Dateline: Ranchi, India

From Reuters:

More than 400 people have been trampled to death in the last seven years in state of Jharkhand by elephants, which have also destroyed crops and homes.

That's about 57 a year. Obviously a serious problem. Something must be done. A brilliant potential solution is being experimented with.

Villagers have "hired" -- that's the word they used, hired at $46 a month -- two stinky camels to keep the pugilistic pachyderms at bay. Now why haven't we thought of this before? The foul stench of the camels apparently drives Dumbo back into the jungle.

'The elephants do not roam where camels are found,' said Jugesh Oraon, a local village leader.

Other methods that have been tried with limited success to stem the tide of elephant rampages have included hanging chilies from trees and fire crackers.

Every so often I see rats knocking about our street when I walk the dog. I am currently looking into the possibility of hiring a smelly camel to drive the rats into the Hudson River. It could work.

If you've always wanted an 8-inch Dude (and who doesn't), they should be in stock in August. You can preorder yours now. The Dude alone is $24.99, or get the set of Walter and the Dude for only $39.99.

Wake me when they have a 9-inch Dude.

(via Geek Like Me)

I think Richard Branson just lost his title as hippest airline CEO. Here's Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary teling the German press about it's new in-flicght service. Even cooler that the clip is trumpeted on Ryanair's site.

Any German YBNBY readers know the Deutsch equivalent of blowjob?

First came the theory:

The evolution of man proposes that humans and apes derive from an apelike ancestor that lived on earth a few million years ago. The theory states that man, through a combination of environmental and genetic factors, emerged as a species to produce the variety of ethnicities seen today, while modern apes evolved on a separate evolutionary pathway.

Link
To further explain the theory, a simple illustration (like the one above) was created. And all was perfect for years. Then came cameras, Photoshop, the Internet and a bunch of modern interpretations of this simple illustration. Some are good, some are creative and some just suck, but we've found the pick of the evolutionary litter and proudly share them here.

I picked it up by one side. My finger slid down and into the greasy yellow residue. Whatever. No big deal, right?

And so goes the account of a strange gastronomic experiment that resulted (and I guess not for the first time) in YesButNoButYes making a cute girl hurl. Hey, you know it really IS the best way to keep your hourglass figure. Glad we could help.

"Wanted" ** (out of four): Without characters to care about, this kinetic, violent shoot-em-up is merely a showcase for Russian director Timur Bekmambetov. But the violence on screen is nothing compared to the kind of bludgeoning given to your suspension of disbelief.

Most American moviegoers are not yet familiar with Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian director known for helming 2004's "Night Watch (Nochnoy dozor)" series (a soon-to-be trilogy once "Dusk Watch" joins 2006's "Day Watch"). Widely thought to be the Russian "Matrix", those films stylistically spun a tale of warring vampire factions in the seedy underbelly of Moscow. The "Watch" films received a limited release stateside, so Mr. Bekmambetov's official introduction to American audiences will be "Wanted", another kinetic, violent shoot-em-up. The Russian director has again cribbed much from the "Matrix" - an office worker discovers he's The Chosen One; much gunplay ensues - but the violence on screen is nothing compared to the kind of bludgeoning credulity takes during the film's running time.

Read more on BigPictureBigSound...

A quick recommendation for a new EP by the Violent Femmes, a cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, which is in the iTunes store, and also available as in limited edition blue vinyl.

The EP is a smokey, Morricone-inspired version and - in a very smart move - also includes a full instrumental version AND an a cappella version, which will make it even easier for mashup artists everywhere to incorporate it. Crazy is a well-covered track in this regard, most notably Crazy Logic and Crazy As She Goes, so I'd expect to see some new mashups with the VF vocals in the near future (as well as it appearing on the next Tarantino or Rodriguez soundtrack..

I smell injustice Steel!

I smell hypocrisy.

There has been some fallout after Shaq Diesel's "freestyle" and "impromptu" rap performance at a New York City night club earlier this week.

(If you think "Kobe, tell me how my a** tastes" was off the cuff, you're really naive.)

Since the debacle, Shaquille has been asked to return some of his honorary deputy badges.

Give me a break.

In recent years, Shaq has devoted some of his spare time to helping law enforcement in Virginia, Phoenix and Miami. No longer.

I'm impressed by the smallest things. Drops of dew on blades of grass in the morning. The laughter of a child. And when my friend can "pull" a huge hit off a hookah filled with shisha. Such was the occurrence last weekend in Miami as my friend Tim blew us away (no pun intended) with his skills on the pipe.

In the essence of full disclosure, this was part of his bachelor party and this video was the safest thing I could put on the web from the weekend.

For once, we are seeing a positive trend in modern music. No, I'm not talking about the Bee Gee's, uh, threatening to reunite. (Really guys, no thanks, we're good.) More and more artists are making new albums available on vinyl. In addition, older works are being re-mastered and re-released on good old scratchy sounding vinyl records. This is a rare victory for good music.

I think that the modern vinyl revival may have started with the Pearl Jam record "Vitalogy." It was released on vinyl a few weeks before the CD. So I had already heard it 7,333 times before some of my friends had it in their car stereos. Since then, it has been a novelty for bands to put out a vinyl record. It was pretty spotty. But in the last couple years, more and more artists are making their work available to play on the ol' victrola. Ben Harper, Radiohead, Jack Johnson, White Stripes (the most devoted to the format), Oasis, U2, Arctic Monkeys and many more have had vinyl releases recently. Just a few months back, one of my favorite new bands, Vampire Weekend, put out a 12 vinyl. I got a copy.

I know most won't care, but here's the thing; I hate MP3's.