when chickens go bad

Rumsfeld and a chickenLongtime fans of the ol’ raincoaster blog will recall the somewhat…epic consequences of a bad oyster. There is, presumably, no need for us to go there again, even from the comforting distance of the far end of a laparoscope. Given the devastating effect that only a small invertebrate can have, a simple act of extrapolation is all that is necessary to comprehend the potential tsunami of destruction that could result, were this principle to be extended to larger, more complex creatures.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to inform you that the nightmare is real. The nightmare, my friends, has landed.

In Connecticut.

Authorities in Connecticut are wondering who stuffed a raw roasting chicken with a pipe bomb and left it on a roadside…the Hartford Police Department’s bomb squad came and blew up the chicken.

Chickens, gentle readers, are not born suicide bombers. No indeed; most chickens have not a thought in their heads beyond scratching out a living, or passing the time of day with one another by speculating about the possible effect of gravity on the celestial dome. It is perhaps this philosophical streak which brought the bird above to her ultimate doom; she had no recorded links with either radical Islam or the IRA.

In contrast, some birds give their whole lives selflessly to ensure that human beings the world over do not go hungry. Once they’ve met the stringent criteria for joining the Colonel‘s army, these big-breasted chicks travel the world, serving populations as disparate as those of the Upper East Side and downtown Davao. But, while most famous of poultry devoted to humanity’s welfare, they are not alone.

In news the world has been waiting for since the dawn of medical science, it has just been announced that Peking Duck cures cancer and heart disease!

An extract of red yeast rice, which gives Peking duck its distinctive colour, may cut cancer deaths by two-thirds and heart disease by a third.Red yeast rice has been used in China for thousands of years as a preservative and as a herbal medicine for 1,000 years…
It is the colouring ingredient used widely in Chinese food and is found in pickled tofu, Peking duck and some types of red-coloured Japanese sake. The rice is fermented by adding a red yeast, monascus purpureus, with alcohol before removing the rice gluten.
Used medicinally, it has been known to improve blood circulation and aid digestion.
Sake too? Sake to me!

quiz: which WordPress.com forum volunteer are you?

TIA, yoAnother installment in the continuing adventures of  Operation Global Media Domination. I shall try not to let it go to my head.

I shall fail.

It’s time to play INSIDE BASEBALL!

Juan and sulz have been threatening us with something radical for some time now and while the smart money seemed to be on new CSS skins, it looks like they went in a completely unexpected direction, cooking up some quizzes that are hilariously revealing and very, very inside. Don’t worry if you don’t get them; it just means you have a life outside an open source technical help forum; there are worse fates.

Guess who I am?

Which WordPress.com Forum Volunteer Are You?

You are raincoaster!
You know quite a lot, and try to help as many with as little effort as possible, which may come across as curt. You would lengthen your replies considerably if you smell a forum fight, though, ‘cos it’s good for hits.

Take this quiz

Okay, this next one’s a bit off, but only because none of the moderators are snarky (except I have known Andy and Matt to get their backs up from time to time) so I had to pick random answers. I think it just has a Canadian Detector built in:

Which WordPress.com Forum Moderator Are You?

You are Trent!
It’s a challenge keeping a cheerful tone around a forum full of fit-throwing mad users, but you manage it and that’s why everybody loves you.

Take this quiz

This one, however, is probably going to be my eventual fate. Tick, tick, tick. But TT‘s not going to like being left out of this.

Which WordPress.com Forum Troll Are You?

You are the anti-WordPress troll!
You drop links in your posts like it’s going out of fashion tomorrow; it does help in your argument though. You are the reason for many of the closed threads. You would be associated with famous banned users such as wank, root and drmike.

Take this quiz

Brian Atene in Black and White

A little monologue for your Tuesday. I meant to post this yesterday for alliteration’s sake, but those pesky technical issues got in the way.

Zombie Alert in Langley!!!


Zombies in Plain English
Did you know that zombies come from British Columbia? It’s true. It’s a fact.

It’s a well-known fact that the common-or-garden zombie is an unsophisticated creature, preferring the isolation of the countryside, farms, campsites, and small towns to the cramped confines of large metropolii. As with all species, however, urban encroachment upon their natural habitat has led to increasing pressure on the indigenous zombie population, and to increasing incidents of conflict and contact.

So it was that this past Tuesday a zombie was found wandering the semi-rural streets of Langley, a placid suburb of Greater Vancouver, a Lesser Vancouver if you will.

From the Langley Times:

WEB EXTRA: Dead man wandered from accident scene

By Natasha Jones – Langley Times – June 05, 2008

Christopher Edgar Parmiter, 37, of Surrey has been identified as the man whose body was discovered underneath a tractor-trailer unit on Industrial Avenue on Tuesday morning.

The top salesman for Chrysler in Western Canada, Parmiter may have been dead for several hours before he was found at 7:40 a.m.

According to his brother Mark Babor, Parmiter was involved in a low-speed crash involving just his car, a red 2008 Viper, in the area of Fraser Highway and the 208 Street causeway.

His car sustained only minor damage and, Babor said, an autopsy revealed no physical trauma to Parmiter’s body.

If only he had left a blog behind…we could have had some insight into his motivations. Surely, however, disorientation and brain lust must, as always, have been at the forefront. If you doubt, just realize that in life, he was the kind of man who drove a Viper. Obviously, he’d be in need of brains.

Quiz: what’s your ice cream personality?

Oh yeah, this is dead-on, especially about the modesty. I’m the most modest person there is or ever has been or will be throughout the entirety of time and space. Yep.


Your Ice Cream Personality:


You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it’s true that you don’t talk yourself up… but you’re also pretty happy with who you are.

You have a wild reputation, but you’re not as wild as you seem. You take risks, but only measured risks.

You are a fairly open minded person with a wide range of tastes. You are quite accepting of unusual ideas and people.

You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you’re doing more than one thing at a time.

You can be a big dramatic and over the top sometimes. You are bold in every way