"Ask A Ninja" ninja interviews Will Ferrell and Jon Heder

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Burger King starts to shift meat supply toward less cruelty

The change will be gradual, due to supply problems, but this is a great start.

In what animal welfare advocates are describing as a “historic advance,” Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, said yesterday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates.

The company said that it would also favor suppliers of chickens that use gas, or “controlled-atmospheric stunning,” rather than electric shocks to knock birds unconscious before slaughter. It is considered a more humane method, though only a handful of slaughterhouses use it.

The goal for the next few months, Burger King said is for 2 percent of its eggs to be “cage free,” and for 10 percent of its pork to come from farms that allow sows to move around inside pens, rather than being confined to crates. The company said those percentages would rise as more farmers shift to these methods and more competitively priced supplies become available.

The cage-free eggs and crate-free pork will cost more, although it is not clear how much because Burger King is still negotiating prices, Steven Grover, vice president for food safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance, said. Prices of food at the chain’s restaurants will not be increased as a result.

While Burger King’s initial goals may be modest, food marketing experts and animal welfare advocates said yesterday that the shift would put pressure on other restaurant and food companies to adopt similar practices.

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Modeling the brain

A Fascinating look at a team in Switzerland who is attempting to model the brain (first of a rat, then of higher lifeforms) in silicon. An excerpt:

Today the Blue Brain project essentially has its own factory to produce artificial brain matter, so the computer can clone nerve cells almost automatically. The system's production line can produce whole series of neurons, one after another. Its memory contains close to 400 types, differentiated by shape. The stored neurons could be used to construct thinking tools of any size, in principle. Before they can be approved for use, though, the individual cells are randomly provided with individual characteristics -- because in the actual brain, no two cells are identical.

While none of this is especially challenging for a supercomputer, the real work starts when the time comes to link 10,000 non-identical cells to one another in a way that mirrors nature. The result is a particularly tricky 3-D puzzle, because each cell has about 10,000 protrusions with which it attempts to connect to other cells. The computer, in other words, must rotate and twist all cells in the space until their conductors are connected -- correctly -- at a total of 100 million points of contact.

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Et tu, Douchebag?

When even Robert Novak is using words like "incompetent," "inept," and "isolated" about the Bush administration, can people finally start talking seriously about impeachment?

With nearly two years remaining in his presidency, George W. Bush is alone. In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress -- not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment.

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WiiMote used to control audio software!

Awesome stuff!

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Thanks, Dano...

"The List"

of New York "socialites." An example, you ask?

Baroness von Langerdorff

One of the most fascinating members of the great passing parade in New York is the Baroness W. Langer von Langerdorff, who is easily spotted in any crowd, gilded or no because of her tall and tumbling flaming tresses, her satin and/or taffeta evening dresses, and above all, her famous milkmaid complexion — and above above all, her ensembles of astonishing jewels. Which are always in ample supply, generous weight, high lustre, and, in short, unbelievable on sighting.

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Anyone up for NLVW2ROTTMMO?

Can America's reputation and prominence ever be recovered?

Michael Hirsh examines this question and comes to the conclusion that Obama is our best chance.

Who could better reassure a jittery and suspicious world that America is ready to resume global leadership than a new young president who is the son of a black African father and a white Kansan mother, with a Muslim middle name who grew up in Asia? Rather, Obama’s value is as someone with the courage, independence, and basic common sense to declare, without equivocation, that America’s loss of global leadership is a result not of the inevitable breakdown of the existing structure, but of the Bush administration’s radical and disastrous policy decisions. And that, with the right mix of patience, wisdom, and common sense, we’re not as far from reclaiming that leadership as it might appear.

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Douches on parade

A few weeks ago, when we first reported about a nauseating Manhattan speed dating event that would require male participants to meet an annual income threshold of $500,000 (with at least a million in the bank) and females to submit five pictures to prove their hotness, we wondered, "What kind of schmuck would pay $500 to meet a bunch of gold diggers?"

And we were determined to find out.

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Next-gen videogame design tools

Mind-blowing design tools for the Crysis "CryEngine:

Algae farming starting to take shape

A while ago, I posted about the possibility of using algae for fuel. Now, some venture capitalists are taking a serious look (and starting to spend some serious money) looking at this possibility.

The company projects that in three years it can produce some biofuel, which theoretically could eventually be produced in quantities of as much as 20,000 gallons of fuel a year per acre of algae.

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What's scarier than terrorism?

Unions, apparently.

The U.S. Senate began debating legislation to bolster America's security on Wednesday with the White House threatening a veto because one part would extend union protection to 45,000 airport workers.

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