The Mortal Wombat

Michael Buerk, the former BBC newsreader, has claimed that men in the Corporation merely serve as sperm donors. Though presumably that doesn't include the ones who 'are becoming more like women' (such as Tim Henman and David Beckham).

Takeru Kobayashi polished off 83 steamed vegetarian dumplings in eight minutes, easily beating Hong Kong's Johnny Wu into second place with 76.

Yes, there really is an International Federation of Competitive Eating. I'm the world's slowest eater, but I doubt they'd be interested in that. If they had endurance records, I could compete in those...

Interesting little piece on language death, including the fascinating detail that speakers of one Australian language have no words for left or right, but use the compass points instead.

BBC History's account of the infamous Darien Venture -- Scotland's attempt to join the new colonial powers at the end of the 17th century. Its failure probably led to the Act of Union, and Scotland's subjugation to the English parliament, a few years late