NYT asked 100 scientists to identify an unsolved problem in their field

The one that got me to google: "Why and how did the human brain expand so quickly during the ice age?" (The why seems to be environmental pressure demanded it)

And the funniest: "Why are humans the only species with a chin?"

Mr. Olympia 2026 is 5'7" and wore glasses for the competition

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The University of Alabama "allows its debit-style Bama Cash cards to be used at the local medspa for lip flips and filler"

From this grim article, highlighted in the After School newsletter. (A list of locations that accept the cash cards.) 

Excellent example of how a body looks at different weights and different levels of fitness

@lorenkimfit #fyp #fitnessjourney #fitnesstips #buildingmuscle #bodyrecomposition ♬ original sound - lorenkimart

Related, Casey Johnston posted an excerpt from her book about power lifting--it focuses on when she first started:

I hated and resented the self-satisfied “you’ll understand someday” tone of these pieces. It was more than just the smugness; even if these stories challenged some of the values about the hard work of hotness, the framing still capitulated to the game. 

...

But it wasn’t just her post that grabbed me. The response to it had been overwhelming. People showered her with compliments on her strength progress and willingness to give strength training a shot in the first place. Not a few people complimented her progress photos. “I don’t lift to be hot,” she replied. “I lift to be strong.” I rolled my eyes. Liar.

Finally, speaking of exercise, I recently switchewd from a blender bottle to a Helimix 2.0--works great, no whisk ball.

Superman actor mentions gaining 45 pounds of muscle in four months after his screen test

@gq #DavidCorenswet talks through the making of his #Superman ♬ original sound - GQ

(FWIW, here's GQ's write-up of his workout. Men's Health.)

(And speaking of protein, these canned drinks are delicious.)

The charmingly silly "Missing Link" Arcee Transformer is up for preorder

In orange or white. EE has them too. Seems like a scholarly article could be written on the design.

Missing Link Arcee in original prototype colors!#transformers #digibash pic.twitter.com/QSzsM43iHz

— Seth Stellary (@SStellary) September 13, 2024

Wemby playing soccer

@thescore

Watching Wemby play soccer at 7’4” is something else 😅 [via CourtsideBuzzX/X]

♬ original sound - thescore

Also, this:

@mlb that’s what we call a tall drink of water #oregonducks #collegebaseball #jasonreitz @oregonducksbaseball ♬ Beat Way Up - Type Beats Trap

Funny, disturbing name for Kelsey Plum's family chat

@brwsports "Finger Toes" is WILD 💀 (Via @The Los Angeles Sparks) #lasparks #wnba #kelseyplum #trainingcamp ♬ original sound - B/R W Sports

Watch a 7'6" former basketball player getting some pitching advice from the Dodgers

@espnatbat Former UC Irvine center Mamadou N'Diaye visited Dodgers camp yesterday. Imagine seeing him on the mound 😳 (via Mamadou_ndiaye34/IG) #baseball #mlb #tall #basketball🏀 ♬ original sound - ESPNatbat

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Fernando Alonso's terrifyingly-muscular neck

Empezando 👍. @Scuola2000 #Granvara pic.twitter.com/NadS9bSg5f

— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) January 12, 2025

The Miami Hurricanes' offensive line coach is 5'4"

From Mirabal’s time at Marshall. pic.twitter.com/p59d298NV8

— Moonshine Throwdown (@MoonShineTD) September 13, 2021

Smartest guy on the staff apparently:

Miami could have kneeled the clock out, they instead ran the ball, FUMBLED and GEORGIA TECH GOES 74 YARDS IN 25 SECONDS TO WIN THE GAME

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) October 8, 2023

I think the one assistant (super short, likely their math guy) walks up and says "knee" or "kneel", but Mario and Dawson look right at him and ignore him.

It was right at 1:00 mark left on clock. The guy kinda slinks away as Dawson starts barking out to Offense.

— Jay Moore (@JayMoore555) October 8, 2023

Watched it again. He told him twice.

