Bored at work? Try getting inspiration from some of these Best Office Pranks of All Time. As the site aptly says, “Nothing says happy birthday like being an obsessive compulsive prick.”
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Just another reason to stay out of the water (ok ok, so these creatures are typically REALLY far down in the ocean … but still!): the 12 Most Bizarre and Frightening Deep Sea Creatures.
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Still, we shouldn’t pick on deep sea dwellers just because they aren’t stupidly cute. After all, some very gorgeous things can be quite deadly, such as these 13 unassuming poisonous plants.
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From Jan: If you think you know your car facts (or at least can recognize cars based on several arcane-to-obvious clues), try your hand at this car quiz. (er … I made a D)
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Sure, the writer-director or actor-singer is nothing new. But a singer-wrestler? When certain celebrity’s careers tank, they might turn to wrestling to get a small second wind going (See: K-Fed, Steve-O), but unfortunately fame rarely goes the other way. Here is a list of 7 professional wrestlers who unsuccessfully tried to become musicians.
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Sure, most of you will have seen the majority of these Eye-Popping Illusions, but I always find them fun. Someone in the comments posted a link to one in particular which I hadn’t seen before, and I couldn’t get over it. Too cool!

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8 Cutting-Edge Cheese Sculptures
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It was always hard for me to believe in French class that a cow or dog made a completely different sound in France than it did in the United States. But perhaps they do … after all, it turns out that newborn babies cry in their native tongues!
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So what exactly separates humans from animals? As this chart proves, less than you think.
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Interesting and sobering space images that compares Earth’s size to the other planets as well as other stars in our solar system and far beyond.
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Sure we all get tired of getting menus stuffed under our doors, but how far would you go to stop it? This note surely takes the cake! Do any of you Flossers have proven methods of your own?
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Feel like sleeping away a third of your life is a waste? Here are some different sleep techniques to maximize sleep efficiency. (Has anyone tried any of this alternative methods?)
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Further proof that, to cats, humans are just large head-scratching machines.
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A very apt comic for anyone who knows (or who is!) an indie rock snob.
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Finally, a “do with this what you will” link: Aileen sent in this odd video and admitted that the drummer in question is her brother, and Flossy reader Danyel also sent in the same link (a rare occurrence), so it must be popular in some circles this week! (This was a close contender for the “Annals of Too Much Time”)
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I hope everyone had a great week and restful weekend ahead. Just don’t forget to keep sending in those great links! Submit all finds to FlossyLinks@gmail.com

[Last Weekend's Links]

For those of you whose thirst wasn’t quenched with the last Dietribes, here’s another round of water facts for you to paddle, wade, swim or float through:

• Worried about drinking your 8 glasses of water a day? Turns out it may be a myth …

• However, there is definitely the possibility of drinking too much, which results in water intoxication. In some cases it can lead to death. In fact, Andy Warhol’s estate charged that water intoxication caused by the hospital led to his fatal heart attack.

• There are some creatures who don’t need water very often at all – camels, for instance. But is it because they store water in their humps? No! The humps store fat, not water. “Camels get all the water they need from the plants they eat and thus may go six or seven months without drinking. During the summer, [...] camels drink only every five days. ”

• There are of course alternatives to the tap (Quite a few of you mentioned last week about the good or bad taste and quality of your local water; and yes, Florida water tastes the worst in my opinion … sulfur!) – check out these stats on the growing use of bottled water. Of course, states are ready to cash in on this as quickly as they can.

• The varieties of bottled water are endless – you can buy bottled Holy water, bottled water for dogs or even “plain” tonic water … which glows in the dark under a black light thanks to quinine!

• In the 1940s scientists noticed a link between tooth decay and the amount of naturally occurring fluoride in water supplies. So, In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, adjusted the fluoride content of its water supply to 1.0 ppm and thus became the first city to implement community water fluoridation.

• Water can also be carbonated (as discovered by Joseph Priestly, whose other credits include discovering oxygen and inventing the rubber eraser). But there are other, stranger ways to add bubbles. In the town of San Pellegrino Terme, Italy, there is a spigot that runs all the time, providing San Pellegrino water free to the local citizens–except that free Pellegrino has no bubbles. The bubbles in San Pellegrino are extracted from volcanic springs in Tuscany, then trucked north and injected into the water from the source.

• Finally, if you want to sleep on the water but can’t afford a boat, consider a water bed (originally called a “pleasure pit” and was more of a water blob placed on the floor). In 1987, water beds accounted for 22% of all mattress sales. (Do any of your Flossers have water beds? Did your parents?)

• For anyone who’s interested in issues of US water supply and water rights, Cadillac Desert is one of the best books I’ve read on the subject. West Coast dwellers might find it especially interesting!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

[Last Weekend's Links]

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Thanks as always to everyone who sent in links this week – keep it up! Send all finds to FlossyLinks@gmail.com, and have a great weekend!

[Last Weekend's Links]

[Last Weekend's Links]

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Sports are full of passion and pushing one’s self to the brink … so it’s no surprise that we get some pretty hilarious photos from it – in fact, here are 100 of the best (all of these are begging for captions. ALL OF THEM).
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Where would humanity be if Adam and Eve had always remained in that awkward “friend zone?”
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From the never-ending source of entertainment that is my friend Thomas’ gchat status message, this news story about angry European farmers and creative uses of cows’ milk. Sounds boring? It’s anything but. At least, the pictures are definitely worth a gander – here’s another set.
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Halloween is just around the corner, but there’s still time to hone your pumpkin-carving skills … you may still not be as amazing as these extremely talented carvers, though.

