The guys in high school who spent their time building spudguns went on to become the best engineers. Fact.

And so we think this kid, with his DIY propane-powered spudgun (range: 200 yards!), is going to grow up one day to build awe-inspiring bridges, nature-conquering dams, or really, really deadly weapons. If he survives.

Not being engineers, we can’t tell you whether this works or not. In fact, it just sounds really bloody dangerous.

However, master this and you will achieve two disparate but important aims. Firstly, you’ll be good at building stuff. Secondly, your foes will retreat and recoil in fear as the spuds fly.

Potato gun [Instructables]

Embraced by everyone from academics to cowboys to shabby indie musicians, corduroy trousers (or ‘cords’, as absolutely everyone refers to them) are ignored at one’s peril.

More formal than denim, with perhaps a little more ‘cred’, but still casual enough to slip on between a t-shirt and trainers, no men’s wardrobe can really function without them.

From the sleekness of Kenneth Cole’s Destroyed Cords and Tassa Elba’s Luxury Micro Cords, to the traditional cut of Ralph Lauren and Nautica to the green, hemmed, roughish eccentricity of Joseph Homme, this list of what’s hot in corduroy will put the uninitiated on track and satisfy the hunger of the aficionado.

Buy: Corduroy Pants [Men's Flair]

Okay, so once we were old enough to get a car (and too grown up to nurture vivid-enough imaginations), the need for a propeller backpack to wear on our bikes faded. But this is so damn cool.

Propelling you along at around 30mph (or slower in a canoe, apparently), the ThrustPac is a gasoline-fuelled turbine, strapped to the back, providing 20 thrusting pounds of wind-powered, pedal-free transport at around 150 miles-per-gallon.

And is it loud? You betcha!

[From the FAQs]

Is it loud?
The THRUSTPAC motors are very quiet. The propellers make the sound you are familiar with on an airplane. We like the sound as it alerts pedestrians and motorists we’re coming and they’re more aware and cautious because of the attention we receive.

We’d like to write, “What a great idea, we can’t believe no-one’s thought of this before”, but people have thought of this before! Twelve-year-old kids everywhere, sick of pedaling home from school, think of it every day. And here is it. And they can’t afford it. So those poor lil’ tackers can just keep dreaming like we had to.

ThrustPac [via The Red Ferret Journal]

Sometimes it just isn’t enough to own an incredibly beautiful race-bred Aston Martin. Now and then, you just need to own the actual bloody racecar.

So it is with confirmation today of the specs for the production V8 Vantage N24, the lighter, quicker, racing incarnation of the already amazing V8 Vantage road car.

Finishing eighth in last years Bahrain 24-hour race, it’s named after the Nürburgring 24 hour in which the car finished 24th. It’s had 300kg of weight lifted from its frame (features like air conditioning and airbags aren’t just waste valuable time on the track), and improved air filters, lubrication system and free flow exhaust give it a lazy 30bhp increase to a staggering 410bhp at 7500rpm.

They’re also dead serious about buying these things to race:

As supplied it is eligible for series such as the VLN Endurance Championship at the Nürburgring, the Britcar endurance series, the Dutch Supercar Challenge, the Australian GT Championship and the European Endurance Championship. In addition, the Vantage N24 is also potentially eligible for the proposed European GT4 series, the Grand-Am Cup and SCCA Touring Car Class in the USA.

The Vantage N24 is on sale now with prices starting at £78,720 plus local taxes and delivery.

Well, I’ll need one for racing. And a second one for backup. Oh, and a third for testing…

Aston Martin Confirms Specification of V8 Vantage N24 [via Sybarites]

Okay, so it’s outrageously unfair of us to report (the otherwise famously well-dressed) Wilmer Valderrama’s move into the fashion world by calling him ‘Fez from That ’70s Show‘, but how else would we get the chance to run this picture beside a label launch story?

Anyway, anyway. The word is that the 26-year-old actor has decided it’s time the man maketh the clothes which, in turn, maketh the man:

…Wilmer Valderrama is looking to do more. It’s reported that he will launch a men’s fashion line called Calavena this February.

Calavena is said to be a clothing line that is a mix of Latino-inspiration and Diesel. The line will consist of jeans, t-shirts and jackets.

Despite the atrocious fashions draped on him during his stint as Fez, or perhaps to spite them, Valderrama has always been quite the snappy dresser off-screen.

It’s probably important to dress well if you want to share some/any photographic attention with the women on your arm, which, in Valderrama’s case, have included Hollywood starlets Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba and Mandy Moore.

Forget a clothing label, we need a fragrance. Or a tell-all guidebook. Or anything, man, just tell us how you do it!

Wilmer Valderrama: Calavena Clothing Line [Pierce Mattie Fashion PR Blog via Digg]

Everyone wants to write The Great Novel, but how many of us are truly weird enough to do it?

We don’t mean you’ve lived a traumatic life and had some wild experiences. We’re not even saying you need a vivid imagination or an interesting manner of expression.

We’re talking mind-boggling eccentricity which, according to these literary profiles, is the only prerequisite for penning one of the classics.

