Maverick to shame all mavericks Evel Knievel, 69, died today, and I think the fountains at Caesar’s Palace should spout at half-mast. Riding in a Greyhound–he jumped over 14 of them in ‘75–will never be the same. And I can never drive past the Los Angeles Coliseum without thinking how he jumped over 50 cars there in ‘73–as 35,000 gridlocked voyeurs rejoiced. He held the Guinness record for most broken bones–35, and you can see them mapped out here. Before his afflicted 1974 jump across the Snake Canyon River via “Sky-Cycle,” he famously conjectured on the outcome:

“I’ve always said that when the canyon jump comes, if I miss it I’ll get somewhere quicker where you’re all going someday,” Knievel said. “And I’ll wait for you, because dying is a part of living and none of us is going to get out of here alive. If Mother Nature don’t get you, Father Time will.”

“Evel Knievel: The Rock Opera” debuted in LA this past October, and Six Flags St. Louis already has dibs on an eponymous roller coaster, coming in 2008.

I have a bit of a problem with my speakers. Whenever they’re on, I can faintly hear my campus radio station. Now don’t get me wrong, I like WNUR, but I don’t like hearing it when I’m working. Or napping. It’s mostly the napping thing.

I visited the website for my speakers and found out that the radio interference problem is a common one. There’s all kinds of radio signals in the air and any wire can become an antenna if its length is on the same wavelength as a signal. This problem has been compounded recently as everything is going wireless. What’s worse, if a signal gets mixed up with the connection between a modem and a computer, data can get mangled and lost.

The problem works with any device that carries rapidly changing electric currents. That’s any electromagnetic device or even natural objects, like the Northern Lights or the Sun. The electromagnetic signals can interfere with just about any circuit and may make it less effective.

I’ve been trying to fix the interference problem using the website’s suggestions. Moving the speakers across my desk didn’t work, and neither did moving across campus. Ditto for bundling the wires. The last suggestion is buying ferrite beads, which block signals. You’ve most likely seen them on computer wires - they’re the huge bumps at the end. Even though the ferrite beads would likely help the problem, I don’t think I’m welcome in the local Radio Shack after I bought a VCR, then returned it after I taped The Office. I’d also like to solve the problem without spending very much money.

So I’m opening it up to you, readers. Have you tackled any problems with radio interference? How much of a nuisance was it? And, how can I fix the problem without setting foot in Radio Shack?

1. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley had accompanied her husband, Michael Jackson, to the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards for moral support. Shortly before the ceremony, Michael informed her that he was going to bring her onstage and give her a big “this-isn’t-a-sham” kiss. She was horrified and warned him not to do it, but her pleas were ignored. Onlookers noted that Lisa exploded in anger backstage afterwards, but Michael was oblivious, saying how great things went. Just think, nobody thought this would last.

2. Hillary Clinton & Suha Arafat

Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton made a political gaffe by embracing and effusively kissing Suha Arafat after the latter had made an impassioned and inflammatory speech about Israelis using poison gas against Palestinians.

3. Richard Gere & Shilpa Shetty

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Foodpairing is a web site with an unusual premise: it seeks to visually describe the flavor relationships between a set of foods. By analyzing a set of 250 food products’ flavors (or rather, the chemicals that make up those flavors), the site is able to demonstrate flavor in a sort of relational tree. Here’s a partial view of the Basil diagram:

Here’s a bit more information about the site:

- FOOD IS INTERCHANGEABLE -

A food product has a specific flavour because of a combination of different flavours. Like basil taste like basil because of the combination of linalool, estragol, …. So if I want to reconstruct the basil flavour without using any basil, you have to search for a combination of other food products where one contains linalool (like coriander), one contains estragol (like tarragon),… So I can reconstruct basil by combining coriander, tarragon, cloves, laurel. The way to use it is to take from each branch of the plot one product and make a combination of those food products.

(Via Kottke.org.)

