In light of Kobayashi’s possible jar injury keeping him out of today’s Coney Island hot dog eating competion, Slate reprinted an article related to injuries suffered by competitive eaters.

Slate: Death by Cheese and the Dreaded Ruptured Stomach - The past and future of competitive eating injuries.

Neatorama posted an Origin of Booze that provides a quick summary so that you can get your facts straight when called upon to deliver a history lesson at the bar.

This is reprinted from a box - check out the link for details. And look for the Nazi paperclip warriors.

Neatorama: The Origin of Booze

Reuters covered this a few weeks back. Its still funny though. Well, the concept is. The lynchings seem more of a sad testament to the ignorance/violence relationship.

From the Reuters’ article:

“Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

If you live in New York, or plan to visit anytime soon, AND you like beer, this is for you:

Beer Menus.com

These guys have put together a database of bars and beer menus, mashed-up with Google maps to give you all the info you need to plan your next NYC Pub Crawl.

Has anyone seen this for different cities?

I’m not talking about some fairies floating around in the mid-summer’s twighlight.  Not those pixies… THE Pixies, one of my all-time favorite bands.  The video below shows ballet dancers performing to “Where is My Mind”.

In a study published last month, PLoS Medicine shows how the life expectancy of many US citizens has been declining over the last 20 years. The worst-off citizens are not showing the same benefits from medical science that those in higher income brackets seem to have. By analyzing statistics in various counties, the authors of the study are able to tie some demographic data

PLOS Medicine: The Reversal of Fortunes: Trends in County Mortality and Cross-County Mortality Disparities in the United States

The image below shows how life expectancy changed over time, by county, in two different time periods. Notice that you see many more overall declines in the 1980-1999 group, indicated by the RED zones. Check out the chart linked below to see how the average income in the Red counties (Group 6) compares to the other groups.

Chart showing Demographic Data

From the introduction to the paper:

What Did the Researchers Do and Find?

The researchers looked at differences in death rates between all counties in US states plus the District of Columbia over four decades, from 1961 to 1999. They obtained the data on number of deaths from the National Center for Health Statistics, and they obtained data on the number of people living in each county from the US Census. The NCHS did not provide death data after 2001. They broke the death rates down by sex and by disease to assess trends over time for women and men, and for different causes of death.

Over these four decades, the researchers found that the overall US life expectancy increased from 67 to 74 years of age for men and from 74 to 80 years for women. Between 1961 and 1983 the death rate fell in both men and women, largely due to reductions in deaths from cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke). During this same period, 1961–1983, the differences in death rates among/across different counties fell. However, beginning in the early 1980s the differences in death rates among/across different counties began to increase. The worst-off counties no longer experienced a fall in death rates, and in a substantial number of counties, mortality actually increased, especially for women, a shift that the researchers call “the reversal of fortunes.” This stagnation in the worst-off counties was primarily caused by a slowdown or halt in the reduction of deaths from cardiovascular disease coupled with a moderate rise in a number of other diseases, such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, and diabetes, in both men and women, and a rise in HIV/AIDS and homicide in men. The researchers’ key finding, therefore, was that the differences in life expectancy across different counties initially narrowed and then widened.
What Do these Findings Mean?

The findings suggest that beginning in the early 1980s and continuing through 1999 those who were already disadvantaged did not benefit from the gains in life expectancy experienced by the advantaged, and some became even worse off. The study emphasizes how important it is to monitor health inequalities between different groups, in order to ensure that everyone—and not just the well-off—can experience gains in life expectancy. Although the “reversal of fortune” that the researchers found applied to only a minority of the population, the authors argue that their study results are troubling because an oft-stated aim of the US health system is the improvement of the health of “all people, and especially those at greater risk of health disparities” (see, for example http://www.cdc.gov/osi/goals/SIHPGPostcard.pdf).

Fun, useless, picture for today: Transformers’ Optimus Prime rendered from tin cans. Call this a pro-recycling message.

Link to desktop size image

It may not have the colorful aliens and rampant corruption of Mos Eisley, but it will be a SPACEPORT nonetheless. Scheduled for completion in 2010, Spaceport America, the world’s first commercial spaceport will open in New Mexico with Virgin Galactic as its primary tenant. Virgin Galactic has already collected $35 million from customers, and is working on certification of their two spaceships, White Knight Two and SpaceShipTwo.

Washington Post: New Mexico Moves Ahead on Spaceport

“We’re in the very early stage of creating a new kind of air transport system,” said Steven Landeene, executive director of the New Mexico spaceport. “Space tourism is the first phase, along with the commercial launching of satellites and spacecraft that can carry cargo and even astronauts to the international space station and maybe later the moon. But it’s possible to begin thinking about a point-to-point network where passengers can rocket from one place to another at speeds much faster than today.”

Spaceport America Website
Wiki: Spaceport America

The title says it all. If you’re interested in why a monkey is riding a motorcycle, check out this Neatorama post describing the Indonesian practice of Topeng Monyet, a show for children where a trained monkey rides a bicycle.

Neatorama: Monkey on a Mini Motorcycle

National Geographic has an article on the surprising evolution of lizards on an island off the coast of Croatia.

Lizards Rapidly Evolve After Introduction to Island

“In just a few decades the 5-inch-long (13-centimeter-long) lizards have developed a completely new gut structure, larger heads, and a harder bite, researchers say.

In 1971, scientists transplanted five adult pairs of the reptiles from their original island home in Pod Kopiste to the tiny neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru, both in the south Adriatic Sea.

Genetic testing on the Pod Mrcaru lizards confirmed that the modern population of more than 5,000 Italian wall lizards are all descendants of the original ten lizards left behind in the 1970s.”

This is pretty cool stuff, unless of course you don’t believe in evolution. What is it then? Magic? Or outright fakery and lies? The article does say that the researchers are still investigating how much of the observed changes are truly genetic, but it seems hard to imaging the described digestive changes being anything but.