… Joyce sometimes wore five wristwatches on one arm, which was mere eccentric accessorizing. He also asked his wife, Nora Barnacle, to sleep with another man so he could understand the feeling of being cuckolded, which seems a bit odd. (Nora declined.)

All of the true characters are there: Baudelaire’s twin obsessions – bottles and bats; Dickens’s “for luck” OCD; Shaw’s bizarre sexual history and even Emily Dickinson’s wardrobe, just to name a few.

So there’s our excuse. Next time you find our rambling link-wrangling tiresome and altogether uninspiring, blame it on the fact that we’re incredibly normal and not-at-all weird. Teapot umbrella wheelbarrow.

From Mental Floss’s book Scatterbrained [via Neat-o-rama]

For those who prefer to spend their time on the open sea than the open road, here’s a refresher on how to hoist that foresail and get things happening:

STEP 1: Sail into open water - close hauled under mainsail only.
STEP 2: Pull the jib back along the leeward side of the deck if it has been stowed or temporarily tied into the bow pulpit. Keep your weight low for balance and avoid Stepping on the slippery sailcloth.
STEP 3: Free the halyard from its temporary tie-down if it was tied down.
STEP 4: Attach the halyard to the headboard. You may have to slacken the halyard enough to allow the shackle end to reach the headboard.
STEP 5: Look aloft to ensure the halyard can run free.
STEP 6: Run the jib sheets aft to the cockpit and make stopper knots in the bitter ends so they don’t escape through the running blocks. Secure the sheets by taking a single wrap around a cleat.
STEP 7: Return to the mast or cockpit area where the other end of the halyard was secured.
STEP 8: Turn the boat into the eye of the wind.
STEP 9: Release the sheets if they have been secured.
STEP 10: Raise the sail hand-over-hand until the load becomes too heavy. Then use a winch if one is provided. The jib will flap until you turn off the wind.
STEP 11: Tighten the headsail until a few wrinkles form along the leading edge.
STEP 12: Secure and coil the halyard.
STEP 13: Turn off the wind and haul in on the leeward jib sheet to adjust the sail. The windward sheet should be free of the shrouds and any deck gear.

Words like leeward, headsail and halyard really need to find a place in the world of us landlubbers. We’re poorer for not using them everyday.

How to Raise a Jib When Sailing [eHow]

All that time in Rome seems to have had a strange effect on Morrissey. Speculation today is that the former Smiths frontman is keen to take his lifelong obsession with 1960’s British popstar Sandie Shaw one step further by following her footsteps to victory at the Eurovision Song Contest:

“Morrissey expressed an interest way back last year in writing for the contest and since then we have been in talks with him,” a BBC spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

She said no decision had yet been made and there were also discussions with other artists taking place. It was also unclear whether Morrissey would perform or merely write the song.

After the victory of Finnish monster-costumed metal band Lordi last year, perhaps the UK have decided to pull out all stops in a bid to out-weird the rest of Europe. Have they decided that melancholy homoeroticism is the new camp?

“Miserable” Morrissey may cheer up Eurovision [Reuters]

Despite many of the things we love around here being directly related to gold and oil, we rarely pay much attention to commodities prices. That’s all set to change, however, after the emergence of a new primary production crisis. Disturbing reports are emerging that price increases for many materials common to brewing may begin to drive up the cost of beer.

Falling barley production, skyrocketing transport and energy costs and increases in the price of other materials such as aluminum and glass bottles are identified as the main culprits in this financial disaster:

Barley prices have steadily inched up each month, ending 2006 averaging $3.19 per bushel in December — an increase of about 24 percent from December’s average price of $2.57 in 2005. Meanwhile, production has fallen 15 percent to 180 million bushels, down from 211.9 million in 2005, mainly due to droughts in Australia and the Midwest and more farmers choosing to grow different crops like corn and soybeans.

Bernstein Research analyst Robert van Brugge forecast that this year’s barley price increases will impact brewers’ cost of goods sold — or the cost of the raw materials used in production — by 1 to 2 percent in 2007.

The analyst said he believes brewers will be forced to pass along some of that increase this year to consumers.

After the great hops blaze of last October, this couldn’t come at a worse time. For the first time since the dark ages, are we looking towards a world where beer is a luxury, rather than a staple?

Barley prices may push cost of a beer up [Business Week via A Good Beer Blog]

Sweden isn’t necessarily known as one of Europe’s fashion powerhouses. But now a century-old menswear label is earning a solid reputation across the continent for, fittingly enough, its sleek, classic pieces.

Reserving their best work for suits and outerwear, Tiger of Sweden’s timeless cuts bear enough contemporary detailing to seat them well amongst then other ‘new classics’, sweeping the men’s fashion world.

This certainly isn’t your father’s label; Tiger of Sweden clothing isn’t for every man. But if you have a penchant for classic clothing with a sleek twist, Tiger’s collection of business and casual wear will certainly meet your day-to-day needs.

Finally, the Swedes get noticed for what they’re wearing, rather than what they’re not.

Tiger of Sweden [via Ask Men]