Check out cracked.com for all ten “Moments of Spontaneous Badassery.”
Archives for 2010
Study of the Day: The Economic Pitfalls of Not Asking for Directions
If you’re driving a Prius, great. You’re helping the environment and probably saving a good chunk of money, but make sure you ask for directions. If you don’t, you might end up giving it all back. Siel Ju of the Mother Nature Network reports on a survey of the habits of male and female drivers and…
The News—Your Friday Hurricane Edition
Good morning, gentlemen. Here’s what’s good feeding on this fine Friday morning. Hurricane Earl Sideswipes North Carolina; Weakly Eyes Massachusetts Hurricane Earl may have weakened in its approach to the North Carolina coast, but it still packed a punch at winds exceeding 100 mph. Most local residents in danger zones had already evacuated when it…
An Important Island You Should Really Know About
If you’ve always wanted to live on another planet, there is still hope—for your great, great grandchildren. According to a BBC report, Ascension Island, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, might hold the key to colonizing the red planet. The information has been around for a while—it just took us more than 150 years…
Are Hired Assassins for Real?
With the recent release of The American, starring George Clooney as a seasoned assassin on his last job, Slate asked the question, “Do hired assassins actually exist?” The answer: sort of, but they have day jobs, too. Those that exist would likely moonlight as drug dealers, extortionists, thieves and pimps. Renaissance men, if you will.…
Mom, I got an A (and $237)!
Gambling site allows college students to bet on their grades.
Anthem for the F***ed Over Gets a Music Video
Cee-Lo Green (of Gnarls Barkley fame) released his tirelessly catchy single, F**k You a couple weeks back and gained immediate viral status. Now his retro anthem for every guy who’s ever had his heart broken has an equally awesome music video accompaniment. Set in a 50s diner with Motown-style backup singers, the video highlights include…
We Read Other Men's Magazines So You Don't Have To: Oh, the Agony of Zac Efron
Magazine: Details Issue: September 2010 Story: The Agony of Zac Efron by Andrew Goldman This month’s issue of Details features a lengthy cover story on Zac Efron, the peripherally grating, perennially grinning star of High School Musical whom we’re all more or less resigned to glumly stare at in the check-out aisle at Wal-Mart. But…
How Smart is Your City?
What happens if you’re a city, named after a rock, where a buffalo runs around a football stadium filled with drunken college kids? You become the smartest in the United States, that’s what. The Daily Beast released its list of the 20 most intelligent metro-areas. Boulder topped the list, with San Francisco, Boston, and D.C. all placing…
Silly Pooh Bear, the Rebels Are Invading the Death Star
In one of the oddest mash-ups I’ve seen in a while, artist James Hance has produced a lovely series of prints re-casting Star Wars characters in Winnie the Pooh roles. Hans Solo plays Christopher Robin, R2D2 takes on Piglet, and (of course) Chewbacca is the lovable Pooh Bear. (My favorite is probably the AT-AT as…
Stay Away from Our Store, Hippies!
I’d been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the latest JCrew catalog for the past few weeks. I couldn’t wait to see the season’s newest threads. With my copy yet to arrive, I was shocked to find out, from Slate, that a hippie has infiltrated the walls of the American institution that is the JCrew catalog.…
David Attenborough… Auto-Tuned
For anyone who’s sat rapt over the BBC’s Planet Earth with David Attenborough’s voice washing over you like a warm milk bath of knowledge… check out the music video series, Symphony of Science. Created by John Boswell, a musician based in Washington D.C., the series is a strangely hypnotic hybrid of Daft Punk and those washed out…
Homo Antecessor: the Earliest Cannibals
Have you ever wondered how the earliest cannibals behaved? Me neither, but it turns out they were pretty interesting—and frightening. Discovery News reports that the first cannibals ate each other for the nutritional value, not out of necessity. They had other feeding options, but they chose to snack on themselves as part of the daily…
What Can Tron Teach You About Having Sex?
Probably not a lot. But for the boy-nerd in you, we present the Tron-o-sutra—the kama sutra remixed into something deliciously, futuristically dirty (and educational)! Nothing like an illustrated guide to watching robot-people “play the cello” to make geek populations explode. Oh, but while we’re on the subject, check out this awesome Tron Legacy trailer…
Did You Say "Fried Beer?"
State fairs are scary. Carnies, donkeys, butter sculptures, oversized zucchinis… it can all get a bit overwhelming. That might’ve just changed. As Consumerist reports, a madman—or, possibly, a genius—at the Texas State Fair has created fried beer. This is earth-shattering news with the potential to be either the best or the worst thing Texas has…
Dirty Secret Unveiled in Afghanistan
In a country where looking at a woman above her feet is a sin, social scientists have uncovered a disturbing cultural norm: public pedophilia. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, it’s a socially sanctioned tradition for Afghan men from the southern Pashtun region to take young boys—roughly 9 to 15 years old—as lovers. “Having a…