04.16.05
Posted in food at 12:38 am by admin
I’m contemplating a trip to the always-delicious Famous Dave’s in Mountainside, NJ this weekend. I will probably have the two-meat combo, the drunken apples, the potato salad, some spicy BBQ wings, some fries… and then collapse. They also have several different kinds of BBQ dipping sauces, plus tasty Georgia Mustard, which goes quite well with the fries.
Oh, and every server’s name is prefixed with “famous”! My favorite server if “Famous Boris”.
About Famous Dave’s
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04.15.05
Posted in absurdity at 1:11 am by admin
If you dare, $1600 can buy you a Hot Pocket that the seller insists belongs to the Devil himself.
The story associated with it is absolutely amazing, but the description and the writing style of the prose is the real gem:
“Heres a closup of the hot pocket. I dont think the lord of darkness is much of an artist. Matter of fact it kinda looks like he drew boogers coming out of his nose, and his horns aint even straight or nothin. I mean there’s all sorts of liberal commie artists in hell, why the heck didnt he get one of them to do it and do it right? Satan really does suck.”
If you want to own the Devil’s treat, it won’t be easy, though. There are some strict requirements for bidding, including one that requires all bidders to submit “a 1000 word essay on the the global ramifications of first century Roman Imperialism”.
eBay: Lucifer’s Hot Pocket
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Posted in sweat at 12:12 am by admin
Yeah, baby… ephedra is back! A federal judge knocked the crap out of the federal ban that was pulled from shelves because of 155 deaths. A Utah-based supplement company challenged the FDA bad, saying that ephedra “has been safely consumed” for hundreds of years.
I think the key here is that ephedra is only dangerous to people who take too much of it, who are already extremely overweight, or have high blood pressure and other health problems. There are plenty of other supplements that can have negative effects when taken by people who are suffering from other maladies.
The question is whether supplement companies will be able to mass-market ephedra products now that they’ve been given such a bad name. I imagine that the larger brands (like TrimSpa, for instance) will probably remain ephedra-free, while more specialized brands used by bodybuilders will probably reintroduce ephedra-based products.
That is, of course, if the FDA doesn’t appeal the ruling…
Judge strikes down FDA ban on ephedra - Alternative Medicine - MSNBC.com
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04.14.05
Posted in sweat at 8:06 pm by admin
We all know that if you drink too much, your could potentially die. That’s why medical professionals say you should limit your intake of vodka, wine, tequila, lighter fluid — and now water.
The New England Journal of Medicine published a study involving 488 runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon. They found that 13% of runners had consumed so much water during the race that they were afflicted with hyponatremia, which indicates dangerously low blood sodium levels.
Dr. Paul D. Thompson recommends only drinking while running as opposed to after stopping, and being careful not to consume too much at one time.
What’s up with that? I drink about 1.5 liters of water during a 35-minute treadmill run. Does that mean I’m going to die? Well, if you find me slumped over the base of the treadmill, you’ll certainly know why.
Perhaps I’ll start drinking more water during the day, instead of all at once.
Health > Study Cautions Runners to Limit Their Water Intake” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/health/14water.html?pagewanted=1&incamp=article_popular_1&oref=login”>The New York Times: Study Cautions Runners to Limit Their Water Intake (registration required)
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Posted in miscellaneous stuff, children, darwin, science, ugly at 1:29 am by admin
The scientists at the University of Alberta have discovered that attractive children get more attention from their parents than hideously deformed ones.
The results indicate that parents with ugly children are less likely to buckle them into shopping carts, and allow them to wander off in the supermarket more.
The study references Darwin, saying that “we’re unconsciously more likely to lavish attention on attractive children simply because they’re our best genetic material.”
Not mentioned in the study was whether parents of unsightly toddlers are more likely to let them climb over the railing at the Grand Canyon.
Boing Boing: Unattractive children get less attention
Tags: children, darwin, science, ugly
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04.13.05
Posted in absurdity at 8:20 pm by admin
Who needs a therapist when you can get it all out by selling something on eBay?
