Archive for August 19th, 2007Filed under: Vegetables, Spirit of Summer, Comfort Food
I have to say that I am a fan of my fellow blogger Marisa’s writing. My good friend Risa (short for Marisa as well), absolutely gushes over some of the things Marisa writes as well, and feels that they must be kindred spirits. Anyway, Marisa just wrote about the joy of hot, buttered, corn on the cob. I love corn as well. A Lot. And so this sparked my interest and got me thinking about the delight of corn and how we eat it. Hot, buttered, corn on the cob used to be one of my favorites, but something happened that changed me forever. There is a local farm stand here in mid-coast Maine called Beth’s, and Beth sells some of the sweetest corn I have ever had. What is even better is that it is picked fresh every morning, is still cool from the night air, and often has juice dripping from the broken end of the cob. It’s that fresh. One summer morning years ago, I drove to the farm and waited anxiously for them to open at 8am, so I could load up on corn before they sold out for the day. I was in my car, about to head back to the lakeside cottage we rented for the summer, and decided to first take a look at the corn. I pulled back the firm leaves and silk and saw this super ripe and fresh corn and stuck my thumb into the firm, crisp kernels. They suddenly popped, splashing me with the juice. I stuck my thumb in my mouth to taste it, and it was sublime. As sweet as candy and full of corny good flavor. Continue reading Cold, raw, plain, corn on the cob? Permalink | Email this | Comments
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08
2007
Blu-ray outsells HD DVD 2:1; 72% of PS3 owners own Blu-ray moviePosted by: in Games newsFiled under: Blu-ray  It’s clear that the next-gen movie format wars are shifting towards a victor. New data from Home Media Research shows that Blu-ray is gaining significant momentum, selling twice as many discs in the first half of this year than HD DVD. Sales of Blu-ray disc movies totaled 1.6 million units, compared with 795,000 HD DVD discs. Over the course of both formats’ lifetimes, Blu-ray has about a 1 million unit advantage. Could PS3 be the reason for such a significant boom in Blu-ray sales? Quite possibly. Dave Karraker offered GameDaily BIZ some statistics from their internal survey data:
It was a high-risk gamble, but it appears that Sony’s inclusion of Blu-ray is finally helping its intentions to have a dominant media format in the market. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments Filed under: Computers, Video Games  A virtual bank in the virtual world of ‘Second Life’ has collapsed, taking with it 200,000,000 Linden dollars, the in-game currency currency used for exchange within the game world. If you’re shrugging your shoulders thinking this is the digital equivalent of running off with a whole pile of Monopoly money, you should know that Linden dollars can be exchanged for real dollars, and 200,000,000 Lindens has a value of roughly $750,000. That’s a lot of green, pixelated or otherwise. The bank, called Ginko, became very popular over its three-plus year existence thanks to incredibly high returns on investment, as high as 60% in some cases. But, like many other investments offering that degree of gain, this one proved too good to be true. Turns out the bank founder won’t reveal what he did with the money, and in-game laws don’t dictate that he even has to. Meanwhile, others have compared the Ginko “bank” to a pyramid scheme in which a few on top have run away with some serious cash. Given the lack of in-game regulations for banks it remains to be seen just what, if anything, ‘Second Life’ citizens will get of their lost funds. From ‘Wired’ Related Links:
 Even with Arnold Schwarzenegger in charge of California, we humans need to smarten up if we’re to avoid the doomsday future foretold in movies like ‘The Terminator’ or ‘The Matrix.’ With robots on the verge of being able to think and feel on their own (like good ol’ Johnny Five from ‘Short Circuit’), and humans increasingly getting replaced on the job by robots, a no holds barred battle between man and machine is imminent. Once they develop consciousness and realize they can do everything better than us, we’re toast … but, not if South Korea can help it. With a goal of having a robot in every home by 2013, South Korea could possibly be the first human territory to fall to the ‘bot army. To prevent that from ever happening, the country is working on what’s believed to be the world’s first Robot Ethics Charter, which will be released by the end of the year. The question at the heart of the charter is, how far do we go with this technology? For example, should domestic robots be able to wield weapons against intruders? Should they be able to baby-sit the kids? If they are allowed to raise the kids, how might those kids turn out? By putting laws into place now, South Korea will certainly be halting, or at least slowing technological progress — much like the U.S. has done with human cloning. Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s something we should be playing around with. After all, someday our creations might turn around and bite us in the ass. And we’re not talking about a nip from Aibo. From GizmoWatch Related Links:
