Via kotaku.comComments here.
Via Digg.com
Comments here.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
What's In A Twinkie?
Mmmm, Tasty ChemicalsA new book 'deconstructs' a Twinkie and analyzes all 39 ingredients. Industrial-strength junk food, anyone?
"March 5, 2007 issue - As Steve Ettlinger dropped down a Wyoming mine shaft, plummeting 1,600 feet in an open-mesh cage, he wondered how many other food writers had ever donned hard hats and emergency breathing equipment in pursuit of a story. But it was too late to turn back. He'd promised his editor a book tracing the ingredients in a Hostess Twinkie to their origins—and one of them was down this shaft. At the bottom, he and his hosts climbed into an open Jeep and hurtled for 30 terrifying minutes through pitch-black tunnels. Their destination: the site where a mineral called trona—the raw ingredient of baking soda—was being clawed out of a rock face by giant machines. "To say that this does not suggest Twinkies or any other food product would be an understatement," observes Ettlinger. "There you are at an open rock face, wondering why they do all this for the sake of a little snack cake."
The rest of the story at MSNBC.com
Friday, February 23, 2007
Extra Special Cat Has 26 Toes
Extra the kitten has been aptly named by her owners - she has 26 toes that give her a distinct advantage over her naturally climbing moggie mates."Her human family noticed there was something different with the three-month-old kitten when she started scratching more than other cats.
"You would sort of want to wear boxing gloves when you play with her," says Kaelene Gerrard, who lives with her partner Eli Eliu and daughters Mercy, six, and 12-year-old Shardae.
She examined the frisky feline's paws and did a double take at what she found.
"We counted and then recounted but we had it right the first time," she says.
Extra has seven toes on each front paw and six toes on each back paw - instead of the normal five on each. "
Story at stuff.co.nz
Polydactyl cats on wiki.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Wake 'N' Bacon Alarm Clock
"WHAT: An alarm clock that wakes you up with the smell and sizzle of cooking bacon.WHY: No one likes to wake up, especially by an alarm. This clock gently wakes you up with the mouthwatering aroma of bacon, just like waking up on a Sunday morning to the smell of Mom cooking breakfast. Unless you're Jewish.
HOW: A frozen strip of bacon is placed in Wake n' Bacon the night before. Because there is a 10 minute cooking time, the clock is set to go off 10 minutes before the desired waking time. Once the alarm goes off, the clock it sends a signal to a small speaker to generate the alarm sound. We hacked the clock so that the signal is re-routed by a microchip that in responds by sending a signal to a relay that throws the switch to power two halogen lamps that slow-cook the bacon in about 10 minutes. "
More photos at mathlete.com
Mmm...Bacon.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Argh, pirate toast. Avast.Friday, February 16, 2007
In Car Record Players From the 1950's
" DETROIT – Back in the early 1950s there were many fewer music radio stations, and if you 
didn’t like those that were within range, your only choice was to shut the radio off and listen to the road, the engine noise and the splat of bugs on the windshield.
Then in 1956, Chrysler Corporation stepped up to offer car buyers a new listening option – an in-car phonograph.
The players, made by Columbia, were mounted on the bottom edge of the dash, directly above the transmission hump, and were wired directly into the car radio. Pressing a button on the front
cover of the player opened it, allowing the turntable to be slid outward. Flipping a switch on the left side of the player bypassed the radio tuner, and the radio’s amplifier then could boost the signal from the player while volume, tone and balance could be controlled by the regular radio knobs. "
Article here
didn’t like those that were within range, your only choice was to shut the radio off and listen to the road, the engine noise and the splat of bugs on the windshield. Then in 1956, Chrysler Corporation stepped up to offer car buyers a new listening option – an in-car phonograph.
