Link roundup

1. The original Kindle was codenamed Fiona in honor of one of the main characters in Neal Stephenson's outstanding The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.

2. Apparently the research indicating the health benefits of red wine was falsified. Via.

3. From Drew Magary's weekly football preview (which is mostly about why the "Patriot way" failed in Kansas City, and why Gregg Easterbrook's columns are nonsense):

My kid was taking her sweetass time getting ready for school this morning when I looked at the clock and realized she had all of four minutes to get dressed, brush her teeth, put on her shoes and jacket, and get to the bus stop. And so I made like Tom Coughlin and just started laying into the kid. HURRY UP! WE ARE GOING TO MISS THE BUS AND IF THAT HAPPENS WE WILL ALL DIE. So she's dressing as fast as she can and I'm jamming her jacket on and yelling at her to show some hustle, and the tension is building to unfathomable heights. It felt like we were racing to stop a ticking bomb. I get her out the door and we sprint up the hill to the bus and we get there jusssst as the bus is pulling up. SO MUCH ADRENALINE. From now on, we're always gonna be in danger of missing the bus. The rush is intoxicating. For me, THE ACTION IS THE JUICE.

4. Really interesting (and fairly gross) article about cultural differences in Afghanistan.

Link roundup

1. Hooters is suing rival breastaurant Twin Peaks for theft of trade secrets.

2. Destructoid:

X-Men: Destiny is an ugly, boring, lazy little game. Even if it were free, it would be insulting to have one's time wasted in this way

3. Megan McArdle:

Gina Kolata's Rethinking Thin makes a pretty compelling case that almost everyone's weight fluctuates within a band of 20-30 pounds. Some peoples' band is higher than others, (and perhaps, slowly increasing over time). When you get nearer to the bottom of your body's weight tolerance, your hunger increases; drop below it, and your body reacts as if you're starving, slowing your metabolism and focusing more and more of your mental attention on food. I'm near the top of my weight band right now, and am nearly revolted by the idea of eating much besides vegetables and clear liquids. If Chris Christie was at a similar BMI, he'd probably be continually, distractingly ravenous.

Almost no one manages to stay outside of that band for very long, and those who do need to devote almost their entire energy to doing so, because the hunger is a biological signal on par with pain or the urge to drink. As Paul Campos notes in his excellent book, the idea that we can permanently reduce our weight through diet and/or exercise is one that has been experimentally tested about 500 million times over the last several decades, and fairly resoundingly refuted.

New Cheesecake Factory logo by Kate Beaton

Feel the guilt in Kate Beaton's updated Cheesecake Factory logo.

Link roundup

1. Victorian ghost costume.

2. From a post by Seth Roberts on meat-only diets:

Sure, some cravings reflect nutrient deficiencies. (Not all cravings: An alcoholic craves alcohol.) But in the cases I know about, there is an obvious or semi-obvious connection between the craving and the deficiency. For example, people who chew too much ice (pagophagia) crave ice to chew. They are iron-deficient. Eating iron eliminates the pagophagia. Long ago, a craving to eat something crunchy would have led you to eat bones. Bone marrow is high in iron.

3. SDF-1 fan art/wallpaper.

*Buy Robotech toys at Amazon.

Diet aid

Fridge watchman via.

Link roundup

1. Hugh Jackman is supposed to bulk up even more for The Wolverine:

GB: Are you going to have to go back to that intense diet, eating whole chickens so you can get that muscle mass back up?

HJ: I’m on it right now, mate, already doing it. It’s 6,000 calories a day, it’s rough.

GB: How much you weighing?

HJ: Right now, I’m at 210.

GB: Wow, so you’re going to be bigger this time? Last time, you looked about, what, 190?

HJ: Yeah, right, I was 190, something like that. I don’t know how much I want to give away about it, but Darren said with the last one, ‘Hey you looked great, but you’re so tall that in those long shots you looked kind of like Clint Eastwood, and that’s not Wolverine.”

Via.

2. "Kids Sail Free on Seven-Night Alaska Cruises Aboard the Disney Wonder."

3. Tyler Weeks:

Weight loss advice is only good if someone listens to it. If you tell people they can't have pizza, they'll ignore you and keep living "fat and happy."

I'm telling you, I'm going to start a movement in this country: eat the foods you want, just less, and move around. You'll be healthy and happy as a clam.

Via.

Fake butter packets

Mudra planted fake butter packets to promote Nutralite.

*Buy Las Vegas Vintage Graphics at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Former Next Iron Chef competitor Nate Appleman is currently making burritos at a Chipotle in New York (so he can learn and eventually improve the business). Via.

2. Gizmodo reviews the new Chrome OS laptop. TechCrunch, too. (Please send me one Google, I promise to write more posts and serve more Adsense ads.)

3. This actually works really well for me - - "People who imagined eating an indulgent snack ate 50 percent less of the real thing when given the chance."

