Kung Hei Fat Choi

Happy Year of the Rat, everyone!

Judas Priest Shreds

Recipe for awesomeness: Take a Judas Priest performance, mute the audio and overdub the clip with terrible guitar playing and mumbling.

If that doesn't sound all that funny, check it out. I promise mirth.

Kosovo - Independent State #193?

It looks like the world is about to welcome Kosovo to the Legitimate Independent States Club (not an actual club, really). Sometime later this month, it's expected that Kosovo is going to make like a Balkan banana and split, becoming the 193rd officially recognized independent member state of the UN. Man, it'd suck to be Serbia. Two years ago, you lose Montenegro (in the middle of the World Cup, resulting in the only instance in my knowledge of a single World Cup soccer team simultaneously representing two independent states), and now Kosovo's making a break for it too.

There's worry that this kind of thing is setting a precedent for declarations of independence around the Balkans. This is kind of a bad idea for two reasons. First, not every potential state has the kind of near-unanimous support for independence and democracy that Kosovo has (90% of Kosovars are in favour), and that could mess things up. Secondly, some potential states include the likes of the Republic of Srpska, which is clearly in violation of the UN regulations on the maximum allowable number of adjacent consonants in a state name.

It's the Hawaii Chair!

Infomercials are basically the lowest form of human communication. Grunting and rhythmically beating one's chest ranks at least a few notches higher. Still, in the world of infomercials, there's bad, and then there's ridiculous.

Take, for example, the Hawaii Chair. This hallmark of human ingenuity promises to "take the work out of your workout" by allowing you to get fit while sitting down. Just because you don't want to be obese doesn't mean you need to give up your sedentary lifestyle in front of the TV!

My favourite part of the infomercial is the computer generated "science" animations, featuring cutaway models of both the human body (it says my abs will glow bright red, glowing means getting in shape!) and the 2800 RPM Hula Motor. Hula Motor? Seriously? I don't think that's a thing.

Word Sandwich

If you like your time-wasters wordy and fiendishly difficult, check out Word Sandwich. It involves guessing a random five-letter word in as few tries as possible. The only clue the game gives you is an indication of whether the word you've guessed is alphabetically higher or lower than the key word. You get points for succeeding in as few guesses as possible, and you get 5 words to rack up the highest score possible.

I got 8309. Bring it.

Decoding Ferran Adria

A recent discussion about the delicious possibilities of bacon vodka has got me back on a molecular gastronomy kick. How can a discipline that combines delicious food with class IV lasers not be great?

If there's one undisputed king of molecular gastronomy, it's Ferran Adria. His restaurant, El Bulli, is the Mecca of modern creative food. Located in Catalonia, Spain, it serves only 8,000 patrons per year, despite the fact that it receives eight hundred thousand requests for tables. Its season is limited to 6 months (April-September) so Adria can spend the other 6 months experimenting in his ultra-high-tech food laboratory in Barcelona.

I've always been curious about what this food experimentation would actually look like... bunsen burners? Erlenmeyer flasks? Lab coats? Luckily for me, Anthony Bourdain went out and did some investigative eating in Spain to shed a little light on the El Bulli restaurant and lab. If you have 45 minutes to spare, and are as big a food nerd as I am, Decoding Ferran Adria will blow your socks off. Here is a man who knows how to cook.


(full screen link)

Bert and Ernie

This video has been brought to you by the letter AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.



(thanks to Mr. Chris Provan for the link)