Hey, look, it’s electrical engineer, Mr. Fred Allison, posing in one of Ford’s first experimental electric cars. You didn't think these things were new, did you?
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (circa 1914)

Welcome to our monthly news roundup, Best of the Web, a curation of curious content you may have missed lately. There’s only one house rule: No religion, no politics.

If you know of a great podcast, shop or anything else a man would enjoy, drop us a line at info@crownshavingco.com. There’s a chance we’ll publish your recommendation. And if you like, we’ll even give you a shout-out right here on this blog.

Men’s Grooming

India’s One of the Fastest Growing Men’s Grooming Markets

Check this out: According to recent findings from business research firm IMARC Group, men’s grooming’s one of the fastest growing markets in India. Men’s grooming products drove US$2.0 billion in sales in the South East Asian country last year, and IMARC’s forecasting that’ll rise to $3.1 billion by 2028 per a predicted 8.2% growth rate between now and then.

(Via Digital Journal)

Business & Finance

These Guys Have A Credit Rebuild Subscription Service That Works While You Sleep

Some of you may have heard of Koho, a relatively new online banking service based in Toronto, and some of you may have not. Either way, no, this isn’t an ad. We just hate debt and this actually works.

(Via Koho)

Was the Acquisition of PornHub A Scam?

This one’s a little over a month old, but it’s a good one: You may have heard about Ethical Partners Group buying Mindgeek not long ago (PornHub’s parent company). But some of it just doesn’t add up…

(Via hackernoon.com)

Earth Matters

How to Donate to Canada’s Wildfire Relief

That Nova Scotia wildfire left (at least) 16,000 Canadians without a home.

Meantime, wildfires continue to rage in British Columbia and Alberta.

If you want to help fellow victims relocate and rebuild, you can.

Here’s how to donate to Nova Scotia’s wildfire relief.

Here’s how to help Alberta’s wildfire relief.

(Via City News Halifax, the Canadian Red Cross, & United Way)

A Number to Remember: 81

That’s Martha Stewart’s age, and she still killed it in this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. At 81-years-young, Ms. Stewart made history as the oldest SI cover model last month. The woman’s no rookie to photoshoots, either. She modeled in her teens, and for people like Chanel, no less. And she’s best friends with Snoop Dogg. And she knitted a poncho in prison that went on to start a trend make her cash. What did you do today?

(Via SI.com)

Life

Sludge Content Is A Thing, Could Zombify You

As if TikTok coildn’t get any weirded, the app’s been pushing what folks have deemed “sludge content,” or multiple videos at once of overstimulating, useless crap through which a user scrolls to no seeming end.

Fun times.

(Via CBC)

Pop Culture

They Made A Movie About Blackberry

And of course Montreal’s Jay Baruchel had to be in it.

Apparently it’s not half bad.

(Via Roger Ebert)

Kurt Cobain’s Smashed-Up Axe Auctioned For Almost $600,000

You’ve seen a lot of photos of Kurt Cobain, but what about this one? Here’s the rock legend playing drums during an assembly at Montesano High School, circa 1981.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

And what a beauty it is, too. Black Fender Stratocaster, misspelled band member names scribbled on the body. Genuine depigmentation. What more could you want?

Apparently it got so bad for that Strat it had to get put back together, but that didn’t stop someone at Julien’s Auctions in Gardena, California from forking $596,000 for it last month.

According to that NPR piece, the man who sang for Nirvana smashed many an axe, though this one’s special—it was used during the recording of the band’s seminal 1991 album, Nevermind.

(Via NPR)

Technology

Godfather of Artificial Intelligence Quits Job, Says We’re Screwed

Further proving that we’re living in the prequel to Armageddon, “foremost architect” and “godfather” of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, recently left his job so he could warn the world about the technology’s potentially devastating effect on humanity.

The guy’s 75 so you could call it an early retirement, but still.

(Via USA Today)