October 6, 2008 10:59:15 PM CDT
(Newser) – We all want to be Batman. But how do we make it happen? An interview with neuroscience professor and martial artist E. Paul Zehr in Scientific American provides some tips: Three to 5 years of strength and conditioning training, 10 to 12 years of learning self-defense skills, and up to 18 years of martial arts training to put it all together. A nocturnal body clock, 10% body fat, and a few billion dollars can't hurt, either. Oh, and skip the steroids.
But even if you are a fabulously wealthy crime-fighting machine, don’t expect to stay at the top of your game for long, Zehr warns. Boxers and running backs usually can’t keep it up for more than 3 years. “It's really hard to become Batman in the first place,” he says, “and it's hard to maintain it when you get there.” How many of us could do it? "If you found the percentage of billionaires and multiply that by the percentage of people who become Olympic decathletes, you could probably get a close estimate."
Source Scientific American
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Aug 10, 08 3:03 PM CDT The Dark Knight is still lording it over the box office, grossing $26 million over the weekend for a fourth consecutive win—and overtaking Shrek 2 to become the third biggest Hollywood blockbuster ever with a cumulative $441.5 million. Judd Apatow's new comedy Pineapple Express beat The Dark Knight on Friday, but finished at No. 2 with $22.4 million for the weekend. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 took third place, grossing $10.8 million. More »
Aug 10, 08 7:44 AM CDT First a technician died on the set of the Dark Knight, then Heath Ledger overdosed. Christian Bale allegedly assaulted his mother recently, and now Morgan Freeman is recovering from a nasty car accident and undergoing a divorce. Folks have started muttering about a Dark Knight curse, and Radar insists the hex is real. What other tragedies plague actors linked to the film?
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Jul 25, 08 10:42 AM CDT They actually have a lot in common, the beleaguered president and the superhero currently smashing box office records, writes Andrew Klavan in the Wall Street Journal. In The Dark Knight, Batman, like Bush, is "vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand." He's also willing to "push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency," knowing they can be restored when the crisis is past. Under cover of a mask, he writes, the film praises Bush’s “fortitude and moral courage.” More »
science • Batman • The Dark Knight • superhero
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