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I have been reading about Fizzy Fruit for a while. It is a company that makes carbonated fruit. No, not fruit juice, carbonated fruit- a fizzing apple slice or grape. Don’t ask me how they do it, I am sure some chemical process is involved, but anyway, I have been interested in them ever since I first heard about them a bit ago.
I was so intrigued when I first heard about them a year ago that I checked out the companies website (which said they would soon be sold locally across the nation), when I contacted to ask when and where I might be able to get it they told me they had yet to secure a distribution deal and that it would be in the future that they were actually sold across the nation at various food places. I recently came across them again and decided to see what was new on the website. Apparently not much, the same messages are up that were up last year, I emailed them asking where I could find them in New York and if they could possibly send me a sample.
They still are not actually sold anywhere and they told me they couldn’t send me a sample since it costs upwards of $250 to ship a single one of these containers due to the problems in shipping a carbonated fruit.
Today I, once again, came across a blog post that mentions these elusive fruits and an article from last weeks USA Today about them (stating that they are available in some select 7-11’s and will soon be available at Wal-mart… in the South-East and -West).
In the comments section of the blog post “the Revealer” reveals to us a way to make these Fizzy Fruits at home on your own:
Secret process? BAH! I discovered how to do this a few years ago. Here’s the steps:
Required items: dry ice, fruit, cooler
steps:
1. Place dry ice in cooler.
2. Place fruit of your choice in cool, but NOT touching the dry ice.
3. Close the cooler and let it sit overnight.
4. Enjoy your carbonated fruit!
Explaination: the dry ice gives of carbon dioxide gas. Through the night, the fruit has almost nothing to be in contact to but that gas. It seeps through creating “carbonated” fruit!
Keep in mind: the fruit is like a soda… keep it in the air for too long and it will go flat. Notice how the “Fizzy Fruits” are kept in a can.
Apparently, while Fizzy Fruit is currently focused on Grapes and Apple slices, if you do it with oranges you can create your own, fresh-squeezed orange soda. Looks like I might have to start searching for a dry ice distributer in my neighborhood.
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The Thing sounds pretty interesting. It is another mail-based art project. The website, I think, says it best, describing it as:
A quarterly periodical in the form of an object. Each year, four artists, writers, musicians or filmmakers are invited… to create an everyday object that somehow incorporates text. This object will be reproduced and hand wrapped in brown paper packaging by the editors and then mailed to… subscribers with the help of the United States Postal Service.
Of course the downside to a project like this is its price tag. At $120 a year per issue, plus an additional $10 for shipping each issue that makes each thing $40. With no previous issues and no real track record that is a pretty steep price tag for a mystery art periodical. Conceptually I am intrigued and would love to see more, though not intrigued enough to dole out $40 an issue.
Also, it looks like the Thing for the first issue is a white window shade painted with the words “If this shade is down I am not who you think I am.” As I said, interesting concept
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Steven Levitt might have called Robert Oxoby before deriding the professor’s humorous “experiment” in his NYTimes blog.
Levitt wrote here:
August 20, 2007, 2:55 pm
This Is What Happens to People Who Listen to Too Much AC/DC…
By Steven D. Levitt
They grow up to write economics papers like this one, which looks at whether participants in lab experiments get closer to efficient outcomes when exposed to one lead singer of the rock band AC/DC versus another.
I hope for this guy’s sake he has tenure.
I read the thing and instantly thought: this is a total joke. The purpose of the paper is to answer the question: “with respect to the rock band AC/DC, who is the better vocalist: Bon Scott or Brian Johnson?”
Maybe Levitt knew it was a joke, but I didn’t get the sense that he was joking. I think the post was meant as derisory, and so did the early commenters.
I commented:
You guys are WAY up on your high horse, but I think this is a joke.
I once took an English class in which most of my peers thought A Modest Proposal was a historical truth from a darker time.* They also had no sense of humor.
Just to be sure, I wrote to Oxoby. His response:
“Of course it’s a joke. Why is this paper all of a sudden getting attention? I’ve received 20 emails about it.”
* True story: I couldn’t believe my classmates thought Swift was advocating infanticide, but there you go. It’s not like my High School is ranked 24th in New York State or anything. Now I know why we weren’t at least in the top 20.
For this post, I had also considered the title: Freakin’Asshole. I really enjoyed reading Freakonomics and I get an RSS feed of Levitt’s blog, so I’ll reserve asshole judgement if he decides to once again bravely crap on another professor who doesn’t have his platform, fame or resources.
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Nearly a month ago, Sprint told me they would be changing my contract. I can no longer freely send or recieve international text messages in my text package. I will have to pay 15 cents per message. They said if I was unhappy, I had 30 days to quit with no penalty.
At first, I thought, I’d quit and get a Blackberry, which could be very useful. Now I’m wondering if it wouldn’t make sense to quit using a cell phone altogether.
Sure, my cell phone lets me keep in touch with people, but usually I make plans to meet someone. Cell phones are also the reason why people are now late to everything with impunity. They can just text a mea culpa. Cell phones are also expensive. I must pay an average of $60-$70 a month. That’s a lot of money to waste on a convenience. And then there’s the lack of privacy.
Actually, I’ve been trying to think of good reasons why I need a cell phone. Convenience? So that I can be late to meetings? Well, New York City still has public pay phones every where you look. I don’t know if $70 a month should be the price I pay for not having to carry a couple of quarters around with me wherever I go. Emergencies: this one is somewhat compelling, but when am I going to find myself alone and not surrounded by other people who have cell phones? I don’t take many drives down lonely Texas roads in cars prone to break down. (If I do plan to travel somewhere, I can easily buy a prepaid disposable cell phone.)
What do you think? American Madness gets about 250 unique visitors a day. Someone out there is reading this. Leave a comment with your suggestions/advice/analysis. What am I missing? Should I lose the cell phone?
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Are you tired of Ebay? The idea of auctions intrigues you, but you prefer live interaction with people, the thrill of raising you paddle and out bidding other folks in classic auction style.
Actually being able to see and touch what you are bidding on rather then just have a cheap picture taken with some ones phone camera has its benefits now you have the chance to be a part of these types of auctions.
In fact, the US government has a bunch of these auctions on a fairly regular basis, you can attend auctions on anything from International Real Estate to Toys to Alcoholic Beverages, Airplanes to Digital Cameras to Jewelry. Te US Government has it all, and now you can find out where and when these auctions will be held with this nifty government website. Check out GovSales now for an auction near you.