For today’s installment of our Friday Happy Hour series, I’m handing the keys to Brett Savage. He’s the one responsible for yesterday’s ‘Nietzsche, Clinton, Yorke or Yoda?’ quote quiz, plus recent challenges on ’80s movies, Shakespeare and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Brett told me that his stint as a mental_floss quiz master is unquestionably the greatest temp job he’s stumbled upon. Then he told me about his other temp jobs. So today’s question is this: what’s the worst temp job you’ve ever held? Here’s Brett…

I move around a lot, and finding writing jobs in new cities isn’t the easiest thing to do. Unfortunately, those kinds of jobs don’t grow on trees like money does, so I’ve spend a fair amount of time (way more than I should have) in the temporary employment game. If you keep an open mind and maintain an attitude of knowing unconcern about whatever outlandish and random things these companies have you doing when you’re indentured in their employ, you can get by tolerably well and even learn a thing or two. Maybe.
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… and yet, lately, making videos full of creepy, uncanny imagery seems to be the hot thing. David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and Wes Craven never made music videos, but the hallmarks of their style can be seen all over MTV these days (or wherever it is besides YouTube that music videos premiere — seriously, where?). If you’re not sure what the heck I’m blathering about, allow me to provide a few seminal examples.

Artist: Bat for Lashes
Song: “What’s a Girl to Do”
Creepy film it references: Donnie Darko (Animal masks? BMX bikers? Unsettling atmosphere? It’s Darko all over.)
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I know I promised Tom Toce’s big mental_floss cryptic puzzle today, but after my puzzle primer post, I thought you all could use just a wee-bit more practice. Today’s theme isn’t Einstein, rather Shakespeare, William Shakespeare (hint: William Shakespeare’s work, his name, anything, really, that can be tied directly back to William Shakespeare). Tom and I have put together 15 new clues - the harder ones are his, the real easy ones are mine. (read: blame him if this makes you feel dumb!)
First one to get ‘em all gets serious bragging rights. For those just joining us, you can check out my primer here, or any one of these great sites on how to solve cryptic clues.

1. Crushed oreo and milk top any romantic lover (5)
2. Bashful, secure, and a real Jew (7)
3. At the Center, Wilson netted 14 lines (6)
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Genetic Cosmetic Makes Old Skin Like New. Coming soon: “the best wrinkle cream ever, because it would actually work.”

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids. It’s like Mama told you: hard work will get you farther than born smarts.

Endangered Brazilian Ocelot Kitten Born at the Louisville Zoo. And there’s a delightful picture of the blue-eyed baby boy with this article.

Why guys don’t want to be friends with a girl who breaks up with them. The McDonald’s Analogy makes a lot of sense.

Cooking with Tools. You don’t have to have a stove, or even a kitchen, for these culinary adventures!

By mental_floss contributor Erik Sass

During the Cold War the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanently. These are the stories of what the Department of Defense calls “broken arrows” -

America’s stray nukes, with a combined explosive force 2,200 times the Hiroshima bomb.

If you don’t have enough to make you lose sleep at night, read on.

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So I just finished The Long Good-Bye, by Raymond Chandler, which I loved for its priceless assessments: “She opened her mouth like a fire-bucket and laughed. That terminated my interest in her. I couldn’t hear the laugh but the hole in her face when she unzippered her teeth was all I needed.” And also because it helped me go a little easier on LA. Whenever I don’t feel like I’m understanding or appreciating someone or thing in my life, it always helps to take a step back and re-enter through the eyes of someone else or some other era. Disagreeing with a friend? Access his baby photos if you can. Down on yourself? Revisit some essay you wrote when you were 7.

When I wanted to connect more to the neighborhood of Brentwood, I read Blonde. When my commute took me past 1403 N. Laurel, where Fitzgerald lived, I reached for The Last Tycoon. When I wanted to love Ivar Street more, I picked up Day of the Locust and was touched to know it was once called “Lysol Alley.” Obviously, cities are memorialized in film and TV all the time, and when I miss New York I’ll absolutely put in something Woody Allen (those panoramic apartment shots!) or When Harry Met Sally or (my favorite) Splash. But since LA is where I live now, I stand to benefit more from investing in its lore. Why did people come here fifty years ago and what was it like? It was heartwarming to hear Philip Marlowe kvetch about the misery of 1953-era smog or how it feels to drive home after a bad gig: “I drove back to Hollywood feeling like a short length of chewed string.” What about you? Which books have helped you love your city more?