Marciepooh

Back in December, fans of snack chip-flavored taco shells got an enticing hint in a presentation to shareholders in Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands. As part of a slide showing planned innovations, a taco in a small Fritos bag was shown under the words “Revolutionizing the taco.” A Fritos-shell taco? What madness was this? The crunchy corn shells have become reality, and Taco Bell is beginning to test them.

You’re out of luck, Fritos fans, unless you live in Memphis, Tennessee. If you do, then you can get one for $1.49, or as part of a combo box with a beverage, a Doritos Locos taco (of course), and a Burrito Supreme.

Considering the crunchy success of Doritos Locos Tacos, it could work…but do people love Fritos as much as they love the flavor-coated tastiness of Doritos? That’s why Taco Bell is testing this line before rolling it out everywhere.

Take Our Poll

Note: These are all fake group names. Viruses and tardigrades don’t have group names that I’ve ever heard of, and if anything, a group of bacteria would be a culture.

The post Microbial Group Dynamics appeared first on Beatrice the Biologist.

Kind bars are quite tasty, but are they healthy? Sure, they’re made from ostensibly healthy ingredients like nuts and dried fruit, but some bars also have ingredients like chocolate and peanut butter. The Food and Drug Administration sent the company a warning letter about their use of the word “healthy” to describe their snacks on the label.

Of course the FDA has rules about who can plaster the word “healthy” on their packaging: they also have rules about which products are allowed to call themselves peanut butter and ice cream. Unlike “natural,” which seems to be a meaningless marketing buzzword when it comes to food, the FDA will catch up with companies that label their products as “healthy.” Eventually.

In the case of Kind’s products, it was their saturated fat content that caught the FDA’s attention.

In accordance with 21 CFR 101.65(d)(2), you may use the term “healthy” as an implied nutrient content claim on the label or in the labeling of a food provided that the food, among other things, is “low saturated fat” as defined in 21 CFR 101.62(c)(2)

That would mean that the item has one gram or less of saturated fat per serving, or that 15% of its calories or fewer come from saturated fat. That isn’t the case with Kind bars. A company representative explained to Bloomberg News that this is because the bars are made from nuts, which contain “healthy fats.” That may be true, and the FDA’s regulations may need updating with more current information about health and nutrition, but food on the market now has to follow current regulations.

Bragg, a venerable brand in the natural foods world, also received its own warning letter about its use of the term “healthy” on the label. The FDA also objected to the product being labeled “no additives.” Why? You can see them turn on the bureaucratic snark:

Your product bears the claim “No Additives[.]” To the extent that this claim means that your Bragg Healthy Vinaigrette product contains no added substances, we note that the list of ingredients on your product label indicates that the product is composed of more than one ingredient, and therefore that the product contains added substances.

Can’t argue with that.

Kind has responded to the FDA, and will need to change the packaging of its products or risk having them pulled from store shelves.

KIND, LLC 3/17/15 [FDA Compliance Letters]

Some of my favorite new submissions this week:

 

You'll never guess what kind of party this cake was for. NEVER.

Unless maybe you can read.

 

Eric A. reports that someone is taking a bite INTO crime at his local grocery store:

And I shouldn't be finding this quite so funny, should I.

(Hey, we've all been there, random drive-by cake eater. We've all been there.)

 

Think Big Bakery doesn't read this blog? WELL THEY DO. Proof: they've finally agreed with me that most bakers can't even pipe a simple balloon, and have started providing plastic ones instead.

But don't you worry, guys: where there's a wreckerator, there's a wreck:

"They just have to add strings," they said.
"It'll be easy," they said.
"No WAY anyone could foul that up," they said.

 

Now, I know that Easter has already come and gone, but... hey, actually, that's a pretty good segue for this:

WHAT.

Suzanne assures me this is exactly how her "Easter Bread" looked straight out of the package. I don't know what they were going for - besides the obvious - but it certainly rose to the occasion, no matter how you slice it. (Maybe a cross? Thor's hammer? A bug-eyed, one-eared bunny? [....and now that's ALL you see. Ha!])

Note how I resisted making any egg jokes, you guys. NOTE IT.

 

And finally, over on Facebook a while back I shared this fun Godzilla Princess cake that ThinkGeek posted:

Well, CW reader David got a big kick out of it, and put in a request with his friends. But then, "they went one better," he says, "and had an even awesomer one made for my birthday."

I think Dave's right, you guys; this is pretty epic:

Hee!

May your weekend be as fun as a dino in a dress, everybody.

