NOT your father's Transformer

GX-23-box
Originally uploaded by gundammsz010

Just pick up the Soul of Chogokin GX-23 Zambot 3. It is not cheap but is worth every penny it costs me. I am too busy playing with it to write any more. You can read all about it at Collection DX or Robot Japan.

I wonder when, if ever, will American toys catch up to their Japanese counterpart. The Star Wars Transformer is a step in the right direction. But we have still got a long way to go, baby.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen or ...

An AC repairman once told me that he was working on an air-conditioned shirt for people who works in hot places like kitchen. Looks like someone has beaten him to it:



You can real all about the details at Yahoo! .
In stead of two small fans, the person was thinking about piping cool air into the shirt from an external AC unit. I wonder if anyone is working on a portable AC unit powered by a pocket-sized rechargeable battery pack.

The Nutcracker (not the ballet)

I have always thought that Japanese games shows are the most entertaining. Now there is a game show in Japan where contestants have to say a tongue twisters or this will happen:

I wonder what the prize is for the last contestant left standing. It must be something good in order to get people to be contestants on the show. On second thought, make that very good.

Mega FAT Fast Food

I was wondering if the Mega sandwiches would become a trend in Japan. Well, it looks that way as Pizza Hut in Japan has introduced a Mega Pizza:

In stead of plain old cheese, the crust is stuffed with sasuage and bacon. I wonder what's next. Maybe Mega Fried Chicken where the drumstick is made out of turkey drumstick, or Mega Fries made out of fried whole potatoes?

Live Earth

Now that the Live Earth concerts is over, I wonder if someone is going to tally up how much carbon dioxide was produced from this event. In addition to all the energy consumed putting the show together (all the lights and audio/visual equipments), I am sure not small amount of carbon dioxide was produced from people watching it on their big screen TV. Moreover, I have heard that many performers travel by private jets to the concerts. I wonder how much of the ticket price will go to purchasing carbon credits. After all, that's how AL Gore justifies his house using 20 times more electricity than the average American home. But wouldn't it be much better not producing those carbon dioxide in the first place in stead of buying credits to offset them after the fact?

I wonder if Al Gore is going to purchase any speeding or marijuana credit for his son.

Made in China

It used to be that one has to go to Chinatown to find products made in China. But now they are everywhere. Just go down to your neighborhood Walmart. I bet you most of the stuff you will find there are made in China. But as the number of Chinese products grows, so does the list of tainted, defective, and counterfeit Chinese products that could pose health and/or safety risks. The latest to join that list is farmed seafood, which has been banned by the FDA. Speaking of counterfeit products, have you ever heard about the counterfeit eggs that were made in China? Apparently, they look so real that people can't tell the fake ones from the real ones. Here's a link with pictures. I wonder if there is anything that the Chinese won't counterfeit.

Mega FAT sandwiches

Apparently the McDonald's Big Mac just isn't big enough for the Japanese. So McDonald's has introduced the Mega Mac there. It weighs in at 754 calories and 45.9 grams of fat. During the first weekend after it was introduced, 3.32 million of them were sold, nearly doubling McDonalds' own sales prediction. It was such a big hit that the Mega Teriyaki, made with pork instead of beef, is now also available in Japan. The Mega Teriyaki boasts 903 calories and 64.3 grams of fat, and is actually currently out-selling the Mega Mac. I wonder if the Japanese has ever heard of the movie Super Size Me.

The 54 Million Dollar Pants, NOT

The District of Columbia Superior Court has ruled against an administrative law judge who filed a $54 million lawsuit against his neighborhood dry cleaner over a pair of missing pants. I wonder which part should I be more outraged about, the 54 millions dollar for a pair of pants, or the fact that the lawsuit was filed by a judge. What's even worse than a frivolous law suit is one that is filed by someone who is supposed to uphold justise. I wonder what makes him think that a “satisfaction guaranteed” sign entitled unhappy customers to unlimited compensation.

First in Line

Want to be first in line for the iPhone at Apple's flagship store? Too late. At least two guys are already waiting in line. I wonder if Apple will give them anything extra for being in line so early. Actually being in line at the Apple flagship store isn't that bad since it is open 24x7. I am guessing they would be able to go inside the store to relieve them from both boredom and the call of nature.

Take Your _____ To _____ Day

Today is Take Your Dog To Work Day. You are probably more familiar with Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day. That actually started out as Take Our Daughters To Work Day before the political correct police had their way. I wonder how long it would be before TYDTW Day becomes Take Your Pet To Work Day. But then I know many people who treat their pets as if their pets were their children (pet day care, pet spa, etc). So wouldn't it be more PC to have a Take Our Daughters and Sons and Pets To Work Day? But how about folks who don't have children or pets? Would it be PC to leave them out? I guess we could have a Take Your <insert your favorite minority group here> Friend To Work Day. But what about people who are unemployed? Even if they have someone to take, they have no work to take them to. I wonder what sort of day would the PC police come up with to cover everyone.

