Here at the Big Bad Blog, we had thought we had grown overtired of humour site Cracked, and its endless (but decreasingly amusing) top-10, top-15, and top-20 lists of things that they just make up.

This week, they have pulled themselves back from the brink of complete-irrelevancy-to-the-Big-Bad-Blog by embracing the trifecta of superheroes, dating websites, and Science! To test claims of dating websites of being able to identify one’s ideal match, Cracked created mock profiles for Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey, and set the sites to work in an attempt to resolve the love triangle.

The account gets extremely humorous when only Wolverine’s profile is flagged as possibly belonging to a fictional character, while those of Cyclops (and Jean Grey) are confirmed as being legitimate.

Photo by Adam Taylor. Found at Illusion.
Webcomic is Martin: Angry Owl, by Amy.

Today’s morning coffee includes more lengthy reading than usual. I hope you’re well-caffeinated and ready to go …

We begin with a look at the economics of the newspaper paywall, which contains a pretty good argument regarding why the Times paywall is likely not working as well as they claim it is.

(Montana Thunderstorm by Sean Heavey. Found at National Geographic)

Here in the UK, the government has decided that it’s OK for the police to be racist.

And in Spain, a woman has claimed ownership of the Sun. Here at the Big Bad Blog, we are unsure of the exact dollar value of the sun, but we expect her kids will be none to happy when they get the bill for their inheritance tax.

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	Volunteers at women’s health centres apparently get pelted with small rubber “dog-toy” like fetuses
The Psychology of Conspiracy
	If you need proof that the UK’s libel laws are over-the-top, check out the manner in which criticisms of a person’s behaviour need to be expressed, in order to avoid lawsuits.
As a denizen of the Internet, you are no doubt aware of that annoying quiz in which your own writing is compared to famous authors. But be aware that it is flawed: Input some Lovecraft, and it will identify it as Orwell-like. Input some Orwell, and it will be identified as being similar to Margaret Mitchell.
	Remember a few weeks ago when we linked to scaremongering over methane releases from the BP oil spill? Well, now the scaremongering has gone even more extreme — to doomsday scenarios! Of course, these do not stand up to scrutiny. But excellent scaremongering nonetheless!
Historians say that they have located King Arthur’s table. And here I was thinking that King Arthur was just a myth. Are the stories about Merlin true, too?
	It has been shown everywhere I look on the Internet. Everywhere. But I will still link to it, because I continue to love absolutely everything that Improv Everywhere does.
Need a place to crash for a month? Like museums? Then apply to live at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry for a month. Oh, you get paid, too. On the downside, you’ll be expected to write. Scary.

This morning, both the BBC and the Guardian are reporting on some sort of a police “War on Photography” in the UK. As the recent purchaser of a fancy camera, this is worrying. The police insist that this is not their policy, but one wonders if that is truly the case given how many of these stories can be found.

The following ad has been discovered at Best Week Ever:

Also today: The human-powered “Segway” and Mad Scientists on Google Street View.

We close with a quote from 1949, found at Futility Closet:

It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in five years.
– John von Neumann