Click for full view

This picture has been circulating on the web for the past couple days or so. After some digging, it’s been discovered that it’s part of an award-winning ad campaign for a type of inflatable rocket that launched (excuse the pun) in 2004.

Nevertheless, a smart and funny concept that’s left half of the world asking the question, “Where can I get one?”.

Tie these balloons to your car

Drive as fast as you want

Laugh at people getting scared

Tell the officer you thought they were real.

Enjoy.

Click on the image to zoom

Have you ever wondered whether forking out so much money for health supplements is ever worth it? Do they actually work at all? Or is it simply a placebo-effect? I often remember being sick and being forced to take vitamin supplements.

Well, over at Information Is Beatiful, they’ve put together a stunning (and interactive) infographic based on exactly that – health supplements.

What I particularly like about this infographic though, is that it constantly updates. It is based off a publicly-viewable Google Document which is constantly updating itself with information, and so if any new research is found, the infographic is updated each time you render it.

Here’s an explanation of how to interpret the data:

This image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble.

You might also see multiple bubbles for certain supps. These is because some supps affect a range of conditions, but the evidence quality varies from condition to condition. For example, there’s strong evidence that Green Tea is good for cholesterol levels. But evidence for its anti-cancer effects is conflicting. In these cases, we give a supp another bubble.

For information, and to generate an up-to-date infographic, head over to the post at Information is Beautiful.

St. Louis Zoo has decided that after the death of three of its Polar Bears, they’ll be placing electronic versions in their enclosures instead.

St. Louis Zoo doesn’t have a very good track record for keeping Polar Bears alive. They’ve last three over of them since May 2005 (one of which had two fetuses), with the last being euthanized this April. So, to solve the problem, they’ve decided to place electronic versions instead. The story was revealed in a copy of Post-Dispatch.

This is truly a bizarre twist that I wouldn’t have expected. I would’ve shut down the Polar Bear enclosure outright, instead of charging people as if it were the ‘real-thing’. Interesting nonetheless.

[Source: blogs.riverfronttimes.com]

You demand their attention when they’re not giving you it of course…

Source

This is the only evidence that the "investigator" had

There’s a rather heart-warming tale circulating on Reddit at the moment about a guy who tracked down an engaged couple after his boss’ wife took a photograph of the man proposing. It’s really an epic tale and only hints at the power of a little intuition. I’ll leave the rest to the original author to explain.

“My boss went to run in the 2005 New York marathon. His wife was standing in the crowd near the finish line to take pictures.

This young couple approached and just after crossing the finish line, he knelt and proposed – ring and all. My boss’ wife snapped a pic.

Since they were obviously (likely) from out of the country, I knew it wasn’t likely that they had anyone there to take a picture for them, and that they would probably want this one.

So…”

Read the rest of the story over on Reddit, and don’t forget to vote if you have an account.

Hello loyal readers!

I’ve been absent since the end of March this year due to a huge amount of work and stress. Alas, I’ve been dreaming of the day when I could once again publish content for you all to enjoy from around the internet.

Well, I’m proud to say it’s been a long year and exams have just started (today, in fact) – but I’m making a return. A couple nights ago I got a phone call from one of my old friends I’ve known for a couple of years. He got me thinking again about taking up my hobby of writing for a Youth magazine he’s planning in Stellenbosch. Well, he re-ignited a spark in me and I’ve cleaned The Internet Journalist up with a new look, a new Wordpress version and a couple updated plug-ins for YOUR viewing pleasure.

Watch this space, because The Internet Journalist is back, and this time I’m going to see if I can crank it up a notch, and grow my popularity as time goes by. Just a note to my frequent visitors – the content will be more of the same you’ve all grown to love over the months, but I will be giving the content a slightly more tech approach in a bid to keep my interest occupied, and hopefully to expand the audience.

Any feedback about the new look is welcome, and let all your friends / family know.

Keep Well,
Michael.

Above: The speeding fine is worth more than the Porsche 911 GT3!

[photo credit: simons.jasper]

His name is Jari Bär, and he’s a Finnish millionaire that became the victim of one of Finland’s traffic laws: The amount you are fined for is directly proportional to how much you earn!

Jari Bär was doing 82 km/h in a 60km /h zone in Finland in January 2009.

That extra 2km/h made the biggest difference. According to some, like Savon Sanomat,

if the speed had been 80 km/h the fine would have been only 115 Euros

Talk about being unfortunate!

Full story here: [Finnish millionaire gets 111,888-euro speeding ticket | Global Motors]

This made me laugh early this morning.

Beer, beer, beer, cat, beer… wait, what? [PIC]

from Tinypic

Record to date is 3 hours.

hehe.

[Photo taken by ChrisThorn]

The results are very, very interesting with the brightest students favouring Beethoven, whilst Lil ‘Wayne seemed to be enjoyed by the *less* bright students.

A couple notable things to point out regarding the study though, as noticed by Beatcrave:

• No style of music is dominant in the intelligence zones (which begs the question whether there is any link at all)
• SAT tests are considered inaccurate when determining intelligence

The list is below:

Click on the image to enlarge

The study wasn’t meant to be particularly scientific or inclined to prove anything, but it does make up for some very interesting results.

[VIRGIL.GRiffith (Virgil Griffith's website)]

[Music That Makes You Dumb? | Beatcrave]