In an alarmingly creepy eBay auction post, this guy tells the story of his mother, who meets a new man online after his father dies. This online man (who is referred to as “Chuck”) proceeds to move in with Mom, drive Dad’s truck, and buy tons of stuff on Mom’s credit. The story unravels into a tale of bigamy, theft, and revenge, and ends with a great deal on a wedding ring that will preferably be sold to someone “as far away as possible”. Don’t miss the drama!
Also, note the creepy pictures with whited-out faces!
eBay : My Mom’s Diamond Wedding Ring
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Posted in rants at 8:07 pm by admin
Thankfully, I make enough money to get by. But when I think about it, it’s only been 8 years since I got my first minimum-wage job. At the time, I was a 16-year old kid who only needed the money to save up for car insurance and a few CDs and trips to the movies.
Now that I’m living across the river from Manhattan and I realize how much it costs to live comfortably at all in the Northeast, I wonder how anybody lives on minimum wage. I guess I understand why they refer to those people as the “working poor”.
Thank God the NJ state government has decided to take a corruption-hiatus for a few days so that Acting Gov. Codey can sign a $2 increase in minimum wage into law. The wage will increase $1 this fall, and $1 next.
The average minimum-wage worker only makes a little more than $10,000 annually! To top that off, when adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage in 1968 was actually $8.78! Do you wonder why the guy making your burrito at Taco Bell seems unhappy, or the checker at Wal-Mart refuses to acknowledge you?
I know that the neo-conservative crazies who run this country have a greedy obsession with cheap labor, but I can’t assume that a country where most of the laborers are working poor can progress.
I guess we should cheer small victories like this when they happen.
Codey to sign minimum wage bill
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Posted in gadgets at 6:12 pm by admin
Every gadget fiend loves going to the Sharper Image. As I’ve gotten longer in the tooth the things that interest me in the Sharper Image’s vault of unnecessary technology have changed though. I no longer wish I had the giant resin life-sized Superman figure to guard my room — my attention has been turned to sonic jewelry cleaners, pore-magnifying mirrors, and the pinnacle of coolness — the Ionic Breeze air purifier (which I have lusted after for years).
Imagine my horror when I found out this morning that these things apparently don’t work! They’re not cheap either… a price in the $300+ range for something that releases excess ozone into the room, potentially causing breathing trouble, seems like a bit much.
Luckily not everything that the Sharper Image sells is crap. I still love my purple iJoy massage chair!
Report: Sharper Image purifiers actually make air worse - Engadget - www.engadget.com.
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04.12.05
Posted in gadgets at 10:56 pm by admin
Seeing this just makes me want to cry with jealousy. Some MIT students made their own light-up dancefloor that’s programmable using a USB interface. Not only is it gorgeous to look at, but they plan to use it to play Dance Dance Revolution (one of my guilty pleasures). This is like something out of a freaking music video!
Now, if they would only make it pressure-sensitive so that walking on it would light up the tiles like Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean video, and if I had enough time, money, and soldering skills to build one of these, I would never leave my apartment (and I’d be the coolest kid on the block)!
Boing Boing: Dormitory’s USB disco dancefloor
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Posted in absurdity at 9:31 pm by admin
That’s my kitty, Scooter. And I don’t let him outside. Apparently if we livedin Wisconsin and I let him out to play, he risks someone putting “a cap in his ass”. That’s because Wisconsin is considering legalizing cat hunting.
Okay, so I understand that cats kill songbirds sometimes, and no one likes that, but hunting cats? Can you imagine your neighbor with an AK-47 gunning down poor Felix because he ate a woodpecker? I realize that the hunting is supposed to reduce the “wild” cat population, but how do you tell how “wild” a cat is? Give it a breathalizer test? See if it will show you its breasts for Mardi Gras beads? Where do we draw the line?
Boing Boing: Wisconsin considers legalizing cat hunting
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