It's like the Space Needle except on steroids...and in Dubai. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzQazjw-4jI]
[Via]
The New York Times highlights the mixed allegiances among Europe's soccer fans:
All of Europe has been in the grip of what it calls football fever for the past two and a half weeks as the Continent’s best teams have squared off. The tournament has given audiences some displays of masterful soccer, but also more than a few intriguing subplots as the increasingly mobile populations around Europe and the world create an overlapping web of confused loyalties.
No matter which way I slice my cultural and ethnic roots--American, Korean, and heck, even Mexican--I have no native claim to the Euro Cup soccer tournament other than as a simple soccer fan.
Read more here.
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This is a great montage of a guy using his urban environment as a soccer field with food stands and delivery trucks among others as the open net. It looks suspiciously like a viral for some company or something, but it's an entertaining video nonetheless:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdAOZg12tOE]
When it rains it pours, so the adage goes, and for Mike Myers he definitely did not evacuate the town after the hurricane warning. The hurricane known as his latest bomb the Love Guru is leaving behind a wake of destruction. And now a Canadian newspaper columnist, pointing out that he has been reduced to a one-trick pony of "that relies primarily on poop jokes, cultural stereotypes and Scottish accents," decides to disown Mr. Myers on behalf of his fellow countrymen and women.
1. Shrek (2001). Fans of this animated, Oscar-winning smash will go green with anger over its inclusion on this list, but we're firm on this. One of the first times we see the titular character, an ogre with a Scottish accent, he passes gas. Funny? My three-year-old doesn't even laugh. And that is this film's target audience, we presume.
Read more here.
This is perfect for Novelty T-Shirt Fridays (don't act like you don't have any).
Go to games.myspace.com immediately.
An itch is an annoyance for most of us and is generally cured by some soothing lotion....or scratching, but for a small minority it can develop into an uncontrollable and unstoppable self-mutilating reflex as it did for "M."
For M...the itching was so torturous, and the area so numb, that her scratching began to go through the skin. At a later office visit, her doctor found a silver-dollar-size patch of scalp where skin had been replaced by scab. M. tried bandaging her head, wearing caps to bed. But her fingernails would always find a way to her flesh, especially while she slept.One morning, after she was awakened by her bedside alarm, she sat up and, she recalled, “this fluid came down my face, this greenish liquid.” She pressed a square of gauze to her head and went to see her doctor again. M. showed the doctor the fluid on the dressing. The doctor looked closely at the wound. She shined a light on it and in M.’s eyes. Then she walked out of the room and called an ambulance. Only in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, after the doctors started swarming, and one told her she needed surgery now, did M. learn what had happened. She had scratched through her skull during the night—and all the way into her brain.
This fascinating New Yorker (Memo to self: Subscribe ASAP) dives into this "most peculiar and diabolical sensation" that may have "evolved in order to protect us from insects and clinging plant toxins." While previously considered to be a sub category of pain, doctors now know that a specific type of nerve was responsible for an itch where"unlike, say, the nerve fibres for pain, each of which covers a millimetre-size territory, a single itch fibre can pick up an itchy sensation more than three inches away." But can science and medicine explain why just thinking about it can make us itch, unlike say other sensations? The answer may rest with...mirrors.
Contemplating what it’s like to hold your finger in a flame won’t make your finger hurt. But simply writing about a tick crawling up the nape of one’s neck is enough to start my neck itching. Then my scalp. And then this one little spot along my flank where I’m beginning to wonder whether I should check to see if there might be something there. In one study, a German professor of psychosomatics gave a lecture that included, in the first half, a series of what might be called itchy slides, showing fleas, lice, people scratching, and the like, and, in the second half, more benign slides, with pictures of soft down, baby skin, bathers. Video cameras recorded the audience. Sure enough, the frequency of scratching among people in the audience increased markedly during the first half and decreased during the second. Thoughts made them itch.
There is so much interesting information related to this topic and the patient "M" that it's not to just basically copy and paste the whole goddamn itchy article. I'm so fucking itchy now. Damn you New Yorker.
So, read more here.
[Via]
I couldn't go but my good friend Clay who I met freshman year of high school went to our reunion back in Anchorage, Alaska. He made a trip out of it and did lots of Alaskan-y things. He posted the first recap with lots of pictures that...will confirm every stereotype you've had of this state that I used to once call home. From the first batch of photos, it looks like one heck of a trip and makes me miss Alaska for a little bit. Here are a couple samples with more on his blog.
See and read more here.
Someone had way entirely too much time on their hands. (Beat.)
Thank god for that because this is awesome:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0i3ZigYK4I]
[Thanks N]
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler crocking the Crocs!