Walked up along sideline at 1:04 to 1:00 and yelled knee/kneel, backed off a few yards, definitely yelled at Dawson/Mario again at :55. Dawson acted like dude was invisible. Those 2 deserve all the heat. pic.twitter.com/65SebNHH3k

— Jay Moore (@JayMoore555) October 8, 2023

Really?! The little dude?

Wow. Serious props to him. (Both for managing the bigs and having half a brain)

— Jay Moore (@JayMoore555) October 9, 2023

"5 members of Tufts men’s lacrosse team still hospitalized after workout with Navy SEAL training program graduate"

"12 members of the team were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis after the workout"

Related:

Lawsuit filed after 'thousands' infected at Tough Mudder race in Bay Area

He won a prize this year for showing that most claims about extreme aging are nonsense

From an interview:

 I’ve tracked down 80% of the people aged over 110 in the world (the other 20% are from countries you can’t meaningfully analyse). Of those, almost none have a birth certificate. In the US there are over 500 of these people; seven have a birth certificate. Even worse, only about 10% have a death certificate.

The epitome of this is blue zones, which are regions where people supposedly reach age 100 at a remarkable rate. For almost 20 years, they have been marketed to the public. They’re the subject of tons of scientific work, a popular Netflix documentary, tons of cookbooks about things like the Mediterranean diet, and so on.

Okinawa in Japan is one of these zones. There was a Japanese government review in 2010, which found that 82% of the people aged over 100 in Japan turned out to be dead. The secret to living to 110 was, don’t register your death.

The Japanese government has run one of the largest nutritional surveys in the world, dating back to 1975. From then until now, Okinawa has had the worst health in Japan. They’ve eaten the least vegetables; they’ve been extremely heavy drinkers.

(He goes on to discuss other locations and the factor most likely tied to longevity.) Here's a list of the 2024 winners.

Iran's Paralympic Seated Volleyball Team has an 8'1" player

Mehrzadselakjani had a pelvic fracture which stopped his right leg from growing, leaving it about 15 cm shorter than his left leg.

He's 8'1, and while seated, he's still got a reach of 6ft.

Iran is looking for their 8th Paralympic gold in seated volleyball. pic.twitter.com/94dqfuYLTE

— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) August 28, 2024

Wikipedia:

He was also the second best spiker during the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

A moving essay about living with Parkinson's

Anne Carson for the London Review of Books:

Looking ahead you see a black doorway. You begin to notice the black doorway is always there, at the edge, whether you look at it or not. Most moments contain it, most moments have a sort of sediment of black doorway at the bottom of the glass. You wonder if other people are seeing it too.

...

Neurologists now seem to believe that the brain is plastic and that certain activities can rewire it, by generating new neurons to replace lost ones or by exciting neurons that have gone idle or slow. Boxing is recommended. I go to a boxing class three times a week. Everyone in the class has Parkinson’s, various degrees of damage. At a certain point in each class (after stretching, shadow-boxing, drills, strength training) the instructor yells: ‘Gloves on!’ We rush to the lockers for our boxing gloves. Putting on your first glove is easy. To don the second glove you have to get help. ‘Don’t use your teeth!’ the instructor calls out. Interesting fact: it is impossible to conjure the black doorway while someone else is putting a boxing glove on you.

The USWNT coach wants the players to excavate their personal pain caves

Henry Bushnell for Yahoo discussing Emma Hayes's current practice of barely using substitutes even when the players are visibly exhausted:

In the video, [an ultramarathoner] talked about constructing “pain caves” in her mind. It’s a concept she has detailed repeatedly over the years en route to the top of ultrarunning. It’s “that point where you physically can’t keep going,” she said in one interview — a point Hayes knew the USWNT would reach Tuesday, whether winning, losing or tied.

“That’s when your mind takes over,” [the ultramarathoner] said. “And you dig in with your brain to help your body keep going. My goal is to get to the pain cave and go in and make it bigger, with hopes that every time I make it bigger, I can reach a little farther into myself next time.”

