There's been a story floating around in the news about a new absinthe that is going to be sold legally in the US. Dave submitted a New York Times article about it.

Lucid is the debut product from Viridian Spirits of Manhasset, N.Y., founded in early 2006. According to Jared Gurfein, Viridian's president, the company's first order of business was to contact Ted Breaux, a chemist known for his detailed analyses of vintage absinthes.

Lucid is the debut product from Viridian Spirits of Manhasset, N.Y., founded in early 2006. According to Jared Gurfein, Viridian's president, the company's first order of business was to contact Ted Breaux, a chemist known for his detailed analyses of vintage absinthes.

Mr. Gurfein asked Mr. Breaux whether he could produce an absinthe that would pass regulatory muster with American authorities -- meaning that it would not contain thujone. Mr. Breaux said that would be fairly easy, given his belief that, contrary to popular opinion, 19th century absinthes contained relatively little thujone to begin with -- less than 5 parts per million, according to his tests, rather than much higher estimates that have been bandied about.

Still, Mr. Breaux knew that removing thujone entirely might harm the taste. "I had to get a handle on the whole thujone issue without compromising the character and the flavor of the drink," he said. To accomplish this, Mr. Breaux blended the grand wormwood with green anise and sweet fennel from Europe, instead of using more-affordable imports from East Asia. Using herbs from Europe, absinthe's native continent, he said, gives the drink an earthier essence.

Mr. Breaux also had to keep the American palate in mind while developing Lucid. "In the U.S., anise is a sort of a strange flavor," he said. "We don't get a lot of exposure to it." So Mr. Breaux made sure that Lucid had a slightly cleaner, crisper taste than its European peers.

Several Lucid prototypes were ready by last July; Mr. Gurfein and his staff at Viridian used an office taste test to select the formula they would take to market. That formula was then sent to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a division of the Treasury Department, which checked the absinthe for traces of thujone and other impurities and approved it. The bureau also reviewed Lucid's bottle, paying close attention to the words on the back.

"They wanted to make sure that we were going to market this responsibly, that we didn't intend to piggyback on some of the myths," Mr. Gurfein said. Absinthe's fabled reputation for causing hallucinations and madness has since been debunked.

From the comments I've seen around the web, the myths about absinthe are quite false, and it's really not much more than a very strong drink. Still, I think it'd be fun to try it, especially since fire can be involved in drinking it. I suppose that makes this a not-so-frosty-beverage!

This is some pretty cool news. You know about the site Gametap? The site has tons of videogames from older consoles, PC games, etc. Basically it's a huge library of classic videogames that can be played online. Up until now, it cost $9.99/month for unlimited access to over 800 games. But starting at the end of this month, they are launching a free ad-supported model to their store. Basically you'll get to play games out of a smaller selection for free, with the cost of having some ads on the page. Sounds like many of the flash game websites out there already, except that these will be games you played as a kid (or always wanted to!).

While GameTap will still offer subscriptions, GameTap.com will expand from its current role as a portal to the GameTap client and will offer big-name classic games to play for free, all supported by the ads displayed on the page. The new site will launch on May 31 and will feature 30 games to begin, including titles like Metal Slug, Joust, and Rampage. These are titles that are being sold for premium prices on other consoles, so they may be able to draw the high number of people required to make this strategy profitable.

GameTap has also become the home of custom content like the new episodic Sam and Max game as well as Uru Live, and will continue along this path by offering newer titles like Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary to subscribers or for purchase directly from the GameTap site the same day it becomes available in normal retail channels. Imagine a Steam-like service where you can pay one monthly fee for access to all the games and add-ons available and you can see the promise of such a strategy.

The article also mentions that console competition is increasing as Nintendo and XBox have provided ways of purchasing and downloading older games and you get to play them on your TV with the controller. While I think that may have provided competition to Gametap's subscription model, nothing will beat the free, ad-supported model as long as it is profitable (i.e. someone's clicking on the ads). Here's hoping it works...I'd love to play some old school games again.

