Pizza burger at Burger King Japan

Burger King in Japan sells a 2,530-calorie "Pizza Burger." Via.

*Buy Happy Meal toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. One of Bill Simmons's readers had a great idea - - losing team in the NBA all-star game has to wear short shorts in next year's game.

2. Here's a great explanation for why Mubarak will be very reluctant to give up power - - he fears prosecution:

So, how can Mubarak protect himself if he eventually makes an escape from Cairo? He's taking the usual steps now. Start with his decision to install foreign intelligence chief and CIA confidant Omar Suleiman as vice president and constitutional successor. (Mubarak himself came to the presidency through this route; he had been Anwar Sadat's vice president.) This comes close to matching what in the Russian-speaking world is known as the "Putin option," a reference to the exit strategy adopted by a teetering Boris Yeltsin: Fearing possible retribution from opposition figures, Yeltsin opted to surrender power through a transitional period to a wily senior player in the intelligence community. In exchange, Yeltsin is said to have extracted a firm commitment from Putin that the full machinery of the Russian state would be mustered to protect him. There would be no criminal probes or inquiries, and no cooperation with foreigners who undertook the same. Yeltsin would be free to live his final days shuttling between Moscow and the French Riviera. Putin scrupulously kept his end of the bargain.

Via.

3. Here's Consumer Reports' picks for best frozen pizzas. (Presumably they'll have to reevaluate once the pizza/cookie dough combo is released.)

Link roundup

1. Josh Ellingson has posted several improbably cute drawings of Chase the No Face Cat.

2. Serious Eats' dollar menu favorites.

3. How Jets players inadvertently tipped off plays to the Steelers.

Buy NFL bobbleheads at eBay.

Twin Peaks feast

Twin Peaks feast via these sites.

*Twin Peaks - The Definitive Gold Box Edition is $49 at Amazon.

DiGiorno Pizza AND cookies

DiGiorno Pizza AND cookies in the same box. Just being tested? It's not mentioned on the official site.

*Previously: Pizza party sign.

Link roundup

1. Great speech by Bill Murray about Sofia Coppola. Via.

2. Are these products the same ones sold in Trader's Joe stores? Via.

3. "An investigation is continuing in the case of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who allegedly had a secret underground room at his home authorities believe was built to hide drugs and illegal immigrants."

*Previously: Ghostbusters paper toys.

*Buy Ghostbusters toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. I love when artists sketch their roleplaying characters.

2. Serious Eats gave McDonald's new oatmeal a terrible review.

3. Collection of old Mickey Mouse versus the Nazis comic strips.

*Buy Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Matt Kindt's next comic "Super Natural" will feature "the paranormal, and stars the ghosts of Houdini, Amelia Earhart and even a character from Super Spy, among others."

2. Augmented reality candy:

At SFC Open Research Forum 2010, Keio University's Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory exhibited TagCandy, where the sensations produced by candy are varied using augmented reality. By sucking an ordinary candy inserted into the device, users can experience fizzy soda or crisp apple sensations, or even things such as the sensation of fireworks, that can't be achieved in reality.

Via.

3. Nice retrospective of Sucklord's toys. Via.

*Buy Pocky at Amazon.

How to turn a bowl of porridge into an unforgettable experience

Video of Jennifer Rubell's "Just Right" interactive food installation. Just look at the joy on everyone's faces as they step through the simple portal. Via.

Ballard Bee Honey

Ballard Bee Honey packaging on sale here. Via.

*Buy Boxed and Labelled: New Approaches to Packaging Design at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Tim Rogers makes lots of excellent and funny observations about video game designs in this post at Kotaku. In fact, there are observations about design in general and how even napkin dispensers are a sort of game:

In short, a "perfectly usable" videogame is no fun at all. If Super Mario Bros. were perfectly "usable", you would walk right from start to finish in a world free of obstacles, monsters, or any other reason to jump. That sure would suck a whole lot! Matt and I seem to be in agreement that any good software interface requires some kind of "friction", whether it's about saving princesses or moving files from one folder to another. I'm not saying that it should be as challenging as Tetris to install an application: just that it should feel and look like something cute and fun. Then again, do you really want moving files to be so fun in your computer operating system that people are tempted to sit around moving files back and forth all day? You probably don't, in the same way that you don't want people to stand there and, giggling like a heliumed gorilla, straight-blast paper-grabbing at your napkin dispenser until it's empty and they're breathing heavily and sweating all over your floor. In short, the new napkin dispensers are too fun; they are so too fun they are dangerous to restaurant productivity.

2. I had lunch at Umami Burger for the first time today. Really fantastic (and it better be because a burger, fries, and 8 oz(!) soda plus tip is $20).

3. "George Clooney is financing the use of surveillance satellites to monitor violence in the Sudan in advance of an independence referendum there."