 

And thanks to Bethany P., Eric A., Taryn F., Suzanne C., & David E. for the Cinderella Toy Story.

*****

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Earlier this week, a Florida resident was taking a stroll along Vero Beach in Florida's Sebastian Inlet State Park when he saw a bobcat staring at a shark that was feeding on smaller fish. But suddenly, the hunter became the hunted.

Read more...

Gopher tortoises, who enjoy being on land where they're able to maintain such basic functions as breathing and not dying, cannot swim. Which is why Florida would like to ask its residents to stop "helping" the tortoises find their way to the ocean's cold, watery depths.

Read more...

It's the most famous dinosaur that never was — or at least that's what paleontologists have believed for 112 years. After an exhaustive comparative analysis of over 500 physical characteristics, researchers have concluded that Brontosaurus is sufficiently distinct from Apatosaurus to warrant its own genus. Bronto, it appears, is back.

Read more...

Hovertext: Adultery for NASA! Let's start a movement!

New comic!
Today's News:

 Nerd dreams *do* come true.

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham		www.phdcomics.com
title: "Srsly, this happens." - originally published 4/1/2015 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

Hovertext: Also pukes on you a few times a day for about 1 year after installation.

New comic!
Today's News:

GUYS! I'm gonna be on Science Friday today! Please tune in at 220 Central Time. 

We know. We double-checked that we hadn't all made a mistake and it was April Fool's Day again. But, no, this seems legitimate: Disney's planing on making a live-action Winnie the Pooh.

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Share and Enjoy:

The post Fresh from the oven. appeared first on Indexed.

Photographer: James Ruddy
Summary Author: James Ruddy

Featured above is an almost complete shell body of a fossilized tortoise (Stylemys nebrascensis). It was found eroding out of a clay hillside in the White River Badlands of South Dakota -- in the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. This is perhaps the most common fossil found in the White River Badlands and was first discovered and described in 1851. It's from the Oligocene Epoch or the Paleogene Period that extended from 33.9 to 23 million years before present. Photo taken on July 24, 2009.

Photo details: Camera Maker: NIKON; Camera Model: COOLPIX L11; Focal Length: 6.2mm (35mm equivalent: 37mm); Aperture: ƒ/2.8; Exposure Time: 0.023 s (1/44); ISO equiv: 64.   

• Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, South Dakota Coordinates: 43.7796, -102.5536
• Related Links
  • Badlands of South Dakota
  • Deposition Gap in Badlands National Park
• Student Links
  • Finding Fossils
  • Buried Bones
• Earth Observatory
  • Badlands National Park

It's Near-Miss Day, minions, and I know *just* how to celebrate:

 

[singsong] With a UNICOOORN!

[head tilt]

Is... is that a beak?

 

K, icks-nay on the unicorns.
How 'bout a cute butterfly?

Er...

 

Elephant cupcakes?

 

Glass of wine? (Please?)

Arg.

 

C'mon, bakers, it's not like I'm asking for a star performance...

OH COME ON.

 

Tell ya what, guys, just slap down a few celebratory balloons, and we'll call it a day.

Oooh, festive.

 

Nope.

 

NOPE.

 

Seriously?

 

AND THAT'S A DAY.

 

Thanks to Brandi F., Leigh J., Amy H., Michelle, Kerri T., Daniel B., Hilary E., Claire, Eric P., & Joe V. for the farthest "near" misses of the day.

*****

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Recently, 20,000 pounds of fireworks were seized in Glasscock County, Texas, and the local bomb squads helped the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to dispose of them. How? By exploding the whole lot of them over the course of three and a half days and creating a tower of sparkling smoke.

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Via Reddit.

When the Skylab orbital workshop was damaged on launch, it lost its sunshield and started overheating. This is a story of Alyene Baker saving the station, and a story of never underestimating the importance of being able to improvise with a sewing machine.

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There are many perks of growing old — seeing your kids have kids, wearing shirts that say “World’s Best Grandma,” calling rowdy youngsters “whippersnappers” and more — and getting discounts on things is definitely not the least of those. But one centenarian learned that he’d reached a point where you can actually get a free mail and get paid just for your age.

A 101-year-old New Hampshire man had breakfast on the house at a Manchester restaurant that rewards customers dining on their birthdays with a discount based on their age, reports WMUR.com.

So for example, if you’re turning five years old, the restaurant covers 5% of your bill. If you’re 85, you get 85% of your tab paid. That means that at 100, your birthday meal is free — and at 101, you actually get 101% of your meal paid for — or a 1% refund.