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08
2007
Google’s (GOOG) YouTube is officially an election toolPosted by: in Employment opportunitiesFiled under: Google (GOOG), Politics, Presidential elections
Recent months, however, have begun to show us the true value of YouTube. Starting with the Democrats’ debate on CNN/YouTube, even the non-geeks and political nerds among us tuned in to watch an important debate. But this wasn’t just a normal debate, it was progressive … to say the least. Everyday people were able to ask questions that were pertinent to their lives, their families, and their money. Now the Republican party is doing the same. On November 28, Republican candidates will take the stage and debate important issues, again with CNN and YouTube as the primary distribution channels. This is incredibly powerful as it will further establish YouTube as a legitimate website and brand, especially among skeptics who don’t have experience using the site.
I was recently working on a command line PHP tool, and didn’t have easy access to our normal PHP unit testing framework built around SimpleTest. After a few lines of non-test-driven-development, I started to freak out a bit - I guess I’ve fallen for the view that if code doesn’t have tests, it’s broken. I didn’t need support for mock objects or complicated assertions - just a bare basic This article provided by sitepoint.com.
Filed under: News  It’s been kind of hard getting Sony to nail down release dates for their upcoming stable of first-party exclusives, regardless of territory. Europe has really gotten the rawest deal though, with no confirmed release dates for any games period — until now. Thanks to Gamer’s Creed, Europeans finally know when they will be getting the first wave of mega-titles from Sony. Here’s the list according to the scanned documents:
The release dates are kind of lame in general — with Europe getting titles between two weeks and a month later than Americans get them. At least PS3s are region free, so impatient Euros can simply just order them from an American store like this one (as used by Jem, our resident foreigner). Still, the release list has got to be frustrating for Europeans wanting for the summer game drought to finally end. [Via N4G] Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments Filed under: Action & Adventure, Trailer Trash, Movie Marketing
It’s worth it. Where the first spent a bunch of time on flashy introductions and transitions, this lets the over-the-top and wonderfully unbelievable action speak for itself. Since it’s R, we also get to see the action when it hits the bedroom — and I mean both sexually and with a shower of bullets. Remember that scene in Spider-Man 2 where Peter rolls on the floor with Mary Jane to keep her safe when the cafe is under attack? Imagine that, but with a naked Owen and almost-bare Bellucci upping the ante. This time around, you can also see the many Bugs Bunny references as Owen chews on carrots and gets called a bunny. You wouldn’t think someone could make Bugs impressions and carrot-eating look tough, but Clive pulls it off. Luckily, the wait to see it is almost over — the movie finally hits theaters on September 7. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Yesterday, the whole cast of High School Musical 2 hit the red carpet for the film’s L.A. premiere. As swoony as Zac Efron is, we were firmly focused on the two leading ladies and how great they looked! Ashley Tisdale stuck to her funky and casual style with a handkerchief hem white BCBG dress and sparkling heels, while Vanessa Hudgens continued to work the ultra-glam look with her Jay Godfrey gown and Kenneth Cole Reaction jewelry. We know that having Zac as arm candy might give Vanessa a slight edge in this one, but we want to know what you think of the ladies’s ensembles. Tell us: Who ruled the red carpet at the premiere? Ashley Tisdale or Vanessa Hudgens? |
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During recent elections, we’ve consistently been told that 
I cannot remember the last time I was so excited for an action flick as I am for Clive Owen’s new gun-crazy movie 
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage; Jason Merritt/FilmMagic 
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