sons Erdogan after Turkey’s president. This unlikely love affair all started in 2011’s famine. Erdogan flew to Somalia and walked through the streets of one of the most dangerous countries in the world in a suit, with no body armour. People still talk about how he picked up dirty, starving children and have taken it to their hearts. The unlikely love affair between two countries         In case you missed it... ... here are some articles we published over the weekend. Will the floods in California end the drought A Point of View: The strangely enduring power of kitsch The Jews of Arabia The tourist town with a few surprises         Meanwhile... The Buckingham Palace Christmas tree was only introduced in 1996 after a letter of complaint Australians are offering to commute with Muslims afraid of islamophobic attacks A surgical clamp has been found in man after 13 years         That's it from us today. If you like us, like us on Facebook. We'd like that.