Are dinosaurs extinct because of their farting?

In the news recently, British scientists (“boffins”) have announced that dinosaurs’ reckless farting might have led to their extinction.  Read for yourself:

Dinosaurs may have farted themselves to extinction, according to a new study from British scientists.

The researchers calculated that the prehistoric beasts pumped out more than 520 million tons (472 million tonnes) of methane a year — enough to warm the planet and hasten their own eventual demise.

Until now, an asteroid strike and volcanic activity around 65 million years ago had seemed the most likely cause of their extinction. …

“Our calculations suggest these dinosaurs may have produced more methane than all the modern sources, natural and human, put together.”

“Not the momma!”

Yeah, I called it reckless farting.  (Have you ever heard those two words together before?)  It’s bad enough to just fart whenever you want, but when the air becomes unsuitable for life, it’s time to change policy.  I realize they’re just animals, but you’d think they could’ve figured it out.  Even animals can learn by conditioning (like Pavlov’s dogs).  Here, you’d think after millions of years, they’d figure out a disturbing pattern.  Por ejemplo: [fart]  “Whew, that stinks.”  [fart again]  “That’s some stank-terribleness.”  [fart again]  “I can hardly breathe…”  [fart again]  “I’m about to die!”  The pattern is obvious.

Doesn’t it seem odd that there are people who get paid to calculate how much dinosaurs passed gas?  Imagine meeting new people and they ask you what you do — “I study dinosaur farts.”  You’d get some weird reactions, I’m sure.  But you’d be a hit at the elementary school on bring-your-parent-to-school day.  🙂

real-life Transformer prototype

Wouldn’t it be awesome to have your own Transformer?  That is, a car that turns into a robot.  The possibilities are, as they say, endless.

We’re still years away from such technology, but at least there are people working on it.  The video below shows a toy-sized prototype transforming car/robot built by Kenji Ishida and JS Robotics.  (Turn the volume down because it’s louder than it should be.)

If we ever get this technology to be life-sized and usable, one obvious benefit would be the need for less parking spaces.  Your car could become a robot and go inside with you, to bring you snacks at work and do chores at home.  (We’re gonna have to be really careful with how much artificial intelligence (AI) we give it, based on movies.)

Oh, and I definitely want mine to have that classic transforming sound from the original (G1) Transformer cartoons in the ’80s!  If it has to be played through speakers, that’s fine.  It just sounds awesome.  Here’s an example.

caption contest, who can explain this one?

We like to feature unusual photos for our weekly caption contest, to make it more interesting and more random.  We’ve had some really weird pictures so far, but this may be the most random one yet.  I challenge you to come up with a story that comes close to being plausible.  Of course, you can also make jokes or funny observations, if you don’t care to try to explain it.  Most of all, have fun with it.

(To see our other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

new Pizza Hut crusts, plus our ideas

It’s not uncommon for American restaurants to feature cultural variations on their foods in other countries.  Even McDonald’s has some vastly different options around the world.  But what’s odd is when an American food company takes American-style food and offers it only in other countries.

If you click this picture to enlarge it, be forewarned that it will probably make you want to order pizza. If only I had a printer that could “print” out a real pizza like this when ordering online…

For example, Pizza Hut has several new types of crusts for their pizzas in the Middle East.  America has had the stuffed crust pizza for years, which is a great idea.  Now, in the Middle East, there is a crust with hot dogs in it, and there’s a crust that’s made up of mini cheeseburgers and one made with chicken nuggets.  That seems like something you’d have in the U.S. first.  Rumor has it they are considering bringing these crusts to the U.S.

Here’s some I’ve heard of (with the commercial linked so you can see it): Crown Crust Chicken (with chicken nuggets), Crown Crust Burger (with mini “burgers”), Star Pops Pizza (with “sausage pops”, which look like mini hot dogs).  Also of note, from Malaysia, there’s the Golden Fortune Cheesy Crown, which has shrimp, fish, pineapple, and “crowns of cheesy liquid gold”.

I’m all for innovation, but I’m not sure those ideas above will make the pizza better.  The Buffet o’ Blog staff discussed this topic, and all of us agreed that the next logical evolution in pizza crust should be to add bacon.  Now there’s a can’t-miss idea, if implemented well.  Why hasn’t one of the pizza places thought of that?  (It’s obvious to us, which is just another sign that we should open a new restaurant, if we can acquire the necessary funding.)

Now if you want to think outside the box on improving pizza crust, here’s an idea: make the outer rim of crust breaded like southern fried chicken.  There might be logistical issues with making it work, but that’s what R&D departments are for.  If you could pull that off while maintaining the necessary texture and not having the crust absorb too much grease, it would be most awesome.  And then, as some of you are already thinking, add bacon to that.  🙂

We have more ideas, too, so, Pizza Hut (or other pizza restaurants), if you’re listening, have your people contact our people.  We’ll work for cash money and/or free food.  🙂