Saturday News: Taxes, gas, and LOLbears

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I refuse to give up image macros
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  • A new “DNA spray” is being used in Amsterdam to catch thieves by covering them with a non-washable mist in the event of a hold-up, which is filled with chemical that correspond to a specific time and place. Invisible to the naked eye, it can be seen under a UV light, and can also be used on objects.
  • A new study by the Congressional Budget Office shows federal taxes are for the third year in a row lower than under the Bush administration, and are actually at their lowest level since the Truman administration.
  • Gas prices are at a record high for this time of year.
  • Are you ready for this one, dog lovers? Inmates at a Missouri prison taught a deaf dachshund to respond to sign language, and then gave him to a school for deaf children.

Happy Saturday, crasstalkers.

Hitler’s Flying Saucers?

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The image at the beginning of this article is of a site in Germany known as The Henge (Fly Trap) where a magnetic levitation device – aka flying saucer – known as The Bell was reportedly developed by German scientists in the late 1930’s.

I watched a program the other night which I was surprised to see was not on the SciFi (SyFy) network, but on Canada’s History Television, one part in a series on the subject of extraterrestrials.  What follows is the network’s description of this episode.

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Ancient Aliens: Aliens and the Third Reich

If ancient aliens visited Earth in the remote past, could they have given us advanced technology, passed down through human history?And could this technology have helped the Third Reich build mysterious weapons and crafts far beyond the limits of 20th century science?

During World War II, there were reports that the Germans built an operational flying saucer, known as the Hanebu, which was said to use mythical technology found in ancient Indian texts. Another craft was rumored to have been constructed with the help of psychics and mediums who claimed to have received detailed blueprints from extraterrestrial beings.

Is it possible Hitler’s quest for world domination was aided and abetted by ancient extraterrestrial technology that was rediscovered? And could the allegedly rebuilt alien devices developed in Germany have played a role in America’s ability to land a man on the moon?

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The program posited that a number of Nazi scientists were recruited by the American government after the fall of the Third Reich. According to the show, these scientists were almost entirely responsible for the technology that resulted in the U.S. space program and putting the first man on the moon, aided in part by alien intelligence which had been passed on to them.  They cited Adolf Hitler’s devotion to occult mysticism as the impetus for the extraterrestrial contact.

The episode ended by purporting that many Nazi officers who disappeared after the fall of Berlin had actually been whisked away in a time machine. As if by means of validation they mentioned that Albert Einstein had deemed time travel to be theoretically possible.

My questions to you interesting – and hopefully interested – folks are such: (1) Why was this on a history channel? and (2) How fine is the line between genius and insanity?

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Smartphones and QR

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Forget hashbangs.

With the advent of smartphones with cameras and barcode scanners come QR as advertisement. I noticed this billboard for a local (and annoying) restaurant go up last month:Chino Latino

That square in the middle is a QR code, if you scan it from the street with your phone, it will reveal a special (or whatever information they choose to encode in it).

This isn’t new technology, but its emergence as an advertising tool – especially as an advertising tool that many people can use – is somewhat new.

You can turn pretty much anything made of content into one of these little codes:

Like text:

qrcode

URLs:

qrcode

Even SMS messages:

qrcode

There are a bunch of generators to play with, so go nuts.

…and the Crasstalk Anthem?

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So far there seems to be some consensus that all of our glitches are caused by DJ Lance Rock.  Our banhammer will be named after our first ban-victim.  (Watch out Tony Kaye, your insider status puts you in immediate jeopardy! Plus the irony would be kind of awesome.)  There is currently some movement to make the Honey Badger the Official Mascot.

But what about our Anthem?

There have been at least two proposals put forward, but we need more.

1) From slackjawed yoda, the following, which had me tearing up this morning.

2) A worthy counter-proposal, from BaldwinP

Both are appropriately overly-dramatic and ironic while actually capturing exactly how I sincerely feel!

What do you all think?

This Post is Hazardous to your Health: A Review

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This is going to be a horribly unpopular post, and I don’t care.  You know why I don’t care?  Because I’m a smoker.  And, from what I hear, all the time, regularly, ad nauseum, by virtue of my being a smoker, I don’t care about myself or anyone else.  So, that’s cool.  Easier for me.

On to the reviews/memoir.

These were the first cigarettes I smoked.  Because that’s what she smoked.

(Surprise, surprise.  Yes, I started smoking because of a girl.)

The original blend was really nice.  It was a really light cigarette, but with a nice leafy flavor.

Dry without tasting burnt.

Then Winston went “additive-free,” and they started to taste like urine.  Figure that one out.

Marlboro Lights.  They made me feel nauseous.  I didn’t smoke them for very long.

The taste was good, but seriously they were like smoking MSG.

Totally decent cigarette.  The Budweiser of Cigarettes.  Nothing fancy, but inoffensive.

