Eating the world's hottest pepper

(Biertijd)

I generally avoid items that involve people suffering for the sake of entertainment, but this one broke the barrier.

via Bifurcated Rivets
by way of Binge Thinker

Naga Jolokia pepper

Mutant Spud

Lebanese farmer Khalil Semhat holds a giant potato in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on December 6, 2008. The farmer couldn't believe his peeled eyes when he discovered he had grown a massive potato weighing 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds), he said today, adding that he now hopes to enter the Guinness World Records book. AFP/Getty Images

This one is ripe for a caption contest.

I'll start it off: FEED ME!!!

via FP Passport

Marilyn Manson - Food Pyramid

(video link)

Marilyn Manson explains the food pyramid in this delightful romp. Helpful and edifying.

via We know who we are and what we want to say.

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Foreign Policy: The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2008 Don't miss them this time.

Briton saved dozens in hotel A millionaire private equity broker from London has emerged as a hero who stopped Islamic terrorists from massacring Britons and Americans in their attack on Mumbai.

LAX Tops Nation In Stolen, Missing Luggage Items "Easy pickings?" "Easy pickings." "I wouldn't put anything valuable in LAX" These two LAX employees would only talk if we concealed their identities. "I saw thefts within the first few weeks of working there." They both say there are organized rings of thieves, who identify valuables in your checked luggage by looking at the TSA x-ray screens, then communicate with baggage handlers by text or cell phone, telling them exactly what to look for. (via)

What is truth serum? Indian officials plan to inject captured Mumbai terrorist with the "truth serum," sodium pentothal, but history tells us that the technique isn't up to the task

Particulate Emissions From Laser Printers Do laser printers emit pathogenic toner particles into the air? Some people are convinced that they do. As a result, this topic is the subject of public controversy. Researchers have now investigated what particles the printers really do release into the air.

Black Garlic Introducing a simple food with a wonderfully complex flavor. Black garlic is sweet meets savory, a perfect mix of molasses-like richness and tangy garlic undertones. It has a tender, almost jelly-like texture with a melt-in-your-mouth consistency similar to a soft dried fruit. Hard to believe, but true. It’s as delicious as it is unique. (via)

also:
Two cases of compulsive swearing - in sign language
A Fragment Theory Of Deja Vu
Academics invent a mathematical equation for why people procrastinate (when they were supposed to be writing papers)
Ancient city discovered deep in Amazonian rainforest linked to the legendary white-skinned Cloud People of Peru
Prized sculpture destroyed on trip to Art Basel Miami
How to Stretch a Canvas

don't miss:
The ultimate fate of Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs (via)

viddy:
William Eggleston: I am at war with the obvious

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Cannibal call not a hoax: The woman, known only as Anthea from Guisborough, rang up the Breakfast Show after DJ Graham Mack asked listeners about the most unusual thing they had eaten. The topic sparked a flurry of calls from Teessiders who had eaten sea urchins, monkey brains and play doh. But nothing prepared him for Anthea who calmly said: “I’ve eaten human being”. A shocked Mr Mack replied slowly: “Oh my goodness. Right, all bets are off. You can’t beat that. How come you were a cannibal?” (listen to the call) I believe her. What do yo think? (via)

also:
Terry and Harry Gilliam: being and having a famous parent (via)
Malcolm Gladwell Talks Sports (via)
Cryptome Eyeball: Obama Chicago Home Security Zone
dublab podcast: David Axelrod interview

60-Second Science: Broken Windows Crime Theory It’s called the "broken windows" theory and it says that in a neighborhood where buildings have broken windows, people are more likely to engage in bad behavior. Broken windows are contagious.

Word Spy: "mug me" earphones n. The distinctive white cord and earbuds associated with the often-stolen Apple iPod digital music player. Also: mug-me earphones.

viddy:
The most outrageous day on The Price is Right
Japanese Man Makes Mexico Airport Home

Wow, this is the first stray bullets since the day before the election. I'll be getting more of these up as I get some traction. The November Debacle really threw me off my game.

