explaining Japan’s nuclear situation to children

Someone sent me a video of a cartoon character named Nuclear Boy, who explains the nuclear disaster in Japan, but in a format for children.  This video (below) has captioning translated to English.  Apparently it was designed by someone in Japan, so I don’t think it’s meant to make light of the situation, just putting it in terms children can relate to, like passing gas / farting, poo, and diarrhea.  Yeah, this video compares radiation emissions to gas, and a complete meltdown like Chernobyl is diarrhea.

Just to be clear, this is not to make fun of what’s happening in Japan right now.  My heart goes out to them.  I can’t imagine what they’re going through.

This video is a lighter take on it, for children — well, also for teenagers and adults who are still fascinated by flatulence and poop.  Not everyone understands nuclear meltdown, but everyone understands diarrhea.

The name of the video translated into English is: A Nuclear Reactor Explained by Poop and Farts: Nuclear Reactor Boy’s Tummy Ache.

I’ve wondered if this is an actual translation, so I looked at the comments on the original video, and someone there translated it very similar, so it appears legit, as far as I know.

Will the Supermoon destroy us all?

I saw an interesting headline in the news recently: Will March 19 “Supermoon” Trigger Natural Disasters? Uhh… What is this “Supermoon”?  Apparently it’s just that the moon will be closer to the Earth than it has in the past 18 years (“just” 221,567 miles away), and it will be a full moon.

Here’s what is amusing to me about the article:

“One astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet.”

Notice the first word of that quote.  The guy is Richard Nolle, who runs a website, and he termed this upcoming event an “extreme supermoon”.  He says when this happens, “chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth.”  If there’s truth to that, then we should be very concerned.   But the very next sentence of the article clarifies the situation:

(It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.)

Ahh…   Back in factual terms, a seismologist has said it does cause more “stress” to the Earth, but it’s a less-than-1-percent increase in earthquake activity and slightly higher in volcanoes.  He thinks there should be more of an effect, but the evidence just isn’t there.  The U.S. Geological Survey has done a lot of studies and haven’t found anything significant at all.

The article goes on to say, “Most natural disasters have nothing to do with the moon at all.”   Notice the first word again.  So the moon is to blame for some Earth destruction after all!  Well, as they say, you can’t be too careful — so obviously we should blow up the moon! (There are numerous discussions here at Buffet o’ Blog on why the moon should be destroyed.  Feel free to search the archives and join the discussion.)

burger challenge at Cheeburger

Last week the Buffet o’ Blog staff and a few friends met at Cheeburger Cheeburger in Little Rock, AR, to conquer their so-called burger challenge.  Their “challenge” is called “Our Famous Pounder”, and it starts with 20 oz. of beef plus whatever toppings you want.  It doesn’t sound too intimidating to me! If you eat it, they take your picture and put it on the wall with the other “Wall of Famers”.

Two of the guys in our group attempted and both conquered the burger, plus some fries and/or onion rings, and a regular milkshake.  While it’s an achievement worthy of recognition (hence the post), one of them requested his secret identity remain secret (probably so his wife wouldn’t know he ate the whole thing).

Of course more pictures could’ve been taken, but I had food of my own to eat, so this is all you get.  Besides, it’s not that much of a challenge.  I’ve eaten meals larger than that before.

About the food — the burgers tasted great.  There are many choices of toppings, including peanut butter.   None of us tried that, but one guy put pepperoni on his and recommended it.  We all added bacon to our cheeseburgers, which was good, but there were the usual comments of “needs more bacon”.  (For those not in the know, that is a recurring phrase on this blog. Just about any food could be made better with more bacon.)

The fries were average to me, but the onion rings left something to be desired.   (Maybe it was an off-night — I don’t know; this was my first time to this restaurant.)

The milkshakes were excellent!  Mine was chocolate with brownie batter, peanut butter, and Oreos.  They have a LOT of choices for milkshakes and malts — looks like around 70 options.  Someone at the table suggested a huge conglomeration of toppings, but it got to the point where there wouldn’t have been room for ice cream.  I suppose a line has to be drawn somewhere, unless they keep making the glass bigger as you add more toppings.

All in all, it was a great time.  It was a great choice for a guys’ night out.  Highly recommended!

caption contest, multi-car pileup

We now bring to you the next regularly scheduled caption contest.  BTW, just an FYI, it can be fun to glance at the previous caption contests (which can be easily accessed with the Say What? link).  You may think of a new caption because your perspective and mindset will be slightly different each time you view them.  And sometimes you can take a theme from one and apply it to others (like how it’s all Mango-Man’s fault, for instance).  Just a thought…

This week’s photo features a multi-car pile-up on the highway.  It’s up to you to figure out what happened and/or why, and to deduce what people might be saying about it.  (Just keep it clean, as always.)

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