The Nathan's Hot Dog"“Eating Contest is only the most famous of all eating contests. And the ones on Fear Factor are only the most contrived. But if you're looking for a lesser-known chow challenge to show off your plate-cleaning prowess, these gastronomic free-for-alls might be just the place to start. 1. Matzo... READ ON

I have fond memories of Mr. Yuk from my childhood. My parents placed the green-yucky-face stickers on various items under the kitchen sink, and sure enough, I never drank drain cleaner. But where did Mr. Yuk come from? According to Wikipedia, Mr. Yuk is from Pittsburgh, and was introduced in 1971. Prior to 1971, poison symbols were commonly of the skull-and-crossbones variety, but there was concern that children might associate that "jolly roger" symbol with pirates. This article further explains... READ ON

The folks at the West Virginia Surf Report have this great little fast food expose going on (in fact they're not afraid to tell you how great it is... they've dubbed it a "Pulitzer-caliber" study at the bottom of their page!). And while time will only tell if they get their just awards, the idea's pretty clever. Essentially, they're taking beauty shots from fast food advertising, and putting them head to head with the stuff straight out of a store. There's no tampering with the food; just pics of what the... READ ON

NewScientist's Short Sharp Science blog had a plug for this newly designed Smoking Jacket. Apparently, the idea is for conscientious puffers to blow smoke into their collars (instead of the air) to contain the smoke and curb second-hand ingestion. And while the wearable ashtray seems kind of stylish, and the idea's interesting (making a martyr of every nicotine-fiend on a smoke break, while displaying what smoking does to the lungs) it looks pretty irritating to... READ ON