Throwaway joke: Dude does look like a lady.
[Thanks Ashley]
It's not quite as compelling as the Wii Fit Hula girl but I definitely did watch this entire video of a girl...spinning around and around on top of an escalator. It might make more sense after the first 3 seconds of the clip [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYuRk1pFO0]
[Via]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNJdJOEtlyY] I can't imagine how he reacted after he found out Santa Claus isn't real. Sorry kids. He ain't. But that giant easter bunny is totally legit. He's a dick, but legit.
[Thanks Paul]
Coldstone Creamery was suppose to be the Next Great Franchise. Instead its iced up and "100 of its stores closed last year."
Even as they rave about the quality of the ice cream, numerous franchisees say the numbers in Cold Stone's business model didn't add up. The cost of running one of the shops was so steep that making a profit was daunting, especially in an economy where a $4 scoop was a pricey indulgence, they argue. They also contend the company cut their margins even further by offering two-for-one coupons and making them buy costly ingredients from a single supplier. Some argue that the company's rapid expansion crowded stores too close together -- and brought in too many inexperienced franchisees.
This is news to me, as I always seemed see locations being rather popular and full with customers. However, as one former franchise owner points out, "The stores seemed busy all the time. You assume that 'busy' equates to profitability."
Read more here.
Despite his recent (and predictable) criticism of Obama's decision to opt out of public financing, due to his fund-raising success with small individual donations, McCain had previously expressed his support for the sort of fund-raising upon which Obama's campaign rests.
I think it's wonderful that Howard Dean was able to use the Internet, $50, $75, $100 contributions. That's what we want it to be all about. We want average citizens to contribute small amounts of money, and that's a commitment to a campaign. So I'm for that. I think it's a great thing. I think the Internet is going to change American politics for the better.
Read more here.
This may seem slightly odd that I'm congratulating a couple on their recent engagement considering that I don't actually know them, but Brian Battjer and his personal blog was one of the early inspirations for my then inchoate blogging interest. His blog that he has frequently maintained since 1996 is a photo diary of his life and times in New York City and around the world. His adventures, always recapped with hysterical photos and videos never failed to amuse, inspire, and occasionally gross me out and his countless readers around the world. I highly recommend reading his entries from chronological order starting with the first one in 1996 which can be found at the bottom of the index page. Enjoy!
Read more here.
In any playground fight I would definitely put all my money on this 6-year-old boxing prodigy. Like most child prodigies and child actors, it's kind of weird, especially the parents (Check out the second clip from an ESPN segment). [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_1KfvOYVi0]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBn_RbH9Lvk]
One would think that "with oil prices nudging $140 a barrel" the Saudis, the world's biggest producer, would be be playing like Scrooge McDuck and diving into their ever growing windfall of money.
On the contrary.
Applying lessons learned from the 1970s oil boom that pushed them into the world spotlight, the Saudi leaders are attempting to avoid the political and economic "perverse incentives" associated with the current oil shock, such as a global recession that would "trigger a sharp fall in demand for Saudi oil," and reduce the value of its own overseas investments, as well as the further ascension of Iran whom they view as "their main rival for regional influence." Which is why yesterday they lead an unusual meeting "of delegates from 36 countries -- including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the heads of nearly 10 international oil companies and top officials from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries" in Jeddah to discuss the current volatile state of oil. The Saudis pledged to increase their output to address the supply concerns. Unfortunately this did not "nudge prices down" as they had hoped. I foresee more emergency meetings.
I'm all for fluff pieces and soft news, and I will admit that on Sundays I'll usually read the New York Times starting with the least newsworthy section (Lance Armstrong is a Cad!) before making my way to tackling the front page articles about the power struggle in Zimbabwe, but I mean this question posted by the New York Post is truly retarded: Who is more important to NYC’s economy, Models or Geeks? This child has the answer to that question:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y]
Creepy Boards, a New York band is contesting that Coldplay's song Livin La Vida Loca "Viva la Vida" was stolen from them after Chris Martin, Coldplay's lead singer, saw them perform at the CMJ festival in New York. As WOW points out, Creepy Boards's song is ironically titled "The Songs I Didn't Write." And they have a video, which is naturally on YouTube where they be callin' Coldplay out! It's just like Ice T and Soulja Boy! Or not. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUhFLiw6h6s]
There's some similarity but I dunno that I'm entirely convinced. Music is so derivative any how. Anyway, what say you?
A helpful guide to the French bise, or the cheek-kiss social greeting, including a map of France that "gives a geographical explanation for just how many cheek kisses you should administer." [Via]