« Previous page |
Next page » |
Science
April 9, 2007
Climbing High but Flying Higher
An assault on a bogus world record is happening in late May, sponsored by Motorola. Mountaineer Rod Baber will attempt to climb Mt. Everest (which has been done thousands of times) and then make what this BBC article (or is it a press release?) terms "the world's highest phone call." Which would all be well and good, except that plenty of people have made higher phone calls, including my mother.
Arts
April 5, 2007
On Snorting Ashes
In a recent interview with NME, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards said he snorted his dead father's ashes. Richards' exact quote: "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow." Richards has now issued a statement saying his comments shouldn't be taken seriously. His manager, Jane Rose told the BBC News that Richards remarks were "in jest." Whether true or not, Richards isn't the first to have the idea of inhaling the dead.
Varsity Letters
April 2, 2007
Varsity Letters 4/4 Interviews
Authors of the books featured on our front page (as well as Jonah Keri) will be speaking spoke at a free Gelf event in New York on Wednesday, April 4, at 8 p.m. Come Thanks for coming by to the Happy Ending Lounge to hear Steven Goldman, Keri, Curt Smith, and Cor van den Heuvel read from and discuss their writing.
World
April 2, 2007
The Lost Boys Speak Out
Ishmael Beah's book A Long Way Gone is enjoying its sixth week near the top of the New York Times bestsellers list and is receiving lots of sparkling reviews. The book is an autobiographical account of Beah's life in war-torn Sierra Leone, where he was given an AK-47 and strong drugs at age 12 and sent off to kill. (The Oscar-nominated film Blood Diamond is also, in part, about the trials of another child soldier in the same war.) But Beah's isn't the only story of children in an African nation struggling with violence, starvation, and civil war. Recently, books and films inspired, narrated, or written by young survivors of these conflicts have increased tremendously in number and popularity.
Media
March 30, 2007
It's Not You, It's Your Article
Here's what appears to be the New York Times's view of the dating world: Really rich folks from elite universities eat expensive food together and discuss stuff like whether the woman should work and where they should keep a summer share. The various revelations about exciting new trends in the relationship world are provided in the form of anecdotes from ridiculous people who sound like close friends of the writers. In the most recent iteration of this theme, we learn that for some people—hold the phone—the type of apartment that their date keeps can be a real deal-killer.
Sports
March 27, 2007
Eight Is Obscure Enough
If you thought the late-'70s sitcom Eight is Enough had been relegated to the dustbins of history, with only enough pop-culture cachet to merit the occasional ironic offhand mention in Family Guy, guess again. As it turns out, the very notion of discussing eight of anything is enough to make sports editors nostalgic for the days when Dick Van Patten prowled the airwaves.
Sports
March 27, 2007
Like the Globetrotters Losing to the Generals
Last week, heavily favored Pakistan lost to Ireland in group play of cricket's World Cup by three wickets. With the loss, the team was eliminated from competition. Afterwards, the captain resigned and apologized for embarrassing the country, effigies of coach Bob Woolmer and his players were burned in the streets of Karachi, and the coach was found dead (likely murdered) in his hotel room. Now, police are investigating whether the coach's death was related to match-tampering. The slight odds of just 8-1 against Ireland in the match suggests to the police that some bettors knew that the fix was in.
Sports
March 24, 2007
The Importance of Being Conference Champs
For the past few years, Gelf has had the same message for big-conference bubble schools who claim that they should have the right to the last, precious at-large spots over smaller schools: Put up or shut up. That's because, despite all of the hype surrounding them in the weeks leading up to Selection Sunday, lower-seeded at-large teams from the SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big East, Big 12, and PAC 10 almost never do anything once they reach the tournament. Gelf dug deeper into the stats to directly compare the performances of bubble teams from big and little conferences.
Media
March 22, 2007
Disabled Charismatic Megafauna
Stories about cute animals are a great way to attract readers, but it seems that the BBC has found something even more eyecatching: cute animals with prosthetic limbs. Over the last few years, the news organization has extensively covered the reconstruction and rehabilitation of some of our favorite domestic and wild animals.
Sports
March 20, 2007
Bubble Trouble
For all of the worrying about which big conference teams were going to make it off of the bubble and into the NCAA tournament, their actual performances once they got there were pretty pitiful. (I'm looking at you, Arkansas and Stanford.) This keeps with a trend that Gelf has covered for the last three years and strongly suggests that more of these bubble spots should be reserved for teams from smaller conferences.
« Previous page |
Next page » |
About Gelflog
The Gelflog brings you all the same sports, media & world coverage you’ve come to love from Gelf Magazine, but shorter and faster. If you’d like, subscribe to the Gelflog feed.
Subscribe to the Gelflog RSS