Irn-Bru is a Scottish carbonated soda pop drink I’ve never heard of. It sounds a bit like Dr. Pepper, in the “hard to describe the taste” department:
The formula for Irn-Bru is a closely guarded trade secret,
known only by two of Barr’s board members, with a written
copy held in a Swiss bank-vault. As of 1999 it contained
0.002% of ammonium ferric citrate, sugar, 32 flavouring
agents (including caffeine (though caffeine is not listed as
an ingredient on the Australian labelling) and quinine) and
two controversial colourings (E110, E124). It is advertised
as having a slight citrus flavour, but many have differing
opinions of the exact taste of Irn-Bru.
Irn-Bru has long been the most popular soft drink in
Scotland, outselling Coca-Cola, but recent fierce
competition between the two brands has brought their
sales to roughly equal levels (perhaps leaning to Coca-Cola).
Has anybody had this? I wonder if I can try it when I go to Europe. Hmm.
Kottke wrote a bit about the Pioneer probes this morning, and it got me reading about them elsewhere. A cursory introduction: the Pioneer space probes 10 and 11 are among the furthest man-made objects from Earth. They both exceeded their missions by spectacular degrees (staying in radio contact far longer than anticipated) and returned extraordinary amounts of information about our solar system in the process. For example, there is Pioneer 10, which was launched in 1972. And then, over 30 years later:
The last, very weak signal from Pioneer 10 was received
on January 23, 2003, when it was 7.5 billion miles (12 billion
kilometres) from Earth.
Traveling at the speed of light, that signal took over 11 hours to reach earth. What I thought was particularly neat was the decision to attach plaques about humans and Earth on these deep space probes. The idea is that, against spectacular odds, perhaps something will find these probes one day, and decipher what we have engraved on these plaques.
According to astronomer Frank Drake, there were many
negative reactions to the plaque due to the fact that the
human beings were displayed naked. The Chicago
Sun-Times retouched its image to hide the genitals of the
man and woman. The Los Angeles Times received “angry
letters” from readers that accused NASA of wasting taxpayer
money to send “obscenities” into space.
Let that sink in for a moment.
I don’t want to come off as elitist here, but if that little quote isn’t a testament to limitless human stupidity, I don’t know what is. I mean, we’re talking about potential communication with extra terrestrial beings — there’s a good chance that this plaque will be the last remnant of human kind, still flying through space, when the Earth itself is gone. And we’ve got people complaining that humans are shown naked.
I’m feeling a bit pessimistic about humanity this morning.
This American Life tackles the sub-prime housing market. I’ve read economists writing about this crisis… and it’s rather difficult to understand. I mean, all this talk of AAA overrated paper, etc. — I got a vague idea of the topic, but I wanted something more. Soo, I read a glowing recommendation of This American Life’s coverage of the topic. A quick summary:
What does the housing crisis have to do with the collapse of
the investment bank Bear Stearns? Why did banks make
half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income?
And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It
all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.
There’s something about this video of panda babies that makes the little ones look animatronic or something. Don’t get me wrong, they’re astoundingly cute, but they look like youngsters in suits or something. It could be that their movements resemble toddlers so much that it looks odd.
Human pregnancies can be revealed by ultrasound, the
telltale expanded belly, and home-pregnancy tests, but
panda pregnancies are highly difficult to detect. None of
these work for pandas. They won’t generally sit still for
ultrasounds, their babies are born too small — the size of a
stick of butter — to create any noticeable belly, and their
pregnancy hormones remain a mystery.
In this lovely classic Sesame Street video, Kermit sings about how to tell if something is alive. The song is great and the concept is rather timeless, but I implore you to watch and see what the Sesame Street version of a cow looks like. For some reason I think it’s hilarious.
It’s a sad weekend at the movies when we’ve got the formulaic What Happens in Vegas (40 at Metacritic) and what is apparently the really shiny turd of Speed Racer (36 at Metacritic)… and not much else. I wouldn’t condemn either of these films before seeing them, but things are not looking up. For those looking to see a good film, here are some I’ve been hoping to catch (all on limited release):
Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran
during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of the
precocious and outspoken 9-year-old Marjane that we see a
people’s hopes dashed as fundamentalists take
power—forcing the veil on women and imprisoning
thousands. Clever and fearless, Marjane outsmarts the “social
guardians” and discovers punk, ABBA, and Iron Maiden. Yet
when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall
around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that
permeates life in Iran is palpable.
The Savages is an irreverent look at family, love and
mortality as seen through the lens of one of modern life’s
most bewildering and challenging experiences: when adult
siblings find themselves plucked from their everyday,
self-centered lives to care for an estranged elderly parent.
In China, it is simply known as ‘The River.’ But the
Yangtze—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing
an astonishing transformation wrought by the largest
hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam.
Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang returns to the
gorgeous, now-disappearing landscape of his grandfather’s
youth to trace the surreal life of a “farewell cruise” that
traverses the gargantuan waterway.
Plus, there are some wide release movies on the horizon that could be good…
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Buckling swashes, excellent fantasy, fun special effects, and hopefully good writing to hold it all up. The music from the last one was pretty great, too (Imogen Heap!). Unfortunately, Heap’s track for this one has been shifted off the Prince Caspian soundtrack and into her album.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Fail or succeed, it’ll do so spectacularly.
WALL-E
Pixar keeps hitting movies out of the park; I have high hopes for their latest.
Hancock
Will Smith as an anti-hero with superhero abilities. C’mon this movie be good be good be good be good.
The Dark Knight
If this could even equal Batman Begins in quality, I’d be ecstatic.
The Super Soaker Bottle Shot is a pump-action water blaster
that allows you to choose how much ammo you want. Nearly
any standard water or soft drink bottle attaches with a twist
to the blaster!
If I purchase one of these, I’ll be sure to review it here at tumbledry, your summer fun source. Incidentally, during the summer of 2006 Dan and I picked up the Super Soaker Max Infusion, a gun which can shoot in one of two ways. You get the standard water stream, which is respectably thick. But then you get the truly ridiculous “Flash Flood” option which, at short range, absolutely drenches your opponent. I’ve still got mine, I’ll have to pull it out. I still remember the first time I tried the Flash Flood feature; I aimed the gun at the shower stall in Selby Hall (I was living there for the summer doing chemistry research… free housing woo!), and I pulled the lever. ABSOLUTESOAKAGE. I mean the entire back wall of the shower was covered in water. Whoever thought of this feature was brilliant.
Anyhow, I can highly recommend the Max Infusion (oh glorious Flash Flood), and we’ll see about this Bottle Shot model.
