Random Friday!

Research Time, Let's Get Serious!

Fit and Fat beats Thin and Lazy!
This study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, was going to be the subject of a whole post. Why? well, it's just the sort of research Cranky Fitness loves! It rewards good behavior, not just the blind luck of the genetic draw. But Crabby's buddy Jim over at Diet Blog got to it first and summed it up nicely, so Crabby will send you over there for details. Key finding: Fit older men and women who were obese had a lower risk of death over a 12 year period than unfit people of normal weight.

BMI Slideshow
So "BMI" or "Body Mass Index" is one of those measurements that researchers and insurance like because it's so convenient. Using only height and weight, they come up with a number you can use to traumatize classify people with. (They don't even use friendly words like plump or chunky or lean or buffed or curvalicious either, it's all "underweight," or "obese" or even "extremely obese." "Normal" is the best you can do, and what's the fun in normal?)

Anyway, the problem is, (duh) height and weight alone are not enough to tell you what sort of shape someone's in. People have all kind variances in bone structure and muscle mass and boobage and whatnot, so for any number of reasons a BMI number can be a total load of crap really misleading.

So Kate Harding is all over it with a great slide show that points out how ridiculous the categories can be. Check it out!

Men: Want Kids? Better Get Crackin'!
Mary discovered this interesting article which totally challenges a common conception about ticking biological clocks: that only women have them. But men, it turns out, have a biological clock too!

"With each passing decade of their lives and with each insult they inflict on their bodies, men's fertility decreases, while genetic risk to offspring slowly mounts." Older men have more fragmented DNA in their sperm, increasing risk for infertility, miscarriage and birth defects. Risks for low IQ, schizophrenia, autism, and even certain cancers increase for offspring of older men.

More Word Power:
Cranky Fitness readers are a literate bunch, judging by the popularity of the Free Rice link featured previously. So Mary, being a more literate creature than Crabby, found us another worthy wordy link to try. It's a dictionary that...

Well, to be honest, Crabby is not sure exactly what it does, but it has pretty arrows. It also has a "random" function, and the first entry it generated for Crabby was "cucumber-shaped!" Sadly, the cucumber-shaped results were not the least bit bawdy. But serious writers and linguists might appreciate the fact that this online, er, tool, analyzes the hell out of words.

And More on Bras and Butts!

Remember Ass Cup Sized Jeans? Well, now you can buy an actual bra for your butt!

Crabby was all ready to make fun of this product, because, well, she's not the sort who wear an ass-bra herself if her life depended on it. But then she read the heartfelt letter from the product's inventor. "The story of the Biniki is one that began with a personal cheek lifting need..." she starts, and how can Crabby be mean after that? [Note: Item discovered via Back in Skinny Jeans; photo courtesy of Biniki].

And Mary discovered that at least one British retailer has now started selling bras in larger cup sizes -- up to a "J." Remember when there used to be just A, B, and C? Well Marks & Spencer recently went from G to J, responding to demands for bigger sizes. Mary also found this interesting NYT article on bouncing while exercising. (And Crabby has an old post of her own about that too!)

When is Sex So Bad it's Good?
Laura at Women of Mystery alerted us to this Literary Review "Bad Sex in Fiction" award winning passage. The recently departed but Very Famous Norman Mailer penned this, and, well, what do you folks think?

"His mouth lathered with her sap, he turned around and embraced her face with all the passion of his own lips and face, ready at last to grind into her with the Hound, drive it into her piety." [Note: the complete excerpt is longer and racier and, in Crabby's opinion, just as terrible].


And This Stuff is On A Health and Fitness Site Because... Why Exactly?
No reason at all, especially this last link! It just amuses Crabby though she has no idea why. Yes, it's a site full of pictures of (mostly) famous men who look like old lesbians. (Some of them... not so much. Others? Bingo.)


And Finally, A Gratuitous Endorsement of Antioxidant-rich Beverages:




moar funny pictures


Have a great Friday!