Category: Rant

All me to rant. Things that make me angry, or find curious, odd, amusing

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Does Anyone Use The Coffee-Type Indicators On Paper Cup Lids?

black-coffee-cup-lidI think the little press-down indicators on the top of the lids for paper cups are a brilliant invention.

For example, let’s say you are going to McDonalds and you are getting 5 hot beverages:

  1. Black coffee
  2. Black decaf coffee
  3. White coffee with sugar
  4. White decaf coffee
  5. Hot chocolate

If the McDonalds staff member pressed down the appropriate buttons on the plastic lids, you can see at a glance which hot beverage is which.

So why don’t staff ever use them?

Annoying!

And another one: Many pizza boxes have similar indicators on the side of the box. And example is Hell Pizza.  They have every flavour of pizza listed on the side of the box, all the staff member would have to do it circle the flavour with a pen.

A few times I’ve had parties when we’ve ordered 6 or more pizza’s and it would have been very handy to actually know which flavour we had in front of us.

But Hell Pizza employees never mark the pizza flavour on the side of the box either.

Annoying!

I just feel sorry for the dude that invented these things, got them accepted into mainstream but they don’t get used in practice.

Shame.

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Which Floor Is At Street Level? The Ground Floor or First Floor?

elevator-buttons-ground-floorWhen you are on an upper level in a tall building, and you step into the elevator, do you hesitate for a moment trying to decide which button to press to get back to street level?

I sure do.

But I’m no longer embarrased about it, because after a quick Google search, I now know I’m not alone.

In New Zealand elevators, most street level floors are called “G”, but I’m pretty sure I’ve come accross some that are marked with “1”.

Infact I’ve just discovered (thanks to Wikipedia) that for the first 4 floors:

  • Japanese elevators use 1F, 2F, 3F, 4F
  • English elevators use G, 1, 2, 3
  • American elevators use G/1, 2, 3, 4

But I think I will be ok from now on, because I’ve just learned that most of the time, the street level floor is marked with an asterix!

Hooray!

Just for fun, here’s a fanclub on Facebook complaining about a new library’s floor numbering system.

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DNA Evidence – The Biggest Problem With DNA Evidence Is Pillows

dna-profiling-dna-forensicsAt first glance, catching criminals based on DNA evidence sounds really appealing.

Occassionally on the news you hear about cold cases being solved because, years later, the criminal responsible for the crime is caught for an unrelated crime, is DNA profiled, and is connected to the cold case through a DNA match with evidence at the scene of the old crime.

Fantastic!

A win for society!

But what if a criminal came to your house before committing a string of burglaries, stole your favourite pillow, and shook your pillow through all the houses they burgled that week, thereby depositing your skins cells, your DNA,  through-out those crime scenes?

Still think DNA profiling is a good idea?

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My Theory About Why Endangered Species Are Endangered

A particularly tasty looking extinct animal - The Dodo

So why does planet earth loose entire species of animals and plants every day?

Is it natural selection?

Is it survival of the fittest?

Is it loss of habitat from mankind chopping down the rain forests?

Is it climate change which destroys the ecosystems of these creatures?

I don’t think so.

My theory is that endangered species are endangered because they are tasty.

In some cases they were tasty to humans so we ate them out of existence (eg The Moa).

In other cases they were tasty to predators so they ate them out of existence (eg The Dodo).

Here is my list of what I suspect are the tastiest animals left on the planet. I am super keen to nibble on them for sure:

  1. Imagine Giant Panda kebabs with BBQ sauce
  2. Imagine thick pan-fried Blue Whale steaks with mushrooms
  3. Imagine bacon and Albatross Egg toasted sandwiches
  4. Imagine char-grilled Arakan Forest Turtle with hollandaise sauce

Hmmmmm yum!!.  I hope I get a chance before they are all gone!

A particularly tasty looking extinct animal - The Dodo
A particularly tasty looking extinct animal - The Dodo
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Rip off Alert: Just Juice With Spring Water – You Are Paying For Watered Down Juice!

Rip-off: Just Juice with Spring Water
Rip-off: Just Juice with Spring Water

This has got to be one of the greatest beverage rip-off’s of this decade: “Just Juice Splash”.

Just Juice Splash is 50% Juice with 50% Spring Water.

In other words, they are watering it down for you and charging you the same price.

You are a fool if you buy it. Because you could get twice the juice for the same price by purchasing the normal Just Juice product and watering it down yourself with water out of the tap!

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The Ultimate Water Conservation Technique

water-recycling-water-conservationCountries have been fighting over resources for centuries.

One of the biggest fights at the moment is over oil.

But the biggest fight of them of them all is coming.

It’s the fight over the one resource none of us can do without:

Water.

As the worlds population leaves 6 billion behind, and marches steadily onward to 10 billion, and then 20 billion perhaps in the middle of this century, whoever controls the water supply will control the world.

So what can we do to protect our water supply?

Build huge underground resouviours?

Collect all the plastic bottles from the landfill, and fill them with water?

No. No. No.

The answer is to leave the tap running.

And here’s why:

  1. The water pours down your sink
  2. Into your local treatment plant
  3. And out to sea
  4. The sun evaporates the sea water and creates water vapour
  5. The water vapour condenses into clouds
  6. The clouds pour the water down on the mountains
  7. The water from the mountains forms steams and rivers
  8. Your council sucks up the water
  9. And feeds it into the town water supply

So if you “waste” water you are actually giving it a chance to make it’s way to someone who needs it.

