• I’m a Marine and I’m not going to run from a fight. You wouldn’t want a Marine to run from a fight. Call me crazy, call me stupid. I got shot once and it just angered me more. I wanted to get this guy. I got shot twice, and I re-evaluated that decision. I decided I need to stay alive.
• Florida-based Marine vet Lt. Col Karl Trenker • Discussing how he got shot, days before Christmas, in a Craigslist-transaction-gone-bad. The Iraq and Afghanistan vet’s fiance tried selling a man’s gold-chain necklace, but Trenker offered to make the transaction due to safety concerns, which turned out to be correct, as the alleged buyer picked up the necklace and ran. Trenker ran after the man, known only as “Galven,” only to get shot twice. Here’s the dramatic part: Following his training as a Marine (29 years experience), he plugged the bullet holes with his fingers, a move which likely saved his life. Say what you will about the Craigslist transaction (it certainly wasn’t the best idea), but that’s pretty amazing, no matter how you look at the situation. source

• Continuing with our trend of posting all things Mario, this as-yet-released mashup of Super Mario Bros. and Portal pretty much puts the kind of twist on two different classic games that seems like magic in action. We approve. source

• Etsy was designed to combine these three things. Oh, and to convince people that their homespun hobbies deserve financial backing. source

• Let’s just say that Cee-Lo’s message doesn’t get lost in the long trip from Knockout to the high-budget video that’s destined to be played hundreds of times on MTV in neutered form.

• The winner gets a PBR the next time we see them in person. We can afford it. They cost what, 65 cents in Portland? (Hat tip Charles Apple and others) source

• Apparently, carbohydrates totally fool the brain. See, most athletes, when they need energy, drink sugary drinks to give themselves just a little bit more of a push. But swigging carbs (but not swallowing) apparently has the same effect for a short period. Not enough for normal people, but in the midst of competition, every little bit counts. “Your brain tells your body, ‘Carbohydrates are on the way,’” said University of Birmingham, England’s Matt Bridge, who discovered the effect. “And with that message, muscles and nerves are prompted to work harder and longer.” Freaking cool. source

• You know, this ad campaign just keeps getting better. First the original, then the sequel, and now these awesome vignettes. All of them based off of real tweets. Here’s our favorite. HuffPo has many, many more. This is what advertising needs to be. source

Weekly Address: Jobs Creation from White House Weekly Address on Vimeo.

• For people who think that avant garde music and film is completely stupid, The Onion agrees with you. They agree with you so much, in fact, that they created this spot-on parody of the avant-garde movement, using Obama’s weekly video addresses as a vector. It’s the funniest non-good-timing thing they’ve done in a while. source