Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween from Ron Burgundy

The more I think about it, trick-or-treating seems to contradict everything that we've told the children about not accepting candy from strangers.


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Super phone

If you're like me, there's a good chance you've dropped your phone in the water.

I've always learned to put that bad boy in rice as soon as possible and maybe there's a chance it could be saved. I've lost phones and had phones limp along on life support, but this is a different story.

According to The Times of India, a Nokia Lumia 800 that had been at the bottom of a lake for THREE AND A HALF MONTHS was found and the owner dried it out on a radiator. 

It wasn't just submerged either. It was covered in muck and waste and wedged between two rocks. But sure enough, that sucker booted up, made calls, took pictures and everything. Apparently the battery life wasn't compromised either.

I feel like if I look at my phone the wrong way or get an errant raindrop on it, it will turn off and not cooperate for hours.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Texting and Driving

I do my best not to text and drive, but I think like most people, I'm guilty of doing it from time to time.

This graph may change my mind.

texting

If you're going to get caught, it's much more expensive to get caught on the east side of the Mississippi. And it's not surprised that Illinois just has a slap on the wrist. Alaska takes things seriously - a $10,000 and up to a year in prison!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Quite the concept

The innovation behind this is...well...breast breath taking.

A Greek TV broadcaster by the name of Maria Bacodimou will be wearing a special brassiere that, when unclasped, sends out a tweet to her 150,000 twitter followers, reminding them to perform a special breast self-exam.

Genius, in concept. Except I feel like she might have a lot of desperate men following her. But anyways, good idea.

Photo from Breitbart.com

The idea is part of the October campaign for Nestle Fitness highlighting Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The "social networking bra" uses a "special mechanism hidden under the hook of the bra. When it is unhooked, a signal is sent to a cell phone which in turn notifies a server that generates a tweet" according to the article.

When the tweets go out at the end of the day, that'd make sense. But if one for some reason goes out over the noon hour...she might just be at the gym. Or...

Friday, October 25, 2013

Kids say the darndest things

This is pure gold. Well done, Crest.



I don't know if this is going to make me more likely to buy Crest toothpaste, but it's comedy brilliance. Oh kids.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Here it goes down, down into my belly

I couldn't be more excited for the release of ANCHORMAN 2 in December. The original movie is in my top three favorite movies of all time, if not at the top. And in a brilliant twist of cross-promotion, which Ben and Jerry's is apt to do, THIS will debut in November. I don't even like butterscotch, really, but you're damn right I'm going to buy a pint or two of this.


ron-burgundy-ice-cream-450.jpg

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

If Finley retires, that's ok.

The NFL can provide fame and fortune for many of the people lucky enough to ever wear a pro football uniform.

However, there’s an inherent risk that comes with each and every snap of the football.



Green Bay Packers tight end Jermichael Finley came face-to-face with that realization during Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns.

Finley was carted off the field with a neck injury and was forced to spend Sunday night in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. The reports coming out of the Packers’ camp have been good, with news that Finley has full feeling of his extremities and video has surfaced of him walking through the hospital.

Walking is one thing. The punishment of the NFL is something totally different.

According to ESPN’s Ed Werder, the bruised spinal cord that Finley suffered will likely end the tight end’s season, but it’s not believed to be a career-ending.

That doesn’t mean the thought of ending his football-playing career hasn’t crossed Finley’s mind.

As recently as September 28 of this year, after suffering a concussion in Week 3 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Finley said that his five-year old son encouraged him not to play football anymore.

Finley said that his son Kaydon told him “”Daddy, I don’t want you to play football anymore,’” according to NFL.com. “So that was a little hard to take, just hearing a five-year-old,” Finley said, “knowing the violence and the (intensity) of the game and seeing his father walk off the field like he did, I would think is pretty hard for a family to see.”

Just three weeks after that quote, Finley found himself face down on the turf with not only his season but his playing career and well-being at stake.

