Posted by Alex in Religion on April 13, 2006 at 11:42 pm
From the website:
Traditional Easter eggs, depicting Jesus Christ and other religious themes, lie in a basket at an Easter traditions fair in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday April 4, 2004. Romanians, the majority sharing the Orthodox religion, will celebrate Easter on April 11.
The world’s most expensive sandwich is for sale at Selfridges Department Store in London for £85 or $148. It is made from Wagyu beef, foie gras, black truffle mayo, brie de maux, roquet leaf, red peppers, mustard confit, British plum tomatoes, and sourdough bread.
Wagyu cattle are one of the most expensive breeds in the world. The Japanese cows are raised on a special diet, including beer and grain. They are supposed to be regularly massaged with sake, the Japanese rice wine, to tenderize the flesh.
It is called (ironically) the McDonald sandwich, after its creator Scott McDonald, the chef at the department store.
Muhammad Ali, one of the world’s most recognized people, has sold 80 percent of the marketing rights to his name and likeness to a firm for $50 million.
The 64-year-old former heavyweight champion, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, will retain a 20 percent interest in the business. The new venture will be operated by a company called G.O.A.T. LLC, an acronym for "The Greatest of All Time."
A chunk of ice fell out of the sky and left a huge hole in the ground at Oakland’s Bushrod Park.
From the website:
Jacek Purat saved a piece of ice chunk that originally measured three feet in diameter. He says it came out of the southwestern sky, slammed into the ground along Shattuk Avenue and exploded into pieces. …
It burrowed about two-and-a-half feet into the ground, where Oakland firefighters retrieved it. …
ABC7 aviation expert Ron Wilson believes the only possible way it could have come from an airplane is if the plane’s valve for fresh water leaked at a high elevation. …
The other possibility is that it is a chunk of ice from space.
Indians in this remote mountain village in southern Colombia are marketing a particularly refreshing soft drink that harks back to Coca-Cola’s original formula, when "coca" was in the name for a reason.
Advertising posters here describe the carbonated, citrus-flavored Coca-Sek as "more than an energizer" — a buzz that just might be provided by a key ingredient, a syrup produced by boiling coca leaves.
Lebowski Fest is a bowling event celebrating all things relating to the Coen Brothers 1998 film, The Big Lebowski. It can be likened to a Star Trek convention in a very loose sense. The event takes place at a bowling alley and includes unlimited bowling, costume , trivia, farthest traveled, and bowling contests, prizes, and what-have-you. The friend of the Coen Brothers who inspired the main character played by Jeff Bridges, Jeff "The Dude" Dowd has been known to make an appearance and drink some White Russians.
Professor David Nutt believes that there is no reason why we can’t make hangover-free alcohol, like Star Trek’s synthehol.
Alcohol works in the brain mainly by latching onto signalling molecules called GABA-A receptors. There are dozens of subtypes of these; not all of them are associated with specific effects of alcohol. For example, memory loss may occur in conjuction with drinking because alcohol binds to alpha-5, a GABA-A receptor subtype in the hippocampus.
Professor Nutt suggests that if molecules that bind poorly to the bad subtypes like alpha-5 could be developed, it would be possible to retain the pleasant effects of alcohol without the bad side-effects.
In Florida, Customs and Border Patrol has seized a giant shipment of 14,000 brass knucles disguised as belt buckles from Pakistan and China.
"There is no way this could be used as a belt buckle," Local 6 reporter Erik von Ancken said. "This is not a novelty, it is solid metal used for only one reason police tells us. In fact, even the packaging is a joke — it is spelled ‘b-u-k-l-e.’ The packaging, from Pakistan and China, reads ‘belt buckle’ but police say that is ridiculous."
For those who don’t know about captcha (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart), it is a question used to prevent automated bots to submit a form.
Take a look at Rafita Mirabal stare down a charging 400-lbs bull with nothing but a red cape and a short sword. Oh, did I tell you he’s 9 years old?
Rafita already has had about two dozen fights in bullrings since 2005, including his latest challenge on Sunday in Texcoco, just east of Mexico City.
His contests differ slightly from a regular bullfight. The animals are younger and somewhat smaller, and he does not give the matador’s final death blow with his sword. The ban on swordplay isn’t to protect Rafita, but rather the sport’s reputation.
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