Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The dino goes roar... again!

The semester is ending, which means term papers and projects are approaching their deadlines and a slowdown in my blogging. I don't want to get out of practice and I didn't want to just put up some tired old YouTube clip again, so here's a few pics from my most recent trip to the Museum of Natural History (which was a little while ago, I know). Enjoy.


Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Oh those clever Brits!

A certain reader of mine both turned me on to today's topic and recently reminded me that I needed to post more, so here's a double shot for you. You know who you are.

If you've never watched Top Gear, do it. You'll see things like this:

Hosts Hammond (left) and Clarkson (right) admiring their sponsor's logo: Larsen's Biscuits.

I guess I should explain a bit. Top Gear is a show about cars. A very entertaining show about cars. In the episode featured here, the hosts decided to convert a BMW 330d into an endurance racer and run it on biofuel. The show is on BBC (BBC America here), and as such they weren't allowed real sponsors, hence the Larsen's Biscuits. Here's the other one they cooked up, Peniston Oils:

So, why all this fuss over fake sponsors? Oh, I don't know. How about one last look at the car before I go...

More Root Beer Related News

So, I got another email from the folks over at Thomas Kemper Soda with a pretty cool announcement (including some more free samples!). Turns out they're dropping high fructose corn syrup in favor of the much tastier cane sugar. I can't wait.

For some reason, I can't seem to upload the photo they sent me, but if I could, you wouldn't be able to taste the difference, so perhaps you should just check out their much improved web site. Don't forget to check out some of these recipes. Man, I really wish I could get this stuff in NYC.

Stay tuned for a taste test coming at you real soon.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

There goes the neighborhood

I saw this on the way to lab this morning:I'm blaming it on this guy.

Friday, April 11, 2008

What! We're on Lord Stanley's Cup?

Thanks to my roommate, I've become something of a NY Rangers fan. Granted, I'm not the worlds biggest hockey fan, but I'm growing to love it more and more. Most of my hockey experiences growing up were watching the Seattle Thunderbirds, who oddly enough seemed to be perpetually playing the Kelowna Rockets. Western Hockey League games can be a little underwhelming.
Mike and I have often wondered about Seattle's lack of an NHL team. It seems to make more sense than, say, Carolina, Tampa Bay or Phoenix. But for whatever reason Seattle has never had a professional hockey team.

Or at least that's what I thought.

Today as I was reading several articles about how Clay Bennett is a big douche (I hate to use that word, but it really is the only one that accurately describes the man), I came across this one and learned something that I'd never learned in an entire childhood of Seattle sports fandom: Seattle had a "pro" hockey team. That's right, from 1914 to 1924 the Seattle Metropolitans represented my fair home town in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Now, if you haven't heard of this league, well, you're not the only one. But as it turns out, the PCHA was good enough to begin competing in 1915 with the National Hockey Association (the precursor to the NHL) for the Stanley Cup. And to make a long story short (yeah, probably too late for that), in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Stanley Cup. Bet you didn't know that! Eventually, in 1924 the team folded, and a year later so did the PCHA.

So why is it that I've never heard this before? Why is it that all during my growing up years I never once heard anything but "Seattle's only won 1 major league sports title"? Clearly, we've won two. 8 if you want to count the 6 championships that the Seattle Rainiers won before the NL expanded to California in 1958 and essentially put an end to the PCL.

What's that you say? We have a WNBA championship too? News to me.

I'd buy one of those.

For those of you who don't read Page 2...

Link

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Porous sedimentary calcite, mythical crossbreed!

Congratulations to KU on winning the national championship. And congrats to Memphis for making me a believer and making last night's game one of the best I've seen in awhile.

But now that the tourney is over (I managed NOT to come in las this year in my pool, thankfully), maybe you're like me and wondering what in the hell all of this "rock chalk" stuff is all about. I mean, I consider myself something of a sports fan, but this one has slipped under my radar. So, if you're like me and don't understand it beyond the rhyming scheme, click on over here and find out. I'm willing to bet that this is the biggest contribution a science club has ever made to college sports. Oh, and TR makes an appearance too, even though his month is over. He was never one to go with the flow, was he?