THOUGHTBOX

We all know there's a ton of stuff in our urban lives that make us fat. Fast food makes us fat and we know it. Drinking sugary sodas and fizzy drinks makes us fat. Every day new studies and magazine articles scare the confidence out of us with new results that slowly paint a picture in our heads: this fucking world wants to make us FAT by any means. Well, I'm here to shake that confidence a little bit more, unfortunately. Say you stay away from fats foods and sugary drinks already, and put lots of veg and fruit in your diet. Say you work out a couple of days a week and you think you're pretty much safe from random obesity. About the only unfit thing you do is the car ride to and back from work every day, so it's no surprise your reward yourself with a nice little downtime each day, say watching your favorite TV show. Nothing wrong could possibly go wrong and make you fat now, can it? WRONG. That's right fuckface - it's the only exercise you'll do a...

Wow - after today's Oreo  story , I didn't expect to see even more stupid people in the world today. But, that's the thing about idiots, they pop up everywhere. This time, the idiot is mainly a 38 year old American woman called Ebony Berry, who's under arrest for starving her 16 year old daughter to death. The story goes like this: the mother was obsessed by the teachings of one doctor Andrew Chung, a certified cardiologist who mixes medicine with scripture and advocates eating just two pounds of food a day. Ebony Berry, a friend of the doctor's, followed the doctor's recommendations and eventually led to the tragic death of her young daughter, Markea Blakeley-Berry - who weighed only 20 kilograms at  the time of her death! Berry is currently in prison, arrested on charges of murder, and has been visited by the "good doctor" in jail. So, who the hell is this doctor and what's up with his pro-hunger doctrine? Maybe the woman got it all ...

Hey. You know Oreos, right? The delicious sandwich cookie with a creamy filling from Kraft Foods that has been the number 1 selling cookie in the United States, as well as extremely popular in countries around the world? Yeah, that one. Bet you never thought people might have a reason to hate these little tasty bastards. But the world being the world, with ignorant idiots everywhere, this beloved cookie has become the target of hatred and boycott. Why? Kraft Foods, the manufacturers of Oreo cookies, have been faced with a   shitstorm   of backlash and bigotry after doing something otherwise ballsy for a food manufacturer: take a stand on the homosexual debate. Oreo posted a picture of a cookie that sandwiched multiple rainbow-colored fillings along with the text "Proudly supporting love!". I think what Oreo did was both awesome and risky. It's risky  because having an opinion on this very hot topic is a brave move, one that has the potential to s...

The Galapagos tortoise, often called the rarest animal on earth due to its count of one ( one), is now extinct after the death of its last living member, Lonesome George, at age 100. Conservationists have attempted to mate El Solitario Jorge (as locals call him) with female tortoises that were as genetically similar as possible, but all attempts have yielded unviable eggs. George has lived in Ecuador's Galapagos National Park since the early 1970's, and unless a turtle named Tony, living at the Prague zoo, is proven to be a member of George's species, was the last surviving member of this rare island tortoise.  The passing was noted by the Internet and Wikipedia's entry on Pinta Island tortoises switched from Endangered to Extinct following George's death on Sunday. The Galapagos archipelago The Ecuadorian archipelago of Galapagos is famous for both the journey of the Beagle that carried Charles Darwin in his famous expedition and for its amaz...

The U.S. Army is working on experiments with a Lightning Gun. Specifically, a laser weapon that creates a charged plasma channel through the air, conducting electricity towards its targets - tanks, bombs, etc. This works because those targets are better conductors than the air or ground around them, and the electricity seeks the path of least resistance. In other words, that's exactly how freaking lightning works. The nerd is strong in lead scientist George Fischer: " We never got tired of the lightning bolts zapping our simulated (targets)". If I had a lightning gun in my backyard to play with as I see fit - oh, I'm sorry: I meant "experiment" - I'd zap shit all day too. Here's how the tech works in more detail: an ultra-short pulse laser of modest energy keeps the beam focused by way of its own intensity. The laser's electromagnet harvests electrons from air molecules to create the charged plasma medium the electricity then foll...

Imagine the following scene. You're a chubby or overweight person trying really hard to lose that extra weight. It's hard, what with all the cheap Mickey D's or that viscerally awesome smell you can detect every time you waltz by a pizza place. It's hard to say no to your hunger and just man up and buy a salad. It's hard to see the pounds go away much slower than they accumulate. But hey, you're trying: you're on a diet ( sort of) , you drink tons of water, eat veg, go jogging for the 5 minutes you can keep it up. You decide to take the next step and go to a local gym, which is an obstacle course in itself: you need the time, you might miss out on going out with friends, you might miss that really awesome NatGeo documentary about Orang Pendek, not to mention you'll sweat your ass on the way there, as well as during and after the workout. And pretty much once you're done, you're sweaty and stinky anyway, and the realization that you'll have...

A woman in Alpharetta, Georgia, was denied a sale by an Apple Representative on grounds that she was from Iran. The  story    goes something like this: the woman was trying to buy an iPad and was speaking Farsi with her uncle. An Apple representative approached her and asked the young woman what language she was speaking. She told him it was Farsi, and that she was from Iran, after which the employee refused to sell them anything. He said said that it was Apple policy not to sell products to Iranians:  'I just can't sell this to you. Our countries have bad relations."  Sahar Sabet, the young woman, left the store in tears, feeling "hurt and embarassed". Why exactly did this happen? According to Apple, the employee was simply following the company's commitment to US policy which states that " the exportation, sale or supply from the U.S. to Iran of any Apple goods is strictly prohibited without authorization by the U.S.  government". ...

Nicusor Dan e un fenomen interesant. Este un surfer al valului numit “trend”, un candidat care mizeaza pe romantismul independentei politice si pe garantia integritatii presupuse derivata din titlul de doctor in matematica. Eu privesc problema Nicusor Dan ca pe o chestiune care poate fi abordata din doua directii diferite. Exista sustinatori ai lui ND dar si oameni care sunt impotriva. O mare parte din farmecul lui Nicusor Dan provine atat din candidatura sa ca independent, cat si din educatia sa de matematician cu doctorat. Reprezinta o alternativa la “ei”, la “aceiasi ei”, corupti, complici, dezinteresati. Pe langa asta, nu este un Vanghelie, ci un om cu educatie superioara, cu un anume grad de cultura si o mentalitate foarte atragatoare, in special pentru tineri. Sunt convins ca si-a atras multi alegatori de partea sa prin politica de a publica cheltuielile sale electorale, si prin faptul ca a promis o mai mare transparenta financiara a Primariei prin publicarea ch...