President Bloomberg

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is now a man without a party after dropping his affiliation to the Republican Party. Last time he dropped out of a political party, he did so to run for his current office. Even though he said that he is not a candidate for US president in 2008, it is obvious that he is at least testing the water. For his NYC mayoral election, he spent $100 per vote. I wonder how much he would spend for a presidential election. According to Forbes he is worth 5 billion so he does have some money to spend on votes. And if he is successful, I wonder if this will open up the flood gate since there are 33 people in the US who have more money than he does.

Equal Justice Under Law

After serving just three days of a three weeks sentence, Paris Hilton has been released from jail and will be serving a 40 days home confinement instead. I wonder what is the medical issue that cannot be treated in jail but can be treated at home. I think she must have Billionaires' disease.

By the way, I think Lewis Libby should go visit Paris. Who knows, maybe he will catch whatever disease she has and serve his sentence at home.

The Prince Vs The Insurgents

It looks like the British Army is still going to deploy Prince Harry to Iraq. I wonder why? What difference will he make in the war? Will he single-handedly change the course of the war? What do you think the insurgents will do when Harry is in Iraq? It doesn't take an expert to figure out that they will go all out to try to get Harry. So deploying the Prince will actually endanger the British troops as they will be subjected to attacks that would not been taking place if the Prince was not there. I understand that the Prince doesn't want any special treatment. But do you think the insurgents will not treat the Prince differently?

Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People

I wonder how many people the Virgina Tech gunman would have killed if he did not have a hand gun. When are we going to do something about the easy access to guns (both legally and illegally) and the violent video games that is readily available to our kids?

The Duke Lacrosse Players and The Central Park Jogger

When I learned that all charges have been dropped against the Duke Lacrosse players, the one thing that keep coming up in my mind is the Central Park Jogger case. In the Duke case, three rich white young men were accused of raping a poor black woman. In the Central Park case, five poor black young men were accused of raping and beating a rich white woman. The Central Park five were convicted and sent to jail. But a judge later threw out the convictions after a convicted serial rapist and murderer told New York prison officials that he alone raped the jogger. DNA testing confirmed his story. I wonder if the outcome of either case would still be the same if the race and social standing of the accused and victim were reversed. Would the lacrosse players suffer the same fate as the Central Park five had they been poor black young men and the victim they were accused of raping a rich white woman? Would the Central Park five been wrongfully convicted had they been rich white young man and the victim a poor black woman?

What got Imus fired

Radio shock jock Imus was fired for the remarks he made about the Rutgers Women Basketball Team. Even though he manged to kill two birds with one stone since his remarks were both racist and sexist, he had said things that were a lot worse before. So I wonder why this time is any different than before. Different enough to get him fired. I wonder what actually got him fired, the racist and sexist remarks, or what he said in one of his many apologies, that he will change. People listen to him because of the shocking things that he says. Afterall, he is known as a shock jock. Would anyone listen to a shock jock that's not shocking? Would anyone hire him as a non-shock jock? Apparently not, not CBS Radio at least.

Honey We're Killing the Kids!

Finally a reality TV show that is worth watching. TLC is doing a show based on childhood obesity titled Honey We're Killing the Kids!. As we are making breakthrough in many different areas of medicine, childhood obesity remains a big problem in the US. It is about time someone shine a spotlight on it. One family featured on the show was on a morning TV show this week. Both parents are overweight and are suffering medical conditions due to that themselves. I wonder why it takes a reality TV show for them to do something about their children being obese when they themselves have firsthand knowledge of the negative effects of being overweight. Sadly I know parents who are overweight and are raising obese kids myself. I hope that this would be a wait up call for all of them.

First Gentleman/First Husband/First Spouse

Hillary Clinton has raised an unprecedented $26 million in the first quarter this year for her presidential campaign. I probably don't have to tell you how important money is nowadays in presidential election. So her chances of winning her party's nomination and the presidency looked pretty good. I have always wonder how we would address the spouse of a female president. First Gentleman? First Husband? In this age of political correctness, I am very surprise that the spouse of the president isn't being addressed as First Spouse. I did some digging around and it turns out the the United States Mints has already done so.

But it looks like we may have more time to decide since it was made known yesterday that Barack Obama is almost neck-to-neck with Hillary and had raised $25 million in the first quarter. So Hillary doesn't look like the inevitable nominee that she was looking like the day before yesterday.

freedom of expression - what's the limit

20070331chochrist
Originally uploaded by gundammsz010.

