The Smarmy Carny

As I have mentioned previously, the Champion of Breakfasts tournament is part of my Blogathon 2006 activity list. The brackets for the Champion of Breakfasts has now been released! Click on the thumbnail below to view the brackets.

Keep in mind that the order of matches has already been determined, but they do not follow a sequential order down the brackets.

What is Blogathon?

Short answer: Read my Blogathon page.
Long answer: On July 29, 2006, hundreds of bloggers from around the world will put their endurance to the test for charity, blogging at least every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. Bloggers choose the charity and collect sponsorships. At the end of the event, those sponsors fulfill their pledges directly with the charity.

Click to watch

The "Mentos and soda pop" fad has been going around lately, and it's interesting how many people have heard of the phenomenon now. What's truly upsetting, however, is how few of those people have seen the video of videos for Mentos and Diet Coca-Cola!

If you're interested in entering a Mentos and soda pop contest, watch the whole video!

What's great about this video is that they aren't just showing off the cool effect of Diet Coke and Mentos: They have recreated the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas!

Keep this in mind next time you eat a pack of Mentos and then chug a bottle of Diet Coke. It probably won't kill you, but you might end up looking like one of those fountains!

Happy Independence Day . . . and along with it, of course, came the 2006 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Championship, where twenty or so contestants see who can eat the most hot dogs and buns (known as HDBs in the competitive eating community) in a mere 12 minutes.

There was speculation that America might win the title back from Japanese speed-eater Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi. Even such a speculation was big news in the speed-eating world, considering Kobayashi's previous five victories. From 2001 through 2005, Kobayashi won by 19, 24.5, 20, 15.5, and then 12 hot dogs and buns. This May, however, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut beat the American record by eating 50 HDBs in 12 minutes. Granted, this didn't beat Kobayashi's record, but it did beat his 2005 Nathan's contest performance of 49 HDBs. Point is, the Americans have caught up.

Nonetheless, Kobayashi proved that he is still the champion, even under pressure. Not only did he win, but he broke his previous record by ¼ of a HDB. Still, Kobayashi's lead was not so comfortable this year. He won by a mere 1¾: Kobayashi's 53¾ HDBs to Chestnut's 52 HDBs.

Chestnut now easily holds the American record, however. He stole the record from Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, who still holds the female record at 37. (She tied her 2005 performance this year.)

I'd remind you not to invite any of the competitive eaters over to your house for your 4th of July hot dog cookout, but I'm sure they've already got plans anyway.

There's a ringtone floating around the internet specifically for teenagers.
Is it the latest Billboard Top 100 hit? No.
Is it the Ask a Ninja ringtone? No.
Is it a ringtone that kids can hear, but older adults cannot hear? Absolutely!

The ringtone, assuming you can hear it, is awfully annoying. The recent usage of this ringtone, however, is that students can hear their banned cell phone ringing without their teacher harping on them to turn their phone off.

Download and listen to the Mosquito Ringtone.

The New York Times wrote an article on the ringtone noting that one student was surprised that his 28-year-old teacher was able to hear the ringtone. (The ringtone's range is generally inaudible to those in their 40s and older.)

The ringtone is adapted from the Mosquito alarm, a device intended to keep loitering teenagers away from shopfronts while not disturbing older passersby.

A grocery list

This week's site is The Grocery List Collection. Just as you might think, the site collects abandoned grocery lists, scans them, and places them online.

There are currently 1100 lists posted, and plenty of them are mundane — but that's what a grocery list is, isn't it? In the mix, you'll find some interesting lists, like lists of completely unrelated items, lists from the anal retentive (like me), lists worth five dollars, and lists with bizarre items such as kitten faces or poop bags.

You'll see lists from hastily written lists on Post-It Notes to carefully written, multi-column lists on notebook paper. You'll see the world's worst spelling. You'll see the various ways to mark off which items you have retrieved, from check marks to scribbling items off to no marking at all, which happens to be my method of choice.

Other than the pictures of the lists, there's not much else on the site. There are a few features missing from the site that I would have preferred: A rating system and a comments system would have given a community feel to the site and would have brought me back repeatedly. Also, keywords/tagwords would have been nice, particularly if each photo listed all the foods on it, so you could bring up all of the lists including bananas or rank food items by popularity. I have a feeling that either of these would probably require a site overhaul, though. It's too bad.

The Charlie Action Figure

Mcfarlane Toys announced that they will be making Lost action figures, currently due out in November 2006. The company plans on releasing a few characters at a time in multiple series, including deceased characters. Each character will also come with a small prop (e.g. Kate comes with the toy plane).

As you can see here, a picture of the Charlie figurine has been released. The other characters slated for this first series are Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, and Shannon. And yes, that's a bikini-clad Shannon, not a bloody-hole-in-torso Shannon.

If you purchase the deluxe boxed sets, you will also get dioramas of appropriate Lost sets so the geekiest of you can recreate scenes from the show.

Each of the figures will say various phrases (e.g. Hurley yelling, "The numbers are BAD!!!")

You can currently pre-order the figures at AllStarFigures.com at a price based on early estimations. The eventual price might be higher or lower, but you can lock in on the AllStarFigures price right now.

As if that weren't enough, Ubisoft (Myst, Resident Evil, Far Cry, Heroes of Might and Magic, Splinter Cell, and a game based on CSI) is working on an interactive video game slated for a 2007 release. Don't get your hopes up . . . that's going to be late 2007, most likely. The game should support game console and PC platforms.

Snopes.com: Rumor has it.

Snopes is an urban legends reference page that I have been reading for almost ten years now.

You'll be surprised at what's true and what's not. Keep in mind that a story doesn't have to be false to be an urban legend. According to Snopes, here are the three conditions to be fulfilled for a story to be classified an "urban legend":

1. The story circulates widely.
2. The story is told and re-told with differing details.
3. The story is said to be true.

Some stories you've believed and retold others for decades turn out to be false. Stories you've rolled your eyes at turn out to be completely true. Here are some items that might surprise you:

• Does hair grow back darker/thicker after it has been shaved?
• Is celery a "negative calorie food"?
• Do the horses in Young Frankenstein neigh every time they hear Frau Blucher's name because "blucher" is the German word for "glue"?
• Will you get cramps if you go swimming less than 45 minutes/an hour after eating?
• Was a suicide captured in the background of The Wizard of Oz?
• Does eating turkey make you drowsy?
• Does the Swiffer WetJet pose a danger to dogs and other household pets?
• Did Kentucky Fried Chicken change their name to KFC to remove "Chicken" from their name because their mutant birds could not be legally considered chickens, or was it to remove "Fried" from their name in order to seem healthier?
• Was the Titanic screening The Poseidon Adventure when it hit the iceberg?
• Is Jell-O made from bones and hides?
• Was an actor killed during the filming of the chariot race in Ben Hur?
• Do Twinkies never expire?
• Was television's Mr. Ed a horse?

Snopes is an overall great site to spend time on. Whether you're looking for some interesting reading to pass the time or settling a bet on whether Pop Rocks and soda pop will kill you, Snopes is the place to be.