Fave Headline: Garbos On Strike
[Posted by Dave Haber on Tuesday, 11/23/10 10:04 am] [Permalink] [Tweet This]This is a real headline seen this week in the news:
Garbos walk off job in Brisbane
Huh? Greta Garbo impersonators are going on strike in Austraila? Why would Greta Garbo impersonators want to go on strike? And why are there so many Greta Garbo impersonators in Australia that they need to be unionized?
What? "Garbo" means "garbage collector" in Australia? Oh. That's very different.
Never mind.
Pickle Physics
[Posted by Dave Haber on Friday, 11/05/10 7:19 pm] [Permalink] [Tweet This] Hey! Someone has broken into my apartment and eaten almost all of my pickles!
Well... maybe not. But I think I have just identified a very interesting aspect of the physics of a jar of pickles.
Have you ever noticed this? You have a jar of pickles in the fridge that you take approximately one from per day for a quick snack. For the longest time, the jar doesn't seem to get that much more empty. Then, all of a sudden, one day you notice that the jar looks almost completely empty. Where did all the pickles go?
I think it may have to do with the the geometry of the pickle spears standing upright in the jar, and then being able to become arranged haphazardly when enough room in the jar opens up. But I just don't know for sure.
For now, I guess it will have to remain a mystery. I just wish I knew who was stealing my pickles...
Numerically perfect day creates Good Vibrations
[Posted by Dave Haber on Sunday, 10/10/10 10:10 am] [Permalink] [Tweet This] It's another numerically perfect day, 10/10/10. Many interesting things happened today in history on October 10, but one stands out for me, personally. On October 10, 1966, The Beach Boys released the 45 single of Good Vibrations, which has always been one of my favorite Beach Boys tracks.
The instrumental track for the first version of Good Vibrations was recorded on February 17, 1966, during the sessions for Brian Wilson's masterpiece album Pet Sounds, which was released on Capitol Records on May 16, 1966. But although the other Beach Boys expected Good Vibrations to be on the album, Brian held it back because wanted to spend more time on it.
Al Jardine said, "At the time, we all had assumed that Good Vibrations was going to be on the album, but Brian decided to hold it out. It was a judgment call on his part; we felt otherwise but left the ultimate decision up to him."
The production of the song is reported to have spanned seventeen recording sessions at four different recording studios, and used over 90 hours of magnetic recording tape, with an eventual budget of $50,000. According to Brian Wilson, the electro-theremin work itself cost $15,000.
Good Vibrations, and the Pet Sounds album, changed rock n' roll by showing musicians they could be innovative in the studio, and was a major influence on the Beatles in the creation of their Sgt. Pepper's album.
The single sold over 230,000 copies in the first four days of its release.
Every day, more and more, I don't get it
[Posted by Dave Haber on Friday, 06/25/10 7:42 pm] [Permalink] [Tweet This] There is currently a commercial running on TV for Progressive Insurance that, I'm sorry, I just don't get.
In the commercial, two young men come into the fantasy Progressive Insurance store and one tells Flo, the Progressive lady, that money is tight and he needs to save money on his car insurance.
Flo, of course, shows the guy how much money he can save by switching to Progressive, and the guy says, "Oh, good. I can buy my watch back." To which his friend replies, "What, this watch? Not for sale." Flo says, "Oh, that's cold."
I don't know about you, but I don't think it's cold at all.
If I had a friend who was in financial trouble, and I helped him out by buying his nice watch, I would consider the sale final. The friend could have just asked for a loan, but he didn't, it wasn't the deal we made. If he gets the watch back, what do I get? It's unfair to me for him to assume he could just have the watch back whenever he can afford to buy it back.
When I was a kid, this kind of behavior used to be discouraged, and was called being an "Indian giver". That term is politically incorrect these days, but I guess the behavior no longer is.
Adventures in Packaging: Episode 4
[Posted by Dave Haber on Saturday, 05/15/10 10:10 am] [Permalink] [Related Posts] [Tweet This] Continuing in our series of dumb things printed on food boxes, today I offer for your amusement, Totino's Pizza Rolls.
Here, again, another useless serving suggestion is being suggested. What are they suggesting with this picture? That we should eat these pizza rolls while they are floating in space, while orbiting the Sun?
But, this serving suggesting is not, by far, the most interesting instructional text on the box. Notice, in the lower-left-hand corner the emphatic instructions:
What!? Keep frozen AND cook thoroughly? I can't do them both! Why does the fast food industry insist on torturing me so?
Suspicious minds misunderstand Elvis clue
[Posted by Dave Haber on Thursday, 03/11/10 2:40 pm] [Permalink] [Related Posts] [Tweet This] Widely reported in the news today is a story that an Elvis Presley record, autographed by Elvis himself, was one of about 20 records up for auction at the Regent Theatre's Anything But Books Sale in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Only one problem. The album, Elvis Sings Country Favourites, was released in 1985, eight years after Presley's death in 1977.
