Bonus Bananas February 8, 2013

I gotta go quick this week because I got stuck in a meeting and I'm way behind, but we've got some great stuff here (including an absolute MUST READ at #10):

1) PIMCO'S Gross sees U.S. economy on road to extinction (Reuters) - Admittedly not the cheeriest read to kick things off with, but definitely worth your time.

2) Even The Savviest Finance Folk Have Never Heard Of This $17 Trillion Credit Market (Business Insider) - WSO reader shaorio tipped me off to this one. I'm not sure factoring will ever become a...well...factor on Wall Street, but this is a truly massive credit market.

3) Bloomberg Billionaires: Today’s ranking of the world’s richest people (Bloomberg) - Been meaning to point this out to you guys for awhile now. It's basically the Forbes 400 updated on an hourly basis, so...billionaire porn. Grab a box of tissue and click away.

4) Amazon to launch virtual currency (Marketplace Tech) - And why not? With the way BitCoin has taken off I think we're going to start relying on more and more virtual currencies. No surprise Amazon's leading the charge.

5) Exclusive: Google and Twitter execs form VC fund (Forbes) - What the over/under on how long it takes these guys to raise the $25 million they're opening with? My money's on under 45 seconds.

6) Federal Reserve hacked (The Guardian) - I alluded to this in a comment on my DOJ post earlier this week. They say the pen is mightier than the sword. If that's true, it looks like a malicious keystroke might be mightier than a dirty bomb.

7) 'Star Wars' spin-offs: A young Han Solo movie, and a Boba Fett film -- EXCLUSIVE (Entertainment Weekly) - Well, it's official: Disney is going to take one of the most storied film legacies in history and utterly destroy it in under a year by bringing out a new Star Wars movie every two weeks until they recoup their $4 billion. Can't wait for the Jar Jar Binks standalone trilogy.

8) 7 of the Most Sustainable Breweries Around the World (BootsnAll) - And you thought "Drink Responsibly" meant "Don't get drunk off your rocker and slam into a school bus." Nope. Hit the breweries on your travels, it's critical for Mother Earth.

9) Russian Woman's Boyfriend's Name Tattooed on Face - after First Date (International Business Times) - Believe it or not, not the worst decision somebody's made in this week's Bonus Bananas. Stay tuned.

10) DeeBeeMonster Compiled My Superman Rant from Twitter the Other Night. It's a Little All Over the Place. (The Kobayashi Maru(e)) - This is the absolute MUST READ of the week for anyone who is a comic book fan. He lays out the case perfectly that our own decrepit natures are the reason we all like Batman so much, and how the world would be a much better place if Superman got more respect. Seriously, read it.

Video of the Week:

I can't even tell you how many times I've watched the following video since I first saw it. One of the things the Internet does particularly well is provide morons a platform to broadcast their stupidity, and I wholeheartedly embrace most of what comes of that. But every once in a while someone comes along who does something so stupid it defies belief (

We've probably all seen a cinnamon challenge by now. It's usually dimwits filming themselves trying to choke down a tablespoon of cinnamon which, for some unknown reason, is near physically impossible. But this guy takes it to the next level. Not only does he dump a whole jar of cinnamon into his piehole, he then has his buddy hose him down with pepper spray. He literally almost has a seizure and goes into shock. God bless the Internet. Enjoy:

That's it for this week, gentlemen. Let me know what you think of this week's Bananas in the comments and have a fantastic weekend.