You’re the one for me, fatty? The Baltimore Sun reports that Extreme™ kids are less likely to be lard asses, in so many words. Actually, the article titled Ramped-up exercise states a Hopkins study finds that kids who skateboard or rollerblade stay fit longer than those who play organized sports. You don’t see too many gargantuan pro skaters, whereas in football and even baseball it’s not uncommon to see massive guts. Actually, there are some large beer guts in our crew, but we’re not pros. The study also says you need to engage the the activities at least four times a week, which explains it more. Further empirical evidence is provided in these screen captures from a Rob & Big episode where Rob puts on a fat suit.

– Thanks to Stephanie Murdock for the tip.

Boards, bikinis, bombs and boneheads is the working title for this post, but I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. I’ve got a mish mash of skateboarding action from Dubai and Israel. Some of it has more serious overtones, and some of it is stupidity. The rest falls in between.

While some braniacs write about skateboarding, others are using it to trick poor defenseless little kids into learning about math. Math and skateboarding just don’t mix. Ok, that’s not true. But since I can’t read this German public service advert about math, I have to make up something. Closer to home, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industryjust got a $2.9 million grant for a traveling exhibit called Access Algebra to stoke middle-school kids to “promote creativity and innovation and build math literacy… …focusing on math as a tool to create and invent everything from rap music to race cars to a skate park.” – Thanks to Dave Tobin for the tip. $2.9 million seems like a lot of dough. Maybe someone at the National Science Foundation needs to work on their math a little. The Germans are ahead of the game already. They’ve got a web site and a video trailer for what I guess is their math museum. I’ve heard they aren’t too good at math, all their answers come up Nien! (Sorry.)

[Source: Red Box via Skateboardgeruechte.de ]

Are you trying to watch any of the skateboarding commercials and other media flotsam and jetsam that we posted? My user account has been unceremoniously and permanently disabled. The only notice I got was something about the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation complaining about the clip I had posted titled T Bag gets hit with a skateboard. It was about 15 seconds of the character T Bag from the Show Prison Break, getting hit in the head with a skateboard. I can understand how Fox or anyone else wouldn’t want entire episodes of their intellectual property put online where people can watch it for free and Fox doesn’t get the ad revenue. However, short clips? Why not? It doesn’t cost them any lost revenue, and it generates publicity for the show. I suspect that particular offense had less to do with copyright infringement and “the suits not getting it” than it did with the fact that Fox owns the YouTube competitor MySpaceTV.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I think I only had one other incident where a video was removed, and it was for reposting our appearance on Attack of the Show. They must have actually looked at the rest of the commercials and out takes I had uploaded. Users with suspended or terminated accounts are prohibited from creating new accounts so I guess my double secret probation is over. What I need is a good video hosting solution out in Sweden or wherever it is that they don’t get bent out of shape about this, a Pirate Bay equivalent of YouTube. Am I a hypocrite? By the strictest interpretations, yes. But I never posted entire episodes of anything, and I don’t think it’s the same thing to use it editorially. Of course, doesn’t matter what I think. GVK‘s are unaffected as Grover posted them under his account.

I got a tip about this Cisco advert and managed to catch it on my DVR without realizing it, but I accidentally deleted it before I could digitize it. I was waiting to catch it again but it seems like it only aired on one week. Cisco commercials show up, but it’s always a different one. Since then, discussions have popped up all over. So I finally decided to pull it of the Cisco web site. There are additional spots that didn’t air on TV. I’ve put them all together in one vid so you don’t need to wait through the intermissions. Where to start on this… it’s too easy. The main thing they are trying to sell is the fact that with Cisco Networks you can be in touch with everyone on a project almost instantly, no matter where they are. Ironically, the ad agency who put his together couldn’t have been more out of touch with skateboarding culture or history. – Thanks to Tracy Sigler and Paige for the tip.

Skateboarding must be dead or dying. What else would explain the drought of marketing tie-ins for a major Hallmark holiday like Valentines Day. In 2008 my son got one lousy sticker of a tiger wearing hearts and riding a skateboard. What about all the Extreme™ valentines of the not too distant past? I feel like Charlie Brown. Here’s hoping for a more Extreme™ Easter.

Yeah, it’s got nothing to do with skateboarding, other than a few incidental shots each episode, but as far as mindless entertainment goes, it’s regularly good for a few laughs, so I guess I was wrong about the Rob and Big show. Plus I always liked the theme song from the Courtship of Eddies Father. Or maybe I had a crush on Mrs. Livingston. Hello, Mr Eddie’s father. Let the hate mail commence.

Worn Free will sell you a reproduction of t-shirts worn by famous rock ‘n’ roll personalities including this rad shirt worn by Joey Ramone The website has notes for each of the shirts which make interesting reading if you are into punk rock trivia. Some of the shirts are cool but forty bucks seems kind of steep. I’m tempted to make my own personal bootleg transfer.

OK, Officer Salvatore Rivieri doesn’t just hate skateboarders. He hates radio controlled cars, or maybe street artists or most likely himself, because he’s been driving that ridiculous go-cart police car for at least a year. Another video has surfaced of officer Rivieri serving and protecting. Apparently this guy has a very short fuse. Here’s hoping he gets an attitude adjustment via painfully boring and embarrassing anger management counseling, or better yet, an old fashioned pink slip. What a dick. – Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

John Aguilar’s sister went to South Africa and all she brought him was a lousy newspaper. There’s an article from the December 1st 2007 edition of the Weekend Argus titled Flying high on the vision of one man. It’s about Dallas Oberholzer’s mission to bring skateboarding to rural South Africa. Our interview with Dallas was published in 2005. Looks like he’s still at it. Unfortunately, you need a subscription to read the article online. It’s a very positive story. You can read the scan after the jump. Hey James… Stuff it!

I think I heard that goat just yell “Draa-aa-aa-aa-aapping in!”