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Disbelief.net

A clever retooling of beliefnet, to promote Bill Maher’s upcoming film, “Religulous”.

I’ve heard this video has been discredited, but cellphones popping popcorn still makes for great entertainment.

“Ringing the phones doesn’t help because they’re interfering with each other and receiving a signal [from a cellphone tower] — not transmitting it,” he said. Furthermore, while it is possible to heat with sound, it’s not likely to happen at the low volume emitted by a mobile phone. “It would be like gathering opera singers together to sing, and trying to make the corn pop,” Bloomfield said.

Physicist Debunks Cellphone Popcorn Viral Videos

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June

Photos from early June, waiting for summer to arrive, and for a couple of days, doing just that, before a swift departure.

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Pringles Can Inventor Buried In Pringles Can

Appropriate, I suppose, for the use — except for preserving freshness. 🙂

Mr. Bailey blamed food costs, a minimum-wage increase and more consumers trading down to the dollar menu from premium-price items. Greg Watson, VP-marketing at McDonald’s USA, said while the Southern-market tests of the $1.09 double cheeseburger were granted at franchisees’ behest, they have less to do with commodity costs than a test of price elasticity. He also noted that double cheeseburgers have been tested in different markets for as high as $1.29, and occasionally with toppings for as much as $1.99, but the fast feeder generally has found $1 to be the sweet spot for the sandwich.

McDonald’s franchisees rebel against the dollar menu, which is killing their bottom line.

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Battle in Seattle: opening night at SIFF

Tracy and I went to opening night at SIFF to catch the Stuart Townsend movie, “Battle in Seattle”. It was… okay, but like many in the audience, I was there when the WTO protests happened, and it was a bit strange to see a semi-fictionalized version of the events on screen. Andre Benjamin (from Outkast) was the runaway hit, though — while Woody Harrelson, Charlize Theron (with a completely unnecessary-to-the-plot pregnancy-with-horrible-end subplot) and the script playing distant second. Ray Liotta was completely miscast as the Mayor of Seattle, as was the actor who played the Governor. There was also an unnerving disconnect between real-world footage and the film’s footage, which made me wonder that a straight documentary would have the better solution.

It wasn’t all bad, though — apart from Benjamin’s performance, the fight scenes were very spot on, and Townsend worked with people involved on both sides of the WTO protests to help build a story.

BUT, the best account I’ve seen from any of these films is Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO. On VHS, though.

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Wiitar!

Guitar Hero shenanigans with Miss Ellie and Nola Faye!

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$10 a gallon gas? Geo is the new Prius.

An MSN article asks, “What if gas cost $10 a gallon?”

Snacks should be readily available for crews cleaning up an overturned tractor trailer 50 miles south of Chicago on Interstate 80. The rig in question was hauling fourteen tons of Oreo cookies, and when it tipped, the trailer’s roof ripped open, spilling cases of the cookies onto the median.

Video and pictures here.

Disclosure about the following link: I had a 1993 Geo Tracker, and it got 28mpg for a 4×4, but I’d have kept it if I would have known you could get $7,300 for it today, for people wanting a more cost-effective car than a Prius.