Thus, after chomping on scrambled eggs and ham and a piece of chocolate cake for free, the World War II veteran got $0.07 back from the restaurant. Not a bad birthday gift, if you ask me.

Man, 101, eats birthday breakfast on the house [WMUR.com]

I’m halfway out the door already: Police in a New Hampshire town are rewarding residents for good behavior by issuing them with tickets that are good for free pizza and French fries. I repeat: FREE PIZZA AND FRENCH FRIES.

Winter has been tough in Farmington, N.H., so the police department thought it might be nice to make people happy for getting through the season, reports WMUR.com.

Cops are now roving the town, on the lookout for good citizens to reward with calorie-laden, delicious prizes.

“We’ll be looking not only for people in violation of our laws in the state of New Hampshire, but we’ll also be looking out for people that are following the law – using crosswalks, driving properly, using turn signals,” Chief John Drury of the Farmington Police Department told WMUR.

Residents won’t have to go through the dread of being pulled over with lights or sirens, however — cops will make sure to hand out gift cards safely. Those cards have been donated by a local restaurant, which saw the opportunity to bring people in adfer the chief offered to pay for them all.

“We’ll know that they’re good and they can get a free small fry or grab a slice of pizza – whatever the coupon entitles them to – and they can get on with their day,” a manager at the restaurant told the station. “It’s definitely the best ticket to be getting around here. That’s for sure.”

The original plan for the droolworthy tickets was limited to just March, but police said they might repeat the project in the future if all goes well this time around. What can go wrong when pizza and French fries get together? I’ll let you answer that yourself.

Farmington police awarding good behavior in town [WMUR.com]

It may be "Unusual Names Day" to you, but for me? IT'S CHRISTMAS.

And here are some of the names on my list:

Gus:

 

Ellen & Philip:

 

Georgia:

Try not to call your friend Georgia "Gorgia" from now on. JUST TRY.

 

 

Dallas:

Way to OWN that line spacing, baker.

 

Sophie & Reilly:

Oh, the irony. It's a two-fer!

 

???

Is this a real name? Please let this be a real name. If only so I can imagine someone saying, "Well, I should head over to the preschool to pick up my Porn."

Or, "Would you ask the babysitter to watch Porn for me?"

Or, "Hey, Mom, I posted pictures of Porn on your Facebook page!"

Or, "Thanks to Porn, I haven't slept in a week and my house is full of stinky diapers."

[gigglesnort] Yep, it's official: someone needs to at least name their dog/cat Porn, STAT.

***

Um, so I had more cakes to post, but I seem to have completely derailed myself with the Porn thing.
(Bet all you cubicle workers know what I mean, EH? Heyoooo!)

So here, let's just go out with a bang:
(Or did we do that already?? [Ok, Ok, I'll stop.])

I guess the lawyers insisted.

(And I can't even tell you what they renamed Piglet.)

 

Thanks to Andi V., Amadie H., Bryar, Jennifer A., Mark B., Rich G., Holly S., & Rachel F. for helping make today's post especially classy. (POOP AND PORN 4EVA!!!)

*****

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Well, helllooo! Meet one of the only arachnids that we'd actually call "cute," a newly-identified species of peacock spider dubbed "Sparklemuffin." Another new discovery, "Skeletorus" (which is also pretty cute, with added mod-meets-goth flair), is pictured below.

Read more...

In case you missed it, thanks to our patreon subscribers, old comics are now getting voteys! If we raise a bit more, I'll increase the rate to 2 a day!

We've already had the Golden Globes:

 

...and the People's Choice:

 

So now it's time for the Oscars! Yay!

(Since Oscar grew a nice pair of groobs [grouchy boobs], this will also work for the SAGs.)

 

Check out some of the nominees:

Boyhood:

Thanks, Moomy.

 

The Imitation Game:

What does it all mean?

 

American Sniper:

Because America, that's why.

 

The Theory of Everything:

Stephen Hawking explains how all this stuff can exist on one cake at the same point in time.

 

Whiplash:

I hear it's about a drummer whose instructor is a huge pain in the neck.

 

and

Birdman:

"Gobble gobble, motherf***er."

Sadly there can only be one winner, but remember, guys, it's an honor just to be wreckerated.

 

Thanks to Amanda L., Clairance C., Ingra P., Candy D., Leah McC., Amber G., Christie L., Emily F., Jenn A., Nicole H., Afton N., and Claire O., who all understood that reference.

*****

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