Meet Scott Cutshall, a guy who weighed a quarter-ton who got on a bike and dropped nearly 300 lbs in 3 years. I often see plus-sized people, sometimes impressively plus-sized people, out on the trail as I ride. Yeah, even I'm sometimes impressed spandex comes in those sizes, but I'm not grossed out. They're out there same as me, why should I care?

It would seem the very early buzz about the upcoming Indiana Jones movie bears striking similarities to the early buzz for Lucas's last attempt to recapture his glory days. Last time around, I stuck my fingers in my ears and sang "LA LA LA LA" really loudly until I could get to the theater and see Phantom Menace myself. I won't be fooled again! Especially when I'm the fool!

Or the fool who follows him. Something like that. Why yes, Olivia has been making us watch Star Wars about once a week for the past six weeks. Why do you ask?

Nothing like a home-bru flame thrower and a couple of tard teens to lighten the day. Bonus: dead-on Butthead giggling in the last scene. I never did anything this stupid, but I knew a lot of other guys who did.

Alternate title: Paging Elliot Ness, white courtesy phone please. Of course, since Elliot almost certainly didn't speak Japanese, he'd probably be just as interested in finding out what being a beat reporter following the seamy underbelly of Japanese society is like as I was.

Chili's a cow. Chili's a big cow. Chili has an interesting taste in snacks (emphasis added):

However, nine-year-old Chilli grazes just on grass and enjoys the occasional swede as a treat at his home at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard, Somerset, where he was dumped at six days old.

How the hell does that get by the copy editors?

Mark gets an ancient no-prize with a special oak leaf cluster (for providing a great title to this post) for bringing us news of the discovery of the most ancient bust of Julius Ceasar found to-date. I've always thought it's remarkable that we have a very good idea what a particular set of elites looked like between about 500 BC and 300 AD, and have no idea what anyone else really looked like on either side of that window for thousands of years. I do not doubt I would recognize any of the Julio-Claudians were they to walk down a street.

Finally, a contest worth winning:

Ask most people where the best beer in the world comes from, and they'll probably say Germany or England. More worldly folks might mention Belgium.

But ask a beer aficionado these days, and odds are you'll get an answer that might surprise you – the good old U.S.A.

Woot!

The on-again, off-again hunt for the origin of high-energy cosmic rays is on once again. It turns out the strong correlation between these exotic bursts of energy and the planes of nearby large galaxies wasn't nearly as strong as it was first thought. I think. Cosmology make Thag's head hurt!

Mark gets a silver no-prize with an earthy blue star on it for bringing us this older, but no less amusing, cartoon about a certain peanut gallery member's favorite football team. I'd probably laugh more, but the Redskins stink so bad they're not usually not even worth the occasional chuckle.

I peed myself laughing at this.

Of course...it's Florida!

While this business report on Alfa's re-entry into the North American market is understandably biased toward Canada, a bit of reading-between-the-lines seems to indicate there's a very good likelihood of an Alfa plant being built in the US. I wonder if they'll need a .net software engineer with a 20 year history of involvement with their marque?

Horror film fans may be happy to find out a new, and perhaps the only, biography of Nosferatu star Max Schreck is now available. It would seem that, like many early film stars, there's not a lot to tell at first. However, it definitely seems to lay to rest the old "he was really a vampire" legend.

Looks like some doctors are getting a little frisky with the ol' fMRIs. Any time someone says "brain structure" and "political party" in the same sentence, I get damned suspicious.

The folks over at Ares have dug up some reports on new widgets from DARPA being deployed in the field. I think the radar that lets people look through walls sounds the neatest. Robocop lives!

Nothing like a video report on a dog helping foster newborn kittens to start the day off right. Head.Explode(Candy);

Mark gets a no-prize with no detectable accent I can hear for bringing us this "Red State Update" view of the Democratic primary process. It was the very last line of dialog that clinched it for me.