The Amazing Scoville Scale

My family loves spicy foods. I’m not exaggerating to say that when we want those Buffalo wings hot, we’re not happy until there is fire shooting out of our ears. So naturally, I jumped for endorphin-rushed joy to learn about the Scoville Scale.

Apparently, in 1912 Wilbur Scoville (forever now known as the Godfather of Spice) created a scale to measure the heat level in chillies. From the puny and pathetic sweet Italian all the way up to hot chili heaven—the patron saint of hot peppers, the habanero. Weighing in at around 100k and more on the Scoville scale, you better think twice about touching one of these bad boys, much less putting it into your mouth. Mamasita!

Holy Clogged Arteries Batman

Who can thwart adversaries often three times his size? Who can dodge the siren’s call of the dreaded coronary angioplasty? Who is the world’s reigning miscellaneous beef and pork products amalgam eating champion?

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Takeru Kobayashi!

Right to Own Property, Denied

In one of the most amazing decisions of the Supreme Courts history, the Kelo v. City of New London decision has sparked a national debate. Both liberals and conservatives seem to agree that this isn’t what the Founding Fathers intended.

Congress wants to get involved. We all need to steer our representatives in the right direction. Here’s the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) petition that supports Senator John Cornyn’s bill—The Protection of Homes, Small Businesses, and Private Property Act of 2005.

If the government can come and take your property for anything they consider “public” interest, the concept of what is public will be inevitably stretched beyond any recognizable definition.

Happy Birthday America!

Did you know that the largest fireworks display in North America isn’t even done for the 4th of July? It’s called Thunder Over Louisville and is the kick-off event for the Kentucky Derby Festival. The largest single firework was “the five-color Universe I Part II… exploded at the annual Lake Toya Firework Festival in Hokkaido, Japan on July 15, 1988. The 700-kg (1,543-lb) shell of the fantastic fire cracker burst to produce light display with a massive 1.2-km (0.75-mile) diameter!” Wow.

Happy Birthday America!

Affordable Legal on the Web

Aside from not being able to comprehend a word of most any legal document, the most problematic part of today’s legal system is the high cost. The best lawyers charge from $100/hour up into the stratosphere.

Maybe Legal Zoom can change of all that. With living wills from $39 and patent applications under $300 there should be a large number of people ready to give this company a try.

Now I guess I need to hire an expensive lawyer to tell me if the Web site’s documents are legit. Wonder what he’ll tell me? ;^)

Dojo Info 7/2/05

1. LegalZoom
   Quick, easy and most importantly cheap legal documents. Sounds like a plan!
2. TV network for gays, lesbians to debut
   “And advertisers — including Miller Lite, Subaru and Motorola — have been frustrated by limited options.” Looks like those companies have chosen their target demographic.
3. Cable and satellite choice is needed now
   Take action and tell regulators to let us choose which channels we want instead of bundling all the garbage together with the good stuff.
4. First woman on Supreme Court steps down
   Now there’s a chance to put someone in the court who’ll start conservative and stay conservative.
5. Revamped Freedom Tower Has Safer Design
   Wouldn’t it be cool to see some wacked out terrorist slam one his own planes into the new tower and have it bounce off?

Race Across America

Those crazy monkeys are covering the Race Across America. I’d never heard of it but apparently it is the most demanding event mankind has yet to devise; far tougher than an Ironman Triathlon or even an Iditarod.

Here’s the official site but what you need to see is this video (12-minutes). It’s unreal the lengths some people will go to challenge themselves.

MIT Weblog Survey