Raul Julia Rules

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Still no news on Vegas. I know...I'm sorry. Would help out if I could...but basically just spent the day with my dad helping him with stuff around the house and watching "Rambo", "Jumper" (which I've already talked about...but did see the missing first 15 minutes of Jumper that I missed the first time...still sucked) and "Tequila Sunrise" with Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer (smokin'), Kurt Russell, and the late great Raul Julia. This is a pretty good movie about a pair of buddies. One's a cop (Russell), the other's a drug middleman trying to go straight (Gibson) and they both fall for a stunning restauranteur (Pfeiffer) while they're trying to work out their professional troubles. Raul Julia is his usual awesome self too. Check it out if you haven't already. Not sold? There's fairly steamy late 80's Pfeiffer-on-Gibson action. Now what? Anyway, like I said, that's about it...so here's the news...


Bikinis Make Men Impulsive - New research shows that bikinis and other sexy stimuli can make men more prone to seek immediate gratification - leading to blown diets, budgets and bank accounts. In other news, the sun does indeed rise in the East. In the study, detailed in the Journal of Consumer Research, men fondled t-shirts and bras and viewed ads with women in bikinis. After doing so, figures showed that men valued the future less and the present more. It wasn't that the men were simply distracted by their sexual arousal, which caused them to choose more impulsively. On the contrary, they exhibited improved cognition and creativity after exposure to sexy stimuli (I know my imagination goes wild). The researchers conclude that there is one common appetite system in the brain monitoring our desire for a host of pleasures from sweets to pretty faces, alcohol to lotto winnings. When it is stimulated by, say, a sexy picture or the smell of baked goods, we experience a general craving for anything pleasant. Lead research Bram Van Den Bergh and colleagues rendered the bikini-effect powerless by satiating the stirred appetite with a different type of reward - financial security. When the men felt well-off, the bikinis lost their influence. But if they considered themselves among the have-nots, they were likely to seek immediate gratification after seeing women running in bikinis. The research is somewhat interesting…and you can read on with the link. It's another excuse for me to through up a picture of a woman in a bikini. You're welcome, men. Now buy my stuff.


Fishing is Instinctive - Long-tailed macaque (pronounced Ma-Cock) monkeys have a reputation for knowing how to find food — whether it be grabbing fruit from jungle trees or snatching a banana from a startled tourist. Now, researchers say they have discovered groups of the silver-haired monkeys in Indonesia that fish. The species had been known to eat fruit and forage for crabs and insects, but never before fish from rivers. Some other primates have exhibited fishing behavior including Japanese macaques, chacma baboons, olive baboons, chimpanzees and orangutans. Why is this such startling research to the science community? Men finally have a reason to explain why they go fishing…because it's part of their mammalian instincts. Man (and apparently our ancestors) cannot live on fruit and random tourist banana alone. Notre Dame anthropologist Agustin Fuentes says, "It was not surprising to me because they are very adaptive. If you provide them with an opportunity to get something tasty, they will do their best to get it." So ladies…got off your man's back about going fishing. If you want him to stay home, get on his front & offer him something tastier…like some sweet, sweet sugar…then you'll both be happy.


General's Fried Chicken - It's the Bomb!!! - Simsbury (CT) police Capt. Matthew Catania says a motorist noticed the a roasted chicken on the side of the road Friday morning. The problem with this one…was that there was a pipe bomb stuffed inside of instead of the giblets. He says the bomb was large enough to harm a person if it went off. The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department's bomb squad came and blew up the chicken. Nobody was injured. No arrests had been made Monday night. What kind of person would destroy a perfectly good roasted chicken that way? Actually, I probably would. At least it wasn't like a firecracker and a cat or something. This chicken was already roasted & honey glazed…then they just added that little kick. I don't know…some people are just weird. Besides, watermelons are so much more fun for that kind of thing. At least it gave me an excuse to pull out the "Undercover Brother" reference. Billy Dee Williams should be a spokesperson for fried chicken. "I used to work at the Pentagon…now I help you get your chicken on."


Panda Update - Nearly a month after she was crushed to death when China's devastating earthquake collapsed the wall of her enclosure, 9-year-old Mao Mao was laid to rest Tuesday in a wooden crate and wheeled to a quiet corner of the Wolong panda breeding center. The center's director stood cap in hand and shoveled in a few spades of dirt. Then Mao Mao's keeper, He Changgui stepped forward crying, and arranged two apples and a piece of bread by the grave. Three minutes of silence followed as workers gathered around the grave. As He Changgui turned away red-eyed after Tuesday's burial, the director of U.S.-based Pandas International, Suzanne Braden, put her arm around him. "You must look after her babies, OK?" said Braden, who had arrived a day earlier to survey the quake damage and help in the recovery. "And their babies." He nodded. "I will go back to see her everyday." The facility was badly damaged by the May 12th quake but officials initially thought all 64 pandas had survived. Tell me that stuff isn't touching though. Unfortunately, we've all had to bury loved ones. It's one of the tragedies and beauties of life…that we're all mortal (except the Highlander & Dracula) and our precious time on this planet must be lived to the fullest. I just think that it's amazing, the kind of ceremony for a fallen panda…and I could only hope that when I pass on (hopefully a few millennia from now) that I would be remembered well. Mao Mao Zai Jian. May you be surrounded by hot Panda tail in the next realm.


Anyway, that'll about do it for me today. Nothing much else to rant about...so I guess I'll see ya around. Oh, how about this little "Firefly" test to find out what character I am? Apparently, I'm the nerdy & brilliant Dr. Simon Tam...who ends up tapping the hot mechanic Kaylee. Booyakasha!!! However, I can't seem to get it to fit my blog...but whatever. That would've been my guess too. Have a great day everybody!!!