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BRUSSELS — The Belgian bodybuilding championship has been canceled after doping officials showed up and all the competitors fled. A doping official says bodybuilders just grabbed their gear and ran off when he came into the room.
“I have never seen anything like it and hope never to see anything like it again,” doping official Hans Cooman said Monday. Twenty bodybuilders were entered in the weekend competition.

— via fefe via espn

Worth living today: wearbeard.com

The wearbeard manifest goes like this:

“When you’ve been wearing beard for a while, the day that you finally shave it off everybody goes like “dude, you really look better, you seem younger”. That’s why beards are cool. That’s why we all should wear beards. Because, these days, to commit oneself to such an act whose consequences directly lead you to diminish your beauty and your so called youth is brave, really brave.

And the world needs brave people. People capable of believing in their ideals, or their beards, despite everybody’s opinions. Despite of the fact that everybody’s opinions are similar. Despite.

To this point, it’s quite obvious that these words are not meant to be just a hair thing. It’s a proven fact that women do exist, and that hair doesn’t grow in their faces. But that’s not the point. The point is that they, women, certainly do have ideals. Opinions. Beliefs that shouldn’t be shaven. Because they’re the reason why you think for yourself. The reason why you’re unique. Because they are, after all, what you are.

For that, and for the fact that it makes you look interesting, wear beard.”

–> Screw you guys, my beard’ll stay on :)

BBC News:

Drinking water which contains the element lithium may reduce the risk of suicide, a Japanese study suggests. Researchers examined levels of lithium in drinking water and suicide rates in the prefecture of Oita, which has a population of more than one million. The suicide rate was significantly lower in those areas with the highest levels of the element, they wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry. High doses of lithium are already used to treat serious mood disorders. But the team from the universities of Oita and Hiroshima found that even relatively low levels appeared to have a positive impact of suicide rates.
[...]
Sophie Corlett, external relations director at mental health charity Mind said the research “certainly merits more investigation.
“We already know that lithium can act as a powerful mood stabiliser for people with bipolar disorder, and treating people with lithium is also associated with lower suicide rates.

I hope we’ll see more evidence, using longitudinal study designs (including a proper control group) within 2-3 years.

Worth living today (and the day before today, and the day before that): Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap

• Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.
• We can forgive a man for making a useful thing, as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.
• Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
• Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.

— Oscar Wilde

(thanks to Alice)

Excerpt:

Don’t waste your time or time …

… will …
… waste …
… you …

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I do not have a deeper understanding of economic processes, the stock market, sub-prime morgages, and all the other stuff that’s working together and building a huge circle of money, despite the fact that I have been reading a lot about the current crisis in the news within the last few months.

But after watching this video, things got a lot clearer to me. I can highly recommend it – it’s very well done, and explains the crisis of credit in about ten minutes.

A new study has been published by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, an independent institute seeking to promote a deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs.
As far as my research goes, the results of the study can be trusted.

• Nearly 50% of the population of the US believe in creationism – that the earth was actually and literally created around 6.000 years ago by god, within 6 days. That is surprising, since there is no empirical evidence whatsoever for creationism (nothing at all) on the one hand, on the other hand though there is enough scientific evidence to prove the theory of evolution (and this evidence has been around for over 150 years by now). Prove in the sense of “it is by far the most convincing explanation today, but we keep looking for alternative explanations and try to disprove our current theory constantly”.
• 20% are convinced that there is some kind of evolution working, but that this evolution is somehow driven, controlled or regulated by a divine being. Those people are able to grasp the facts, but intertwine it with their beliefs. (see: FAQ on Intelligent Design)
• Only around 25% of the population understands that evolution isn’t something to believe in, it is a scientific fact such as gravity. Which doesn’t say that there is no god, but that has never been the idea of the theory of evolution.

There are things we cannot prove, explain or even understand – and others we can. Evolution is one of the latter. Sometimes I have to wonder whether it is good for a modern society that religion still has such a heavy influence in our world.

— See also: God exists