By now you have probably heard about the art exhit My Sweet Lord. It is a chocolate sculpture of a naked and anatomically correct Jesus. If that's not bad enough, I have also heard that the sculptor has invited art lovers to lick it and eat it before it was to be taken down on Easter Sunday. I have always considered myself a social liberal but this is over the line even for me. I wonder if anyone would actually lick and eat it. There are all sorts of people in the world so someone would probably do it.

BrakeLok - What's the point

I am pretty sure you have come across great design that are not practical at all. I just came across one that may qualify if it was a great design. It surely fit the not practical part. The BrakeLok is a device similar to The Club except that you put it on the hand brake. I wonder if the designer has actually tried to see if this product actually works or not. I don't know of any car that will actually be immobilized by not releasing the hand brake. Do you?

SuperSuper Tuesday

It looks like New York will be joining a growing number of other states which are moving the primary election in 2008 to February 5. So it is very likely that the winners of the primary election will be determined on that day. I have always wonder why there isn't a national primary election. There is a national general election so why not for the primary election. Wouldn't any argument against the national primary election be true for the general election too? What do you think?

Gotta What

I have seen many Japanese gadgets and inventions that are way out there. But I think this one beats them all. It is called the Gotta Go Briefcase. I know I have said this before but this one you really have to see to believe. It is meant for business professionals who wants to better maximize time efficiency and encourage higher job performance. The manufacturer claims that it will offer an extra edge over corporate competitors. I wonder what kind of edge one will get after being seen using one of these by competitors and colleague.

The Other White Meat

I have always wonder if the US government is still being as wasteful as before since nowadays you don't hear story like the $600 toilet seat that often anymore. Or maybe it is just not news anymore so people stopped talking about it. Well, according to the Pig Book, money is still being wasted, if at least not as much as before. I guess one can always look at the bright side. Every dollar wasted by the US government is a dollar earned by someone else. So the US government is just doing its part to keep the economy going.

(RED)

You may or may not have heard of the RED Campaign. I have because one of my favorite companies, Apple, is a participant. Well, according to the Numbers column of the latest issue of Time, it has raised $18 million worldwide so far. You may say that is no small change. But it actually is when compared to the $100 million spent on marketing the RED Campaign by Gap, Motorola, and (yes) Apple (too). I wonder if they realize that their marketing overhead is that much more than what they are raising. I have a feeling that they do. But I guess it really shouldn't be considered marketing overhead since they are marketing both the RED Campaign as well as their own products at the same time. And they are spending their own money and not the money raised. But I wonder if any one of them had considered giving some of that marketing money to the campaign directly.

Japanese Gadgets

I always wonder what gadgets the Japanese will invent next. I think they are way ahead of everyone when it comes to gadgets. That is terms usefulness, strangeness and plain weirdness. Well someone has make a list of top 12 weird Japanese inventions. You have to check it out. My favorite is the gardening tool. You have to see it to believe it.

Rats Backlash

There now seems to be a rats backlash in New York City after video and photo of a rats infested Taco Bell/KFC restaurant hit big time on the web. Restaurant owners are complaining that they are unfairly targeted by the Health Department. None of them are actually denying that their restaurants have rats. They are saying they are now being tickets for conditions that existed before that they were ticketed for. I wonder what makes them think that it is OK to have rats in their restaurants.

Happy Birthday, Leap Day Babies

I always wonder how people born on Feburary 29th celebrate their birthday. Do they do it only in leap year? Or every year on Feburary 28th or March 1st. I actually don't know anyone born on leap day so I have no one to ask. I have always thought that it is due to the fact that being born on leap day is small. Well according to the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies, the chance is 1 in 1461. Then I heard a report on the news radio that when a leap baby was born, the doctor asked the mother if she would like to put on the birth certificate either Feburary 28th or March 1st as the birthday. I wonder how many mother would do just that.

Jesus Tomb - Probably NOT

Unlike The Da Vinci Code, which is a work of pure fiction, there are now a non-fictional book and a Discovery Channel documentary claiming a tomb has been found containing bone boxes of Jesus and his family. The author of the book claimed on The NBC Today Show that:

Now the debate is going to begin because statisticians say it is significant. DNA experts say it is significant.

I wonder why it took so long for him to come forward, since the tomb and bone boxes were discovered 27 years ago. Was there an effort to cover this up? Probably not since there isn't much to cover up to begin with. The DNA evidence turns out to be tests done on DNA from the "Jesus" and "Mariamene" bone-boxes that indicated that they were not related on their mother's sides. Therefore if this turned out to be a family tomb, the two would most likely have been hushand and wife. Man, that's a most likely following a big if. And I couldn't believe he actually tried to use statistic to prove his point. Just because something is not likely does not means that it is not going to happen.

