Fit

Remember the good old days when technology used to help you be lazy? When you could sit on your butt all day long playing video games and watching TV, and when the most exercise you'd get is power-lifting your remote control? Those days are gone, my friend. Take a look at Time magazine's list of 10 Cool Ways To Get In Shape, featuring tech toys that'll help you lose that extra flab and cut down on your life-shortening laziness.

Plot

Looks like xkcd has been hatching evil plots too...

Covered

So here's a smart concept: covers of covers. Or, more accurately, cover versions of old comic book covers – all collected and collated at a single site, called Covered. Robert Goodin, the guy who runs the site, invites aspiring artists to recreate their favourite covers and post the results.



The results, then, are a mix of brilliant remakes and not-so-great knock-offs. But every brilliant one makes the not-so-great ones worthwhile.

The Truth

Have a look at this great page from Wikipedia, listing a whole bunch of common misconceptions. (Of course, Wikipedia has never been wrong about anything, so it's great to have them here setting the record straight.)

Like for example:

Alcohol doesn't evaporate quickly when you cook with it.

Napoleon wasn't short.

Humpty Dumpty was not an egg.

You can't see the Great Wall of China from space.

People don't only use 10% of their brain.

Sugar won't make your kids hyperactive.

Bats aren't blind.

The list is long, but not exhaustive. It is, however, a pretty good place to start before you head over to where the real action is: The Straight Dope.

Curl

Time magazine can't understand the fascination around it. Most folks can't understand the science around it. It is, of course, curling... and it is the best weirdest sport at the Winter Olympics!

First Aid

The Daily Beast has a great story up on the 10 Biggest Healthcare Mistakes... or the 10 things that have derailed President Obama's plans to change/fix/destroy the US healthcare system.

It's an interesting piece, if only because it serves as a handy The Story So Far primer into the whole mess.

Tempting...

Non Sequitur's take on tempting fruit. (And they say it's just allegorical...)

The Golden Path

At least my day's going better than this.



(I'm just worried about the lions and wizards yet to come).

Star Gazing

I could spend all day looking at pictures captured by the Hubble Telescope. Yet for some reason, whenever I do, my mind wanders off to point 3 in this classic Cracked article.

Blindness

One of the questions at our local Tuesday night pub quiz was about On His Blindness by John Milton. It's been a while since I read it, but it's lost none of its punch.

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.

And this before he wrote Paradise Lost. Incredible.

Context

Serves him right for having a mo like that.

Box Office

The Times is running a story on the Top 10 box office dippers: once-great actors whose careers took an unexplained (or, in some cases, very easily explained) nosedive. The Daily Beast explored this a couple of weeks ago, looking at the sad case of Harrison Ford.

Hummer Down

To paraphrase an old horror movie poster: Who will survive... and what will be left of them? More bad news from the auto industry as General Motors (or rather, Motors Liquidation Company, following GM's recent bankruptcy) officially announces that it's had to shut down its Hummer brand after it failed to sell it off to a Chinese company.

That's right, fans: the Hummer hums no more.

Gull Wings

Michael Schumacher is The Stig. Feast your eyes on this new commercial for the Mercedes SLS AMG.



The wink. The shoulder tip. It can only be The Stig.

Globetrotter

Some guys get all the luck. Travel blogger Gary Arndt has been walking the Earth since March 2007, posting blogs and taking photographs from over 60 different countries and territories.

Follow his adventures and check out his photographs... If nothing else, it'll get you planning your next grand getaway.

The Grateful Dead School Of Management

Think "Grateful Dead", and you'll probably think tye-died trousers, spaced-out tunes and die-hard Deadheads. But shrewd business analysts are now seeing Jerry Garcia's crazy crew in a totally different light – and in this fascinating piece at The Atlantic, they explain what modern businesses can take away from their visionary plans.

Free samples? Customers reward systems? Social networking? The Dead were doing it all years ago.

Glacier

Wired published this back in September last year, and I've found myself going back to it over and over again. It's a bird's-eye view of some of the world's most impressive glaciers...

... and by "bird's-eye view" I really mean "the view of a bird travelling in a spaceship, way above the Earth's atmosphere".

Sea Change

There's a fascinating post by Information Is Beautiful up at The Guardian, showing what it actually means when scientists talk about rising sea levels. Personally, I could live with Lower Manhattan getting flooded... but not if it means Venice and Amsterdam have to sink as well.

Plot

Are you hell-bent on global domination? Of course you are. Then head over to Darksites.com, and create your own Evil Plan.

Tickets, Please!