The players, made by Columbia, were mounted on the bottom edge of the dash, directly above the transmission hump, and were wired directly into the car radio. Pressing a button on the front
cover of the player opened it, allowing the turntable to be slid outward. Flipping a switch on the left side of the player bypassed the radio tuner, and the radio’s amplifier then could boost the signal from the player while volume, tone and balance could be controlled by the regular radio knobs. "Article here
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Couple Marries at McDonalds
"BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - It's a Valentine's Day love story. But newlyweds Lori and Craig Sager didn't get married under a big, red heart. They tied the knot under the golden arches. The Sagers got hitched yesterday at a McDonald's in Bismarck, North Dakota. It seemed like just the right place. They had been meeting there for lunch ever Tuesday for more than a year. Craig Sager says at first he suggested McDonald's as a joke when they were planning their wedding. But Lori liked the idea. The new bride says you can always get married in a church, so they decided to do something different."The story at wzzm13.com
And Mrs. Zombiecreep thinks that I'm not a romantic.
San Francisco Pillow Fight 2007
"Hundreds of people filed into Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco this evening for a massive pillow fight that is becoming a Valentine's Day tradition.The Pillow Fight Club, which started last year, kicked off when the clock on the Ferry Building struck six. There were at least 500 people swinging pillows at each other in a brawl that lasted more than an hour. "
The story at sfgate.com
More photos and video at laughingsquid.com
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
High Resolution Photo Of Chicago
At approximately 1000 megapixels, (67,000 x 15,000 pixels) the final image size is 7GB.Zoom in to look in the windows on the bottom left. You can actually see people inside.
See the picture at docbert.org
Amazon's Guide To Not-So-Great Valentines Day Gift Ideas
Happiness Is A Bald Puppy
"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Freckles speckle his pink wrinkly skin. Ginger whiskers sprout only between his veiny ears, beneath his gummy chops and at the end of a rat-like tail.In a park full of fluffy labradors and spaniels, passers-by stare as Juan, a hairless Mexican Xoloitzcuintle dog, cavorts about then springs effortlessly into his owner's arms, his glabrous skin gleaming with body lotion.
"People don't know what they are. They ask us what's wrong with them. They say 'why are your dogs bald?' and suggest cures," said breeder Ana Maria Rivera, who owns Juan and 40 other Xoloitzcuintles (pronounced sho-lo-itz-CWINT-leh). "
More pictures an the article at reuters.com
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
'Mountains Of Trash' Inside Car Blamed For Crash
"Mountains of trash stuffed inside a woman's car in Cape Cod, Mass., caused the car to accelerate and crash, according to police. Police in West Yarmouth said there was so much trash in 53-year-old Ann Ann Biglan's Ford Focus that some of it fell onto the gas and brake pedals, causing her to lose control.
While losing control, Biglan drove through a post office parking space, over the curb and across a freeway.
She then hit a Ford Explorer and backed over another sidewalk before finally crashing into a flowerpot in a gas station's parking lot.
Biglan was charged with negligent and impeded operation of a motor vehicle, failure to use care in backing, and operating with a rejected safety inspection sticker."
The story at local6.com
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
No One Wants To Play Sega With Harrison Ford
Thursday, February 08, 2007
The Alarm Clock As A Moving Target
"If a screeching buzzer is not enough to get you moving in the morning, consider Clocky. This alarm clock doesn’t just make noise, it breaks the snooze-button habit: after the first snooze period, Clocky rolls off the nightstand and runs away.
Clocky generated Internet buzz in 2005 when it was just a conceptual design project by Gauri Nanda, then a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is now an actual product, available for $50 at www.nandahome.com."
Story at nytimes.com
Ozzfest To Be A Free Concert
"LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- British heavy metal pioneer Ozzy Osbourne surprised the music industry Tuesday with plans to stage this year's Ozzfest, his annual U.S. summer hard-rock extravaganza, as a first-of-its kind free event.The 12th annual rock festival headlined by the onetime reality TV star and self-described Prince of Darkness will kick off July 27 in the Los Angeles area and play 25 dates, Osbourne and his wife/manager, Sharon, told a news conference.
The announcement, which opened with Osbourne spray-painting the word "FREE" in black letters across an Ozzfest 2007 poster, came on the first day of the Concert Industry Consortium, an annual gathering of tour promoters and producers.
Experts said Ozzfest, one of the marquee summer rock events of the past decade, would be the first U.S. festival music tour to offer free admission."