I went through this phase briefly before I found…

Now this was my brand.  The King of Smokes.  They say they’re toasted.  I believe it.  The perfect golden leaf.  Flavorful, nice smell, full-bodied, really tobacco-ey.  No additive after-taste.

I picked a picture with non-U.S. packaging for a reason.  They don’t sell them in the U.S. anymore.  Bastards.

Oh, yeah, I went through this phase too.  I’m not proud.  I was in my mid-20’s and living in New York.  I thought it was some kind of City Regulation that I had to smoke them.

They actually aren’t bad.

The flavor is a little thin, but the little air pocket at the end of the filter is pretty cool.

I’ve also tried plenty of others along the way.  Menthol I just don’t get.  Why cover up the tobacco?  Reds and Non-filtered Luckies?  Good, but I tend to need my voice the next day.

Nat Shermans and assorted French and Canadian cigarettes?  Yummy, but I just feel too much like a prick when I smoke them.  (And smoking makes me feel enough like a prick by itself.)

I do love, however, the way Canadian cigarettes pack 25 shorties instead of 20 longer ones.

That’s genius.  Because really I rarely want a full cigarette.

Well, I guess it’s genius for me, but probably not for the cigarette companies, because I would have to buy new cigarettes less often.

Here is where I am now.  It’s a damned fine cigarette.  The taxes in New York make all cigarettes so expensive that they aren’t any more expensive than any of the ones above anymore.

They last longer, really full flavor.  No additives.  They pack them so tight that you have to loosen the tobacco for an even burn instead of tamping the box to pack the leaf like with other smokes.

So that’s the history of my slow march to lung disease.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.  Although, from what I hear, you probably haven’t.

Saturday Open Thread: Post-Whiskey Edition

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whiskeyIt’s a slow moving morning because of those fantastic old fashioneds last night.

However, I thought I’d give everyone a place to revel today and share a story.

Last night at the fancy bar, drinking our fancy cocktails, a couple of friends and I were talking about the nightmare hash bang redesign. The server was bringing drinks to others in our group and stopped.

“Are you talking about Gawker?”

We said yes and she launched into a brief rant about how terrible the redesign was and how the comments suck now. (This is not word for word, for I was a little tipsy.) That’s a gift for you all.

When Chicken Thighs Get Your Own Thighs Open Wide

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Cap’n was working late last night.  A psycho decided to kill his stepfather, girlfriend and her mother, then stab a random pedestrian, then carjack someone and stab her too.  Since he was tearing around Brooklyn in a stolen Pontiac with every cop in the NYPD looking for him, it was Cap’n’s job to find out if he had any prior arrests.  And he had four, two of which were sealed because he was a juvenile… at the age of 20! How ridiculous is that?

So, the joy of my Valentine Party Basket was somewhat diminished in his office after this, which irked me.

There are few restaurants in his gritty precinct, and he wasn’t going to order in, so he’d be ravenous when he got home.  I decided to do it up even though I’d likely be asleep.

Chicken, Risotto, Broccoli feast

4 chicken thighs, skin on

1 shallot

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice (1 medium lemon)

2 tablespoons sherry

Black pepper to taste

Sea salt to taste

Fennel seeds

½ tsp. thyme

½ tsp oregano

Peel and slice the shallots thin.  Insert the slices under the skin of each chicken thigh.  Whisk everything else together in a small bowl.  Line a small roasting pan with parchment paper and arrange the thighs on it.  Pour marinade over it. Sprinkle with more pepper, if desired.  Roast at 425 for 45 minutes to an hour.

Risotto: I use Rice Select Italian Rice and follow the package directions, BUT – I use chicken broth instead of water, and the last cup of liquid added is sherry.  I also add mushrooms and cooked shallots.

Broccoli – frozen florets, blanched for 2 to 3 minutes in water at a rolling boil, then plunged into ice water.  To serve, microwave for one minute with 1 tbsp. butter and the juice of half a lemon.  Serve with lemon wedge.

I whipped all this up, covered it carefully, and left a note about the really good chardonnay in the fridge door and the bagged salad in the crisper.  Then I took a place setting of the china he got me for Christmas out of the cabinet and stacked it next to the serving dishes, along with a linen napkin and one of our crystal wine glasses.  Then I took shower #3 of the day and went to sleep.

At 2 AM, I should not have been surprised to find my ear being nibbled and a scruffy chin running down my neck as the long t-shirt I sleep in was expertly removed.  But I was.  I mean, we both put in long days and Sex Night is usually Saturday.  Spontaneous Sex Night usually happens when we’re both home at the same time.  But there we were, and ’twas glorious.  More glorious was going to the kitchen for the last of the chardonnay and finding that he’d done the dishes.

I make no guarantee that making this dish will result in what P.G. Wodehouse would call “the pash”.  But it will increase your chances.  If it does, plan on Saturday being a Lazy Day.