November 2008

From NYTimes.com: Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More

Through war and recession, Americans have turned to the glistening canned product from Hormel as a way to save money while still putting something that resembles meat on the table. Now, in a sign of the times, it is happening again, and Hormel is cranking out as much Spam as its workers can produce.
…
Invented during the Great Depression by Jay Hormel, the son of the company’s founder, Spam is a combination of ham, pork, sugar, salt, water, potato starch and a “hint” of sodium nitrite “to help Spam keep its gorgeous pink color,” according to Hormel’s Web site for the product.

I have this nightmare image in my mind of Thanksgiving dinner with a a can of Spam dumped on a plate next to a quivering can shaped cranberry sauce.

UPDATE:  It’s worse than I thought.  Now we can’t afford socks!

The Star Trek website has been updated with the first non-teaser trailer.

I am a little apprehensive about the movie when I watch the trailer.  I realize that it’s only a trailer, but the movie seems very un-Star Trek like to me.  Star Trek was always about the interaction between the characters rather than phasers and explosions in space.  That was more the realm of Star Wars.

I’m more interested in seeing the classic characters redrawn and to see the actors and how they inhabit the roles, especially Zachary Quinto as Spock and Chris Pine as Captain Kirk than the actual story.

Steve Kroft’s interview of Barack Obama on 60 Minutes divided into three videos. 

Barack and Michelle Obama are such a warm, personable couple in the interview.    It brings to mind what writer Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez called “the Huxtable Effect” in describing how the “The Cosby Show” may have been a factor in the election of Barack Obama. 

As Rodriguez describes it:

So it is, I believe, that Barack Obama’s successful candidacy and likely presidency were heralded with the arrival of “The Cosby Show” in 1984. On the air for eight seasons, “The Cosby Show” featured Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable, an all-American father, doctor and husband, in the lead role. The impact of Cosby’s weekly presence in America’s family rooms, as the fair-minded, fun, quirky Dr. Huxtable, cannot be underestimated in its affect upon the consciousness of Americans who were children and young adults at the time.

When watching Barack and Michelle Obama, I am totally reminded of the Huxtables.  Smart, funny, warm, and engaging.

From CNN.com: ‘Lost’ Beatles track could finally be heard

A “lost” Beatles track recorded in 1967 and performed just once in public could finally be released, according to Paul McCartney.

“Carnival of Light” — a 14-minute experimental track recorded at the height of the Beatles’ musical experimentations with psychedelia and inspired by avant-garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen — has long been considered too adventurous for mainstream audiences.
…
The improvised work features distorted electric guitars, discordant sound effects, a church organ and gargling interspersed with McCartney and John Lennon shouting random phrases like “Barcelona” and “Are you all right?“.

This has “hit” written all over it.  To be able to hear John Lennon gargle again.  I may soon have a new favorite song!

From ESPN.com: E:60 Feature Wing and a Prayer

An E:60 feature on Jeb Corliss, BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer extraordinaire.  Stunning imagery, scary story.  Definitely worth a watch.

I think the fall of Rome was signaled by Romans hanging testicles on the bottom of their chariots.

Buy them for your chariot or car at Bumpernuts.com

Currently at $207.50 in its listing on eBay.

From Nanobama.com

Each face is made with 150 million carbon nanotubes!   Each one of these faces is about the size of a pinprick!

For more pictures, visit Nanobama.com

From the Atlantic.com: Electro-Shock Therapy

A fascinating look into the technological hurdles facing the development of GM’s electrical vehicle, the Volt.

Then, in late 2005, Lutz got wind that a Silicon Valley start-up, Tesla Motors, was moving toward production of a high-performance electric roadster. (It’s available this year, if you have $100,000.) At that point, Lutz “just lost it,” as he puts it. He refused to accept that a small start-up company could build and sell an electric car but mighty GM couldn’t. In early 2006, he summoned Jon Lauckner and told him to dream up an electric concept car for the 2007 Detroit auto show, a year away. The car had to be more than just interesting, he said. It had to be remarkable: a game-changer.

Reading this just kind of pisses me off about large companies.  Large companies like GM should have been pushing technology forward.  It’s not until GM sees a start-up working on an electric car that GM starts their own. 

From DeviantArt.com

More Obama Hope parody posters