More at cnn.com
Bears Fan Changes Name to Peyton Manning After Colts Win Superbowl
"DECATUR - Scott Wiese kept a rendezvous with destiny Tuesday as he scored an official touchdown on is way to becoming Peyton Manning.Wiese braved the snow to show up at the Macon County Courts Facility and file the paperwork to change his name to that of the star quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. Wiese, a die-hard Chicago Bears fan who lives in Forsyth, had pledged to his friends that if his beloved team did not win Super Bowl XLI on Sunday, he would legally change his name to the man who led the Indiana nemesis to victory."
More at herald-review.com
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
February Is Return Missing Shopping Cart Month
"Wednesday, February 21st. We’ve all seen them and wondered how they got there — a supermarket shopping cart, sitting forlornly along a residential street, far from the nearest grocery store. Was it a prank, or someone who walked to the store and bought more than they could carry? Either way, this is Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month — including milk crates and bread trays.
The idea is for consumers to avoid the increased food prices that result when store owners have to replace stolen equipment. And supermarkets play a big role in everyday life. There are more than 6,600 supermarkets across the nation, selling $395 billion of groceries each year."
This comes from census.gov
From Lead Percussionist to Different Drummer
"CHICAGO — As the principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ted Atkatz had reached a pinnacle in his profession. He had tenure in one of the world’s great musical institutions, with a fat salary and benefits. Stagehands set up his battery of instruments. Touring meant luxury hotels and per diems. And he had, just as precious, the respect of the percussion world, a singularly obsessive group of musicians who play the triangle, the bass drum and everything between.
But in May, Mr. Atkatz pulled a modern-day Don Quixote. He quit his job to devote himself full time to his alternative rock band. He now plays in joints across the Midwest, sometimes performing for the bartender or, on a good night, several hundred people. Orchestra Hall? Carnegie Hall? The Musikverein in Vienna? Forget it. Try the Mousetrap in Eau Claire, Wis., or Beaner’s Central in Duluth, Minn."
The rest of the story at nytimes.com
Exellent career move. Alt-rock will always pay off, It just takes time.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Wookie Impersonator Arrested For Battery
"LOS ANGELES - A man dressed as Chewbacca was arrested after police said the street performer head-butted a tour guide operator in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Frederick Evan Young, 44, of Los Angeles was booked Thursday for investigation of misdemeanor battery, police Lt. Paul Vernon said.
Police said the 6-foot-4 street performer was seen arguing Thursday afternoon with a tour guide who had expressed concern the Star Wars wookie impersonator was "harassing and touching tourists" in violation of city law.
The city passed ordinances last year seeking to crack down on the colorful assortment of actors who perform outside the landmark theater. The move was prompted by complaints from tourists who said the actors were aggressive and abusive if they refused to pay for pictures."
More at Yahoo.com
Related: Chewbacca defense on wiki.
Chewies blog at http://rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh.blogspot.com/
Far Away, Super Bowl’s Losers Will Be Champs
"MIAMI, Feb. 3 — In some parts of the world, the Seattle Seahawks are the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Buffalo Bills are the last great football dynasty and Tom Brady is some frustrated quarterback from New England who can never win it all.So say the T-shirts and the caps worn in Niger, Uganda and Sierra Leone.
The Super Bowl will end about 10 p.m. Sunday, and by 10:01 every player on the winning team — along with coaches, executives, family members and ball boys — could be outfitted in colorful T-shirts and caps proclaiming them champions.
The other set of championship gear — the 288 T-shirts and caps made for the team that did not win — will be hidden behind a locked door at Dolphin Stadium. By order of the National Football League, those items are never to appear on television or on eBay. They are never even to be seen on American soil."
More at NYtimes.com
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Willy Spotted On Satellite
"Two pupils who used weed killer to draw a giant penis on their school lawn can now see the naughty image from satellite photos posted on the internet. "The unnamed pair of Year 11 pupils from Bellemoor School for Boys in Southampton, Hampshire, burnt the 20ft phallus into the grass as an end of term joke two years ago.
Staff at the school re-seeded the area but the penis has turned up on satellite image search engines because the photo was taken before the new grass could conceal the appendage.
Staff, parents and pupils who log on can now see the image in all its glory."
The satellite image can be seen on Microsoft Virtual Earth."
More at news.sky.com
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