July 07, 2008
Brains and Brawns! A Russian man has just been crowned world champion in the sport of chess boxing. Apparently the idea originated in a French comic strip from the early '90s. In 2003 a Dutch artist decided to bring the 'sport' to life. The 'sport' is played by starting a chess match in the middle of a boxing ring. After four minutes, the chess board is cleared and the opponents box for three minutes. A match consists of six rounds of chess and five rounds of boxing. A match is decided by knockout, checkmate, or points [more inside]
June 26, 2008
Oh yes, WE TV, a spin-off of Lifetime has actually created this webshow.
May 22, 2008
World's First MMORPG - Multiplayer Micturation Operated Restroom Pissing Game console that is. Sensors mounted in the urinal let you use your flow to play a series of games (space invaders, "Pee to Ski"). In the words of the narrator, "It helps to have a big...beer-filled bladder".
May 21, 2008
Working as Jack Sparrow at Disneyland -- it's everything you've heard about working in a Disney park and more.
[more inside]
May 14, 2008
Darth Vader apprehended in the UK. However the judge let him off easy for attacking Jedi church members. This is a wierd news item that made me giggle when I read it. Those wild and wacky Brits.
April 14, 2008
Hot Chicks With Douchebags is what Tyler Durden would do if Tyler Durder weren't doing What Would Tyler Durden Do. [more inside]
March 25, 2008
Real outsourcing in India-
Elephants Film Tigers. Amazing stuff.
March 12, 2008
Who Needs a Movie? Fred and Sharon don't, maybe you do.
February 21, 2008
LASIK@Home is the same patented surgical procedure performed at eye clinics around the world, but without the unnecessary equipment and staff. Find out more on the How It Works page. [more inside]
January 21, 2008
Butt Naked Returns to Liberia to Confess A chapter of world history I never knew about: this guy was basically the Flip Wilson of genocidal maniacs, right down to "The Devil Made Me Do It". The crimes involved are heinous, but the story is disconcertingly fascinating. From the Washington Post, front page of site:
One of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, known as Gen. Butt Naked for charging into battle wearing only boots, has returned to confess his role in terrorizing the nation, saying he is responsible for 20,000 deaths.
January 13, 2008
Scandal and controversy in the world of competitive scrapbooking - Too much to take in: $2.6-billion industry... boycotts... the phrase 'quarter-life crisis'...
An avant-garde Hall of Fame scrapbooker -- part of a movement of 'scrappers who use "loneliness, narcissism and rage" rather than "teddy bear stamps, snowflake stencils and cupcakes" -- is stripped of her title. If this were april-1st I'd think it was a great hoax, but it's in the LA Times. Fake? not Fake? Who knows: enjoyable. [thx kottke] [more inside]
December 08, 2007
December 05, 2007
You thought Ms. South Carolina was dumb? This girl would redefine dumb, if she could find it in the dictionary.
December 03, 2007
Don't swear so much, you prick-eating bastard! In 1897 major league baseball owners met to discuss swearing on the field, and decided they were against it. So they created a set of "Special Instructions to Players." The recently unearthed document (soon to be sold at auction) describes, in detail, exactly the kind of language they didn't want their players using -- language you haven't heard since Deadwood went off the air.
This is pretty much the best thing in institutional swearing since the times when the first thing a scrabble player received showing up to a tournament was a list of 167 obscene words that had been expurgated from the official scrabble players dictionary. [more inside]
November 15, 2007
- Just a poll. Have any of you ever heard anything about CO2 sequestration? What it is, how it is done, anything?
October 16, 2007
Nations of the World (by Yakko Warner) - who needs cheat sheets? The voice of Yakko doesn't.
Also notable that they misspell Israel in the scroll.
October 15, 2007
Suppose Vanna White and Pat Sajak started talking typography after an episode -- hey, it could happen. Which host would betray an obvious ignorance of any single typeface, and which would show a marked sans-serif predilection? Oh wait, it did happen.
September 27, 2007
The awesomest thing I saw at this year's ACLFest? Certainly, it was Batman. I haven't been able to find much about him online, apart from a few passing references and a 6th-street sighting by Natedogg, but I have the pictures to prove it... see [more inside]
September 05, 2007
Which floor for the Annual Yuck Dr Visit in the Shanghai Gynecology Hospital? No beating around the bush (hah!) with this sign. Of course, you'll need a Cisco Engineer and not an MD if you need for glue the sex rubber mat for linking a fast ether lord fucking net ascending. HeartyBeefcakes sent along this roundup of adventures in machine translation; the last one is, I believe, current public policy in Detroit.
August 31, 2007
Are you a senator interested in soliciting sex in a public bathroom? Would you like to see a newscaster and a very uncomfortable colleague show you how the dance is done? Of course you would. Slate has a less impromptu version, filled with romantic details ("I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig, seated to the left of me").
August 22, 2007
July 05, 2007
The Grantham Collection - The most gruesome medical instruments ever made were designed for abortion. If you or someone you know has abortion instruments such as these, please contact me. Top dollar will be paid for these items. [more inside]
June 04, 2007
Start building your Cat Army with some home-distilled ultra-potent catnip extract - and learn some chemistry along the way.
When all the toluene is gone... you will be left with a tiny amount of greenish liquid in the bottom of your container that smells strongly of that familiar minty, catnip smell. I got 143 mg, ... not far off from the 0.3% theoretical maximum yield given the improvised apparatus. And a little goes a long way. Furthermore, this material is extremely pure. I analyzed it using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and found it to be >99% nepetalactone (see the second image below). For comparison, a sample of "catnip oil" that I purchased online was only about 80% nepetalactone.