Nicholas Wade of the New York Times explains why humans have (mostly) less hair than their evolutionary ancestors.

Some of us are genetic throwbacks when it comes to body hair. Part of me thinks that it’s not so much a loss of gradual loss of hair as it was human ingenuity when it came to finding ways to shave, wax, or laser that shit off. Show me a monkey fashioning a Mach 3 out of a rock and twigs and I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong.

TMZ has a timely gallery of dead wrestlers; a lot of whom I didn’t realize had passed on like Ravishing Rick Rude.

As could be expected with living the fast life of a professional wrestler, there were a lot of overdoses and heart attacks. The exception was Dino Bravo who was gunned down in a gangland-style hit.

The 10 ugliest bridesmaid dresses according to People Magazine. I find it hard to disagree.

Liberal MP Irwin Cotler gets it.

AfriGadget is an awesome blog showcasing African ingenuity.

From the article about the homemade welding machine.

Simon, the shop owner, showed me a couple of the machines and gave a video tour of how it works. He’s a prime example how an entrepreneur in Africa will figure out ingenious solutions to meet local market demands. The welders sell for around 14,000 Kenya Shillings (just over $200), but fabrication costs only a small fraction of that.

Lawrence Lessig is shifting his academic focus. From lessig.org

I have decided to shift my academic work, and soon, my activism, away from the issues that have consumed me for the last 10 years, towards a new set of issues: Namely, these. “Corruption” as I’ve defined it elsewhere will be the focus of my work. For at least the next 10 years, it is the problem I will try to help solve.

I do this with no illusions. I am 99.9% confident that the problem I turn to will continue exist when this 10 year term is over. But the certainty of failure is sometimes a reason to try. That’s true in this case.

Nor do I believe I have any magic bullet. Indeed, I am beginner. A significant chunk of the next ten years will be spent reading and studying the work of others. My hope is to build upon their work; I don’t pretend to come with a revolution pre-baked.

Instead, what I come with is a desire to devote as much energy to these issues of “corruption” as I’ve devoted to the issues of network and IP sanity. This is a shift not to an easier project, but a different project. It is a decision to give up my work in a place some consider me an expert to begin work in a place where I am nothing more than a beginner.

New shoes!

The Angry Aussie blog on the side-effects of a new diet pill. It ain’t pretty.

I’m not too big on communism but the East German aesthetic can’t be beat. Ostel Hotel in Berlin replicates it fantastically.

The four clocks behind the reception desk of Berlin’s new budget hotel Ostel show the hour in Moscow, Berlin, Havana, and Beijing. Time, however, appears to have stopped here sometime before 1989, when communism was still entrenched in all four capitals.

The Ostel offers a renewed whiff of life in the former German Democratic Republic, welcoming travelers with portraits of communist leaders adorning the walls.

Furnishings — except for mattresses, bed linens, sink and toilets — are the real thing, dug up by founders Daniel Helbig and Guido Sand from flea markets, friends, family and eBay.

Ted Nugent doesn’t like Paul McCartney. Now eat a steak!