Taco Bell Founder Dead at 86

Not a good start of the year for those of us who love destroying our innards....

Spaghetti Os and Chunky Soup - where would I be without you?

DELRAN, N.J. – The Campbell Soup Co. executive who was behind the enduring brands SpaghettiOs and Chunky Soup has died.

Donald Goerke (GUHR'-kee) was 83. A Campbell spokesman confirmed that Goerke died of heart failure Sunday at his home in Delran in southern New Jersey.

Goerke was marketing research director of Campbell's Franco-American line in the early 1960s when his group started dreaming up pasta in shapes that would appeal to kids. He chose the o's. They were marketed with the unforgettable tagline, "Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs."

Later, he helped introduce Chunky Soup, a hearty ready-to-serve soup that stood out from the company's traditional line of condensed soups.

Good Riddance 2009!

When, perpetually speaking, one of the most horrible cable companies in the country takes control of a media company who's reach and size rivals Disney, we all lose. Granted, NBC has done their best to kill sci-fi, they do have one of the best networks on TV (USA), and are partnered with the ratings goliath known as the WWE as well broadcasting the local NY MLB games.

I can't wait for Yankees games on an over-compressed Comcast feed, and knowing them they'd try to charge for watch extra innings....

Of course since I read it on Engadget, factual reliability is suspect as best.

Pontiac is officially gone

In all honesty it should have gone out with Oldsmobile, but it's still sad to see the makers of the first factory produced muscle car (the iconic Pontiac GTO) go the same way as said car.

The most troubling thing is that the union that ruined the company and the US Government are going to be the majority owners. So now we're nationalizing the auto industry? The socialist/communist bullshit that the douche-bag in office is foisting on this country is really starting to annoy me...

edit:
In addition, the company said that they do not expect to make Hummers, Saabs or Saturns after this year.

It's officially the first day of spring - and it's snowing outside!

Drinking coffee reduces risk of Alzheimer's

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Middle-aged people who drink moderate amounts of coffee significantly reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a study by Finnish and Swedish researchers showed Thursday.

"Middle-aged people who drank between three and five cups of coffee a day lowered their risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease by between 60 and 65 percent later in life," said lead researcher on the project, Miia Kivipelto, a professor at the University of Kuopio in Finland and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

So while you're losing you're grip on reality, you'll at least be sane... Yay Coffee!

Three cups of brewed coffee a day 'triples risk of hallucinations'

Drinking just three cups of brewed coffee a day can triple the chances of suffering from hallucinations, researchers at Durham University have found.

They warn that "high caffeine users", those who drink more than the equivalent of seven cups of instant coffee a day, are at the increased risk.

But because of the extra caffeine content in brewed coffee only half as many cups are needed to create the same effect.

Even moderate amounts of the stimulant can lead people to hear voices and see things that are not there, the researchers warn.

It may have been a shitty year, but at least it's going out with style!

Reading a Fallout 3 review in the New York Times, and the use of the word 'sneaked' irked me into a little research, and I came out feeling dumb. It seems more and more these days that I find stuff I've been taught to be wholly incorrect (yay education!). Sneaked is the correct word, and snuck is another Americanism that's crept it's way into common vernacular. The NYT is still a trashy-tabloid shell of what it used to be, but it actually managed to teach me something, go figure...