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Ah, bacon. Its long-lasting wave of popularity as a cult ingredient doesn't yet show any sign of disappearing. If one casually looks into factors that may have influenced the increased popularity of bacon in the last ten plus years, one is the rise of low-carb diets such as Atkins. Thus, if any of these 30 decadent bacon recipes strike your fancy and you end up making a batch, raise your glass of accompanying beverage in a toast to low-carb dieting everywhere. Sugary, carmelized bacon biscuits? Thanks, Dr. Atkins!
Classroom enhancement for the affected | Image: AFP
According to the South China Morning Post, an alarming number of men in Japan are middle-aged virgins with few prospects for future lovers and little confidence in their ability to turn their situations around. A 2010 survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research found a quarter of unmarried Japanese men in their 30s were still virgins, a fact that led to the coining of a specific term, ”yaramiso,” to describe such men. The figure was up approximately three percentage points from a similar survey taken in 1992.
A man interviewed for the linked article, Takashi Sakai, is a 41-year-old attractive, gainfully employed heterosexual who’s never had sex, one of a growing number of middle-aged Japanese men who are in similar circumstances. Sakai claims he has never had any sort of relationship with a woman and says he has no ideas for how he could change that.
“I’ve never had a girlfriend. It’s never happened. It’s not like I’m not interested. I admire women. But I just cannot get on the right track."
Learn more about Japan's middle aged, male virgin population at this article, including the economic situation that is thought to be related to the issue, a video about certain (mildly NSFW) training some men are gettting in an effort to combat the problem and more.
In this blissful blending of Muppet and Wu-Tang, Dr. Teeth, leader of The Electric Mayhem, performs the Ol’ Dirty Bastard song “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” in a recent video edited by Mylo the Cat. Mylo used footage from appearances by Dr. Teeth on The Muppet Show and in The Muppet Movie.
The original version of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya" is below (NSFW, language).
The folks over at Den of Geek have put together a list of 48 upcoming comic book movies as well as other key bits of information about the films that should keep fans in anticipation. For each film, they pose and answer three questions for readers: what's it about, who is involved, and when is it expected to be released. Here are those answers for Captain America: Civil War:
"What’s it about? Here’s a film that Marvel has so much confidence in that it refused to budge when it looked like Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice wanted to nab its date.
In the comics, Civil War is a sprawling crossover arc from 2006, which saw Tony Stark go toe-to-toe with Cap over a government bill aimed at forcing superheroes to register with the powers that be, reveal their identities and essentially become part of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The film? Well, we had a more detailed look at it here. Short version – it looks like Captain America: Civil War will take elements from the books (namely the Cap v Stark show-down and issues with the government), but perhaps steer away from an all-properties-inclusive mammoth crossover. Either way, it’s likely to be a huge turning point for the Marvel cinematic universe.
Who’s involved? Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans will return, and probably a few other familiar Marvel cinematic universe faces. We will also get the Marvel cinematic universe debut of Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). On the directorial side, Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s dynamite duo – the Russo brothers – will return. On scripting duties are their fellow Winter Soldier alumni Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
Interestingly, this is rumoured to be the film where Spider-Man will make his MCU debut. We await confirmation or denial on that, which we will pass on.
When’s it coming out? 29 April 2016 in the UK, 6 May 2016 in the USA
Get the facts on 47 more upcoming movies based on comics at Den of Geek.
Is that Britney Spears from the music video for "Hit Me Baby One More Time"? No, it's Zac Carper from the punk band Fidlar. Their video for the song "40 oz. on Repeat" is a tribute to famous music videos from the past 30 years, including Weezer's "Sweater Song," Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun," and George Michael's "Faith."
They recreated all of the sets and costumes with . . . what, about $5 worth of materials? Most of the work appears to be done with just markers and cardboard. And given those limitations, they did a great job!
How many different music video references can you identify?