Must See TV

Police responding to burst water pipe in Long Island New York found a mummified dead body in front of a blaring television. Apparently, the man has been dead for more than one year. Many questions came to my mind when I read this news story. Why as the electricity still on when the bill has not been paid for over a year? How could a dead body mummified all by itself natually? But one keeps lingering in my mind. I wonder if anyone will notice if I am gone. I happen to believe that everyone do make a differnce, good or bad, in this world. I wonder if this person actually did not make any difference at all such that people did not notice that he was dead for over a year...

How Low Can You Go

I have seen a lot of wacky/weird/tasteless gadgets lately:

humping dog USB drive

busty mouse pad

breast mouse pad(this one is for raising public awareness of breast cancer, but still...)

Axe Mousepad - I won't even try to describe it here. You have got to see for yourself.

I wonder how low they will go. I guess someone will sell whatever someone else will buy.

Apology NOT accepted

Michael Waltrip has apologized for cheating at Daytona. I bet he is sorry alright. He must be very sorry that he got caught. First it was steroid use in the Major League Baseball, and now NASCAR. I wonder which professional sport will be next? What kind of examples are we setting for our kids?

iAlarm

I have seen many different variations on the alarm clock lately, including and not limited to:

hello kitty alarm clock

flying alarm clock

sonic boom alarm clock

danger bomb alarm clock

The latest I have come across is the runaway alarm clock, which you will have to chase down in order to shut it off. This one may actually work for me. Since Apple is not not just a computer company anymore. I wonder what kind of alarm clock it will sell if it decides to sell one. Maybe one will all the features listed above but in a incredibly small package and a unique user interface. Oh of course it runs OS X.

We have a deal (or do we)

It looks like there is finally a deal on the North Korea nuke.
But we would not need a deal if North Korea did not cheat on the Agreed Framework that they had signed. I wonder what's different this time. I wonder if there is anything in the deal to prevent North Korea from starting their nuclear program the next time they don't want to play nice.

I more I think about the whole thing, the more I feel that nuclear nonproliferation will never work. Why are some countries allowed to have nuclear weapons but not the rest of the world? The US may say that Iran and North Korea are rogue states. But how do you define rogue objectively? I think the only solution is to get rid of all nuclear weapons for everybody. And I do mean everyone. I wonder if we will ever get there. Sure, it will happen when mankind invents something even more destructive and makes nuclear weapons obselete.

Show Me The Money

Free Money. No this is not a spam. Nor did I include these two words to trick people into reading my blog. Well, in order the receive the free money ($15.00), you do have to spent $30.00 or more and pay for it using Paypal. But if you regularly spend that amount with Paypal, it amounts to free money. I wonder how much this little promotion is going to cost Paypal. Maybe they are feeling some heat from Google Checkout. I am a long time Paypal user. But I did signed up for Google Checkout and used it once for a $20.00 off bonus. I have no loyalty to either Paypal or Google. My loyalty is with my waller. I wonder if this is the start of a rebate war between Paypal and Google. One can always hope.

Thou shall not bear false witness

I really have not been following the Lewis Libby trail. But a thought came to my mind while I was reading an article in Time on the subject. Libby is on trail for lying under oath. He is certainly not the first government official being accused of doing so. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath. Even though Clinton was acquitted, I really don't see how anyone can say that his infamous words:

I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

was not a lie. Did he do so under oath? Well he did it when he was deposed in the Paula Jones lawsuit. I wonder if justice will prevail in the Libby case. Do you think that justice prevailed in the Clinton impeachment?

iLaw

A New York state senator has proposed a law banning the use of electronic gadgets--including MP3 players and cell phones--by pedestrians using a crosswalk. I really don't think we can legislate common sense. There are other things that people do to endanger themselves. Can we outlaw them all? I wonder if someone would ever propose a law that bans walking and chewing gum at the same time?

Brain Training

A bunch of brain training/fitness software is now available on the market ever since Nintendo started marketing its DS and the Brain Age game. There is even a sequel to Brain Age - Big Brain Academy. As I am getting older, I wonder if I should invest some time and money in this. If I am a gamer and own a DS, I would probably get Brain Age and try it out. But I am not and don't own a DS so getting Brain Age would be a bigger investment for me as I will need to buy both hardware and software.

But it turns out that a research done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that simply aerobic exercies like walking increases the brain's volume and may be a simple and effective way to reverse age-related brain deterioration. Now that's what I call a no brainer.

I, Inc.

This week Apple Computer, Inc changed its name to Apple, Inc. Make sense since they are really not just a computer company anymore. I think a better name would have been I, Inc. Think about it. It all started with the iMac. Then there are iLife and iBook. And now comes the iPhone. I wonder what other iStuff Apple will come up with next. I can't wait.