Total Recap


 
 16 Jan 2013   Recap

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  • Islamist fighters seized dozens of Western and Algerian hostages at a natural gas facility in the Sahara and demand France halt offensive against rebels in neighboring Mali.
  • Horsemeat found in hamburgers in Britain and Ireland.
  • FAA grounds all 787 planes in the US to seek a fix for battery issue.

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  • https://twitter.com/knowyouronion Pascal

    Moisturized pants? Ross from FRIENDS did it first.

    • Missin’ Mississippi

      Trust me, moisturized pants have been around since the dawn of mankind.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sehra-Farron/100002219732310 Sehra Farron

    The balls of steel thing sounds kinda gross, actually. I don’t want something someone has touched with their bare hands in my drink or food. It sounds unsanitary. Maybe if they offered a cleaner container or method of transferring the chilled orbs from container to drink without making contact with a person’s hands, I’d consider buying them.

    Until then… Ew.

    • Slartibartfatsdomino

      I imagine the same solution that would address that situation for ice cubes out of the tray would work for the balls. Like a spoon or some tongs.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sehra-Farron/100002219732310 Sehra Farron

        Notice that most ice cubes are cubes, while these balls of steels are exactly that, balls.

        Try picking up steel balls with tongues, or a spoon.

        Now do that X number of times at a party or at your job at the bar without dropping a single ball, not even once.

        • Slartibartfatsdomino

          While picking them up with tongues would, I think, be quite difficult, the tongs that are currently sitting in a drawer in my kitchen would do quite nicely.

    • cdn_bakun

      I think these are pretty much for personal use so if you doubt your own hands’ sanitation, put on some gloves.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sehra-Farron/100002219732310 Sehra Farron

        They’re not naughty toys that you keep to yourself. I’d very much like to let my guests enjoy using them as well. It would just be inappropriate if I hired a bartender and he/she used their bare hands to touch the steel balls when serving drinks.

        That would be like scooping up food with their hands and serving it to guests.

  • Missin’ Mississippi

    Horsemeat in hamburghers……I think the bejeezus would be scared out of us if we
    knew exactly what was in a lot of the foods we eat.

    • http://twitter.com/Sabocat Sabocat

      Note to self: Never eat at Missin’ Mississippi’s house.

  • FyLark

    Do your balls of steel come in a velvety sack?
    Also, horse meat is probably the least horrifying thing you’d find in a hamburger, which is why I don’t eat out unless I have to.
    Also also, the pet hair sweaters – I have considered similar things before with all the pet hair tumbling around this house.

    • Slartibartfatsdomino

      I was so hoping no-one had made the balls of steel in the velvety sack joke yet.

      :(

  • Slartibartfatsdomino

    The g-funk really made the balls of steel ad. Although they really needed Barry White or Billy Dee Williams doing the narration.

  • DRoseDARs

    “Is Lindsay Lohan paying her bills by being a high class escort?”

    Linsay Lohan. High class. I think you just answered your own question…

  • Slartibartfatsdomino

    When thinking about the debt ceiling issue, the Republicans, for their own sake, should really have recalled the show-down between Clinton and Gingrich over the government shut-down. It was widely perceived that Republicans were playing games with the economy and they got punished in the electorate for it. It’s hard to pose as the party of “fiscal responsibility” with threats to trash the economy. Similarly, it’s hard to pose as the party that will guard “national security” by waging reckless wars wherever and whenever one can. The Republicans have made the Democrats seem responsible by comparison on both of these issues in spite of the fact that the Dems also like their reckless wars and were responsible for many of the banking and investment policies that wrought such havok on the economy.

    And, as one of the other links pointed out, both demographic and cultural change are challenging other Republican signature issues, such as on abortion, or anti-gay rights, or hostility to immigrants, on the national level.

    I, for one, would be pleased to see a full Republican implosion. It would give the field to the Democrats for a period, but would also open up the field for alternatives. Perhaps even a more libertarian left? One can only hope.

    • FyLark

      We need more alternatives. The two party system is broken as broken can be.

      • Conspiracy Einstein

        Gary Johnson 2012!

        …I think I’m late, aren’t i?

  • TheOtherJK

    I suppose keeping the bottle in the freezer is some heinous straight whiskey no-no?