It’s truly an unfortunate situation for a talented player that was seeming to find his role on a talented team, but there shouldn’t be anyone that faults Finley should he choose to walk away.

It would actually be refreshing to see a young man in Finley – who is just 26 – put his health and family above the future millions that he could potentially earn. If he chooses to rehabilitate and come back, great, but it’s going to be a decision that Finley and his family make on their own.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Ticket dilemma

There's a lucky s.o.b. in Boston that stumbled across tickets to tomorrow night's World Series opener for just SIX BUCKS! It's most likely do to an error by the seller at the ticket reselling website StubHub, but "Erik" secured a seat that's now retailing for $759 for just SIX FREAKING DOLLARS.

Man Buys Ticket To Game 1 Of World Series For $6 On StubHub

That poses the question. If you were able to procure said ticket for said price, what would you do? Would you try to flip the ticket for a profit of a couple hundred dollars, or would you collect your prize and attend the game? Being the die-hard sports fan that I am, I'd have to say go to the game. Let's say you make $500 from the sale - are you gonna remember how you spend it? You'll always remember that World Series game you attended though. Decision, decisions...

Monday, October 21, 2013

Best week of food in a long time

I had the good fortune of being able to go on trips each of the past two weekends, which is the reason I've been in and out of the studio of recent.

It started 10 days ago when I went to Washington DC where I had some delicious Korean food, some El Salvadorean papusas and one of the best chili dogs I've ever had. This past weekend, I attended a wedding in Kansas City where I got to gorge on some of the best barbecue ever. God I love food.

My first sushi experience here. Spicy crab roll from the East coast...fresh and actually pretty good. Some stuff was pretty bland (avocado and cream cheese and rice? Ugh.) More flavor = better.


 
Papusas from El Riconcito del Sabor  in Virginia. They're pockets stuffed with pork and cheese. Yes please. And I put the restaurant name in italics because I always say it with an accent.



And I got a tamale too, just because.




A look at the "half smoke" chili dog from Ben's Chili Bowl near Capitol Hill.





Oklahoma Joe's looks pretty unassuming, right?



Boom.



Ribs, brisket, sausage, fries, Texas toast and gumbo.

Holy buckets.


Lots of great eating the past week. Time to hit the treadmill.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Good bet, Grandpa!

If my grandfather had made a bet similar to this, it would have been money down the drain.

But for 62-year old Peter Edwards of Wales, it's a bet that's going to allow him to retire.
Harry Wilson and Craig Bellamy
Photo from BBC

Edwards bet 50 pounds (about $80) that his 18-month old grandson would grow up to play for the Welsh national football (soccer) team. 14.5 years later, that bet paid off, as 16-year old Harry Wilson made his debut for the Welsh team last night.

When he placed the bed, he got 2,500 to 1 odds that his grandson would ever play for the Welsh national team.

The bet paid off, netting Edwards 125,000 pounds, or just over $200,000.

Pretty good foresight on Grandpa's part.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Scientists and their 'research'

Ok, so you might have seen the article where researchers are contending that Oreos are as addicting as cocaine. Walk down any street in America and I could have told you the same thing. But the question that lingers for me...how is this pressing research?

The research looked at the rats’ behaviors and the effects the cookies had on their brains. Rats were put into a maze and given the choice of hanging out near rice cakes or Oreos. The tasty sandwich cookies won that popularity contest handily. Those results were compared to a different test, where rats were given the choice of loitering in an area of a maze where they were injected with saline or in another corner where they could get a shot of cocaine or morphine.
HOW IS THIS IMPORTANT? AREN'T THERE DISEASES THAT STILL NEED TO BE CURED? Come on, science. Get your act together.
Photo from WTOP.com

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Enemy Territory

This past Sunday, I was lucky enough to be in house for the Packers vs. Ravens game in Baltimore. I have a friend that lives in Northern Virginia, so it was only about a 45 minute drive to Maryland for the game. Tickets were expensive, but they certainly could have been worse. And given the fact that M&T Bank Stadium is still relatively new (opened in 1998), the sight lines from the upper level were great.

