Miss Gizma, Consumer Maven
Let's have a fireside chat about consumer issues.
McDonald's Tries In Vain to Re-Invent Their Name
All I have to say is keep my chicken finger prices down and stop fighting losing battles. The word has only been in the English language for two decades, but the hamburger chain McDonald's would like to see the word "McJob" McEliminated from the dictionary.
The word McJob, as the OED definition makes clear, is depreciative: "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector." It found its way into the dictionary in March 2001, 15 years after it was apparently coined by the Washington Post.
The best part is that the OED also has an entry for the entire "Mc" prefix as one that is attached "chiefly to nouns to form nouns with the sense 'something that is of mass appeal, a standardized or bland variety.'"
Tattoo Licensing Rights
Marisa over at Needled.com has blogged twice recently about clothing lines featuring celebrity tattoos [once, twice]. They're badass tattoos, too, such as those of David Beckham, or Angelina Jolie.
If I wore white, I'd be all over the Jolie shirt. Marisa points out, however, that neither Jolie nor the monk who tattooed her ever licensed the designs for use on a shirt. You have to pay Disney to put their godawful characters on a shirt, so how is tattoo art any different?
Those Freaky Japanese and their gag restaurant ideas
[via Consumerist] This is a deep fryer that uses a goldfish tank with live goldfish. Oil and water don't mix, so the 163 degree oil stays on top. The fish eat the greasy food flakes that fall through, stay away from the surface, and can happily live for 5-10 years.
I read that and was like, hmm, I wonder how the hell that works. Oh well, we have scientists like JAX to explain that to people. Then I read the Consumerist comments. They have some smart readers. Here is a sampling of "gotchas" pointed out by the readers:
- What happens to the goldfish poop? There certainly isn't a filter in that thing!
- How is the water aerated?
- How do you fry in 163 degree oil? I guess it must be Celsius? But even then, frying works well when oil is hot enough to make water boil on contact, I don't understand how that could possibly work and not kill the fish.
- Yeah, the temperature is way low. 163 Celsius is still only around 320 Fahrenheit. For reference, I believe fish is fried around 340 and chicken/french fries/donuts are increasingly higher than that.
- The thing I can't believe, though, is how fast they must go through fry oil. Water is one of the things that contributes to the breakdown of frying fat, making it smelly, smoky and unusable.
- But how do you get new fish into the tank? Either have to pop them in when they're little guppies through the filter out flow, then hope they don't get eaten by the other fish. Or I guess you can find a fish that can survive being deep fried and drop them in from the top.
- Even if oil doesn't mix, there should be some heat transfer. The heat doesn't care if it's going from oil to water or air to earth.
- I'd be a lot more impressed if the tank held larger fish and as soon as you selected one it was pushed up into the oil to be instantly fried.
- I would imagine those little goldfish would die of little fishy heart attacks pretty quickly.
- So when the fish eventually die and float up..is there a layer of breading for them to get breaded before becoming goldfish tempura?
All the MPAA and RIAA News That Is Fit To Print
Am I the only one who read the MPAA's 25 Most Wanted list of universities that received the most notices about on-campus piracy and thought, "Cool! I'll tell kids to go to these schools because they must have the most bad-ass download speeds."
NPR has our back: NPR filed a motion for rehearing with the Copyright Royalty Board in response to its March 2, 2007 decision on rates for streaming internet music. This action is the first step in NPR's efforts to reverse the decision, and it will be followed by an appeal of the Board's decision to be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
"How I Become A Music Pirate" by law-abiding music-lover Jarrett. As Jarret was told by Rhino, he "didn't actually purchase the files, he really purchased a license to listen to the music, and the license is very specific about how they can be played or listened to."
Okay, Consumerist, You Don't Always Hit The Mark
I did have a quibble with one recent Consumerist article. A subscriber accidentally sent in a game disc in his Netflix envelope and the wrote to request that they send it back. They responded that their distribution centers aren't set up to return items and that he was S.O.L.
I agree. Netflix brings *me* low prices and quick turn-around and a fucking badass movie catalog. I sure as hell don't want to either pay more or have a longer wait because they implement inventory controls to return every piece of trash that comes in their building. Also, as a commenter pointed out, does Netflix want to get in the business of being a self-imposed bailee of property with liability for returning items in their original condition?
The only issue I have is that their email was a little snotty and didn't address the issue head-on, but skirted it. Still, if I accidentally throw a hundred bucks out of the window of my car, it is my loss, and I'd feel the same way if I returned the wrong disc. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes you have to take responsibility for your actions. Sometimes you can't get a corporate bail-out.
If A Child Is Born On An Airplane, What's His "Place Of Birth" And Citizenship?
