It has been a joy to follow Stefan Bucher's Daily Monster project. Yesterday he posted his hundredth monster, the final one in the series, and it's a special one (I also really liked the toothy penultimate monster). In his comments, Stefan writes:

I started this project on November 19th as a way to pass the time while a few publishers were mulling over a book I had proposed to them --- just a little something to keep my mind off of things. I thought that some of my friends might enjoy it and check in every once in a while, but within a few days I was getting lovely comments from all of you.

Here's more information on the book, Upstairs Neighbors, including the whole thing as a PDF. I'd certainly buy it (along with some cool Upstairs Neighbors merchandise).

P.S. I was looking around for information the the Daily Monster process, and found this answer from Stefan in the comments to monster 23:

Let me give you some answers to your tech questions: I use Yasutomo brand sumi ink, regular old Sharpie pens with fine and chisel tips, Faber-Castell PITT artist pens, Staedler HB pencils, and Tombo ABT Acid Free felt tip pens for color. I blow the ink with a fine cocktail straw.

The camera (a Sony Cybershot DSC-P200) is in front of me, mounted on a small tabletop tripod. It's tilted down towards the paper. Sometimes I draw rightside up and flip the image in Quicktime. Other times, I actually draw the Daily Monster upside down, so it appears in the correct orientation in the clip without any further processing.

My lighting is pretty poor, so I usually amp up the brightness and contrast a bit in Quicktime.

And that's all there is to it.

Okay, they were really writing about sharks, but I still thought this was a fun statistic to include:

Sharks bite fewer people each year than New Yorkers do, according to health department records. And you are far likelier to drown in your bathtub or be murdered by your spouse than you are to die in the jaws of a shark.

• An interview with Oscar Pistorius. An inspiring athlete, unfortunately mired in controversy (some say his prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage).
• Check out the "Knees to Elbows" video linked to from this CrossFit WOD.
• Interesting training article on preparing for The Secret Service Snatch Test.
• Chad Waterbury's article on his Full Throttle Program ("Simple Methods to Develop Fighting Endurance") was a good read. I bet that's an excellent conditioning regimen.

The Story of Sergey Brin:

Since then, Google has grown from just another Silicon Valley startup into the world's largest media corporation; in fact, based on its recent stock price of $513 per share, Google, which has made searching the Web easy and even fun, is larger than Disney, General Motors and McDonald's combined.

Skwigg's "Tidbits" post is excellent (best wishes to her in recovering from her knee injury), and Jim at Beast Skills recently posted this enjoyable interview with Jack Arnow.

I scanned, vectorized, and tweaked a monster my five-year-old, Ella, drew:

I wanted it on a t-shirt. :-) I fully expect this to have a print run of exactly one, but on the off chance it strikes your fancy, I whipped up a quick Spreadshirt shop. I can always add products and design colors on request (you can already customize the apparel color), so feel free to drop me a line.

From the most recent Coudal Partners newsletter:

Somebody once said that if you want to know if a particular cartoon came from The New Yorker magazine, all you have to do is replace the caption with the phrase "F*** Y**." If the comic still works, then it's a fair bet it came from The New Yorker.

NSCA's Performance Training Journal quickly summarizes yet another study demonstrating that you get more bang for your buck doing intense intervals rather than traditional endurance training:

The sprint training group performed four to six all out maximal (~700 w) 30 second sprints separated by four minutes of recovery. The traditional endurance training group performed continuous exercise for 90 - 120 minutes at an intensity of 65% of maximal aerobic capacity or a power output of 175 W.

You can click through for the results, but I've already told you which one comes out on top. As a bonus, you don't compromise your speed and power training by eschewing the long slow stuff. And you save time:

When comparing the time commitment of the two protocols the sprint training required 2.5 hours while the traditional endurance training program required 10.5 hours.

A quick Google Scholar search turns up a bunch of similar-looking studies (which I have not read).

Even if you don't do the WOD, it's worth keeping an eye on the Crossfit home page. Lately they've been posting tons of good videos. Here's a few of the more recent ones (after you click through you can pick WMV or MOV formats): Deadlifts, Towel Pull-ups, and Thrusters.

Random joke from the inbox, "Two Newfoundlanders". Why Newfoundlanders? No idea.

Two Newfoundlanders went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down in their tent for the night and went to sleep. Some hours later, Lloyd awoke and nudged his faithful friend awake.

"Bryce, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Bryce replied, "I see millions and millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" Lloyd questioned.

Bryce pondered for a minute: "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe Saturn is in Leo. Logically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow".

"Is that all?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes." Bryce replied. "Why, am I missing something?"

Lloyd was quiet for a moment, and then spoke softly: "Bryce, you dickhead, someone has stolen the tent!"

• I enjoyed Keith Scott's simple explanation of the hows and whys of foam rolling. Then I noticed his blog is good across the board. « via Joachim Bartoll »
• From "The Genius in All of Us": How Beckham Bends It. Be sure to check out the highlight reel he links to.
• Two videos: an impressive jump, and the Crossfit women display impressive Tabata squat prowess (you'll have to click through to the video).

Always looking for new things to try with my rings. I think I'll add scarecrows into the mix. « via Straight to the Bar »