Bruchal.com: Rich & Shannon’s Musings

Freaky Dog RoofbeerOriginally uploaded by rich_bruchal.

Had lunch at Cafe Atlantique in Milford today. Freaky Dog “Roofbeer”. Good stuff.

“Biometric” soda machine: “

Filed under: Snacks, Science, On the Blogs, America

Nicole recently posted about fingerprint scanners used by school cafeterias to ensure that kids are eating healthy meals. Well, some graduate students have now used similar technology to make getting junk food easier. An engineering professor at the University of California San Diego started the ‘biometric soda machine’ project and students in his department have since outfitted a regular snack machine with thumbprint and facial recognition, as well as a bar code scanner, CR80 News reported. The goal of the project, known as SodaVision, is an easy, debit-based system where people can walk up to the machine, be recognized, choose their snack and walk away. A visit to the SodaVision site also has examples of the machine’s interface, which looks like a screen from Star Trek.

(Via Slashfood.)

Law & Order & Muppets: “

It’s not the same as an invisible Snuffleupagus, but there is something very exciting happening with Sesame Street. On August 14, a segment called ‘Law and Order Special Letters Unit’ will premiere, starting with ‘The Missing M.’ Hal Boedeker at the Orlando Sentinel reports that the actual cast voices will be used, and Dick Wolf himself said, ‘I feel like a tobacco company executive, because hopefully we will hook 4- and 5- and 6-year-olds on the brand now.’ A Sesame Street press release says that there’s definitely a Richard Belzer muppet and that plot includes detectives finding ‘things that start with the letter ‘M’ such as a cow named Murray that makes mmooo sounds.’ Hmm, Law & Order: Playground Control Team, anyone? And as we did some searching, we found this cool video of ‘Law & Order: Special Muppets Unit’ on YouTube!

And the Muppets Wiki noted when Detective Lennie Briscoe (RIP, Jerry!) mentioned Sesame Street.

Comment

”

(Via Gothamist.)

Why?

Originally uploaded by rich_bruchal.

Seen en eoute to the beach on Hilton Head. I don’t understand this. If you’re not going to wear your helmet, why bother taking it with you?

Sunset At Point Royal

Originally uploaded by rich_bruchal.

Sunset outside Dockside Restaurant, Point Royal, SC

Yale Crew

Originally uploaded by rich_bruchal.

Yale Crew vs. Dartmouth & BU. Gilder Boathouse, Derby CT.

Simpsons live-action video a marketing campaign: ”

src="http://www.tvsquad.com/media/2006/03/simpsonhjsj.gif" />This way cool live-action version of the opening
sequence of The Simpsons might be a little less cool now that we know what it’s about. It turns out, the video
is part of a viral marketing
campaign by UK broadcasting network, Sky. The network and its ad agency created the dead-on, live-action video as
part of an on-air promotion for The Simpsons. They even had the blessings of Simpsons producers and
creator Matt Groening. The ad gurus thought it was so cool that they decided to launch it on the internet and just let
word-of-mouth go to work for them. Obviously, they were successful. The video is huge right now. And, unlike NBC, Sky has no plans to
pull it from the ‘net.

I had a feeling it was something like that. the effects are too good for someone random Joe to have made in iMovie.

(Via TV Squad.)

The Torn-Up Credit Card Experiment: “Chase issues a Mastercard to taped-up card applications for another address [via]’”

This is not good. Apparently, this guy tried an experiment where he tried to mimic someone finding a credit card application in your trash and using it to get credit in your name.

He tore up a credit card application he received in the mail, taped it back together again, changed the address to a different one and used a different phone number (his cell phone number). He got the card. Oy.

(Via Waxy.org Links.)

Six Feet Under surfaces on Bravo:

Bravo has the exclusive rights
to air all 63 episodes of the HBO hit series, Six Feet Under. Bravo says it’ll start airing the entire series
sometime this year, possibly this fall, although the announcement doesn’t give an exact date. HBO
refuses to say exactly how much the syndication deal is worth but this report puts it at $15 million, or $250,000 an
episode. HBO originally pimped out Six Feet Under for $450,000 but that was a little too rich for other
networks’ blood. As with Sex and the City, HBO has given Bravo the go-ahead to clean up the language and
video.

“

I loved Six Feet Under (the series finale was one of the best ever), but I wonder how some of this stuff can be cleaned up for non-HBO TV.

(Via TV Squad.)

The Connecticut Post Online: ”

‘A slice of 1925′ comes to Fairfield

MEG BARONE, Correspondent

Commerce Drive in Fairfield doesn’t have quite the same ring as New Haven’s Wooster Street, but it now share a slice of the Elm City’s legendary pizza history.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, established on Wooster Street in 1925, unofficially opened at 238 Commerce Drive this week to invited guests as the owners and staff turned out hundreds of pies to test the coal-burning brick oven before the March 13 grand opening.

The oven was fired up a month ago because it takes time to bring it to the proper temperature, said Ken Berry, the Pepe family’s project manager.

On Thursday, the restaurant cooked almost 200 pizzas to feed about 300 people, many of them city officials.

‘Many years ago, I was introduced to Pepe’s in New Haven, and it was an exciting experience then and I look forward to it being the same he”

I’ve been saying ever since I heard about this that it’s not going to work, that it can’t possibly be as good as the original and that they’re just going to end up diluting their brand. Maybe I’m just a pizza snob.

It seems though that most people don’t care about all that. To paraphrase a coworker who lives in Fairfield: “Even if it’s only half as good as the original, it will still be better than anything else around.”

(Via The Connecticut Post.)