Auction volunteer Barry Morris said he came across the album while setting up for the event. He and other volunteers were attempting to authenticate the signature when they learned the album's release date. According to the Otago Daily Times, rather than be auctioned, the album will be placed among the $1 stacks at the sale tomorrow.
 | | "Fake" Elvis autograph on album cover |
But, I think the auction organizers have missed a very important point. As everyone knows, Elvis has been sighted alive many times since the official date of his death.
So, not only is it very possible that The King actually signed this album eight years after he "died", the existence of this signed album actually proves that Elvis is still alive, and he's currently living somewhere in New Zealand!
If I was in New Zealand, I'd snap up that $1 bargain!
Extreme rain activates the Emergency Alert System
[Posted by Dave Haber on Monday, 01/18/10 12:56 am] [Permalink] [Tweet This] If you listen to AM radio a lot as I do, you will frequently hear some stations conduct their regular Emergency Alert System tests (this used to be called the Emergency Broadcast System). Over the years, I've heard many of these tests, but I've never actually heard the system in use.
Until today.
I happened to be listening to KABC on the internet this afternoon when the EAS was activated because of the severe rain Southern California is enduring right now.
 Los Angeles weather EAS alert on KABC
Because I was listening to the stream using QuickTime on my iMac, I could rewind the playback and capture it in a file using another Mac app called Audio Hijack.
It's pouring rain right now in LA, flash-flood warnings have been issued, residents are sand-bagging and 6 inches of rain are expected today, and the rain is not expected to let up until Thursday.
Close encounters of the British kind
[Posted by Dave Haber on Thursday, 12/10/09 8:23 am] [Permalink] [Tweet This] After more than 50 years in operation, the British military quietly shut down its UFO investigation service last week, saying it would save the government money.
Roy Lake, founder of the London UFO Studies group, said "I think it's a stupid thing to do because this could create a threat to national security. We take this quite seriously."
But a Defense Ministry spokesman said, "None of the thousands of UFO sightings reported over the years have ever provided substantiated proof of the existence of extraterrestrials," and stressed that closing down the UFO inquiry unit would not add to the security threats Britain faces.
 | | From Britain's actual UFO files |
I believe there is, however, another possible, logical explanation for this decision. The British government could be shutting down their UFO investigation at this time because they now know, conclusively, that extraterrestrials DO exist, so no further investigation is necessary.
This fits with the military's declaration that this new policy does not pose a security threat. They could only know that for sure if they are now in actual contact with the extraterrestrials, and are convinced the aliens are friendly.
Lake says, "I think the government knows damn well what's going on up there and they're covering it up." I think the UFO watchers are more correct than they know.
Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated
[Posted by Dave Haber on Tuesday, 10/27/09 2:45 pm] [Permalink] [Tweet This] Google Alerts can be very handy. You enter some search terms, and Google emails you any time they notice that the words you requested to follow come up on the internet somewhere. For example, I have a Google Alert set up for my name, David Haber.
Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to find out I had died.
It wasn't me, of course. It was the David Haber who lived in Virginia Beach, Va. He was born in Buffalo, NY, was a Harley enthusiast and a member of the Protective Order of the Elks. He was 46, and passed away after a long illness.
I'm feeling great, by the way...
Warning: A DVD player is not necessarily a CD player
[Posted by Dave Haber on Wednesday, 09/09/09 8:22 pm] [Permalink] [Tweet This] Many moons ago, since DVD players can play audio CDs, I decided I no longer needed a stand-alone CD player. In 2002 I bought my second DVD player, replacing a Sony that worked good until it got warm.
This is my current DVD player, a Panasonic RV31. I know I need to get Blu-ray, I guess I'm just a slow adopter...
Anyroad, I had been assuming all these years that DVD players, and specifically this DVD player, was a fine CD player replacement. However, in the intervening years, my Mac has taken over most CD player functions, having long ago ripped my CDs to iTunes, so very rarely, if ever, did I feel the need to put on the ole' headphones and pop a CD in the DVD player and listen to it on my stereo (that's what they used to call them before they became known as "home entertainment systems"...)
Fast forward to today, and me being in proud receipt of the new Beatles Remasters box sets fresh from Amazon via the UPS truck. I plugged the headphones into the stereo system, popped the stereo Abbey Road remaster in the DVD player and sat back, awaiting to be blown away.
And I wasn't.
WTF? Why's everybody making such a big fuss? These didn't sound good to me at all. I randomly listened to some tracks off various albums, and they just didn't impress me.
About to call it a bad job, I put the Mini Documentary DVD in. Same stereo system, same headphones. AND THE MUSIC ON THE SOUNDTRACK ON THE DVD WAS GREAT! Hold on! This damn DVD player plays DVDs great, but it SUCKS at playing CDs!
So, right now, I am sitting in my home office, with the same headphones plugged into my iMac, listening the Abbey Road CD with the iTunes player.
And really enjoying it!
All I can say is, these are definitely worth the money! And I haven't even cut the seal on the Mono Box yet!
So, moral of the story is, if your CDs sound like carp, it may be the DVD player. Who knew?
(Not me, obviously...)
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