Stuart Green's friend's cat lost an eye in a fight. He needs a proper replacement. But in the meantime, he's got this fierce-looking googly eye "to give his confidence a little boost." Green reports that it's working:
@stainedgrids it's started dating again, so confidence is at an all time high
If you get too close to Valerie Susik's drawings of dogs, you may get wet, slobbery dog kisses! These pups aren't limited to paper when they see a ball, toy, or treat nearby. Susik, an artist from Kirov, Russia, photographs her drawings so that they appear to interact with the artist. You can see more on her Instagram page.
If you want to travel along the length of Scotland's Loch Ness, Google Maps offers a few suggested transportation methods: car, bus, and bicycle. These are typical of the service. But because this is Loch Ness, you can also travel with Nessie, the famous cryptid of the lake.
The event is called a kidney transplant chain. It's a sequence of carefully-timed transplants that match donors and recipients for compatibility. UCLA Health explains:
It starts with an altruistic donor - someone who wants to donate a kidney out of the goodness of his or her heart. That kidney is transplanted into a recipient who had a donor willing to give a kidney, but was not a match. To keep the chain going, the incompatible donor gives a kidney to a patient unknown to him or her who has been identified as a match, essentially "paying it forward." A specialized computer program matches donors and recipients across the country.
Adding to the logistical hurdles of so many surgeries, kidneys had to be ferried back and forth between the two hospitals. On Friday, two kidneys were sent from California Pacific to UCSF via a special organ transport service and two kidneys were sent from UCSF to California Pacific for a total of four, 3-mile trips. Two trips were made Thursday.
“Everything went as planned,” said Noel Sanchez, spokesman for Donor Network West. The Oakland company specializes in packaging and transporting organs.
This fellow with a handsome mug is a lamprey, a type of fish. It's a parasite that attaches itself to other fish with its tooth-filled sucker mouth, then sucks the life out of its host. We've all known people like this guy.
He and his friends have been dropping out of the sky outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Adam Armstrong, 19, of Leeds, UK planned a trip to the Spanish resort island of Ibiza. His stepfather purchased airline tickets with Ryanair. Unfortunately, he purchased the tickets thinking that his stepson's last name was "West."
Armstrong tried to correct the error, but Ryanair presented him with a £220 ($336 USD) administrative fee for that task. Disgusted at this ridiculously high price, Armstrong legally changed his name--for free--to West. He then quickly got a new passport with the name West for £103 ($157 USD). The Guardian reports:
Armstrong said: “Her stepdad got my name from Facebook but I had put it as Adam West as a joke, because he was the actor who played Batman on TV.
“Ryanair were not helpful at all. We showed them we were not trying to change the person, just the name, but they wouldn’t back down.
“Ryanair pride themselves on being a customer-centric business, it just seems like a joke when they wouldn’t change the name. I just thought it was completely ridiculous. All they needed to do was hit the backspace key on a keyboard and they want to charge me £220?” […]
Ryanair is known for tempting customers with cheap fares but demanding fees for anything from printing boarding passes at the airport to checking in additional bags. The airline’s boss, Michael O’Leary, once mooted charging passengers to use the toilet mid-flight but the plans never came to fruition.
A man outside a nightclub in California decided to sexually harass a woman. He then experienced a major failure in the victim selection process by targeting two young ladies who happen to be professional cage fighters: Leslie Smith and Heather Clark.
Leslie Smith is in the bantamweight division and Heather Clark is in strawweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Champion mixed martial arts company. They are highly skilled at physically beating opponents into bloody submission.
The man pinched Clark's bottom. Smith objected, as the tabloid The Mirror describes:
The man then allegedly spat in her face saying "F*** you. I can do whatever I want."
Smith replied: ‘No motherf***er, you can’t.’
He then allegedly swung a punch in Smith's direction - which she dodged, forcing him against and wall.
She then managed to take him onto the floor where she rained down elbows on him, the Metro reports.
"He turned over and I just dropped elbows on him from mount against the building until he started saying, “I’m sorry,”‘ Smith told Bloody Elbow.
"Then I stopped as soon as he said sorry, because that was really the only thing I went over there for."
Smith was discreet about the incident, but decided to come forward to the news media about it because her friends enjoyed hearing the story so much. And so do we!