In all the fuss and fury about the slow pace of 2010 FIFA World Cup©^TM ticket sales, it's worth taking a look at the crazy maths of box office figures. Take the movie Avatar for instance: with worldwide ticket sales of $2-billion (and counting), it's now comfortably the highest-grossing movie in the history of movies. But there's a difference between its gross and its unit sales.

Sure, Avatar's made a bundle of money. But when you look at the number of actual movie tickets sold, Avatar is way down the list – not even in the all-time Top 20.

But who cares, right? After all, the bottom line is the bottom line.

Edit.

Great clip at SlateV on the five films that've been nominated for Best Film Editing at this year's Oscars.




And no, I didn't know what film editors did either until I watched this.

Killer Food!

Put down that hot dog! Here's Time magazine's list of the 10 Most Dangerous Foods that will ever pass your lips. It's hard to tell whether they're taking this too seriously, or not seriously at all...

Deep

There's a great graphic up at GOOD illustrating the relative depth of the Mariana Trench. Let's just say, it's very, very deep.



And while the graphic has some weird inaccuracies, it did get me thinking about one of my favourite natural X-File topics: deep-sea gigantism, which produces such freaks as the enormous seven-legged octopus.

Corn

I've had it for supper for the past two nights in a row... and in a perfect world I'd go for a third. Is there any meal better than the good old corn on the cob?

Fashion

New York, London, Milan, LA, Tokyo... It's fashion week season, and, as you'd expect, the shutterbugs at The Big Picture have a gallery up. Gotta love the shot of the pizza girl...



... and the Instructions For Ambiturners.



Beautiful.

Woman

Another blow for (or possibly to) feminism, this time struck by A Softer World.

I Think I Can

There goes the fairy tale.

Anthem

Ever wondered why all national anthems – regardless of the exotic locales or rich cultural complexities of the nation – sound kind of the same? Slate has the answer.

Sound Economic Theory

I submitted an Economics assignment last week. There was a lot of this in it:

Hard Boiled

Great post at Whipped on how to make the perfect hard boiled egg. I enjoyed it, and you will enjoy it too. Unless, of course, you are the bizarrely angry first commenter.

Göring Has Two, But Very Small

It's not the most highbrow history article you'll ever read... but it does help to (sort of) solve one of history's greatest mysteries. Hitler, it turns out, did not only have one ball.

Away

Yet another achingly good showcase from Pictory: this time they're sharing pictures and telling stories about The One Who Got Away.

If you haven't bookmarked Pictory yet, I cannot help you.

Rumble, Young Man, Rumble

Henry Cooper, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks, Earnie Shavers, George Chuvalo, Ernie Terrell, Joe Frazier... Ten fighters who took on Muhammad Ali tell their stories in Facing Ali, which is gloves-down, the best movie (let alone best documentary) I've watched in a very, very long time.

Here's the trailer:

Home

It was Number 15 on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2009... and now it's stuck in my head on permanent repeat. It's the rootin', tootin' Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros!

Profile

There are, according to one count, 30 standard Facebook profile photo types. But, according to the bloggers at social networking site OKCupid, there are also four big myths about what makes a great profile pic.

Cleavage, it turns out, doesn't work as well as you'd think.

Rank

You know Google's complex PageRank algorithm? Technology have a story up about how a new study has found a similar algorithm dating back to the 1940s... a full half-century before Google.

Pixtories

They say a picture tells a thousand words. But They say a lot of things, and They obviously haven't heard about SMS or Twitter, where a picture only gets 140 characters to say what it wants to say. The smart folk at Pixtories enforce this rule to excellent effect, asking contributors to post their favourite photographs along with a (very) short story of 140 characters or less.

So you'll get something, smart, concise, whimsical and inspiring... like this:


"Five best buddies after an adventurous day hiking and diving."

Go bookmark them now!

Pirates

Here, via Lifehacker, via some guy, is yet another reason why copying a pirated DVD is a more attractive option than shelling out hard-earned dosh for a proper one at the shops. Hard to argue...

Tut, Tut, Tut

Okay, so you know Tutankhamun? The strong, golden pharaoh of 14th-Century BC Egypt? Turns out he wasn't strong or golden after all. According to National Geographic, a fascinating new study suggests that King Tut was actually disabled, malarial and inbred, and he hobbled around on a cane until he died (which didn't take long either).

Font

There's a great list up at DesignCrave of 40 Free Fonts That Everyone Should Own. It's great, of course, because the fonts are all there for free download.

Lost Cause

Currently rocking the in-my-head playlist...

Tools

“We were flummoxed. These things were just not supposed to be there.” Any history/science story that contains a quote like that is usually worth reading. And so it is: the New York Times has a story up about the discovery of 130 000-year-old stone tools that have been discovered on the island of Crete.