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Ravens fans were OK to deal with, for the most part. It helped that there were a couple thousand Packers fans there (I'd guesstimate maybe 5,000 out of the 70,000 fans there were supporting Green Bay). I heard my fair share of "Discount Double Suck" remarks and someone tried to berate me for my choice to wear a Jordy Nelson jersey. Apparently he was concerned with where Jordy went to college. Then his buddy told him Kansas State. I'm still a little confused by that one.

The first have was surprisingly entertaining in person, though I've heard from many that the 6-0 game was boring to watch on TV. It certainly picked up in the second half, and the Packers needed big plays from JerMichael Finley and Eddie Lacy to close things out. It was my first Green Bay game that I've attended on the road, and I'd highly recommend the experience to anyone.

Especially when the good guys win.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hangover Cure

Everyone knows that a spicy bloody mary and a nice greasy breakfast are the best cure for a hangover, right?

RIGHT?

Well, apparently not.

According to China, or at least a team of Chinese scientists, the chemical compound used to make Sprite is effective in dealing with hangovers because, and excuse my layman's terms here (which may or may not be correct), the bubbly stuff in Sprite helps to break down the enzymes in alcohol.

Makes sense to me, I guess.

TIME magazine tries to break it down here:

The carbonated lemon-lime drink showed a markedly positive effect on alcohol-related symptoms in a recent study conducted by a team of Chinese scientists. Apparently, Sprite has the ability to breakdown acetaldehyde, a metabolite of ethanol. By contrast, many other drinks tested — among them herbal teas — were found to have the opposite effect and actually increased those symptoms we all know too well (and forget about every Friday night).



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Rodgers talking Congo

If I had to choose between Aaron Rodgers being a spokesman or just being a quarterback, I'd quickly keep him playing football. I don't necessarily want him taking up every cause or promoting every product and to his credit, he doesn't, but on Monday he took time to speak to UW-Madison students about an issue he's apparently passionate.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal:

Rodgers "was joined by actress Emmanuelle Chriqui, Congolese teammate Andy Mulumba, and others to raise awareness and to pressure technology companies not to buy minerals used in computers and other consumer electronics from Congo."

Thousands of students turned out for the event, primarily sponsored by the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative.

Rodgers joined students in the UW tradition "Jump Around," quickly diffused students' speculation about a relationship with Chriqui and took several digs at Detroit Lions center Dominic Raiola, who is accused of verbally abusing members of the UW Marching Band before Sunday's Packers-Lions game at Lambeau Field. But Rodgers was quick to point out that he didn't come to Madison on Monday night to talk football.


Rodgers0201MPKe-10072013211407
Photo Credit: MP King, Wisconsin State Journal
After learning about the conflict in Congo from Chriqui, Rodgers decided to get involved in the effort to pressure consumer electronics manufacturers from using minerals from the warring nation.

“That was kind of my 'enough' moment. A device that I take everywhere with me. It’s my lifeline to my friends, to my Candy Crush, to my Twitter account during the offseason. This is the lifeblood of these warlords who are doing some incredible atrocities half a world away,” he said, asking students to help make UW-Madison the first conflict-free school in the Big Ten conference.


Sounds sort of Blood Diamond-esque, and it's not necessarily a cause that many people are going to disagree with. He's not a politician and doesn't have to be, but it's good to see Rodgers using his notoriety to bring attention to a cause he believes in.

Monday, October 7, 2013

My Monday Rant

I figure, it's Monday, so why not rant about something.

Today: pumpkins.

I've never understood the fascination with them. They smell bad, they rot quickly, and eating anything related to them just baffles my mind.

I've never liked carving pumpkins. I've never liked pumpkin pie. And I don't like coffee to begin with, so pumpkin spice lattes are out of the question.

But...pumpkin Pringles?