Also, Girma reminds me of the antagonists in Qntm's "There is No Antimemetics Division"--makes putting out fires look so easy you forget there was ever a potential danger.

This checks out. https://t.co/NFrBtTufHF pic.twitter.com/oqgs2yLBuC

— BreakingT (@BreakingT) August 7, 2024

Rugby star Ilona Maher talks about BMI

She and her "piston-like fend" are dominant:

Get the ball to Ilona Maher and GET OUT OF THE WAY‼️ #ParisOlympics

📺CNBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/hF8KAytAj1

— On Her Turf (@OnHerTurf) July 28, 2024

ILONA MAHER COMING THROUGH. 💥#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/Im8JPa5WPs

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) July 28, 2024

When I interviewed her earlier this year, she said she was advised to try rugby because she didn't ever run around defenders in soccer. She ran through them. https://t.co/c8NRNTREPH

— Maggie Hendricks (@maggiehendricks) July 28, 2024

and she's funny:

@ilonamaher Moves were made @paris2024 #olympicvilla ♬ original sound - Ilona Maher

and here she is responding to someone guessing her BMI:

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And here's another great example of how foolish it is to judge your body by weighing yourself:

@mallorykingfitness

Reposting this oldie from 2022. I’m 4 months in on my 2nd recomp phase and I’m so stoked!!

♬ TOO SWEET X RIVERS BY ALTÉGO - ALTÉGO

And speaking of:

This body today would be portrayed as a dude who never went to the gym https://t.co/oy4iuUyFnU

— En förvirrad björn i en ofrivärld🍠🏴 (@aPebbleInTheSky) July 26, 2024

Women say “dad bod” the same way men say “no makeup” https://t.co/9RWdltOBKM

— TheOmniZaddy 🌹🔰🏗 (@TheOmniZaddy) July 26, 2024

The Q-Collar is worn around an athlete's neck to hopefully protect against brain "slosh"

Fox last year:

If you are hit in the head or body, you may suffer a traumatic brain injury, known as a TBI. ...

During one of these incidents, your brain will typically move in the skull unrestrained, the FDA explains. This is known as a “slosh.”

... the Q-Collar compresses against the jugular veins in the athlete’s neck, increasing the volume of blood in their skull’s blood vessels. The increased blood then creates “a tighter fit of the brain inside the skull,” which could reduce the “slosh.”

The article goes on to note doubts as to the effectiveness of the device. 

One of the players for Puerto Rico (also plays for Angel City) was wearing one in tonight's game against the USA:

This week saw a break from PLL action, but key milestones for athletes wearing the Q-Collar. Rocky Rodriguez scored her first for Angel City and Emily Menges accomplished something only 8 others have in their NWSL careers. 👇👇https://t.co/DBFxFIH4ah #QCollar #CollarUp

— Q-Collar (@QCollarOfficial) June 24, 2024

Speculation that Tour de France teams are using the questionably legal practice of "inhaling the deadly gas carbon monoxide to optimise their athletes’ altitude training"

Escape:

A second, more aggressive approach, which is called carbon monoxide inhalation and uses the same equipment and techniques, steps into the scientifically new and much riskier realm of inhaling the poisonous gas for the express purpose of performance enhancement. A growing body of recent scientific research suggests CO inhalation can have a powerful impact on measures of aerobic capacity like VO2max, or maximal oxygen uptake.

...

By inducing hypoxia – a state of oxygen deprivation – CO inhalation can be used to prolong or even replace the performance-enhancing benefits of altitude training. It can also be used in conjunction with altitude training to maximise gains, as part of an approach called “super altitude.”

...

The technique is not banned by WADA, although it appears to conflict with the agency’s rules around artificial manipulation of the blood. And there is no hard evidence that any WorldTeams are currently using CO inhalation for performance gains. But

Two days after his MLB debut, the Toronto Blue Jays' top prospect was suspended 80 games for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy

He attributes the test to a fertility treatment, but doesn't seem to be challenging the punishment. Including the Reds' top prospect, he became the eighth player penalized for performance-enhancing drugs this year.