I posted a couple of weeks ago about Ben & Jerry's free cone night, so in the interest of equal promotion, Baskin-Robbins is having a 31 cent scoop night this Wednesday night from 5pm to 10pm! It's not free, but the $0.31 goes towards the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

Or in the words of Wired, it's "a delicious blend of sugar, wax, and condom lube." Dave submitted this story where Wired breaks down the ingredients of Cool Whip. Some of the good ones:

Polysorbate 60
Polysorbates are made by polymerizing ethylene oxide (a precursor to antifreeze) with a sugar alcohol derivative. The result can be a detergent, an emulsifier, or, in the case of polysorbate 60, a major ingredient in some sexual lubricants.

Sorbitan Monostearate
Chemists call this stuff synthetic wax, and it's sometimes used as a hemorrhoid cream. It's one of the magical substances that keep Cool Whip from turning to liquid over time in the fridge.

To be fair though, just because it's an ingredient doesn't mean anything. Hell, sugar's an ingredient in both of those and also candy! Candy has an ingredient that is also found in some sexual lubricants? Ahhhh!!!

I can say that I'm glad we finally had a good episode. There was a mole, Jack was in the episode (which we'd been taking for granted) and it was pretty good overall. Tom's not only playing nice with the VP, he's helping him out! And the VP's aide proves that yes, she really is hot. Speaking of hot, Nadia proved she can be a real pain in the ass with both the Audrey situation and with blowing off Milo. It was funny to see Milo acting dejected though.

Of course it was sweet to see Jack get to kick some ass in getting to Audrey, and in a twist I didn't see coming, Mike's getting to be less of a tool every episode! Audrey's dad telling off Jack was kind of ridiculous. You'd think when he saw how determined Jack was to help Audrey that he'd be a little more forceful to get Jack to back off rather than repeating "Stay away from her, Jack" in a menacing tone over and over again. Do you know Jack Bauer? Do you really think that's going to work? Jack Bauer makes the rules, old man!

**Double spoilers here. If you want to avoid any info about next week's preview, DO NOT READ!!!** It looks like they've decided to really go bananas in the final three episodes. The Chinese have the chip and are going to have enough time to get it working and set off a major attack? Jack's obviously going to be released as you see him running around with a giant gun. Looks like we're going to get some more good episodes!

Check out this week's character countdown.

What? Two managers of a Wendy's restaurant tried to rob the manager of another Wendy's, only to get caught by him.

Hamilton County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Deputy Vicky Dunbar said the robbery occurred Friday morning at a Carmel area Wendy's, 10595 N. Michigan Rd. The fast food shop is located just south of Zionsville on a busy stretch of highway also known as U.S. 421. Dunbar said the Carmel store manager was leaving to make a routine deposit of store receipts when he was accosted. "They were waiting outside," she said. "They jumped the manager and grabbed the deposit out of his hand." After that, Dunbar said, the robbers' plan went awry. Manager Ed Farohki, with help from an employee who witnessed the assault by a man in black clothes and a black ski mask, chased down the unarmed attacker as his cohort fled.

"Basically, he was apprehended by his victim," Dunbar said of Roberts' arrest. Hours later, after Roberts was questioned by investigators, Workman also was arrested and joined him in the Hamilton County Jail in Noblesville. She said both men are managers at the Castleton Wendy's, 6351 E. 82nd St. Wendy’s officials at Trident Foods would not disuss the robbery or the arrests of employees.

Dave submitted a story about a band recording an album in 20 days while locked inside a bubble.

CARTEL are sealing themselves inside a huge transparent bubble on Hudson River Park's Pier 54 in NYC, where they'll eat, sleep and breathe while writing and recording a new album live for all the world to see. Lending new meaning to the term "up close and personal," Band in a Bubble presented by Dr Pepper is a groundbreaking interactive multimedia event that will offer fans an unprecedented real-time look into the ups and downs of the creative process as Cartel shapes the highly anticipated follow-up to their breakthrough debut, CHROMA.

Cartel will enter the bubble during a live MTV broadcast on May 24 and live there with no escape until the bubble "bursts" on June 12, when they will perform new material in a concert event on the pier.