That's the island of Crete... as in, the island that knuckle-dragging cavemen would've had to somehow sail to.

Jump Around

Another classic Big Picture gallery: this one's the second part of their Dance Around The World series.

Makes you want to...

His Own Terms?

Will Obama be a one-term president? And if he is, will history regard him as a failure? The New York Times isn't betting against it.

Tautology

xkcd is xkcd.

Noob

You'll have noticed that this blog has sighed, shrugged, and accepted defeat joined the Twitter throngs. (The Twitter account name is a brave attempt at Mandela-esque compromise.)

But this Twitter malarkey is, we must concede, actually quite fun. Best of the bunch? The glorious RevRunWisdom, in which the artist formerly known as half of the Run-DMC rap act dispenses sermons/proverbs/wisdom to soothe the soul.

Vancouver

Great pictures at The Big Picture of the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies.

Drink Up

While reading through Cracked's thoroughly-researched debunkment (not sure if that's a word, but let's keep going here) of various national stereotypes (the Poles aren't actually stupid, the Brits don't actually have bad teeth, the French aren't actually cheese-eating surrender monkeys, and Japanese men don't actually have... erm... you'll have to read the article), I came across a link to a list of countries ranked by alcohol consumption.

(Boy, that's a lot of brackets.)

So it turns out (according to the World Health Organisation, at any rate) that the dry countries like Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran don't touch the devil's water. (At least, that's what they're telling their parents.) But who's on top of the list? Which nation is the beer-swillingest, wine-tastingest, ale-swiggingest nation of all?

You say Ireland, with its whiskey and its Guiness. The stats say "No, sir."
You say Germany, with its beerfest. Again, you're wrong.
You say Czech Republic, UK, France, Italy, with their pilsens, pubs and wine farms? Again, you are sadly mistaken.

So who, with an annual average of 15.6 litres of booze consumed per capita in 2003, is the drunkest nation on Earth?

You may be surprised.

Power : Weight

It's one of the golden rules of athletic performance: instead of just boosting your power, try reducing your weight at the same time. (It's why you never see any overweight marathon winners.) Ford have figured this out, after their Shelby GT500 pushed out plenty of power (540 horses, to be precise) from its supercharged 5.4-litre V8.



So that's the power side of the power-to-weight ratio sorted out. Now, to boost performance even further, they're leaving the power side alone and taking care of the weight side of things. They've replaced that previous engine with an aluminium version, reducing the car's overall weight by a hefty 54kg... making the car go even faster than before.

"It might not be as sexy as adding more horsepower or bigger brakes," reckons Shelby American founder Carroll Shelby, "but shaving pounds off of a car is the single smartest move you can make."

Knickers In A Twist

Indexed's sage advice reaches me a day too late...

Euro

Paul Krugman has a go at explaining the fine mess Europe (especially Spain and Greece) has gotten itself into. You've got to love how the problem is the single currency, but the solution cannot involve abandoning the single currency.

McQueen

There's a gorgeous retrospective of the work of late fashion designer Alexander McQueen up at New York magazine.

As the magazine says, his stuff wasn't always wearable, but it was always beautiful.

Up In Smoke

The good things about the ban on cigarette advertising are obvious and numerous and there's no point repeating them here. But there's one bad thing about it: the culture is missing out on great vintage advertisements like this:



And this:



And, of course, this:



Who thought the day would come that I'd actually lament the lack of cancer-stick commercials?

Sweet FA

Football365 have some ideas on how to revive the FA Cup. Point 5 makes the most sense to me. Point 6 is only strengthened by last year's pre-game hymn...

Dear Harry

Dear Harry Turtledove

I know that as one of the best – nah, make that THE best – writers of alternative history fiction, you're a very busy man. That online novel you're writing about JFK surviving the Dealey Plaza attack, only to face a reputation-destroying impeachment process (yet another of your I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that-myself brilliant ideas), is probably filling most of your free hours right now.

I realise, too, that anybody else in your position would have retired by now, happy in the knowledge that you've reimagined and rewritten history like no-one else ever could. Ruled Britannia, where the Armada invades England and Shakespeare writes a resistance play? Pure genius! Your Timeline-191 series, where the South wins the Civil war? World class, sir! And your series where aliens invade Earth in the middle of World War II? You knew you'd outdone even yourself there, didn't you?

But, see, I have one more favour to ask. Just a small one. You could even do it as a stand-alone novel (like The Guns Of The South, where you had time-travelling AWB militants supplying the Civil War South with AK-47s). No big deal.

All I'm asking is that you write a novel about Operation Unthinkable. That's the one where Churchill planned to lead a US/British invasion of the Soviet Union (using re-armed German troops) at the end of World War II.

Now THAT would make a great alternative history novel!