    If freezing is too cold, you could have a second room temp bottle to mix.

    But really, it’s alcohol. Your taste buds are anesthetized after the first drink.

    • DanielCopeland

      Chilling, when discussing alcohol, suppresses certain flavor notes and exaggerates others. Whiskey can be had chilled or room temperature, but chilling it too much can suppress much of the flavor. If you’re simply drinking to get drunk, that’s fine, but if you’re enjoying a top-shelf scotch you’re more likely to want to sip it and enjoy the flavors.

      Basically, if you’re opening a cheap bottle of Jack to mix with coke, go ahead and keep it cool, but if you’re relaxing with Jameson 18 Year Old Limited Reserve, you’re best off at room temperature, and if you wish to lower the temperature a bit, that’s where whiskey stones or something like those steel balls comes in.

      • TheOtherJK

        I thought that would be the story. So what about my idea of keeping 1 room temp bottle and 1 in the freezer, mix as desired?

        • DanielCopeland

          Just depends on how important the taste is. While whiskey of any sort has enough alcohol to not freeze at normal freezer temperatures, there’s still some long-term effects from keeping it very chilled for long periods. Your best bet is pretty much always a cool, dry place, and if you need some really cold for any reason, you can always toss the bottle into the freezer for a short while.

  • http://twitter.com/Idontgetyou Wait, what?

    Personally, I think I could eat horse meat. I don’t know what is more grotesque about that than, say, eating a pig. Watching The F Word helps, too.

    • Missin’ Mississippi

      Are you anywhere near England? :)

      • http://twitter.com/Idontgetyou Wait, what?

        Nah. I just try to stay multi-cultural with my viewing and reading habits.

    • Sindigo

      I’ve eaten horse a couple of times while in France. It’s okay, like gamey steak really.

      The problem with this story is that the burgers in question were available at one reasonable supermarket and three shitty ones. It kind of makes me think that they’re all coming from the same place and being sold at different prices depending on location. That would piss me off. Though why people would buy burgers to cook at home when they’re so easy to make is beyond me.

      • Slartibartfatsdomino

        “Though why people would buy burgers to cook at home when they’re so easy to make is beyond me.”

        Some folks have difficulty with the recipe for boiled water.

        • Sindigo

          True and sad. Cooking is one of life’s great pleasures for me.

          • Slartibartfatsdomino

            Same here, but I’ve learned not to expect the slightest competence in other human beings’ cooking skills (always pleasantly surprised when I find it though).

            • Sindigo

              In that case, this is a firm favourite in my family. Described by my niece as “better than her mother’s stir fry”. Though apparently I’m not to tell her.

              http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sichuanbeef_86985

              I never portion it out at the end though. Just give everyone a bowl, put the wok on the table and you can all help yourselves. Good times.

        • DanielCopeland

          For the last time, it is NOT my fault that the house was swallowed by a singularity! I had no way to predict that the black hole would form in that particular pot!

    • Slartibartfatsdomino

      I got a little annoyed when she mentioned mad cow as a reason to switch to horse meat. My understanding is that mad cow disease is not a result of them just being cows but is caused by the industrial methods of raising the cows (e.g., feeding leftover cow bits back to cows). Wouldn’t this also likely become a problem if one industrialized horse meat supply?

      • Sindigo

        It was but I believe the outbreak of BSE has stamped(ed) out the practice now. I’m unwilling to do any research to confirm this though.

      • http://twitter.com/Idontgetyou Wait, what?

        Janis Street-Porter does love a controversy. And yes, you’re right. But she’s got a point. Remember how many people switched their pets to “organic homemade pet food” after the pet food death scares? People are very reactionary, and if horse meat was more acceptable, I could see a lot of people using mad cow disease as the justification for switching over to it.

        Which, speaking of, we might be dealing with those pet food scares again soon: http://www.examiner.com/article/purina-s-beneful-dog-food-killing-dogs-nationwide-no-recall-issued-by-fda

  • Lancaster

    Come on! Not a single Duke Nukem joke? What has the internet come to!

    • Conspiracy Einstein

      They’re waiting 11 years to release the jokes, too.

  • TruuuV

    How slow was the news when you’re throwing out “Reddit gets a video 250,000 views”.

    They do that every day on several videos. It’s part and parcel of being a community that size.