Where do Super Models come from?

The answer is: Brazil.

This fascinating video from the New York Times shows a unique poverty stricken area in Brazil that has produced some of the world’s top super models like Gisele Bündchen and Alessandra Ambrosio. It turns out that German, Italian and Russian migrants settled in this area many years ago and their descendants have the features that the world finds attractive. Modelling scouts study books and websites to track which areas Europeans settled in. They then visit schools (which is kind of creepy) hunting for attractive teens and pre-teens (even creepier) for their modelling agencies.

I won’t spoil the rest of the story but the article and video can be found in the following link: Finding Supermodels in Rural Brazil – Video Library – The New York Times.

Beatiful video of free diver free-falling into a blue hole

The video featuring Guillaume Nery base jumping underwater into the depths of the Blue hole, takes your breath away just watching it.The video is filmed entirely on breath hold by Guillaume’s girlfriend and french champion Julie Gautier. Guillaume Nery who currently holds the world record for constant weight free diving (without fins) to a depth of 113 meters (370 feet), showcases his artistic side in this amazing video.

Times sure have changed

The guy in the picture is Chauncy Morlan, who once made a living as a side show fat man. People paid money to look at him, because he was considered to be unusually fat. Today you can walk into any fast food outlets and see people far more fatter than him. How times have changed.

Food Inc. Everyone should see this!

Food Inc. is one of those documentaries that can change the world. It asks the questions, you’re too afraid to ask, when it comes to food and while we can’t watch it on PBS here in Australia it is available on youtube and I’ve put the 9 parts that make up the movie below.
Food Inc. Shows us why it is cheaper to by a fully cooked hamburger than a head of broccoli. – in other words, ‘Why is junk food cheaper than healthy food?’. Everyone is focussed on the HOW when it comes to mass producing our food but no-one is asking WHY? And you’re going to see that ‘because it’s cheaper’ is not a great answer.

Your going to see how your food is controlled by a tiny handful of companies that have taken the farming out of farm and the implications from this are pretty serious.

In short, grab a coffee – the full show is below although split into parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4: – told you it was rivetting stuff didn’t I?

Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:

Part 8: I can’t embed part 8 so you have to watch it at youtube – I’ll pop it up in a new window for you.

Part 9:

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and I also hope the links still work and PBS haven’t taken them down.

How to make a $3,000 kitchen knife

Fascinating video of Master Bladesmith, Bob Kramer, revealing the techniques and time it takes to make high-end Damascus steel chef’s knives.

Dropped food on the floor – do you eat it?

Don’t be shy – we’ve all dropped food on the floor but the question is – do you pick it up and eat it. If your toast lands butter-side down, is it ok to pick it up, spread some jam and finish it while no-one is looking? “The 30-Second Rule, A Decision Tree” by Audrey Fukuman and Andy Wright will take away the angst and time you spent worrying over whether something you’ve dropped is ok to eat – genius stuff.

Tree Branch Falls On Power Lines

Here the squeals and groans from this branch that landed on power lines before it bursts into flames. Fascinating…

A chimp, goes to get a cake – just watch.

A chimpanzee goes to the bakery to pick up a cake, but the pack of bulldogs he’s walking turn on him and chase him down the road before a bird of prey steals the chimpanzee’s cake.

Hamburger make up artist

You might wonder what’s in your local fast-food hamburger but it’s probably nowhere nearly as toxic as what is in the burgers that look oh so good in their picture board menu displays – check it out:

How an engineer loses weight

We’re constantly bombarded with ads offering the latest scientific way to lose weight – usually when you add the word ’science’ in your claim then you know there’s going to be money involved. Wired.com has a fantastic article on how to lose weight mathematically . . .

Want to drop 10 pounds in two months? All you have to do is the math, says Autodesk founder and Hacker’s Diet author John Walker. Here’s the skinny:

1. Multiply the pounds you want to lose by the number of calories in a pound of fat: 10 x 3,500 = 35,000.
2. Divide the total by the days you’ll diet: 35,000 ÷ 60 = 583.
3. Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate 100 calories per ten pounds of body weight
4. Calculate your calories expenditure from exercize
5. Then use the formula (BMR+Exercise)-diet=total allowed calories

Or stated more simply: if you can eliminate 100 calories per day, that can add up to about 11 pounds a year, says Dr. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating. 100 calories – that’s less than the calories in a can of Coke! Substitute one glass of water for one can of soda a day, and you’re well on your way to permanent weight loss.

Obviously exercise can help but eating less also makes sense. And how do you know if you’re over-eating?

One night, eat only half the amount of food on your plate. Wait 30 minutes, assess your feelings of satiation, and then wait 90. If you’re still not hungry, you’ve probably been overeating. Most people grossly overestimate the amount of food they need to feel full, says Dr. David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating

You can read more of this article at wired.com