Category: Random

building our own giant straw Christmas goat

In past years, we’ve discussed the giant straw Christmas goat built in Sweden every year.   I mean, what says Christmas like a 43-foot tall straw Christmas goat?  Well, I could probably think of a few things, but it’s tradition.  It’s also tradition for vandals to burn the goat down.

I could say a lot more, but it’s probably already been said in the first post, so I will link to that for your reading convenience: the Swedish Christmas goat.

I came across another article about it, and it’s rather funny.  Here’s that link: Goodness, Gracious Great (Swedish) Goats of Fire!  [link broken]

Here at Buffet o’ Blog, we are trying to start a tradition of building the next world-record-breaking giant straw Christmas goat, and then burning it down.   It would be one of the coolest things around (see the first link for details).   But so far, all we’ve done is start a tradition of Mango-Man saying it’s a great idea, but then he makes excuses (perhaps to protect his secret flower garden of ketunias), and it never happens.  Well, one of these years it will happen (with or without his consent — but if he gets a cut of the proceeds, he will realize what a great business opportunity it is).  The rest of the Buffet o’ Blog regulars have voted for this, so we’ve reached a consensus — a quorum, even — that this needs to happen.  When it does happen, it will be posted here first, so stay tuned.

combining Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas

This year, it seems people got into decorating for Halloween a lot more than normal.  And as you’ve probably noticed, retail department stores are pushing the Christmas decor on us before Thanksgiving.  It’s getting crazy.  I like to keep the holidays separate — my rule is no Christmas music or Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.  But stores seem to not be informed of my rule.

Before long, these holidays will all become merged by the unstoppable commercialization process.  Figuring out how to market the holidays together might seem difficult, but fortunately someone has already figured all this out.  In the article I’m about to link to, Chris Carlisle combines Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  For a mascot / symbol, he creates a “ninja robot Mecha Santa Claus”.  If that’s not enough to get you to read the article, I don’t know what is…   Plus it’s funny, and he has a good way of explaining all this.

Holiday Ninja Action Force Unite!  [link broken]

videos of deep-fried turkey disasters

Baking a turkey has long been part of most Americans’ Thanksgiving tradition.  But let’s face it — it’s kinda boring to watch a turkey bake. Plus turkey is healthy and not very fattening, which doesn’t fit in with our modern culture.  So now more and more people are deep-frying their turkey, which makes it more unhealthy (along with more flavorful), and there’s also the danger of deep-frying it improperly, which is exciting for some people.

I’ve heard so many reports of deep-fried turkey disasters in recent years that it seems like it’s becoming a sport.  There are probably countless videos on YouTube of this, but here’s a few highlights I’ve come across.

In the following video, note the lack of protective gear, and also notice the child in the background covering his eyes.  Somehow he knew something was going to go wrong.  And somehow this accident even inspired a dance from the man responsible for it.

This next video features firefighters showing the right and wrong way to deep-fry a turkey.  First, they do it correctly, with it fully thawed and dry.  Next they drop a partially thawed turkey in the deep-fryer.  Then they put a mostly frozen turkey in the deep-fryer.  Lastly, they show you what happens if you pour water on an oil fire.  (The last part is quite impressive, because it’s not near my house.)

This next one is great.  This “chef” uses the Archimedes Principle to properly deep-fry a turkey.  (That’s a great line.  I had never heard it used like that, and there may be a reason why.)  Then at the end, he says, calmly, “We are now frying a turkey.”  Perhaps, but he’s also burning a turkey… and his deep-fryer… and the house…

In this next video, we start with the fire already burning.  Several people are yelling, “Use a fire extinguisher!”  At least one person has the knowledge to say it should be one made for oil fires.  (There are different kinds of fire extinguishers, if you didn’t know.)  You might be able to guess whether this was the right kind or not.  I like how at the end one guy says, “It’s fine”, after it’s been on-fire over a minute and they’ve sprayed it down with a fire extinguisher (which might not be good for food).

Think you’ve seen everything there is to see regarding turkey frying accidents?  In the next video, some morning show radio DJs simulate the dangers of deep-frying a turkey (improperly) inside your living room.  Somewhere, Fire Marshall Bill is smiling…

BTW, this may look cool, but you shouldn’t try this at home.

how to prevent hurricanes

If you know much about weather, you know that mankind does not possess the ability to stop a hurricane.  Hurricanes are kinda like a migraine headache in that regard — unstoppable once it gets going.  In fact, a migraine feels kinda like a hurricane in your head.  Or a tornado.  But I digress.

Anyway, we cannot stop a hurricane once it gets started.  I’ve heard that Hurricane Katrina contained the energy equivalent of 150,000 atomic bombs, and released enough of that energy to power the United States for a year.  Amazing!   If only we could capture a fraction of that power.  But that’s another discussion.  (I almost digressed again…)

satellite photo of Hurricane Jeanne from 2004So obviously the key to stopping a hurricane is to prevent it from forming.  That may sound impossible, and it almost is, but I learned from The Discovery Channel where hurricanes (affecting the U.S.) come from.  The whole process starts from hot, dry air from the Sahara Desert.  Pockets of that hot, dry air get released over the ocean about every three days, and then convection and evaporation and condensation and stuff take place, and hurricanes are formed.  So one possible solution would be to destroy the Sahara Desert.   I know, that sounds crazy, but think about it — the climate of the Sahara is such that its inhabitants have to live elsewhere.  So who would it inconvenience?  It would save a lot of money when we don’t have destructive hurricanes!

I can see some people opposing that plan.  Fortunately there’s another potential way to stop hurricanes.  During the convection process, clouds form and begin to rotate because of the rotation of the Earth.  So obviously if we stopped the Earth’s rotation, that would prevent hurricanes from forming.  However, this plan would have some major side-effects, like perhaps altering gravity, and we might lose the Moon.  I’m sure some other bad things would happen too, so I can see this idea being vetoed.

Perhaps instead of destroying the Sahara Desert, we should just cover it with solar panels to capture the heat.  And since the Sahara Desert is one of the hottest places in the world, this could also reduce global warming, and it would be a clean, green, unlimited, renewable energy solution.  Sounds perfect, right?  That could be quite expensive, which is probably why it hasn’t been done.  But it would produce untold amounts of clean energy, which everyone wants these days.  Since a large up-front investment is needed, you can start sending in donations, and I’ll do this whenever I get enough money, and it’ll be a win-win for everyone.  You can give using various denominations of cash, check, credit card, and bacon.