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That Rothschild clan in full: eccentricity, money, influence and scandal Nat Rothschild’s career path – from playboy to plutocrat – has to be seen against the backdrop of his family history, studded as it is with eccentrics who were torn between loyalty to an immense and powerful name and the urge to break away from the clan. An interesting look at the 3rd Baron Rothschild and the celebrated, reviled and feared family of global players and manipulators. (via)

Turkish police may have beaten encryption key out of TJ Maxx suspect Otherwise known as rubber-hose cryptanalysis. (via)

Is surfing the Internet altering your brain? The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.

What I've Learned: John Malkovich There will be people who will hate anything you do. And some people will really love it. But that's not really different from the people who really hate it. You could learn a thing or two from what he's learned. (via)

also:
Judge Slams RIAA Tactics (via)
A guide to the Hippocratic Oath
Seven of the greatest scientific hoaxes
Top 10 Science Hoaxes
Evolution of Logos (pictoral history of well known logo designs) (via)
How to Take Better Photographs
Audio Slideshow: Photos compete for the Prix Pictet
Listen to Genius (audio library) (via)
Andrei Codrescu: Life Without Smell May Not Be Worth It (audio)
Pinewood Dialogues (conversations with film, TV, digital media innovators and creators) (audio) (via)

A by-product of obsessively, constantly surfing the net to discover the bright and the shiny is a steady flow of promising new ideas. Mostly slight variations on existing great ideas that tickle your fancy. Rands In Repose: FriendDA (via)

viddy:
FreakyFlicks (obscure torrents) (via)
Studs Terkel a/v linkdump
Film, Art and Creative Television (exclusive videos and interviews with artists and filmmakers) (via)
The greatest choreography in film history
Kids in the Hall - Sausages
Pig Fights Lion (wow)
Good for Nothing, Peanut-Stealing Cat (via)
Klaus Nomi's Lime Tart Recipe (doc)

"Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think." - John Cage, 'Rules for Students and Teachers' (via)

Culinary Olympians

Pictures of the Week:

Nearly 1,600 chefs from all over the world converge on Erfurt, Germany for the 23rd International Exhibition of Culinary Art, a.k.a. the Culinary Olympics.

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Middle East Cockroaches Invade U.S. During the Iraq War American military personnel have unknowingly been bringing back Middle Eastern cockroaches in their belongings and equipment. One such globe-trotting insect, the Turkestan cockroach, is now settled in the southwestern part of the U.S....

Texas bans nibbling fish pedicures The US state of Texas has banned fish pedicures over health and safety concerns, denying salon customers the opportunity to enjoy the sensation of hundreds of small fish nibbling away the dead skin from their feet.

Mutant fish develops a taste for human flesh in India The enormous goonch, a type of catfish, is said to have developed a taste for human flesh after feeding on corpses thrown into the river after funeral ceremonies. Locals rumours have held for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water. But they think it has moved on from scavenging to targeting live bathers who swim in the Great Kali, which flows along the India-Nepal border.

also:
Hummus Wars
On-tap Inspiration Online (for writers)
Dr. Dymaxion's Atomic Condos (Bucky stuff)
Projector for your phone
"Calamities of Genius"
Forest Whitaker to direct and star in Satchmo biopic

viddy:
Lab Created Diamonds
First live webcast of a lion hunt
Heavy Metal Farmer
Staubli Robot Dance Show
Hunter S. Thompson: The Crazy Never Die (via)

Pablum

image from The American Package Museum

Pablum is a processed cereal for infants originally marketed by the Mead Johnson Company in 1931. The trademarked name is a contracted form of the Latin word pabulum, meaning "foodstuff". The name is also used metaphorically, especially in literary criticism, to refer to something bland, unappetizing, or with little content value.

chilies

Chinese farmers dried chilies under the sun on the outskirts of Kurla, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Tuesday (Reuters)

Photo Journal: Pictures of the Day

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Baseball's UK heritage confirmed A diary that documents a game being played in Guildford in 1755 has been verified by Surrey History Centre. William Bray, a Surrey diarist and historian from Shere, wrote about the game when he was still a teenager. Major League Baseball, the governing body of the game in the US, has been informed of the discovery. (via)

