379 - Shark Weak

1. Great White Is it still shark week? It doesn't really matter because sharks aren't as tough as people think they are. Here's a story about the king of the cartilaginous killing machines getting pwned by a soccer dad.

2. Bronze Whaler Nothing like being caught by a drunk's bare hands to take the edge off of that tough guy shark image.

3. Thresher 11-year-old girl...'nuff said.

4. Whale Not just the largest shark, but the largest fish. You'd think these things would eat 10 or 11 humans a day. No, these wimps are practically vegetarians (krill.)

5. Mascot This one's not contributing to the terrifying image of sharks at all. Quite the contrary. Honestly, a Segway? He may as well be riding a recumbant bicycle.

378 - with Links

1. The Google Bandits Some people were making fun of these crooks for trying to disable security cameras by spraying them with WD-40. Admittedly, that is pretty stupid, but when faced with a different safe than the one they had planned on cracking, these guys had the smarts to use the power of google to get into the safe and make off with $12000.

2. Go Vespa Go After seeing these vintage Vespa commercials, I'm surprised than anyone ever bought one.

3. Pick Axe The main reason I got such a low score on this guitar/player matching quiz is because I confused the name "Rick Nielson" with "Ricky Nelson."

4. Muffler Man The Muffler Man section of Roadside America has become super comprehensive. It now includes a list of movies and TV shows which feature these giants, a nice interview with the one-time owner of the fiberglass company which produced them, and a map to track locations. Apparently, Illinois is a prime Muffler Man viewing state.

5. Coupon No one knows where this coupon originated, but a lot of people have used printouts of it to save money on dvds at Best Buy. Many have reported multiple copies at one time even though it says "do not double" and "one offer per customer" right on it. Others have used it to buy the X-Files sets that are on sale for $19.99 regardless of the standard "not valid with other offers" fine print. I'm going to try using it on the 3rd season of Arrested Development tomorrow.

377 - with Links

1. All Beef? After all my accusatiions, Kobayashi decided to show up at Nathan's hot dog eating contest after all. Unfortunately, he faced exactly what I believe he wanted to avoid; Joey Chestnut, who blasted past the record and ate 66 hot dogs. I'm not sure why I can't get behind this guy. I should be supporting the American I guess, but Kobayashi is just so freaking cute that I can't root against him.

2. Films-Within-Films I've been watching a lot of HBO's Entourage lately, so the first fictional movies I thought of were Head On, Queens Boulevard, Aquaman and Medellín.

3. ESP Envy With all the poker, dominos, strongman and lumberjack games they show on ESPN these days, I watch it quite a lot more than I ever did before. Now they're adding Rock, Paper, Scissors coverage to make me watch just a little bit more.

4. Barking Mad Bank Robber What is the best disguise to wear when robbing a bank? I'm not sure, but it turns out that making yourself a tree costume out of leaves and twigs doesn't work that well.

5. Snooze For years I've been wondering why alarm clock manufacturers set the snooze timer for nine minutes. I never worried about it enough to do the research. Luckily, Mental Floss Magazine did it for me.

376 - Monkey Tuesday

1. Amok Monkey A Jewish girl's school in India was invaded by a rampaging monkey running around stealing food from the girls and grabbed onto their clothing, preventing them from fleeing. My favorite quote: "When one girl tried to resist, it slapped her."

2. Monkey Bandits This headline could be the title of an uproarious direct to video movie. Unfortunately, it is really in reference to a helper monkey that was stolen from a disabled woman by a group of four men in a black SUV.

3. Black Death Did anyone know that the bubonic plague still existed? Would anyone suspect that it could be passed from squirrels to monkeys? Can you believe it happened in Denver?

4. Prison Break After escaping from his enclosure, and injuring at least four people, Bokito the gorilla took time out for a leisurely lunch on the terrace of nearby restaurant.

5. Battle of the Sexes It turns out that silverback gorillas aren't really as tough as you thought they were.

375 - with Links

1. Tame Foxes John Lithgow explains how unnatural selection, the act of selectively breeding animals for desirable qualities, can produce unexpected results. The interesting thing is how quickly these changes occur. The research has led a lot of people to question the accepted evolutionary theory of the family dog beginning with the domestication of the wolf. The molecular evidence seems pretty clear that dogs evolved from wolves rather than jackals or coyotes, but I can't find any reference to a similar study done to look for a dog/fox biological connection.

2. Gator Eats Dog Pet costume designers now have a new standard to shoot for.

3. Phit Jamming these tetris-esque game pieces together isn't that hard at the beginning, but eventually the pieces get a smaller and smaller while growing in number making it much harder to piece them together properly.

4. Prison Break An opportunistic panda sees his chance and makes a break for it.

5. Air Car A little more info on the Aircar, the compresseD air powered vehicle that I reported on in the past. I was interested to hear that it is being marketed in several countries, not just India as I had previously thought.