Problem solved.

water-recycling-water-conservation

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Why I Don’t Drink – 5 Good Reasons Why I Don’t Get Drunk

Why I don’t sip the sweet nectar that is excreted from the arse-end of bacteria. 5 Reasons.

drunk-santaI am often asked why I don’t drink alcohol, so I thought I would answer the question here.  I have in fact quite a number of reasons.  It first came about when I became a christian in 1996.  I just thought that was one of the rules so I made the decision easily.

Prior to that I would get wasted maybe once every week or two, but I never really enjoyed the taste.  I’d have to hold my nose to drink beer and spirits, much to the amusement of my friends.

After being a christian for a while I realised that it wasn’t so much the consuming of alcohol that was frowned upon, so much as getting blind drunk and having the respect for your body not to kill off brain cells that way.  I didn’t see any point in drinking without getting drunk so that didn’t change my decision.

5 reasons why I don’t drink now:

1. I enjoy being in control

And when I was at uni I was around drunk people a lot.  So I saw all the stupid decisions and mistakes that drunk people make all the time.

The most stupid of all stupid decisions, that really pisses me off, is drunk driving.

Many individual’s become completely oblivious to how drunk they are.  The rational, objective part of their brain completely turns off, and think that they are capable of driving.

“Killed needlessly by a drunk driver” – Do you want that on the gravestone of your loved ones?

(I’m all for zero tolerance for drink driving. Please, sign the petition. Yes, yes, it’s a petition for Botswana, but I couldn’t find a New Zealand one, so it will have to do.)

2. Because I don’t need to be drunk to have fun

I don’t have any inhibitions about how I dance.  I like to be the crazy guy breakdancing and thrashing around, that point to and think “oh, I wish I was as brave as him!”.

At a party once, I was jumping around to the music pulling all these phreaky moves with a mate and  people were coming up to my brother and saying “dude, your brother is so trashed!!” and he would say “actually, he hasn’t drunk in about 6 years!!”

I seem to be missing the gene: “can only loosen up and have fun when drunk”.

3. Because I like to drive

I can take my own car anywhere, leave whenever I want to, and not have to shell out $20 for a taxi or bum a ride off somebody else (or get stranded in town with no money and no way to get home).

4. Because it still tastes bad

Although it is a distinct possibility I could swallow a sickly sweet alco-pop without holding my nose, I find beer, spirits and wine abhorrent.

I seem to be missing the gene: “alcohol tastes pleasant”.

5. Because its an expensive hobby

I didn’t have a lot of money when I was at uni but I loved to go into town for a thrash, and a few hours out often costs me nothing.

drunk-santa

I am often asked why I don’t drink alcohol, so I thought I would answer the question here.  I have infact quite a number of reasons.  It first came about when I became a christian in 1996.  I just thought that was one of the rules so I made the decision easily.Prior to that I would get toasted maybe once every week or two, but I never really enjoyed the taste.  I’d have to hold my nose to drink beer and spirits, much to the amusement of my friends.

After being a christian for a while I realised that it wasn’t so much the consuming of alcohol that was frowned upon, so much as getting blind drunk and having the respect for your body not to kill off brain cells that way.  I didn’t see any point in drinking without getting drunk so that didn’t change my decision.

I don’t drink now, because:

I enjoy being in control.

And being sober around drunk people a lot, I see what stupid decisions and mistakes that drunk people make all the time.  The one that really gets to me is drunk driving where often the individual is completely oblivious to how drunk they are and think that they are capable of driving.
Because I don’t need to be drunk to have fun.

I don’t have any inhibitions about how I dance, I like people to notice the crazy dude breakdancing and thrashing around.  At a party once, I was jumping around to the music pulling all these phreaky moves with just one other dude and  people were coming up to my brother and saying “dude, your brother is so trashed!!” and Tim would say “actually, he hasn’t drunk in about 6 years!!”
Because I like to drive.

I can take my own car anywhere, leave whenever I want to, and not have to shell out $10 or so for a taxi or bum a ride off somebody else.
Because it still tastes bad.

Although I’m sure I could find something to my liking, the traditional beer and spirits are not.
Because its expensive.

I don’t have a lot of money right now but I do like to go into town for a thrash, and a few hours out often costs me nothing.
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Does Hair Grow Back Thicker When You Cut It?

No.

A few quick facts about hair

  • Hair grows at a rate of about 1.25cm per month.
  • Hair follicles grow hairs in cycles.
  • Example 1: Eyelash hairs have a short cycle. They grow for about 8 weeks and then fall out.
  • Example 2: Hair on your head has a much longer cycle. A single hair can grow for months (or even years) before it falls out
  • At the begginning of the growth cycle the hair is very fine and may be slightly white.
  • The hair becomes thicker as it grows.
  • Men and woman have about 100,000 hairs on their body

If you cut a hair in the middle of it’s growth cycle at skin level, within a few days it would have grown enough to be clearly visible again.

Because it is in the middle of it’s growth cycle, it is at it’s thickest, so it appears that it has grown back thicker.

Not so.

The hair is not aware that it has been cut. It is inert. It has not “grown back” it has merely continued its growth cycle unaware that it has been cut.

I’m glad I could clear that up for you. Now, go, get on with your life.