$100 Burger

State: A big-bucks burger

The burger contains three kinds of it, from three continents — from corn-fed American Prime cattle from Colorado, free-range cattle from the Argentine pampas and Japanese Wagyu cattle that were raised on soybeans and beer, then bathed in sake and hand-massaged.

For Tuesday’s official first tasting, the beef was flown into Fort Lauderdale, then driven to the restaurant in a climate-controlled, armored stretch Hummer limo.

The burger is fried in about 8 ounces of grape seed oil —“It’s healthier,” said Joe Galison, chef de cuisine — and then nestled onto a toasted Brioche bun and topped with heirloom tomatoes, exotic mushrooms and organic micro greens. (other coverage)

Celsius Rising?

TCS Daily – Celsius Rising?
The new soda comes in three flavours – cola, lemon and lime and ginger ale. It was launched in 2005 when it won the Beverage Industry’s Best New Product award for an energy drink also scientifically proven to actively burn our calories. In other words, drinking Celsius burns more calories than the drink itself contains.

Celsius contains a thermogenic blend. The process of thermogenesis (thermo: heat, genesis, creation) has, of course, been understood for some time. Thermogenetic agents stimulate the natural resting metabolic rate (RMR) that raises body temperature – which causes the body to burn additional calories.

Retailing for around $1.99 per 12-ounce bottle, Celsius, depending on the flavour, contains between five and ten calories. Janice Haley, vice president of Elite FX, Inc., which developed Celsius, says, “It naturally raises your metabolism by 12 percent over a three- to four-hour period. The net effect of this is that the 5 – 10 calories is more than ‘eaten up’ as the body burns between 67 to 72 calories.” Continue reading “Celsius Rising?”

Deer-eating Alligator

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service —
The photographs of this deer-eating alligator were taken from the air by Terri Jenkins, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service District Fire Management Officer. She was preparing to ignite a prescribed fire at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, about 40 miles south of Savannah, Georgia, on March 4, 2004. (Thanks to Bob Bopp for Snopes.com on this one that has circulated around the net).

Record-breaking burger

Record-breaking burger – Slashfood
Though there has been some debate in the past about who makes the world’s biggest burger, the Guinness Book of World’s Records officiated at the weigh-in of a 29.5-pound burger at the Foxwoods Resort Casino’s Fuddruckers restaurant. They granted the 18.5-in. wide by 8-in. tall burger the title of “world’s largest commercially available burger.” It costs $250 and must be ordered 48 hours in advance.

Useless Facts > Human Body

Useless Facts > Human Body

Thanks to Caroline Collier

The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells.>> There are 45 miles (72 km) of nerves in the skin of a human being.

The average human heart will beat 3,000 million times in its lifetime and pump 48 million gallons of blood.

Each square inch (2.5 cm) of human skin consists of 20 feet (6 m) of blood vessels.

During a 24-hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times.

Human blood travels 60,000 miles (96,540 km) per day on its journey through the body. Continue reading “Useless Facts > Human Body”

Pandora’s Box finds Music Gems for your Own Tastes

Column by PC Magazine: Out of Pandora's Box
Pandora is an online music service that lets you build your own stations based on similarities among songs and artists. You start with the name of a song or a favorite artist, and it streams music by that artist and others that are similar. It determines similarities by consulting the Music Genome Project, a database that contains hundreds of descriptors or "genes" that make up a song—melody, harmony, rhythm, kind of accompaniment, lyrics, subject matter, modality, and more, instead of the vast imprecision of genre.

Pandora's descriptions come from a team of 35 analysts, who have listened to and analyzed all the 400,000 or so songs that so far are in the Music Genome database. Prospective analysts take a test to get the job, and only 20 percent pass. They then receive rigorous training, and their analysis is continually monitored and cross-checked by other analysts.

Creat your own Radio Station at Pandora