;)

Fox fur is known to insulate from heat as well as cold. Hassidim wear ritual Streimels (or Shtreimels as they are pronounced) on festive occasions, including every week on the sabbath, in hot countries, and in hot seasons.

Hidden inside the streimel fur is a removable ice pack and a tiny battery (or solar panel) powered motor that sends a small amount of cooling fluid in a cycle from the head and back through the ice pack, so that the heat of the cooling fluid is slightly lower than the hassid's head temperature. This keeps the hassid cool and comfortable while dressed for a snowy blizzard in the Karpathean mountains.
-- pashute, Aug 02 2010

Solar Cooling Hat Albeit not made of fur, this idea preceded mine by six years. [pashute, Jul 20 2012]

Accept the "mystory" http://www.youtube....watch?v=zFGpO5S0cSQ
[pashute, Jul 22 2012]

Hey, I'm all for staying cool. But, I wonder if the Hassidim ever had to dodge red paint balls thrown by incensed PETA members... (I recently found out that PETA did NOT mean "People who Eat Tasty Animals. " Dang. Who knew, wrong again.) Sorry, PETA, I know a winner when I see one! Put me down for one of 'em, [pashute]! Karpathean mountains, here I come! Bun! [+]
-- Grogster, Aug 03 2010


But could it be used on Shabbos?
-- mouseposture, Aug 03 2010


For every ointment, there is a fly.
-- Grogster, Aug 03 2010


... sayeth Koheleth.
-- mouseposture, Aug 03 2010


It would work with a shabbos clock, set by turning the black yarmulka in the middle...
-- pashute, Aug 03 2010


//the Karpathean mountains//
Anyone done the "wear the fox hat" gag yet?
-- coprocephalous, Aug 03 2010


I can't help thinking that the more straightforward solution to this would be to do away with the shtriemel.

I think I could become religious if I could find a religion that wasn't even more perverse and obsessed with stupid details than my happily antitheist life already is. No pork or shellfish here, funny pants there, having to tie a box to your forehead on Tuesdays, or not eating beef from the left flank of the animal... c'mon, religious leaders - check with your marketing departments.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 20 2012


Does wearing one of these things make the wearer more holy? Because if it doesn't, it's just another example of utter pointlessness. Unless looking like a dork wrapped in bits of dead animal is a desired outcome.
-- Phrontistery, Jul 21 2012


//looking like a dork//

That's "Dork" with a capital "D". The Dorks (or Dorques, or Dorci) were one of the early tribes in Britain, known to have existed in about 300BC (as noted by Pytheas on his travels), but not recorded subsequently (or before). They occupied an area in the south-east of England, and may have also occupied (or fled to) the Isle of Wight. History does not record, however, whether they wore fox furs although, given the English weather, one coudn't blame them if they did.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 21 2012


Does that explain Dorking?
-- Phrontistery, Jul 21 2012


Isn't that sort of the point of religion, [Max]? Do something you wouldn't otherwise do because you believe some higher power wants you to.
-- ytk, Jul 21 2012


//Does that explain Dorking?//

Nothing can adequately explain Dorking. It was once called Dorchinges, after a titled person of some ilk, but whether his (and Dorking's) name is derived from the Dorks (or Dorci) is lost in the mists of wossname.

//Isn't that sort of the point of religion//

Well then, that's bloody stupid, isn't it? I can just imagine the gods down the pub on a Friday night.

Yahweh: Hey, Godster, betcha can't beat this: I've persuaded my guys that they absolutely had to cut the ends off their dicks, and they've gone for it big time, especially the males. And you know that time we all got pissed and made that cheese- shaped hat out of a dead fox? Well, guess where they're all the rage now.

God: That's nothing. I told a bunch of mine that they had to eat fish on Fridays, that beavers were a kind of fish, and that I'm a trinity of three people who are actually one. They're so gullible I'm gonna try them with transubstantiation next week.

Allah (setting down his bloody mary): Gentlemen, I do not wish to be so bold as to say I can beat that, but listen up. You know that yeast-and-grape thing you created, and you figured everyone would go completely ape over? Well, guess who managed to get all his followers to be teetotal. Cheers.

Yahweh: OK, guys. How about a bet. Last one to split his followers into two opposing factions with more than 20% casualties on both sides buys the next round.

God: Welllll...
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 21 2012


I could explain the Streimel if you cared to listen... Not that I wear one, but

a. Most, today, are made of synthetic fur.

b. One of the leaders in my country of endorsing real care for our planet, including the initiation of most recently accepted environmentally friendly laws is the Ultra-Orthodox rabbi member of our parliament...

and c. There are all kinds of stupidity in religious laws especially in the Jewish religion, like washing your hands after the toilet and before eating, or taking an early morning ritual freezing bath, which, counter to scientific knowledge and even to Ignaz Semmelweis' crazy unscientific ideas, can get you killed because you don't die in the black plague, and so are necessarily accused of poisoning the water wells, which gets you and your family murdered in a pogrom.

Or the really stupid idea of resting once a week, letting nature catch its breath, together with your family and community, spending the day on learning the law and your cultural myths. Why waste so much time on cooperating? Life is short, free sex is fun, the smog is only because we aren't using the correct technology, and having kids is a kind of pollution, unless they are the type that will jump onto a mine with glee, in which case they may be tolerated as the hope of the human wipe-out future.

Seriously: IMHO, its not religion and tradition vs. atheism and science. By now we reached an age where most people who have thought this through realize that there is still much to be understood, there IS quite a lot of hidden wisdom in culture and tradition, and that striving for the good of the world is what's important, and mainly that we should be open to listen, see and comprehend.

[Edit] This is not to say that any anti-science, pro- war, anti-women culture is something to be promoted. On the contrary.

Of course "Culture Clash", as the Cohen brothers call it in "Serious Person", must be consolidated one way or the other, preferably but not always possibly without violence.
-- pashute, Jul 22 2012


did I just find myself endorsing the Streimel? :(
-- pashute, Jul 22 2012


//"Culture Clash", as the Cohen brothers call it in "Serious Person", must be consolidated one way or the other//

I think that's unlikely to happen - Boy George is pretty much wasted these days.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 22 2012


Or they could take the things off and hand them to loitering children to hold, for a few shekels.
-- Phrontistery, Jul 22 2012


I agree with all of you. Its just too hot to argue, my old laptop is boiling at the keyboard (now there's an ingenious idea, put the cpu and heat dispersion away from the kb... now why didn't anyone think of that?!): and I can't find an air conditioned Streimel to help cool down.
-- pashute, Jul 26 2012



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