Malletrivia

Culinary adventures. Apparently.

From a NYT article about a trend towards fewer entrees on restaurant menus:

"The big, gut-busting entrees don’t really give diners that sense of risk-free adventure and experience,” said Colleen Rush, author of “The Mere Mortal’s Guide to Fine Dining” (Broadway Books, 2006).

Let's take this apart a little bit. First of all, a "risk-free adventure" is an oxymoron, given that the very definition of "adventure" includes risk. Second, unless you go to the kind of restaurants that Andrew Zimmern frequents, seeking adventure in a restaurant seems to imply that you really need to get out more.

I know, I know, I'm picking apart a single sentence that was probably taken out of context, and not meant to be quoted blah blah blah. But I'm feeling a bit ornery right now, and so the nitpick stands.

NASA: "Dates are hard [but we think we've figured out the metric units thing]"

On the radio this morning, there was a bit about a delay in the launch of a space shuttle due to faulty sensors, and it was mostly pretty standard stuff about how NASA has been having a bit of trouble lately. But what really got my attention was the fact that one of the concerns with launching the shuttle later this year is that the NASA folks are apparently worried about "how their computers will react to the date change" if the shuttle is in space over the New Year.

Huh ? You can put a shuttle in space but you can't write software that handles a year rollover [and test it] ? As G.O.B would say: "C'mon !".

Conclusive evidence of global warming

Here.