Deadspin, the formerly-Gawker sports and culture site ruined by its new corporate masters and abandoned by its staff, is back in spirit: many of its strongest voices are blogging at unnamedtemporarysportsblog.com. Read the rest
Ballsy is a new specialized scrotum soap that has somehow managed to from starting up to seven digits in sales in just seven months. From their website:
As with all good ideas, this one started in the shower. As I grabbed that same tired bottle of men’s drugstore body wash, and poured that neon blue liquid into my hand it hit me. Why am I using a $4 body wash that has more chemicals and words that I can't pronounce than I care to admit?
I deserve better, my body deserves better, my boys deserve better than this. And that’s when I decided to create a product that I wanted to start my day with, a product that makes me feel great and smells great in the process.
Don't just the founder's word for it; ask Hollywood's Pauly Shore, who is definitely a huge fan of this product and not just being paid to pimp it out on Cameo!
View this post on InstagramWiser words have never been spoken from The Weez! #paulyshore #keepyourjewelsjolly
Don't get me wrong; the knockoff-Old-Spice-Guy marketing looks like the kind of made-to-be-viral sensation that would drive some VCs wild. I'm just genuinely surprised that so many people are actually spending $20-plus dollars on ball soap, and that the company already offers such a wide variety of products. There's a charcoal-activated bodywash; a "Nut Rub" cologne that comes in several different scents; a "sack spray" deodorant; some Goldbond-wannabe soothing cream; and a "Goodhead" shampoo and conditioner, which is presumably for your skull and not your pubes, but I'm not sure. Read the rest
Vat19 took video of "weird stress balls" being destroyed, which is more satisfying than using them. You can skip all the bits with talking. Read the rest
The patterns that emerge from plywood once it's sanded to a sphere are beautiful, but it all comes down to step 1: get the maths, the measuring and the cuts exactly right. Step 0 is, of course, "own a lot of expensive shop equipment." [via]
Previously: Gray's Shapes. Read the rest
Fuck this kid.
Fuck that kid.
Fuck you too. pic.twitter.com/BfKxJhEEtw
— Jay Kirell (@JasonKirell) August 5, 2018
Rock that ball, kid.
Thanks, Jay! Read the rest
From NASA Johnson: "Astronauts on the International Space Station dissolved an effervescent tablet in a floating ball of water, and captured images using a camera capable of recording four times the resolution of normal high-definition cameras. The higher resolution images and higher frame rate videos can reveal more information when used on science investigations, giving researchers a valuable new tool aboard the space station. This footage is one of the first of its kind. The cameras are being evaluated for capturing science data and vehicle operations by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama." Read the rest
K. Thor Jenson, one of the enduring lights of web culture, spent two years writing clickbait about balls for a good cause: testicular cancer research.
I signed on with the foundation in early 2015. Together, we developed a business plan for the site. We quickly realized that a 100% testicle-focused site would run out of material pretty quickly, so we started brainstorming what would be under the umbrella. Testicular stories, sure, but also stories of “ballsy” behavior. Sports, as long as the ball was the focus of the piece. Ball pits. Energy balls. Balls of snakes. You get the idea.
Since 2015, The Ball Report has published 1,073 posts, many astoundingly successful, and with serious journalistic work amid all the bollocks: "When a viral story about a gang member dying after spray-painting his testicles gold started to spread, I was one of the first to debunk it. I wrote a dense history of the practice of “teabagging” in video games."
[Cheers, John!] Read the rest
Maximum points awarded for the best possible use of the vincerò from Turandot's Nessun Dorma. Read the rest
"This is why aliens will never want to be friends with us," says a loud NSFW Australian. [via] Read the rest
The Gulf of Ob is a remote Siberian reach of the Russian empire, and its beaches are covered in gigantic snowballs up to a meter across. The BBC reports that they're the result of a "rare environmental process where small pieces of ice form, are rolled by wind and water, and end up as giant snowballs." (Photo: SERGEI BYCHENKOV) Read the rest
Someone, please throw George a ball. [Video Link via Arbroath] Read the rest
Between 2002 and 2010, 142,144 adults went to the emergency room with "genitourinary" injuries. Sporting equipment (bikes, bats, various balls) were the products most likely to be involved in such an injury, appearing in 30% of all cases. This is probably not a surprise to anyone who has watched "America's Funniest Home Videos". What is a little surprising: Men only accounted for 69% of the injuries. Ow. My ovaries. (Via Ivan Oransky) Read the rest
