I’ve been thinking a lot about online relationships/friendships and how useful they can be for businesses (see my Sponsor my Status post and the subsequent domain registration). Coincidentally, I stumbled into this BusinessWeek article, Learning and Profiting from Online Friendships. Loads of great information here. It’s likely I’ll file this away to continually reference (as with my Monocle post). Here are the blurbs that caught my attention in the first read.

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While you’re watching the NBA playoffs, please don’t feel bad for the guys who sit on the end of the bench. Sure, they don’t get to play that often, but they live pretty lucrative lives.

Think taking time off and cross-training will help improve your half-marathon time? Think again.

It shows, exercise physiologists say, that training is exquisitely specific: you can acquire and maintain cardiovascular fitness with many activities, but if you want to keep your ability to row, or run, or swim, you have to do that exact activity.

A pretty interesting NPR piece arguing why being sad may be a good thing.

Men’s Health points to this cheat sheet for checking on how a steak is being prepared. A great way to secretly appear to be a master griller (I lopped out the images to make it a simpler guide).

The basic idea is to touch the center of the steak and press to see how it feels. Then compare the result by using your hand as shown below.

INDEX FINGER: RARE
Internal temp: 125F
Soft and squishy, like a pink sponge 

MIDDLE FINGER: MEDIUM RARE
Internal temp: 145F
Firm but yielding, like a Nerf football

RING FINGER: MEDIUM
Internal temp: 160F
Barely yielding, like a racquetball

PINKY FINGER: WELL 
Internal temp: 170F
Hard yet springy, like a tennis ball

Is it just me or does a peppercorn belgian ale sound awesome?

Eric Reis describes what every person’s job description should read like.

That every person in the company has this job description: in any situation it is your responsibility, using your best judgment, to do what you think is in the best interests of the company. That’s it. Everything else is only marketing.

Michael Lewis documents the statistical similarities between his book Moneyball and Shane Battier. Everyone and their brother has already quoted this article, so I won’t. But it’s well worth the read.

ESPN goes into detail on whether Lebron James would make it in the NFL.

Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things.

From the must read The Case for Working with Your Hands.