Regards,
ItWasThisOrTwitter

Tarantino

How cool is this? A designer-type person named Ibraheem Youssef has put together a series of tribute posters to Quentin Tarantino movies.



You gotta love the Reservoir Dogs one...

Delta Wing

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the concept model Delta Wing, which Indy racing bigwigs are considering as their new racing car. It's believed to be capable of top speeds of 235mph (that's, like, almost 380km/h, which is more than three times the legal limit on South African roads), and they reckon it'll cut fuel consumption in half.

Can't wait to see the prototype on the track.

A Little Less Conversation

You'll never guess what happens in this video:



Unless, of course, you guessed that people would talk in Swedish, that the lights in the concert hall would go out, that Dolf Lundgren would appear on stage carrying a flaming torch, that he'd then bust out into a rendition of "A Little Less Conversation", and that he'd then do kung-fu moves all over the place.

Rom Com

The Daily Beast keep the Valentine's fire burning with rom-com auteur Nora Ephron's list of her Top 11 Romantic Comedies. This scene from Sense And Sensibility (which is, it must be said, much more rom than com) always gets me.

And They Say Romance Is Dead...

Happy Valentine's Day, from All Songs Considered (who're playing the all-time greatest break-up songs), and from xkcd (who's offering us this slice of romance):

Dad

Scary stat from Fact-a-Day: There are 15.4 million children (aged 0 to 17) whose fathers are currently alive. 54% of them say their father is not part of their household.

I'm playing my National Anthem on Permanent Repeat today.

The Road

Now here's how you start a season: for the first episode of Season 14, Top Gear set out – in an Aston Martin DBS Volante, a Ferrari California and a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder, of course – to find the world's greatest driving road. They found it in Romania, in the Carpathian Mountains, on the outskirts of Transylvania. Obviously.

The Transfăgărăşan was built in the early 1970s by order of Nicolae Ceauşescu, just in case the Soviet Union ever thought of invading Mother Romania. It took six million kilograms of dynamite to build the road's northern face... because the 1970s were a crazy time.

Here's the Top Gear clip. Turns out the 2010s are a crazy time too.

Oyster

There's a tasty little story at Salon about oysters (apparently they're not all about sex)... plus a recipe I'm dying to try.

Tick Tock

At last! A time-waster that tells time! HumanClock.com uses pictures (which truly have to be seen to be believed!) to help you keep track of the time you' should be spending on more productive pursuits.

Guilty Pleasures

Indexed explains why I'm now ready to go public with my love of cheesy 1980s hair metal bands...

I'm Quoted, Therefore I Am?

Permit me a cruel chuckle. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy (and you have to know that anybody who cites "philosopher" as their day job isn't going to be the most grounded of individuals) has been caught out quoting the works of famous modern thinker Jean-Baptiste Botul... who's famous for being a fictional character.

Man

This ad ran during the SuperBowl. I'm not sure I like what it says about the state of modern man. Neither am I sure I can keep a straight face when the faux James Bond music kicks in.

Little Old Lady Got Mutilated Late Last Night

The Daily Beast has a gallery up of Hollywood's Sexiest Werewolves. For you, it might serve as an excuse to reconsider Taylor Lautner's hirsute beefiness. For me, it's an excuse to post this old clip of Warren Zevon playing "Werewolves Of London".

Tougher

The Big Picture is back with more mud-splutteringly good images from this year's Tough Guy Challenge.



This Superman shot is going to be a comic book cover one day.

Waiting

Don't fancy being a waiter at this guy's table...

Two Face

Harvey Dent gets an origin story makeover at xkcd.

His Way

Mesdames et messieurs, I present for your musical appreciation the French chanson "Comme D'Habitude" by tracksuited crooner Claude François.



And before you ask, oui, that's the song Frank Sinatra stole and turned into "My Way". According to the wise folks at Slate's Culture Gabfest, the song has gained a second life as a gay anthem in France. The reason isn't Claude's amazing turtleneck zipper top; it's because of the lyrics. The song's about a relationship that's slowly petering out, and the lyrics are unclear about the genders of the people involved in the relationship. And somewhere along the line, the song took two paths: one led to the rainbow flag, the other led to Mr Sinatra's swaggering swagger.

Fields

Dutch photographer Hans van der Meer has a great book (with words by the great soccer wordsmith Simon Kuper) called European Fields. There's a website, too – with plenty of pictures.



The shots were taken during lower-league/Sunday league soccer matches, far from the stadiums and floodlights of the Premiership, Bundesliga or Champions League. Seeing these blokes running around in the cold and mud, on rinky-dink fields with nobody watching, you have to admire their efforts.



No wonder it's called the Beautiful Game.