How I cooked before I had kids

(via)

Urban homesteading

Who would have thought a family of four in Pasadena could live on $30,000 a year? Maybe this urban homesteading thing will catch on.



Check out their web site here.

Happy Valentine's Day: World's chocolate supply may run out by 2014

The Daily Mail reports that there may be a severe chocolate drought within the next few years. The reason is that political unrest in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has become so bad that cocoa farmers are fleeing the area. 80% of the world's cocoa comes from West Africa, and at least half of that from the Ivory Coast region.

According to Angus Kennedy, a leading British chocolatier, "Supplies of sustainable cocoa are set to run out, it's that simple. The Ivory Coast is a complete no-go area for cocoa traders as it's too dangerous, so training new farmers and trying to cut problems in the region is now mostly impossible."

A quick note to you guys: Stock up now, especially since Valentine's Day is just around the corner. If you think the protests and riots in Egypt are bad...

Cremated remains rescued from burning funeral home

From the Associated Press:

Residents and firefighters have removed caskets, a body and cremated remains from a burning funeral home in mid-Michigan's Shiawassee County.

Whew! That was close.

What comes after the "happily ever after"...

(via)

An undeniable truth (1/27/11)

When we start passing laws in an effort to "protect the children," it isn't long before we're all treated as children.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early 1900s

Part of a panoramic shot of Minneapolis in 1905. (link)

Here's the rest. (link)

Courthouse and City Hall, circa 1905. (link)

Downtown, 1908, where City Center is currently located. (link)

This is your last warning...really

(via)

Etiquette tip for the president

If you're the one enforcing the sexual molestation going on at our nation's airports, you don't get to joke about it.

"I made you a mix CD because I love you!"

An undeniable truth (1/24/2011)

A wife's lack of interest in her husband can be measured by the length of his ear or nose hair.

Fun with shadows for home entertainers

Who doesn't love a good shadow show? This article from the January, 1930, issue of Modern Mechanics, covers the basics.

If I said I was a tasty taco, I'd be lion

An eatery in Tucson, Arizona, has made exotic food a tradition. In the past, Boca Tacos y Tequila has featured tacos made from elk, turtle, rattlesnake, python, alligator, and kangaroo. Next up on the menu: African lion.

Yes, it's legal as long as the animals aren't endangered. And at the bargain price of only $8.75, these lion tacos are sure to tame even the most voracious king-of-the-jungle-sized appetites.

Edgar Allan Pooh

(via)

Spring-loaded food fighting spoon

Because when you play with your food, you're playing for keeps.

From Fred & Friends.

Finally, a personal mobility option for lazy people

The Segway never really caught on in America because it didn't fully cater to the typical sedentary American lifestyle. I mean, you still had to freakin' stand up when you rode it.

Honda has solved that problem with the new U3-X, the latest thing in personal mobility. Check it out:



(via)

Random album challenge

Here's a quick, fun little project:

1. Go to Wikipedia and click "Random article." The title of the first arti­cle in your result is the name of your band.
2. Go to quotationspage.com and click "Ran­dom Quotes." The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your album.
3. Go to flickr and click on "Interesting photos from the last 7 days." The third pic­ture, no mat­ter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use Photoshop, Paint, or another image editing program to put it all together.

My end result:

(via)

Where to find free e-books, audiobooks, music, and movies

Did you get a new iPad or Kindle for Christmas and can't figure out what to do with it? You'll want to check out this list of apps and web sites for free downloads.

"Death Jar"

From the official Star Wars web site:

The exclusive Death Star cookie jar is built to hold an Imperial army of your favorite cookies, and can even double as a festive ice cooler or candy bowl at your next Star Wars soiree. Made of sculpted ceramic with great detail and features a flat base to keep your Death Star from rolling off the counter. Oh, and no exposed thermal exhaust ports for hungry young rebels. A very cool exclusive available only at StarWarsShop!

(via)

What is it, Admiral Ackbar?

Rep. Giffords had subscribed to her shooter's YouTube channel

By now everyone knows that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot by Jared Lee Loughner this past Saturday in an incident that left six other people dead. I won't belabor the details here, but I did run across an interesting fact this morning that, so far, has not been reported by any mainstream news outlet.

David Franke of LewRockwell.com got the tip:

In response to my earlier posting about the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Gifford, I received this email from a reader (personal name not identified) of this blog:

"It's interesting to note, and I don't yet know the significance, but on the Congresswoman's YouTube page, she subscribed to only two other YouTube channels. One of which belonged to Jared Lee Loughner."

Naturally intrigued, I went to the Congresswoman's YouTube channel and there, at the bottom left of her home page, is a section with the heading, "Subscriptions (2)," with two photo boxes below.

The photo to the right turns out to be former Democratic Congressman Ike Skelton of Missouri, who lost last November to his Republican opponent, Vicky Hartzler.

The photo box to the left is blank (no photo inside), and the caption underneath simply says "Classit..." It is not until you click on the photo box and land on the page that you see it identified as: "Jared Lee Loughner. Classitup10's Channel."

Out of the millions of channels on YouTube, Rep. Giffords (or perhaps someone on her staff) had subscribed to only two, and one of them was that of her shooter. Not exactly on the level of the JFK conspiracy, but interesting and disturbing to say the least.

The Daily Show covers San Francisco's ban on Happy Meal toys

You know American journalism is in bad shape when it takes a fake news show to actually get to the heart of an issue...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
San Francisco's Happy Meal Ban
www.thedailyshow.com

A brilliant way around the ban on incandescent light bulbs

German businessman Siegfried Rotthaeuser thinks he may have found a way around the European Union's ban on incandescent bulbs. He's marketing the familiar light sources as Heatballs®.

From the English version of Rotthaeuser's web site:

The most original invention since the electric light bulb! Although a heatball is technically very similar to a light bulb, it is a heater rather than a source of light. ...

... A heatball is electrical resistance, used as a heater. Heatball is a campaign. Heatball is an opposition against regulations being passed that bluntly ignore the most basic democratic principles as well as bypassing parliamentary procedures, effectively muzzling the common law man. Heatball also resists unreasonable measures supposedly protecting our natural environment. How can we be made to believe that using energy saving lamps will save our planet, while at the same time the rain forests have been waiting in vain for decades for effective sustainable protection?

More power to him.

Irreconcilable differences

(via)