Baang You're Dead Lee had recently quit his job in order to spend more time playing games, presumably so that he could eventually "go pro" and compete in South Korea's popular gaming competitions. It was a life choice that would ultimately prove fatal. Armed with cheap and fast connections and the latest gear, some South Koreans are gaming themselves to death. (thx Nick)

The last shot of the American Civil War was fired.... in the Arctic, off the coast of Alaska!

also:
100 Free Online Ivy League Courses You Should Take Just for Fun (via)
SnowCrystals.com Your online guide to snowflakes, snow crystals, and other ice phenomena (exhaustive)
Man Killed By Exploding Lava Lamp (via)

viddy:
Meatarians train plants to eat burgers
Rupert Sheldrake - The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence (via)
Brewster Kahle on the need for a digital library 'free for the world'
How to survive a nuclear attack (don't miss it)
Howard Rheingold on collaboration (I don't link frequently to Smart Mobs, but I keep and eye on it. Stick with this one, it's good.) (via)

Unnecessary Knowledge: Every year approximately 2,500 left-handed people are killed by using object or machinery designed for right-handed people. If you're left-handed and work with tools or machinery, you become aware of this possibility. In many cases, you become right-handed. (via)

P.B. Slices

Aw yeah, individually wrapped peanut butter slices. No more having to get up from the computer to wash off dirty knives, and cleanup is a breeze!

They have a fun and informative website.

via Hysterical Paroxysm

Cuisine

A film by François Vogel

via a best truth

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From the Art World to the Underworld The FBI's Robert Wittman has spent his career chasing missing masterpieces. Now thieves are growing bolder -- and more violent. This guy's career is worthy of a feature film, which I'd wager will be in the works once he retires later this year. An epic novel would be more appropriate. Cooler than the X-Files-- don't skip this one.

N Korea 'develops special noodle' North Korean scientists have developed a new kind of noodle that delays feelings of hunger, a Japan-based pro-Pyongyang newspaper has reported.

Some solar flares may be caused by dark matter Some solar flares may be caused by dark matter particles called axions spewing out from the centre of the Sun, new calculations suggest.

They Never Said It "Elementary, my dear Watson."

Richard Nixon's Piano Concerto #1 (for surreal, watch the video for a taste) (via)

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Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon Big Microsoft Study Supports Small World Theory.

New Bargains on Old Furniture Some antique furniture is going for a quarter of what it fetched a year ago as people gravitate toward contemporary styles. On top of that, struggling consumers have been liquidating their collections of vintage pieces, flooding the market. Even high-end auctioneers such as Sotheby's have seen some disappointing sales of all but the rarest pieces. Time to buy low. The pendulum will swing. (via)

also:
The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years!
Tom Waits writes about his 20 most cherished albums of all time (good taste) (via)
Philip Toledano - Days with My Father (touching photo essay) (via)
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books The digital archive of basic references on Silk Road, including 92 rare books (29 authors : 19,242 pages) by the digitization of whole books from cover to cover. (beautiful) (via)
Interactive Map of Early Modern London (via)
Ten Great Examples of Science Fiction World Building (via)
August is World Building Month
We Are What We Do a new movement inspiring people to use their everyday actions to change the world. (via) (via)

viddy:
Ray Bradbury on Literature and Love (via)
Today I Googled "Biggest Regret" (thx)
They don't nag and they don't eat much (bizarre sex life)
Play With Your Food (vegetable symphony)

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How medical marijuana is transforming the pot industry Most researchers agree that the value of the U.S. marijuana crop has increased sharply since the mid-nineties, as California and twelve other states have passed medical-marijuana laws. A drug-policy analyst named Jon Gettman recently estimated that in 2006 Californians grew more than twenty million pot plants. He reckoned that between 1981 and 2006 domestic marijuana production increased tenfold, making pot the leading cash crop in America, displacing corn. A 2005 State Department report put the country’s marijuana crop at twenty-two million pounds. The street value of California’s crop alone may be as high as fourteen billion dollars. (via)

For Some Products, Prices Have Been Falling A fair bit in the last ten years, too. (via)

