Ever see photographs of potential holiday destinations and think “that looks too good to be true”? Of course it is. The beach is not deserted, and the women do not all look like professional models. There’s also this newfangled “photoshop” thing you might have heard about.

Hotel booking website Oyster goes and takes their own photographs of the hotels you can book from their site. And then they compare them side-by-side with the hotel’s own promotional materials in their blog. Fantastic, insightful and (often) funny.

(via My Modern Metropolis.)

Religious? Like going out and saving souls? Be warned — it could be bad for your back.

Finally, old people like it when young people are dumb. But that’s all the time, right? Kids these days …

The most interesting thing I have read yet about the Times paywall:

Why would I get any of my clients to talk to the Times or the Sunday Times if they are behind a paywall? Who can see it? I can’t even share a link and they aren’t on search. It’s as though their writers don’t exist anymore.

Interaction between electricity and the penis: science investigates.

Finally, the ultimate skydive: Felix Baumgartner plans to jump from 120,000 feet and break the sound barrier.

We here at the Big Bad Blog do not have a lot of experience teaching science. However we do have a lot of experience in not teaching science. As such, we feel that we can freely give advice on what not to do. For instance, when a student is excited about their science project and showing it off to their friends, do not call the police and tell them the student brought a bomb to the school. Such actions do not reward or foster the student’s curiosity and enthusiasm about science.

At least the authorities have declined to press charges against the kid. For, you know, doing science.

(by Paula Arntzen)

A tower of power was built in August 2009, in Craigavon. Nearly immediately, people who lived near the tower started to feel ill, and attributed it to the electromagnetic radiation emanating from the tower. These people are suing — despite the fact that the (unverified) symptoms they complained about continued for six weeks during which the tower had been turned off, but the complainants had not been informed.

Question: Why have I never had a date like the one described here?

Today’s most amazing discovery is that there is a website out there called Hats of Meat. It is dedicated to those who like to wear meat on their heads. There really is a place for everyone on these InterWebs.

A man making a documentary in London accidentally set off an alarm in an abandoned building. In order to turn it off, he had to briefly turn on the electricity. He was then charged with stealing £0.003 of electricity.

The photo below is from the Miss Universe pageant. Here, Miss USA wears her country’s national costume:

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