Check out the 20 worst (health wise) beverages in America. There's a reason I stick with black coffee; I prefer to expand my belt line with french fries.
2,010 Calories is Bad?
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This Story Is Oh So Onion-y
Truth really is stranger than fiction, and this story that I would swear came from The Onion (but apparently didn't) is proof:
Enter "Waterworld" star Kevin Costner, who has invented a device that cleans oil from sea water.
British Petroleum - desperate for ideas – gave the okay to test six of Costner's gizmos Wednesday, after the Army Corps of Engineers gave the machine a thumbs-up.
Costner's $24 million centrifuge machine has a Los Angeles-perfect name, "Ocean Therapy."
Placed on a barge, it sucks in oily water, separates out the oil and spits back clean water.
Regionalism
I'm a big proponent of regionalism and I like the idea that some North Carolina and Virginia counties are joining forces to promote their region as a tourist destination, lines drawn on a map be damned.
Several Triad counties are among a group that has formed to promote themselves as a single tourism entity.
They have branded the areas as Cascade Highlands for the way the Blue Ridge highlands of southwest Virginia cascade into the Yadkin Valley of northwest North Carolina.
The group includes nine counties across two states — Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, Wilkes and Allegheny in North Carolina and Carroll, Grayson, Patrick and Smyth in Virginia.
That Dude Next to You on the Metro May Not Be Sleeping
As someone who spent many a year commuting on the DC Metro I have to say I'm surprised that you don't hear stories like this more often.
A man who boarded a Metro subway train in Montgomery County on Monday morning was found dead in the same train five hours later, the transit system said.
Metro said in a statement that the death was probably the result of natural causes, but no detailed information on a cause could be learned. It was also unclear when the man might have died during a period in which the train traveled much of the Red Line in both directions.
Art as Advertising or Vice Versa
I found this video via Rex Hammock's Twitter feed and I agree with him that you really want it not to end. If this is the direction that advertising is taking then I'll be happy to be sold to. BTW, after watching this I was seriously craving a morning Stella.
UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.
The “Baby” of the Family is 14
This has been a heck of a couple of days. First, our two oldest had their first prom this past Saturday. If that's not enough to get the "I can't believe I'm this old" angst cranked up, the fact that our "baby" turns 14 today really hammers the point home. Below are some of my favorite pics of Justin through the years, but of course they don't do justice to the boy who's growing too quickly into young man status. They don't tell you that he's an incredible book worm; that he's shy to the point of seeming reticent, but when the flood gates open a whole stream of thoughts come pouring out; that he possesses such an incredible imagination that when he does share his thoughts it's often difficult for us mere mortals to grasp where he's going; that under that soft exterior is a surprising iron will and stubbornness; in short there's no way you can tell what an amazing young man he is. Happy birthday J.
The Bridge
Bo Gray has a great pic of the bridge over the Yadkin River at the Yadkin County-Forsyth County line. He accompanied it with Longfellow's The Bridge, a fine poem, but my attention was drawn to the apologetic graffiti on the right side of the bridge:
Sorry about the paint and what not. My bad.
For some reason that made me laugh.
The Dangers of Living in a Chicken Little Society
Bruce Schneier explains why basing decisions solely on "worst case scenarios" is not a good thing.
There's a certain blindness that comes from worst-case thinking. An extension of theprecautionary principle, it involves imagining the worst possible outcome and then acting as if it were a certainty. It substitutes imagination for thinking, speculation for risk analysis, and fear for reason. It fosters powerlessness and vulnerability and magnifies social paralysis. And it makes us more vulnerable to the effects of terrorism.
Worst-case thinking means generally bad decision making for several reasons. First, it's only half of the cost-benefit equation. Every decision has costs and benefits, risks and rewards. By speculating about what can possibly go wrong, and then acting as if that is likely to happen, worst-case thinking focuses only on the extreme but improbable risks and does a poor job at assessing outcomes.
h/t to Ed Cone for the link.
All the News That’s Fit to Pay for in January
The Grey Lady is going to start charging for access to articles on her website starting in January, 2011. Looks like they're trying to put the cat back in the bag, the horse back in the barn and the toothpaste back in the tube. Good luck with that.
Tomorrow’s Economic Forecast Decidedly Mixed
You know how weather forecasters always hedge their bets with phrases like, "Tomorrow's forecast is decidedly mixed" which, to me, is like saying "You may or may not wake up tomorrow." Anyway, all the recent economic news has me thinking that our economic forecast is, well, decidedly mixed. In bullet point fashion:
- Stock market – The markets have rebounded nicely from the beginning of the "Great Recession," yet the little "1,000 point drop in a blink of the eye" moment we had a few days back has everyone as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
- Employment – Lots of hiring going on, but even more people are looking for jobs.
- Housing – The recently ended stimulus for home buyers seemed to goose the market, but foreclosures are up over last year (at least here in NC).
- Banks/Financial Services – There's (mostly empty) talk of reforming the industry so that "too big to fail" doesn't recur, and then we find out that banks are making butt-loads of money doing some things that are highly improbable, if not impossible.
Yep. All in all I'd say our economic outlook is decidedly mixed, and I'll even go out on a limb and say that the markets will close either up or down tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll tell you why the winner of the 2011 Super Bowl will most likely be a team that plays in the NFL.
Befuddled 