Really? I have to imagine they are terrible. In fact, I am going to assume they are. And no, I won't "just try one" because I DON'T WANT TO.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Classic Mixup

I don't know much about the stock market. I mean, I passed microeconomics in college, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. If I really remember any of that at all.

Now, I'm a big fan of Twitter and am mildly curious to see how the company's initial public offering is going to do when it was released. But that's just the thing. It hasn't been released yet. And some people didn't read the fine print.

Photo from http://siliconangle.com/files/2013/08/twitter-IPO2.jpg

According to TIME,

Reuters reports that confused investors eager to get in early on the Twitter IPO news temporarily boosted the stock of bankrupt electronics company Tweeter by purchasing shares in it, which were going for one cent each before the demand shot the price up to 15 cents. Tweeter’s NASDAQ symbol is “TWTRQ,” which led to the confusion.

Twitter officially
released plans for its IPO yesterday, but the date of the offering is still unknown. For now, the public can’t buy Twitter stock, and when it is available, we somehow doubt it will be going for the low, low price of a penny.

Classic mistake. Good thing the stock was only a penny.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Don Jon

So I went and saw Don Jon last night at Marcus Theatres and it was...interesting. I love me some Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and that's basically what got me in the theater. It was pretty good, but let me tell you this - make sure you are very comfortable with the person you're going with. Not the movie you want to go see for a matinee with your parents. And Grandma might have a few questions. Lots of boobs.

And I'm neither Italian nor Jewish, but I'm not surprised to see the criticism that JGL is taking because of the movie. I wouldn't say it's "trite garbage" but this guy's take is interesting.




From the Guardian: Joseph Gordon-Levitt's porn-addicted Don Jon has become the latest movie character to fall foul of a group which aims to improve representations of Italian-Americans on the big screen.

"Here we go again with the same shop-worn, racist stereotypes of Italian Americans in movies," said the Italian American One Voice Coalition founder, Dr Emanuele "Manny" Alfano. "It never ends. Levitt, himself the son of proud parents who once founded the Jewish Progressive Alliance and fought for social justice causes, should be ashamed of himself for the negative portrayal of Italians and Jews in his movie.

"Levitt, much like his pornography-addicted character, needs an intervention and should go into serious therapy for his ethnic denigration of Italian Americans. Levitt ought to quit now, take this trite garbage out of movie theatres and donate his profits to charity."

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

New Career Choice


Full disclosure: I've never cooked a turkey. But that doesn't sway me from wanting to pursue this new career.

Apparently Butterball is looking for some males to fill slots on their turkey hotline, giving tips and advice to clueless people who are on the brink of burning their houses down. 


According to the Associated Press this advice hotline has only had female operators since its birth in 1981.

Via Consumerist.com: "In that time, the group of on-call helpers answering phones in November and December has grown from six people to around 60. Starting Sept. 16, 2013, men will be able to apply to be a Turkey Talk spokesman or one of the operators."
Well, I'm about two weeks late in the application process, but how awesome would that be. I would be absolutely terrible at this hotline, seeing is that I have no idea what to say. 

The one thing I would know what to say to men that would call in: "Dude. Water does not put out a grease fire. Smother it or just back away and let it burn."


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Cool Scene at the World War II Memorial

The National Mall in Washington DC is a pretty awesome place. The fact that it's closed while the government is shut down is disappointing. Well, the World War II vets on a Freedom Honor Flight out of Mississippi weren't going to let a few barricades stop them from seeing THEIR memorial.

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The photo is from Leo Shane (who is on twitter here with more photos and can be read in Stars and Stripes and at LeoShane.com). The people in yellow are apparently volunteers from a different Honor Flight out of Iowa.

Still, pretty cool. These vets are pretty badass, and aren't gonna let something as idiotic as a gov't shutdown from letting them into the National Mall. They came all the way from Mississippi after all these years and some diplomatic BS is going to prevent them from seeing this? Good for them.