Unidentified Flying Threats A healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers leads people to disregard U.F.O. sightings without a moment’s thought. But in the United States, this translates into overdependence on radar data and indifference to all kinds of unidentified aircraft — a weakness that could be exploited by terrorists or anyone seeking to engage in espionage against the United States. (via)

Extradition appeal for British hacker dismissed A British hacker who admitted breaking into U.S. military computers hoping to uncover evidence of UFOs looks set to be extradited to the U.S. after the highest British court dismissed his appeal against the extradition on Wednesday. This guy is facing 60 years in prison for "hacking" wide open, non-password-protected military computers using a 56k modem. It was found afterward that entire suites of computers were unprotected by the most basic login passwords. They should give this guy a medal and throw their sysadmins in prison. Our government is an embarrassment. (more)

Hacking Without Exploits Black Hat researchers will demonstrate how the bad guys are quietly raking in big bucks without ninja hacking skills, tools, or exploit code (via)

Man deposits millions, one tattered bill at a time For years, authorities say, he and his family have popped in and out of U.S. banks, looking to change about $20 million in decaying $100 bills for clean cash, offering ever-changing stories... (via)

Building 'The Matrix' Now physicists have created a rudimentary prototype of a machine that simulates quantum phenomena using quantum physics, rather than using data kept in a classical computer. While the new device can't make people fly like the Matrix does, it demonstrates a technique that could enable physicists to create, in the virtual world, materials that don't yet exist in nature and perhaps figure out how to build, in the real world, superconductors that work at room temperature, for example. (via)

One teabag, one spoonful of neurotoxins The PBOI says of aspartame: “The chemical caused an unacceptable level of brain tumors in animal testing. Based on this fact, the PBOI ruled that aspartame should not be added to the food supply.” Add to that all the microwaves pumped into your brain by cellphones and you have quite a toxic brew. (via)

also:
Widespread Flaws in Online Banking Systems
Bush Administration Scandal Map (via)
Six Vacation Photos That Can Kill You (via)
Fly 1950s style From the end of July until the end of the year, Finnair’s retro plane, Silver Bird, will fly to several destinations. The cabin crew will wear 1950s-style uniforms and the beat of music from the 50s will spur the takeoff. (via)
10 Most Bizarre Restaurants
The Bureau of Atomic Tourism (via)
Billy Bob Thornton on his music and movies Big Zappa and Beefheart fan. (via)
Laurie Anderson Interview (via)
Glitter And Doom: Tom Waits In Concert Hear A Stunning Performance, Recorded At Atlanta's Fox Theater (via)
Steve Reich Interview (podcast) (via)
Voodoo Funk Record Digging in West Africa (via)

viddy:
Julie Driscoll - Season Of The Witch (groovy)
More Traffic in Tehran (even better)
I Love Sarah Jane Excellent zombie short. NSFW
Tank Man A documentary about the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

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Planning smart for your food supply Why store? The world we live in today is fast moving, ever changing and full of surprises. On top of this, there has never been a time when the average family has had less food in their homes than now. A hundred years ago, people generally didn’t go to the store very often. As a rule, America was much more agrarian than it is today, with people growing the majority of the plants and animals they ate. Today, many of us would be at our rope’s end after just a couple of days of not being able to go to the grocery store. (via)

Balloons carried gun away in Red Lobster executive's 'CSI'-like suicide "This was apparently an elaborate attempt to make it look like he was murdered..." (via)

Man claims to know source of 'Phoenix Lights' UFO sighting Dr. James R. Bartzen said he has indisputable proof that the so-called "Phoenix Lights" were a product of secret man-made technology being shielded from the public. (via)

Blurred Out: 51 Things You Aren't Allowed to See on Google Maps Most of these are understandable, but William Hurt's home in Paris? What's going on over there? Maybe he complained like the Borings. (via)

also:
Umberto Eco interview (via)
China Miéville interview (via)
Restoring Renaissance Frescoes (via)
Disturbing bound feet photos (via)

factoid: After studying it for 47 days, the New York Museum of Modern Art discovered that the Matisse painting Le Bateau was hanging upside down. (link) (via)

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Chinese troops guarding carrots, tomatoes and one lonesome uglyfruit.