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Obviously this artist has plenty of cash to be able to use it as art! (thanks Dekalb!)

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Heath.com continues to navigate to the far recesses of the internet for the world’s weirdest heath-related stories – this week: Nasal Spray Improves Memory, a Comic Book About Schizophrenia, and What Coffee Has in Common With Cockroaches.
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A little something to brighten your Saturday: explanations of 10 Doomsday Cults.
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Just so we’re clear … here are 8 common phrases that probably don’t mean what you think they mean …
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A delicious way to learn science – mitosis as demonstrated by Krispy Kreme donuts (Thanks Jessica!). I almost wish my donuts did this on their own … almost.
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Random Rumination: What would Facebook look like it if were a country?
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Forget a Hello Kitty plush or a miniature sneaker, here are 10 seriously cool (and occasionally useful) keychains (Thanks Jan!)
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You may have also seen Michael Moschen juggling crystal balls in “Labyrinth,” and if you were impressed then, you are sure to be mesmerized now by this performance!
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Take a look at this “amazing pilot project in Fiji that is bringing damaged coral reefs back to life.”
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Finally, to get everyone in the mood for autumn – some beautiful fall foliage.
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I hope everyone had a great week and an even better weekend – just don’t forget to send in those marvelous links! Send all finds to FlossyLinks@gmail.com

[Last Weekend's Links]

• First thing’s first: What is a bagel? “A bagel is a round bread, with a hole in the middle, made of simple ingredients: high-gluten flour, salt, water, yeast and malt. Its dough is boiled, then baked, and the result should be a rich caramel color; it should not be pale and blond. A bagel should weigh four ounces or less and should make a slight cracking sound when you bite into it. A bagel should be eaten warm and, ideally, should be no more than four or five hours old when consumed. All else is not a bagel.”

• If you’ve heard that old yarn about bagels being created in 17th-century Poland as a tribute to King Jan Sobieski after he saved Austria from Turkish invaders at the battle of Vienna in 1683, well … it’s a load of old toss. The origins came prior to this supposed event, and most experts agree that the origin of the word “bagel” probably came from the Yiddish beigen, to bend.

• But why bend it in the first place? The bagel may be a cousin of the pretzel, although its singular shape may also have helped those selling bagels to carry bunches of them on sticks.

• Bagels come in about every variety one can dream up. From the well-known Everything Bagel to the “buzzed” bagel for when you need some caffeine with your caffeine in the morning. And let us not forget this likely first casualty of the recession: the $1,000 bagel (no, it doesn’t have gold chips but it darn well should!)

• Hmmm, the greatest thing since sliced bread might be … a sliced bagel! Lender’s popularized the sliced bagel, and eventually came out with a frozen variety as well. Today some bagels are so hardy they can even survive space.

• Do you love bagels? I mean really, really love bagels? Seriously now … LOVE BAGELS? Apparently you can turn your face into one.

• But what’s a bagel without cream cheese? Cream cheese was discovered accidentally in 1872 by a New York dairyman trying make Neufchatel. It was originally packaged in foil just as it can be found today.

• For those who don’t relish (or are too lazy to) schmear, there is now the option of the cream cheese-filled bagel.

• Finally, in case you were wondering: could eating poppyseed bagels make you fail a drug test? Yes!

• You know what comes next: how do you Flossers most enjoy your bagels? Nothing is better to me than a whole wheat bagel generously schmeared with cream cheese and lox, lox and more lox!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

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A foodie road trip that won’t gain you a pound (in theory): Appetizing Architecture, found by links-faithful Jan.
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Eric Idle sings about the galaxy. What more do you need to know? It’s brilliant, of course (and catchy!) and got a true laugh from me at the end.

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Some super cute animals get all the attention (”You mean … like this baby pygmy hippo who’s barely bigger than a lettuce leaf?” Precisely). However, there are plenty of other very cute, yet underrated adorable animals out there too, lest we forget.
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Behold his majesty, the king of herrings: Regalecus Glesne! Honestly that sounds like an obscure royal, or possibly a former Hogwarts professor.
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Flossy reader Rudy asks, “why would anyone live in the Midwest?”, but luckily provides this website to give us some good, if not slightly apocalyptic answers.
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The Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta has a gold dome, with materials from Dahlonega, Georgia, site of the nation’s first gold rush. But there are plenty of other odd objects gilded in gold – in fact, here’s a list of 11 of them. (Thanks, Andy!)
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Extra! Extra! Read all about it: Hell planet where rock falls as rain found. Yes indeed, COROT-7b, an alien planet where a rain of pebbles falls from clouds of rock vapour into lakes of molten lava, has been found by astronomers.
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For those of you who enjoy the occasional gawk, as I myself am prone to do, take a gander at Food Gawker. In particular, the most gawked at of all time.
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Having trouble kick-starting your writing ideas? Mark sends in The Brainstormer – a writer’s block buster that I can actually get behind as being helpful in addition to being very well designed!
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So meta it’s like a meme within a video within a meme … The Best and Worst of YouTube in Four Minutes.
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Warning: Don’t Die Around Geeks or this might happen to you …
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Who needs a girlfriend (or boyfriend) when you can spend your time designing Legos that can open beer?
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“Big ups,” as people cooler than myself are allowed to say, to everyone who sent in such fantastic links this week. Keep ‘em coming! Send all finds to FlossyLinks@gmail.com, and have a marvelous weekend!

[Last Weekend's Links]

[Last Weekend's Links]