really how else can you cook chicken?

 The long holiday weekend is here. The beginning of summer. And what better way to kick it off (and honor our nation’s veterans) than drinking 1/3 of a domestic beer, cramming it up the back-end of a chicken and grilling it? I suppose you could rig up something similar with a coat hanger MacGyver-style, but this is the official model.

The only acceptable alternative to this would be the turkey fryer, but really that’s more of an Easter/Thanksgiving occasion.

[via Gizmodo]

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problem, meet solution

The Rejection Hotline is a number you can give out to somebody who asks for your phone number if you just don’t want to give out your real number. Located in over 30 cities nationwide, and with people having cell phone numbers from all over the place, you never have to deal with telling someone no again. Get your number before you head out tonight.

[via MetaFilter]

Special props to Amanda who was able to recall the NYC number from memory when it came up in discussion during outdoor drinks @ Bryant Park.

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wackos at the controls

From a Moscow Times article about how the world almost blew itself up cold war style:

Consider, for example, a fun Cold War-era fact from Bruce Blair, who is president of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information … Blair was a Minuteman nuclear missile launch officer in the 1970s, and regularly ran through simulations in which he and his colleagues launched up to 50 missiles at the Soviet Union.

To launch a Minuteman in those days, one had to “unlock” the missile by dialing in a code — the equivalent of a safety catch on a handgun. However, Blair reports, the U.S. Strategic Air Command was worried that a bunch of sissy safety features might slow things down. It ordered all locks set to 00000000 — and in launch checklists, reminded all launch officers like Blair to keep the codes there. “So the ‘secret unlock code’ during the height of the nuclear crises of the Cold War,” Blair says, “remained constant at 00000000.”

[via Ian]

As much as the cold war did for improving the quality of movie bad guys we got damn lucky some nut didn’t decide to press 0000000 into a keypad somewhere.

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pop? seriously, pop?

Behold a fantastic soda vs pop infographic/map

When I was a kid in Southern California we called carbonated soft drinks “coke” in the generic sense. I wasn’t introduced to “soda” until I moved to Manhattan in 1985.

It looks like California has been slowly working in “soda” but not to the near 100% penetration of the North-East.

Does anyone know what they use in the “other” sections of Virginia and North Carolina?

[via MetaFilter]

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new york learning

Today I learned:



  • There are more French restaurants in New York than in Paris [via Snapple bottle top]
  • Tribeca stands for Triangle Below Canal Street [via some tourists looking at a map]

Note: I’ve already been told I’m an idiot for not knowing #2, but I’m betting I’m not the only one.


update: spelling

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hot knife through butter

So I’m working on having batteries in every single bathroom product.

My latest addition: the Gillette M3 Power razor. Oh my this thing is incredible. AAA battery powered vibrating razor blades sounds scary, but fear not.

Also featured is my Oral-B hummingbird vibrating flosser and Sonicare (non-Elite version) which started it all.

Pretty soon I’ll reach a Jetsons ideal of just walking into the bathroom and letting the robots take it from there.

I do wonder what my neighbors make of all that vibrating noise.

   

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trump has bad hair

John posted Trump’s rules… in summary:

  1. You have to be born with enough brainpower.
  2. Once you have that, you have to love what you’re doing. I’ve never seen anyone succeed who didn’t love what they were doing.
  3. You cannot stop. If there is a concrete wall in front of you, you have to go through it. You can never, ever give up or even think in terms of giving up.
  4. Confidence is a very important thing. But confidence isn’t something you just develop by saying “I’m going to do this or that.” You really have to believe it.
  5. I love pitting people against each other. My whole life is based on that. It brings out the best in people and the worst in people. If the worst comes out, you don’t want them working for you.
  6. You have to remain cool under fire and let criticism roll off you. Good leaders handle conflict easily and bad ones are eaten up by it.
  7. You must work well with others and be loyal to your team. Disloyalty is the worst of all traits. I seldom use the words “You’re fired!” in business, unless somebody is really scum and stole from me.

[via SimpleGeek]

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