True to form, CIA keeps its spy museum hush-hush I hear the NSA's is even more so. (via)

Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella Splits Watermelons, Defends Presidents I would like to take a moment to tell you how happy I am with my new umbrella. Having been a martial artist for over 30 years I have always wished to find a umbrella that could stand the strain of being used in a true self-defense situation. Your umbrella has answered that call and more! Be sure to check out the video. (via)

New service tracks missing laptops for free When the team members first started work on Adeona, it wasn't the tracking and retrieval of missing laptops that piqued their curiosity. It was a privacy problem: How could they build a laptop-tracking service that was so private that even the people running the service could not discover the location of the laptop?

Overreacting to a Computer Beating Poker Pros Newspapers trumpeted a landmark event last week: a computer program beating professional poker players head-to-head at Limit Hold-Em. Parallels have been drawn to Big Blue’s victory over Gary Kasparov roughly a decade ago. Those parallels are not very meaningful.

Out of this world Iain Banks on how practising with SF led to The Wasp Factory The Wasp Factory was Iain Banks's first novel, right? Try sixth. (via)

S. Darko Ed Harcourt is writing the score.

Poppy powder a cheap 'high' Unlike opium, which oozes out as a milky substance from a lacerated poppy bud, poppy powder is made by grinding dried buds from the dried plants, sold in flower shops for decorative purposes. It's a simple process, and in recent years the powder has been increasingly popular in the burgeoning community of Indian origin west of Toronto. They call it "dode" and it's being used as a stimulant. (via)

Man cuts off own head with chainsaw after flat is earmarked to be bulldozed by developers It is understood police are not treating his death as suspicious. Just extremely fucked up. How do you psyche yourself up for that? (via)

Absurd Entries in the OED Ammon Shea spent a year working his way through the Oxford English Dictionary. The result is his book Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages. But in the run-up to his book’s publication, Shea shared many of his most bizarre finds in an Oxford University Press blog.

also:
Interval signals, signature tunes, airchecks and identification announcements from international, domestic, and clandestine radio stations around the world (via)
Allmenus has 244,822 menus in 8,146 cities nationwide. (via)
13 Things Your Waiter Won’t Tell You

stray bullets

Dog meat ban for Olympics I've often said that many Westerners will never be entirely at ease with people that eat dogs. This story is sourced from a blog post with a notice that purports to be from the Beijing City Government Food Safety Office. There's a link to a translation in the comments.

Bull semen and cigarettes: Just a few things the US exports to Iran Though it's the one remaining member of the "Axis of Evil," the value of U.S. exports to Iran has reportedly increased tenfold since George Bush took office.

How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand Thanks to globalization, the Allied victories in World War II, and American leadership in science and technology, English has become so successful across the world that it's escaping the boundaries of what we think it should be. In part, this is because there are fewer of us: By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language. Already, most conversations in English are between nonnative speakers who use it as a lingua franca. In China, this sort of free-form adoption of English is helped along by a shortage of native English-speaking teachers, who are hard to keep happy in rural areas for long stretches of time. An estimated 300 million Chinese — roughly equivalent to the total US population — read and write English but don't get enough quality spoken practice. The likely consequence of all this? In the future, more and more spoken English will sound increasingly like Chinese.

End of a Kafkaesque nightmare: writer's papers finally come to light Scholars of the 20th-century writer Franz Kafka were in a state of suspense last night at the news that the remains of his estate, which have been hoarded in a Tel Aviv flat for decades, may soon be revealed. (via)

Alfred Hitchcock Cameos All of them. I wish the images were a bit bigger.

Eric Joyner: Robots and Donuts

Eric Joyner

excellent interview on ToyCyte:

ToyCyte: So how long has the war between robots and donuts been going on?

Eric Joyner: Roughly 8 years. The origins are shrouded in mystery. Some say it began with a baking experiment gone horribly wrong. Others say the donuts invaded from outer space in search of oil and food.