Link roundup

1. Gawker's been hacked.

2. S’mores Marshmallow Pops recipe. Via.

3. Great photo of a squid. And this one, and this one, and this one, too.

Link roundup

1. Has Stephon Marbury already been fired by the Chinese basketball team he was playing for?

2. How to make pie fries.

3. Leslie Nielsen at Disneyland's Submarine Ride circa 1961.

*Buy Disneyland posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Gavin Newsom is against San Francisco's proposed ban on Happy Meal toys.

2. Laura Park draws the view from her hospital bed. Via.

3. Part of a long interview with Nigella Lawson:

In New York, there is an explicit morality associated with locavorism.

Now I get that. I understand it entirely but I don't buy into it. In the Victorian age the peasants just ate local and in season and the aristocracy spent fortunes building greenhouses and growing pineapples. It was a class issue. It was about the elite. Now suddenly because of supermarkets and air travel, the masses — if you want to talk in class terms — can get out of season produce. So what do the elite do? They say If it is not seasonal, if it is not local, it isn't good. So although there is probably in and of its self there is moral value in it, I distrust elitist attitudes in food.

*Buy Happy Meal toys at eBay.

Artisanal Chewing Gum Factory (and so much more)

Alas, it's too late to participate in Bompas & Parr's Artisanal Chewing Gum Factory:

Each visitor will be able to choose and combine 200 familiar and unusual flavours including iris, Hendricks Gin and tonic, curry and beer yeast. In total 40,000 flavour combinations are possible.

Truly outlandish combinations were possible. At least you can participate vicariously by watching the video below:









Coming next month is another event that sounds like great fun - - Taste O Rama at the Harley Gallery:

Coming soon to the Harley Gallery, Bompas & Parr will show Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in Welbeck Abbey's Titchfield Library. Guests will be taken on a trip through the secretive underground rooms at Welbeck before watching the film presented in Taste 'o' Rama - with spectators able to enjoy key moments of the movie with their mouths.

(Monkey brain's anyone?)



You can read about Bompas and Parr's previous culinary adventures at their site, including the Sugar Cave:



Emperor Vespasian's notorious Shield of Minerva dish:



The Ziggurat of Flavour, Occult Jam ("a small triumph over mortality"), Surreal House Dinner, and more. Via these sites.

*Buy Jelly with Bompas and Parr at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. The Demon Hunter class for Diablo III looks great in this trailer (like an armored Lara Croft with double crossbows) and got a strong write-up at Kotaku.

2. Tricking your taste buds:

Last week, we had a little fun partying with* Miracle Fruit, which tricks your taste buds into thinking that sour things taste sweet. Tra-la-la! Isn't life grand, all rose-colored glasses, when you can nibble on a lemon and have it taste like candy? Unicorns and ponies and kitty kitty kats yay!

But then -- boom! -- here comes Miracle Fruit's evil Bizarro-twin brother, Gymnema Sylvestre. Yes, that's right, he's so bad he doesn't even need a name you can pronounce. And his magic power is similarly antisocial: A little sprinkle of his putrid powdery self on your tongue, and you will lose the ability to taste sweetness. Which means that Coke will taste only of its flavoring agents, oranges will taste as sour as lemons, and sugar won't taste like much at all.

If you're thinking that doesn't sound very delicious, well, you're right. But the ability to turn off one of our tastes offers a unique look into how we respond to the others, how important sweetness is to flavor, and, conversely, what we can taste in food once the masking effect of sweetness is taken away.

Via.

3. Matt Buchanan at Gizmodo says the iPad is pretty much useless for the type of blogging I do. (Too bad, I was intrigued.)

*Buy iPads at eBay.

Link roundup

1. At Photoshop Phriday: Porn Versions of Classic Films, Part II.

2. Perfect advice from Penelope Trunk for dealing with an unsatisfactory job situation (when quitting is not an option):

1. Make the person I’m dealing with feel special and important so they like being with me.

2. Stop letting myself use the language of a victim. If I choose to stay, then I am picking my situation so I need to talk like I mean to be where I am.

3. Find side projects to make life feel better. I tell people to add things to their job description so that the job gets better—different people, different learning goals. These are all things I can do now. To make things better.

(This blog is my side project.)

3. Download for free Reddit's college cookbook.

Nutella Snack & Drink

Nutella Snack & Drink - - it's listed, but not available for purchase at Amazon. Via.

Pin-Up Girls and Gleeful Food by Nouar

Creepy pin-up girls and food from Nouar's show at Copro Gallery.

*Buy vintage food posters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Download Bejeweled 2 for free (Sunday only). Via.

2. Here's a really fun and simple web game - - Solipskier. You draw the ski slopes and try to make the skier catch air.

3. Lots of Iron Chef trivia, including: they shoot two episodes a day, and "they cook once for the cameras, get a breather, and then have to cook again for what's served to the judges. They flip a coin to see who goes first."

*Buy the Dave McKean-designed cookbook at Amazon.