It's a very complex question.
McDonald's Tries In Vain to Re-Invent Their Name
All I have to say is keep my chicken finger prices down and stop fighting losing battles. The word has only been in the English language for two decades, but the hamburger chain McDonald's would like to see the word "McJob" McEliminated from the dictionary.
The word McJob, as the OED definition makes clear, is depreciative: "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector." It found its way into the dictionary in March 2001, 15 years after it was apparently coined by the Washington Post.
The best part is that the OED also has an entry for the entire "Mc" prefix as one that is attached "chiefly to nouns to form nouns with the sense 'something that is of mass appeal, a standardized or bland variety.'"
Tattoo Licensing Rights
Marisa over at Needled.com has blogged twice recently about clothing lines featuring celebrity tattoos [once, twice]. They're badass tattoos, too, such as those of David Beckham, or Angelina Jolie.
If I wore white, I'd be all over the Jolie shirt. Marisa points out, however, that neither Jolie nor the monk who tattooed her ever licensed the designs for use on a shirt. You have to pay Disney to put their godawful characters on a shirt, so how is tattoo art any different?
Those Freaky Japanese and their gag restaurant ideas
[via Consumerist] This is a deep fryer that uses a goldfish tank with live goldfish. Oil and water don't mix, so the 163 degree oil stays on top. The fish eat the greasy food flakes that fall through, stay away from the surface, and can happily live for 5-10 years.
I read that and was like, hmm, I wonder how the hell that works. Oh well, we have scientists like JAX to explain that to people. Then I read the Consumerist comments. They have some smart readers. Here is a sampling of "gotchas" pointed out by the readers:
- What happens to the goldfish poop? There certainly isn't a filter in that thing!
- How is the water aerated?
- How do you fry in 163 degree oil? I guess it must be Celsius? But even then, frying works well when oil is hot enough to make water boil on contact, I don't understand how that could possibly work and not kill the fish.
- Yeah, the temperature is way low. 163 Celsius is still only around 320 Fahrenheit. For reference, I believe fish is fried around 340 and chicken/french fries/donuts are increasingly higher than that.
- The thing I can't believe, though, is how fast they must go through fry oil. Water is one of the things that contributes to the breakdown of frying fat, making it smelly, smoky and unusable.
- But how do you get new fish into the tank? Either have to pop them in when they're little guppies through the filter out flow, then hope they don't get eaten by the other fish. Or I guess you can find a fish that can survive being deep fried and drop them in from the top.
- Even if oil doesn't mix, there should be some heat transfer. The heat doesn't care if it's going from oil to water or air to earth.
- I'd be a lot more impressed if the tank held larger fish and as soon as you selected one it was pushed up into the oil to be instantly fried.
- I would imagine those little goldfish would die of little fishy heart attacks pretty quickly.
- So when the fish eventually die and float up..is there a layer of breading for them to get breaded before becoming goldfish tempura?
All the MPAA and RIAA News That Is Fit To Print
Am I the only one who read the MPAA's 25 Most Wanted list of universities that received the most notices about on-campus piracy and thought, "Cool! I'll tell kids to go to these schools because they must have the most bad-ass download speeds."
NPR has our back: NPR filed a motion for rehearing with the Copyright Royalty Board in response to its March 2, 2007 decision on rates for streaming internet music. This action is the first step in NPR's efforts to reverse the decision, and it will be followed by an appeal of the Board's decision to be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
"How I Become A Music Pirate" by law-abiding music-lover Jarrett. As Jarret was told by Rhino, he "didn't actually purchase the files, he really purchased a license to listen to the music, and the license is very specific about how they can be played or listened to."
Okay, Consumerist, You Don't Always Hit The Mark
I did have a quibble with one recent Consumerist article. A subscriber accidentally sent in a game disc in his Netflix envelope and the wrote to request that they send it back. They responded that their distribution centers aren't set up to return items and that he was S.O.L.
I agree. Netflix brings *me* low prices and quick turn-around and a fucking badass movie catalog. I sure as hell don't want to either pay more or have a longer wait because they implement inventory controls to return every piece of trash that comes in their building. Also, as a commenter pointed out, does Netflix want to get in the business of being a self-imposed bailee of property with liability for returning items in their original condition?
The only issue I have is that their email was a little snotty and didn't address the issue head-on, but skirted it. Still, if I accidentally throw a hundred bucks out of the window of my car, it is my loss, and I'd feel the same way if I returned the wrong disc. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes you have to take responsibility for your actions. Sometimes you can't get a corporate bail-out.
If A Child Is Born On An Airplane, What's His "Place Of Birth" And Citizenship?
It's a very complex question.