Web cams will stream live on www.drpepperbubble.com and the event will air as a special reality series with four 30-minute episodes on MTV, which will also be available on-demand at MTV.com.

"This is huge for us," says Cartel frontman Will Pugh. "Making an album is a very personal and emotional experience, and in the past we've never wanted anyone around when writing or recording. But given that this is probably the biggest opportunity we'll ever have to show the world what we're made of, we can't wait to invite the fans into both the studio and our lives."

Dave said, "Their first album rocked. Although it sounds like a lot of pressure to make an album in 20 days while on a reality show." This does sound like a pretty cool idea, and it'll be interesting to see what happens. If I were them, I'd hope it's a big bubble. With a bathroom.

Gotcha! (S3E16)

What can I say about this week's episode? Whew! Why? Because the first half of the episode had me grimacing. Let's break down the three story lines.

The whole Ari conflict felt very artificial and contrived, and Ari was acting ridiculous. And yet the conclusion of it was pretty satisfying and it was a relief to see him transform back to normal as soon as his wife talked some sense into him.

The Drama story was like the usual Turtle/Drama adventures. Some absurd conflict over nothing. And you could see the second Gotcha! coming a mile away. Not as satisfying, but at least it wasn't completely stupid.

The Amanda and Vince relationship and resulting awkward lunch felt just like the E and Sloane lunch from a couple of episodes ago...just painful and annoying in the way E was acting.

In all it was a weird episode for the simple fact that nobody except Drama was acting like themselves. I guess Ari has acted that way before, but it was to an obnoxious extent this time. But it ended up being a pretty typical episode after all was said and done...a few quotable lines from Ari, and not much advancing of the plot.

See more reviews.

Toyota's latest ad campaign is fantastic. They imply that their customers are a bunch of idiots. What better way to get someone to buy something? There's two different types of ads I've heard.

In the first, they talk about the reason other car companies say "hurry in!" in their ads...because they don't want you to do some comparison shopping first. And then they tell you that if you did, you'd find the Toyota Camry is the best car. Thanks douchebag. That's exactly how I car shop! I hear "hurry in" on the radio and I may run over some woman with a baby in a stroller, but damned if I don't pull a U-turn in the middle of an intersection at a red light and speed towards the nearest dealership to get the car I just heard about. Because I'm just that stupid! Thanks, Toyota, for enlightening me. Now that I know better than to listen to and do whatever a car company tells me, what car did you say I should buy again?

The second one is even better than the first because not only does it use the same idea, but it considers you even stupider than the first. It says something along the lines of "a car shouldn't be an impulse buy...it's not a pack of gum or a tabloid." Where do they get such wisdom? First of all, I always thought a car could give me the latest news on Brad and Angelina. But now Toyota has dashed my dreams of the TabloidCar 5000. But moving on. I can't even count the number of times I've stood in a long line at the register at Jewel with some groceries and caught myself staring across the street at a dealership. The next thing you know, I've dropped my groceries and am sprinting across the street to buy the car that caught my eye. Then I bring it home and realize I've made a huge mistake and cry about it for a week. Because we all know you can't undo that decision. And it always happens no matter how many times I remind myself to stop going to the grocery store on an empty stomach and without a car...I always end up getting way more food and cars than I know what to do with because I'm just so hungry for both. Stupid impulse items!

So thanks to Toyota, I won't listen to what the car companies say about buying a car or get a car on a whim like I do so often. I'll just get the car they say to get, and get it right now because they've laid out absoulutely all the facts. How can I lose?

Hey, since you guys are so smart, maybe you can figure out how to make a car that doesn't have sideways tires! That's not very useful. Except to drive into other cars.

Looks like Colbert has reviewed his own upcoming book, I Am America (And So Can You!), on Amazon.com according to their bookstore blog:

The perfect Christmas gift!, April 19, 2007
I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
A powerhouse. A tour de truth.
I laughed. I cried. I lost 15 pounds!
A must buy!

You can find the book here. It doesn't come out until October.

The review doesn't appear on the book's page, but I got the link to it via the bookstore blog entry linked above.