What happens when you put together thousands of the fittest athletes in the world, in the prime of their youth? Let’s just say that if the Olympics were held between Greek city-states today, the Trojans would have a lot to boast about. Sam Alipour reports:

• In the 2000 Sydney games the 70,000 condoms available weren’t enough and an additional 20,000 had to be ordered. Now the standard is for 100,000 to be in place before the games begin.
• One Olympian estimates that up to 75% of the athletes have sex in the Olympics village, which is off-limits to all but the competitors. “It’s like Vegas.”
• Striking up conversations with people of the opposite sex is easy. You simply ask them what sport they play.
• The Italians are the most promiscuous.
• One athlete says she prefers swimmers, water polo players, and track-team runners.
• Some have blamed sex for underperformance during the actual games. It can become such a distraction that some coaches enforce a curfew and ban cross-gender dorm visitations.
• There are deeper issues involved. Training is intense and it’s difficult to meet new people. In the Olympic village athletes are suddenly put with a group of people who understand exactly what it’s like.
• Part of the appeal is that you’re unlikely to see the same group of athletes ever again.

To find out why this is natural for Olympians who are all extremists, the challenges they set themselves, many choice quotes (including: “This time, when I’m done leaving my legacy on the track, I’ll make sure London remembers me.”), why the swimmers are lucky, the panties, bras and underwear that people walk around in, where the sex takes place, what happens if you can’t pick which one you want to be with, the cultural differences among the different nations, why it’s like college, what happens to the adolescent athletes, what a gold medal can get you, and the experiences of various Olympians click here.

Source: ESPN

World records will be broken over the next few days in London, but some of these records are more impressive than others writes Nate Silver:

• Track and field events have the most resilient records. The men’s long jump Olympic record was set 40 years ago in Mexico City.
• The women’s 100 meter dash Olympic record was set in 1988 and since then no other woman has come within 0.2 seconds of the mark.
• In the Beijing Olympics only five world records were set in the 47 track and field games that took place. In swimming 25 records were set in just 34 events.
• In fact, swimming times have fallen at around 10% a year for the past 40 years. The same can’t be said for track and field events.
• The woman who won the shot-put Gold in 2008 would not have even made a bronze in 1976.
• Part of the reason for the success of swimmers is that they have benefited from technology – better costumes, and deeper pools.
• But most importantly you need access to a pool to become a swimmer and this is only widely available in some countries. In contrast anybody can become a runner. Runners are more likely to have hit the wall of human achievement since more people have tried it.

To read more about how this relates to baseball, which records to watch out for in the Olympics, why even Beijing was an anomaly, the statistical method developed by Silver, what Nike and Reebok would like you to believe, Gould’s hypothesis, and what we should expect in Rio in 2016, click here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

Leslie Josephs delved into the world of cocoa bean graders:

• Cocoa beans are a big business. They’re key to chocolate and there’s an $8 billion market for them.
• The IntercontinentalExchange on which they are traded needs them to be graded. There are currently 24 certified graders but the numbers may soon dwindle due to retirement.
• It’s four times harder to pass the certification exam to become a cocoa bean grader, than it is to pass the New York State Bar exam.
• Yet the graders are rarely called upon. They earn $21 for examining a 10-ton shipment, for about $350 a session. They only work as bean graders 50 days a year.
• Just by examining it, graders have to be able to identify which country the beans came from, how they were dried, and identify any odors they may have absorbed.

To read more including comments from those who had to take the tests multiple times, why it makes a difference if the beans are dried over a fire, the lengths that some go to, to identify the beans, how Ecuadorian and Nigerian beans differ, and the odd case of a bullet shell among the beans, click here.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Via: Marginal Revolution

Alana Semuels outlined a market that gets a boost every time a Presidential election roles around: the demand for candidate impersonators:

• There is a lot of competition in the candidate impersonation business because the profits are so lucrative. Reggie Brown, an Obama impersonator (pictured above) makes tens of thousands per appearance.
• It’s not just the looks that are important. The voice matters too. People who can mimic the voice of the candidate are more successful since they can always use prosthetics to alter their appearance.
• Aspiring impersonators closely scrutinize their candidate’s media appearances. A Wishful Romney lookalike notices everything from his posture to the smirk he has during debates.

