Ode to the Big Mac

I love Big Macs. I just do. I've always thought they were delicious, ever since my dad let me get one after a soccer game when I was a kid (I usually just got cheeseburgers or a happy meal, so this was a big deal). But recently, I learned that I have been robbed of the full big mac experience! In France now there's apparently a whole wheat Big Mac, in Canada they've got the Big Mac snack wrap, and God knows what else is out there that I haven't eaten! Wikipedia lists 7 more variants which I have yet to experience! This is distressing to me in the extreme. I mean, I wouldn't get a Big Mac-themed wedding or anything, but still.

To add to its excellence, the Big Mac is useful too! There's the Big Mac Exchange Rate Index, the Big Mac Museum, a Big Mac programming language, and God knows what else. What an incredible thing!


Goddammit I'm hungry.

Environmentalism needs to MAKE SENSE

I love the Freakonomics blog, if only because their econ analysis is so offbeat. Today, Daniel Hamermesh wrote a really interesting post about the fallacy of certain environmentalist arguments- they take time! I'm a big fan of valuing time as literally worth money (the figure he uses, 1/3 of salary, isn't necessarily one I would use, but hey whatever), and using this analysis... (FTA)

Assume the average computer user’s wage is $21 per hour, and take the old estimate that time is valued at one-third of the wage. So each person’s time per year turning his/her computer off and on is worth 20 x $7 = $140. I’m being conservative and assuming only 50 million U.S. computer users. That gives a cost of turning computers off/on of 50,000,000 x $140 = $7 billion, which is 2.5 times the alleged savings from turning computers off. Even if people’s time were valued at only $3 per hour (less than half the minimum wage), leaving computers on would still make sense.

While there are some good comments in there debating the validity of the argument, I agree with it pretty throughly, just from personal experience. At my job, it's standard procedure (actually mandated procedure) to turn your computer off when you leave work (a process which I frequently have to supervise, due to the age of my machine and the error prompts that show up in the course of shutdown procedures), which means you have to turn your computer on in the morning as well. Despite what some of the commenters say, this period is entirely unproductive time, and it frequently takes me as long as 15 minutes before my computer is to the point where I can start working on it (old hardware rears its ugly head again). My work is almost exclusively computer-based, so even if I were to get up and get a cup of coffee it's STILL unproductive time, and it actually induces FURTHER unproductivity, in that I'm pissed at my computer every morning, and so less inclined to start work right away. His figure is lowballing it, in my opinion.

So leave your computers on at night, ladies and gentlemen. Your wallets demand it.

(via Freakonomics Blog)

ohhhh so much sterility

Breach of contract? O RLY?

UPDATE: HOTELICOPTER A HOAX

why. why would you lie to me, hotelicopter??? You don't really exist? You're actually a viral ad for Yotel? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

if you see something, say something

So stupid as hell or not, I still think the new British anti-terrorism ad campaign is well designed. Sure as hell inspired some fear in me. Also, nice font.

Kind of a far cry from Keep Calm and Carry On, no?

(via DesignYak and BoingBoing)

Reality-modifying razor

I think Schick's latest ad is masterful, and the internet seems to agree. Full video embedded below. Although to be fair, I still think the Gillette Power Fusion Gamer razor is the pinnacle of razor technology, and Penny Arcade agrees.

HOTELICOPTER

The HOTELICOPTER has gotta be up there among the best names for anything anywhere ever. And to match the fucking awesome name, check out this gallery of the goddamn thing. DO WANT.

(via Gizmodo and hotelicopter.com)