DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I suppose it was inevitable that when transplanting the restaurant chain that invented the “Lover’s Line” of pizzas — including the Cheese Lover’s, Meat Lover’s, and for those meat lovers who are amorous about specific varieties of flesh, the Pepperoni Lover’s and Sausage Lover’s — local accomodations to the menu might be made. Thus, I should not have been surprised by the big Spargel Lover’s Pizza sign in the local Pizza Hut window.

But I was surprised to see a competing vendor 50 meters away that offered a Spargel Pizza with Hollandaise sauce. I mean, that’s just gross.

I didn’t check the other neighborhood fast-food franchises but I suspect I’d have found Spargel McNuggets, Bacon Bacon Spargelburger, 7-layer Spargel BellGrande, etc.

Like an old Cabernet with grass-fed beef, or a young Zinfandel with a spicy pizza, the folks at Jägermeister have come up with a perfect pairing: 700 ml of (70-proof) cough syrup and the Men in Black II DVD. It’s priced to move at about $11.25 US, and yet, curiously, there was a whole stack of them getting dusty at the local Rewe Center.

This just in — SUVs still suck!

What is a “hollow” hybrid? The Union of Concerned Scientists writes:

Some automakers are trying to create a “green” image by putting one or two of these technologies into their conventional vehicles and calling them hybrids. The Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid, for example, have idle-off capability but improve fuel economy by only one or two miles per gallon. Such improvements might be lauded if they were made standard options in every Silverado and Sierra, but producing a limited quantity and marketing them as hybrids will only dilute the term’s meaning and soften demand for hybrid technologies.

When evaluating hybrids, keep in mind that the environmental performance of specific models can vary. For example, Honda Civic Hybrids sold in California rate an exemplary 9.5 out of 10 on the EPA’s smog-forming emissions scale, while others currently rate just a 2. For a customized, side-by-side comparison of hybrid models-along with useful tips from technology experts and hybrid drivers-visit the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Hybridcenter.org website.

In related news, I was pleased to see in a recent Chronicle article that sales of big-assed SUVs are trending down, while hybrids like the Prius are selling well. See: America’s passion for burly SUV fizzles: Showrooms anemic, but customers paying full price for Toyota’s hybrid.

It was just a couple months ago that I quoted:

[Anthony Pratt, an analyst with J.D. Power and Associates] says he thinks demand for hybrids will peak around 2011, at 3 percent of the market, because there’s a limit to the number of customers willing to pay more for a vehicle that will save them a few hundred dollars a year on gas.

What if it’s a few thousand a year?

Fans of the Oktava/Guitar Center/McKay microphone controversy, told here in 3 parts (I, II, III), should check out this 127-post-long thread on rec.audio.pro, somewhat innocently titled Oktava update?

A few nuggets:

• A & F McKay Audio Limited of the UK is “in liquidation.” Some folks on that board speculate that this is an effort to escape legal obligations: shut down one company, then open another to continue the business of the first. I wonder if this affects the warranties previously issued by the McKay brothers for Oktava products.
• Aidan Humphreys conducted an A/B test of Russian and Chinese MK012 mics and posted WAV files of both. His site is set up to allow you to listen to the samples blind — it’s very well-done and worth checking out if you’re shopping. See: http://www.sound-patterns.com/mk012/
• Update 2005-09-05: not from r.a.p., but relevant, is the detailed review of the Chinese vs. Russian MK-012s on the gearslutz.com forum (may require registration)

Some interesting background information can also be found in the rec.audio.pro archives, such as this post full of legal actions and brimstone from Fergus McKay in February 2001, which itself spawned 120+ responses. Fergus McKay’s post struck a nerve, or 120 of them, and a lot of people who seem to know what they’re talking about posted some revealing facts.

On a side note, I’m happy to have re-discovered Usenet this weekend… I’d given it up for dead in 1992 when recruiters infested ba.jobs.

Quoting an emergency dispatch from the California Solar Center:

The California Million Solar Roofs bill (SB1), which would provide ten years of incentives to help Californians install one million solar rooftops by 2018, is facing a critical vote in the State Legislature. On Monday May 23, the bill goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee for a vote.

The opponents of this bill argue that California can’t afford to provide incentives for solar energy. But when all the costs of our dependence on fossil fuels are taken into account, the truth is that we can’t afford not to. Please let the Senate Appropriations Committee know how important it is for California to become the cradle of the clean energy technologies of tomorrow and pass the California Million Solar Roofs bill.

There are two ways to contact California’s senators:

• the renewableenergyaccess.com site
• the Union of Concerned Scientists’ solar action center