Who he is: A 42-year-old Frenchman and the first limbless man to swim the English Channel Where you’ve heard of him: Why, right here on Good Feed! Sixteen years ago, Philippe Croizon, a former electrician, lost his limbs in an accident. (He was standing on a ladder adjusting a television antenna; when it came in…
Archives for September 2010
The New York Pot Exchange?
Who knew stoners were so resourceful? PriceOfWeed.com aggregates anonymous records of marijuana purchases in the U.S. and Canada. Building off of the recent growth in crowdsourcing, the website allows its members to anonymously submit the details of their most recent purchase. They fill in the location, the amount, the price, and the quality of the…
Newsweek Reimagines Masculinity
If you find yourself on Good Feed, no doubt you’ve heard about the “End of Men,” the story from the Atlantic this summer that presented some frightening statistics for the heterogametes among us, and argued, pretty effectively, that “modern, postindustrial society” might just be “better suited to women.” Yes, America’s manscape (no, I’m not talking…
Picture of the Day
The world’s strongest spider web is tougher than kevlar.
Stayfree’s Disturbing New Ads
From the Old Spice guy to “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” overly masculine men are starting to take over advertising. And then there’s this guy. Stayfree’s new ad campaign is just plain wrong. It’s comprised of short videos of “dates” with three different guys, shot from the point of view of the woman.…
Women Are From Venus, Men Vote Republican
A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found a clear difference between the favored parties of ladies and gentlemen, with women strongly favoring Democrats and men seeing red. (A lot of it.) More men said that they were planning to vote for the Republican candidate, rather than the Democratic candidate in their district, by a…
Tablets on my Mind
I scoffed when the iPad was released. Yet again, Apple created a total vanity product, just like the useless (but sexy) MacBook Air. Plus, given that the tablet is essentially entertainment-only, with none of the productivity features of other portable devices like netbooks and laptops, the iPad seemed even dumber. But, of course, the iPad…
Study of the Day: Think You’re Creative? You're Probably Just Full of Yourself
Creative types have a bit of a reputation for self-love. Pablo Picasso, for example, once famously declared “I am God,” and more recently, New York Magazine ran a sex advice article about the perils of dating an artist. (The title of the piece was “Civilian Casualties.”) And it’s not just artists—the stereotype applies to successful…
Caffeine Overdose May Lead to Murder?
A Kentucky man accused of strangling his wife is pleading caffeine insanity. The amazingly named Woody Will Smith says that there’s no chance he could have knowingly killed his wife, since he was left mentally unstable from too many sodas, energy drinks, and diet pills. Smith says he drank five or six energy drinks per…
The News—Discarded Workers, Discrimination, Forest Fires, and a Crumbling Education System
For the Unemployed Over 50, Fears of Never Working Again Despite impressive credentials and qualifications, a growing number of unemployed Americans in their 50s and 60s are finding it difficult to re-enter the workforce. “Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older,” according to the New York Times. “Nearly half…
Much Ado About Nothing
Preston Moore explains how he transformed himself from a human doing into a human being. All it took was a whole lot of nothing.
Confessions of a Recovering Homophobe
Jim Mitchem used to dislike gay people. Now he’s got more gay friends than he knows what to do with.
A Book by Men, for Men—Awkward Chest-Bumps Not Included
The eclectic mix of contributors—from Pulitzer winners, Vanity Fair writers, Emmy winners, Poet Laureates, Gulf War pilots, ex-cons, pro football Hall of Famers—draw upon the defining moments in men’s lives and explore the perspectives men have gained.
Man of the Day: Jerry McClard
Who is he? A previously homeless man living in Winchester, Virginia Where have you heard of him? You haven’t. But he’s awesome. (Disclaimer: You will be guilt-tripped by this story.) Jerry McClard is 65 and has lived in a homeless shelter for eight years—but that didn’t stop him from donating $2,500 to local charities that…
Numerical Simulation + Physics + Persistence = 1 Awesome Basketball Shot.
Wired Magazine’s Rhett Allaine is investigating amazing basketball shots found on YouTube. He takes into account things like the launch position, the ratio of standard deviation, the launch angle (of both left and right hands), and launch speed. The resulting data is thorough and scientifically sound. …but at the end of the day, videos like…
Boxing for Goodness
Writing in the New York Times‘ philosophy blog, the Stone, Gordon Marino, an active boxing trainer and professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College, makes the case for boxing as a tool for achieving “moral excellence”: Doing the right thing often demands going down the wrong side of the road of our immediate and long-range…