To read more including the life of an impersonator, why they do it, the people who are likely to hire the impersonators, what happens when you put two impersonators together, the role that YouTube plays, and what the founder of the Celebrity Lookalikes Convention has to say, click here.

Source: LA Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

Colm O’Regan took a look at the problem of job title inflation:

• These days it seems that the fewer the words the more prestigious the position. A CEO will always be better than a knowledge champion or a value driver lead.
• Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda took it to an extreme. His full title was: His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.
• However this problem has been with us for many years. Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, had a title that contained over 150 words and counted all the territories he controlled.

To read more including the debate about surgeons in the UK that sparked the article, what an arthymic oscillating technician does, why Amin had such a brazen title, the importance of job titles to humans, and why O’Regan considers himself ot be a humour enablement consultant click here.

Source: BBC

Back in 2006 Ruth Elkins reported on a sibling rivalry that…got a little out of hand:

• In the 1940s, in the German town of Herzogenaurach, two brothers worked as cobblers and produced shoes.
• However they had a falling out. Accounts on exactly what caused their rivalry differ, but some of the possible explanations include:
  • One brother slept with the wife of the other.
  • The wives of the two brothers hated each other.
  • One was more successful than the other.
  • During an air raid in WW2 one brother exclaimed “those pig dogs again!” and the other brother thought that the first brother was referring to him.
• Whatever the reason, the brothers split and set up their own sports shoe companies. One started Adidas, and the other created Puma.
• Some of the absurd things seen in the town during the height of the rivalry include:
  • Puma and Adidas employees would not marry one another.
  • There were Adidas and Puma gangs in the schools.
  • Pubs allied to one company would refuse to serve employees of the other.
• Even in death the two brothers are buried at opposite ends of the cemetery.

To read more including a wider history of the companies, the role that an American prisoner of war camp played, how the companies both take credit for the 1954 soccer world cup win, how a fishmonger became a chess piece, why the brothers were like George Bush and Saddam Hussein, which company does better, why there will probably never be a joint shoe history museum, how workers have taken advantage of the rivalry and how the younger generation feels about the family, click here.

Source: The Independent

Via: Cracked

Being in the restaurant business is difficult writes Tony Eldred. Competition is intense, rents are high, and the price of menu items haven’t risen much with inflation. In these circumstances restaurants have come up with innovative ways to continue to survive. They include:

• 20 years ago you used to get your meal on one plate. Now there’s a Lego set approach were you have a main and then side courses. This was a stealth-price rise.
• Then there was piling. The main course got smaller and was placed on top of cheaper ingredients such as cabbage. This was called art, but it was really about profits.
• People judge a restaurant based on the prices of its main course. This left restaurants free to raise the prices of beverages and deserts, although there was a limit even to this.
• Nowadays you see the rise of tasting or shared plates. The portions are tiny, the prices are high, but it appeals to the social media generation and creates a positive customer perception.
• Restaurants have also stopped taking bookings. Charging a deposit brings negative PR and no-shows are a revenue killer.

The entire article focuses on the Australian restaurant scene, and is a response to another article complaining about the state of the restaurant industry. You can read more including the actual margins of restaurants and how they compare to putting money in a fixed deposit in the bank, what we should really be paying for coffee, the rise of secondary meat cuts, and the experience of the author, over here.

Source: The Age

Via: Marginal Revolution

Broad Sustainable Building (BSB) a Chinese construction firm has set out to build the world’s tallest building. But the building’s height isn’t the most remarkable thing about it according to CNN:

• It took five years to build the 828 meter Burj Khalifa, pictured above, and the current record holder for the tallest building.
• BSB plans to build a 838 meter building, and they play to do it in 90 days.
• The company is renowned for its speed. It built a 30-story hotel in 360 hours last year.
• It achieves its speed by prefabricating components at its factory.
• Most of the planned construction project, tentatively named Sky City, will be built before the planned breaking ground ceremony in November. The building will be up by January 2013.
• It will have 1 million square meters of usable space and 104 elevators. It will also contain the world’s highest hotel.

To read more including where the building will be located, how the makers of Shanghai Tower feel about the project, who designed the building, permission for the project, the energy savings and efficiency of the building, the cost savings, other speedy projects that BSB has pursued, and what the building might look like, click here.

Source: CNN

Via: Kottke