The nutrition watchdog group “Center for Science in the Public Interest” — known for its outspoken views on the nutrition of everyday prepared foods — had some good things to say about some fast food meals:

In a list of best and worst fast foods, the center praised Burger King’s Chicken Whopper Jr. for its taste and as “the only way to get a normal-sized sandwich these days.“ The junior has 350 calories compared to 580 calories for a regular Chicken Whopper, and unlike its competition “actually tastes grilled,” the center said. […]

They also go on to say good things about Subway’s low-fat sandwiches (no surprise there). Of course, the article is sure to mention some of the offenders as well (such as Burger King’s large shake with over-1k Calories). Surprisingly, hash-browns also made the list of worst-foods.

I’m pleased that there are some reasonable foods that I could get at Burger King or Wendy’s, when I have no other options but to eat there. Note to self:

• Burger King: Get the Chicken Whopper Jr. (350 Calories)
• Wendy’s: Mandarin Chicken Salad (420 Calories)
• McDonald’s: Not much luck on meal-items, though the Fruit ’n Yogurt Parfai isn’t bad. (380 Calories)

From BBSpot, Ford Testifies to Stop Ride Sharing:

A recent study by the Gartner Group supports Ford’s claims that ride sharing runs rampant across the US. The study showed showed that children under the age of 16 were the biggest offenders. Almost 99% of children in that age group said they had shared a ride in the past week. The study also showed that ride sharing had spread to the Internet in the form of “Car Pool” message boards where the “Road Robbers” set up their swaps. […]

Netscape 7 (final) has been released today. Compared with Netscape 6.2, this new version offers tabbed browsing, print preview, and full-screen mode (among other new features).

Of course, all of those features have been in Mozilla for ages ;). In fact, there’s little reason to try Netscape 7 (based on Mozilla 1.01) when Mozilla 1.1 is now available.

Half Bakery offers an amusing proposal for sentient road cones.

Code in a few tactics for survival to stop these things:
a) jumping down holes like lemmings.
b) wandering off into traffic. […]

With my job in Fort Worth, I have to be there at 8:30am. So, with an hour commute, I have to leave at 7:30am. That’s a bit of a bummer in itself, but I have a conundrum about breakfast in particular.

With other jobs with a lesser commute, I could eat breakfast at 9:00 or 9:30. And, that would mean that my next meal (lunch) would only be about 3 hours away. However, if I eat breakfast at 7:30am (just before I leave), that means that my next meal is up to 5 hours away :(. So, I end up ravenously hungry by the time lunch rolls around.

Sure, I could just eat lunch earlier, but that would only increase the time between lunch and dinner (and I would end up ravenously hungry before dinner instead). So, I was thinking that I could make some type of “portable sandwich” so that I could eat it during my commute. That way, I could eat breakfast at least marginally later.

However, I don’t want just a regular sandwich, as I wouldn’t want any tuna or mayo to fall out and mess up my work-clothes. So, I was thinking that some kind of pouch would be convenient. I could use a Ziploc sandwich-baggie, but that would only mean extra trash that I would have to remember to take out of my car. Pita bread came to mind as well, as that would allow me to “eat the container&rdquo. But, I didn’t see any pita bread at Super Target when I went to look for some yesterday — perhaps another store might have some?

In the mean time, I’ve been trying to create a pouch out of a rolled tortilla. I have a stack of tortillas from Sam’s Club that are about 8" in diameter each. So, I take a tortilla and roll it into somewhat of a cone-shape and then fold over the pointy-end of the cone to crimp it. And, it kinda works. However, maybe it’s just the particular tortillas that I have but the tortilla keeps tearing along the crease-lines of the crimp :-/. So, to counteract a tortilla-rupture, I end up wrapping the tortilla-cone in a paper towel — which somewhat defeats the purpose of the tortilla since I still have to remember to throw away the paper towel…

As mentioned on Politech, the RIAA website was cracked yesterday morning (screenshot). The text reads, in part:

As you are probably aware, the RIAA has been pursuing a policy of preventing this activity in recent months.

We have recently become aware that this approach is yielding only limited results and in some cases may in fact be harming sales and the artists' revenue stream.

The RIAA wishes to apologise for the heavy-handed manner in which the popular chinese site Listen4Ever was closed down, and would like to present the following items for free download as a token of its goodwill. […]

The crack is amusing in itself, especially since it uses the victim’s own site to parody its views. However, I’m most fascinated by the screenshot itself. I’m not sure which OS is running there (OSX, maybe?), but that anti-aliased text sure is beautiful.

The other day, I was trying to figure out which Plextor CDR drive to get. One drive could do 40x writes, while the other could do 20x writes but also read DVDs as well.

I’ve ordered the latter, for reasons of longevity. Sure, 40x is nice, but it only works out to a 3-minute burn instead of a 4-minute burn. And, I expect that more and more software may be available in DVD versions.

I’ve also ordered a new hard drive. 120 GB should be enough room for Linux, eh? ;).

I’m glad I have a job that affords me the ability to buy new hardware from time to time.

I enjoyed this quote from Lewis Thomas on semicolons, from today’s WordSpy mailing:

“I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. The semicolon tells you that there is still some question about the preceding full sentence; something needs to be added; it reminds you sometimes of the Greek usage. It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn’t get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.”

—Lewis Thomas, American doctor and essayist, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979

As mentioned on MetaFilter, Zac ‘Mr. Magnet’ Monro has won the 7th Annual Air Guitar World Championships (in Oulu, Finland) for the second year in a row. Video of his winning performance is also available.

I watched the video and, while good, I thought it could have been better. I must concur with one of the MetaFilter comments:

Uh-Huh…

If you’re gonna play air guitar, you should at least try to simulate chord changes by switching fingers and moving your hand up and down the “neck” of the guitar, as it were.

Then there’s the whole issue of whether on not to use an air pic or whammy bar…

I was disappointed to learn that SatireWire is calling it quits. Some people looked down upon SatireWire as an “Onion Clone”, but I enjoyed its humor in its own right.

Over the years, SatireWire has had so many stories that have acutely poked at the humor in today’s current events. One of my favorites that comes to mind is Remaining U.S. CEOs Make a Break For It:

Unwilling to wait for their eventual indictments, the 10,000 remaining CEOs of public U.S. companies made a break for it yesterday, heading for the Mexican border, plundering towns and villages along the way, and writing the entire rampage off as a marketing expense.

“They came into my home, made me pay for my own TV, then double-booked the revenues,” said Rachel Sanchez of Las Cruces, just north of El Paso. “Right in front of my daughters.” […]