Link roundup

1. Former Next Iron Chef competitor Nate Appleman is currently making burritos at a Chipotle in New York (so he can learn and eventually improve the business). Via.

2. Gizmodo reviews the new Chrome OS laptop. TechCrunch, too. (Please send me one Google, I promise to write more posts and serve more Adsense ads.)

3. This actually works really well for me - - "People who imagined eating an indulgent snack ate 50 percent less of the real thing when given the chance."

Link roundup

1. The Fifth Element pin-up. (click on the image)

2. Man goes on Twinkie diet and loses weight (because he watched calories):

while 2/3 of his total intake came from junk food the professor was also eating vegetables every day, took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. He also cut out meat, whole grains and fruit.

3. "British special forces are parachuting into Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan with dogs strapped to them, then using the dogs—with cameras attached to their heads—to scout the surrounding area."

*Buy Twinkies at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Megan McArdle:

But experiments with students and prisoners who deliberately set out to gain weight show that appetite decreases, and metabolism increases, if people consistently overeat. That's why most of us stay in a relatively stable band, rather than seeing our weight fluctuate wildly. Gina Kolata argues that most people have a pretty narrow band of weight that their bodies are comfortable in--about 10-30 pounds. Stay at the low end, and you'll feel a bit hungry; get to the high end, and you may lose some of your interest in food. But it's actually very hard to bust out of that band on either side.

2. Monstrous cake.

3. Comment and win The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read!.

*Buy Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Gregg Easterbrook:

The U.S. Treasury is seeking to save $100 million per year by removing nickel from the nickel; nickel lobbyists are fighting this in Congress. The International Zinc Association is lobbying to maintain the existence of the penny, which is mostly zinc. If the United States, at a time of record mega-deficits, can't even get rid of pennies because members of Congress fear the loss of donations from the zinc lobby, how will fiscal sense ever be established?

2. Some absolutely fascinating observations about human sexuality.

3. Now maybe donuts for breakfast is a good idea? Via.

*Buy donut makers at Amazon.

Losing enough weight to go on the rides at Universal Studios' Harry Potter park

Banks Lee was to large to go on the rides at Universal Studios' Harry Potter park. But he lost weight, and the park modified the rides to accommodate larger people. Lee has a blog dedicated to his efforts to go on the rides. Via.

*Buy Disneyland toys at eBay.

Fat Super Mario

Fat Super Mario can't fit through a warp pipe in this t-shirt design by Alex Solis for Threadless. Click on the voting widget if you'd like the chance to buy it:

Self Indulgence

"Self Indulgence" by Nouar, who has lots of prints on sale at Etsy.

Link roundup

1. Drink water before meals to lose weight.

2. Rocky & Bullwinkle (and Mr. Peabody and Fractured Fairy Tales) is on Hulu.

3. Adam Koford has a bunch of original comic strips on sale for about $20 at Etsy.

*Buy Bullwinkle toys at eBay.

WW II-era Iron Man designs (link roundup)

Some of the World War II-era Iron Man designs Bill Presing tried out for his Iron man cover. He's looking for a copy of Iron Man:Legacy #3 with his variant cover, so if you have one, get in touch.

And a few more links:

1. Kafakesque tale of how plumbers unions fought against acceptance of waterless urinals (if you need less plumbing, you need less plumbers, too).

2. Funny dieting tips, including, "Instead of three big meals per day, try eating five or six smaller meals. Then watch that gradually evolve into five or six huge meals, and rue the day you took that advice."

3. Tilda Swinton learned to speak Italian with a Russian accent for her role in I Am Love. Via.

4. Impressive Sin & Punishment 2 gameplay.

*At Toycutter: Custom Iron Man and War Machine toys.

*Buy Iron Man toys at eBay.

Vampire with a nose bleed (link roundup)

Vampire with a nose bleed by Michael Hacker.

And a few more links:

1. Good suggestions for losing weight.

2. Scvngr hunts for the Getty Center and other museums in LA.

3. Good Food Restaurant Map in Los Angles. I'm particularly excited to learn that there's a place selling fried Twinkies nearby (although I think I'll pass on the Fried Twinkie hot dog).

*Previously: Comicon scavenger hunt.

*Buy vampire toys at eBay.

This should convince you to stop drinking sugary drinks (link roundup)

Photos of sugary drinks next to food containing the equivalent amount of sugar. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Tweet and win an iPad.

2. Someone divided a New York City street into a side for residents, and a side for tourists.

3. Clever, subtle way to suggest someone see a shrink and that their "illness" is all in their head. Via.

*Previously: Sugar batteries.

*Buy pedometers at Amazon.

Passover roundup

1. Download Exodus 2.0, a "special Idelsohn mixtape to help you celebrate Passover. Perfect for any seder." Via.

2. Download a 48-page Passover workbook. Via.

3. Matzoh Brei with Caramelized Apples recipe.

4. Apparently, the meal served at the Last Supper has grown in artistic interpretations over the last 1,00 years.

*Buy Moses toys at eBay.