Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category

20
Apr

100 Billion Dollar Breakfast

   Posted by: admin0 Tags: ,

100bneggs

$100,000,000,000 in Zimbabwe almost buys three eggs.

Now that’s an expensive breakfast:
If you think $5.00 is too much for breakfast at your local Denny’s, consider this…
Last summer, $35 billion was the going price for an (one) egg in Harare, Zimbabwe. The country once considered the breadbasket of Africa has been pillaged under the 30-year reign (ruin) of President Robert Mugabe. The nation is now near total collapse, struggling with a political crisis, widespread hunger, cholera and AIDS epidemic and a rate of inflation considered one of the worst in history. In January, Mugabe introduced a $10 trillion bill (worth about $8 in U.S. currency).
Two weeks later, the government reversed course, slashing 12 zeros to make one trillion in old dollars equivalent to one new dollar.

Saturday March 21st 2009 a Manitowoc Man walked into Bob & Geri’s Black Otter Supper Club in Hortonville Wisconsin to take on the massive 160 ounce Extreme Cut Prime Rib in one of the wildest encounters of Man vs. Food I’ve ever had the privilege to witness. The Black Otter Supper Club has been offering up prime rib challenges going back to the late 1980’s and nearly twenty years ago I myself had taken on and tackled the comparatively tiny 104 ounce King Cut.

The Latest 160 oz. Prime Rib King
The 160 oz. Prime Rib King

Movies have depicted Northern Wisconsin restaurants with lumberjack sized steaks, like the old 96′er which the late John Candy barely accomplished (The Great Outdoors, 1988) and which may seem obscene to health conscious folks in California or to New Yorkers who pay hundreds of dollars for a 6 ounce steak prepared by some fancy pants chef, but here in Wisconsin, the cholesterol challenge begins in the over 100 ounce club.

A mere 45 minutes after starting,  the challenger Andy Frank swallowed his last bite of the monster 160 ounce prime rib and was declared the winner and new reining King of Prime Rib!

Still feeling a mite peckish, Mr. Frank topped off this monumental task by polishing off his fried potatoes and salad. Shown above is a photo of the new King of Prime Rib. The 160 ounce Extreme Cut has been offered since 2003, but so far only 3 have conquered the mountain of meat. The 104 ounce wall of shame includes photos from hundreds of carnivores who have downed the now retired 104 ounce King Cut.

The biggest question in most peoples mind (besides is he still alive) is “wow! how many calories is that?” Well, we’ve boiled that down for you in the following nutritional facts label that should accompany the plate. These values were calculated using a 10 ounce serving  data for Prime Rib Steak. Keep in mind, the 160 ounce Extreme cut is “bone in”  and includes a pound or two of bone and fat which of course you do not have to eat.

160oz_prime_rib_nutritional_facts

Other interesting extreme eating videos:
Watch Furious Pete Czerwinski break the world time record for downing a sizzling hot 72 ounce steak in 7 minutes, a total of 10 minutes for potato & salad.

Nutritional Facts for the Black Otter Supper Club’s 106 Ounce Prime Rib:

Serving size: 160 Ounces

Calories: 15,569
Calories from Fat: 11, 376
Cholesterol: 2,976mg
Sodium: 52,528mg
Total Carbs: 149g (Hey it’s low carb!)
Fiber: 32g (but you’ll need more fiber to push that baby through!)
Protein: 848g

All calculations are based on nutritional data of a 10 oz portion and simply multiplied out.
Calculations do not take into account extra bone or fat content.

please feel free to post your comments…

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23
Feb

Honeycomb Hideout Bar

   Posted by: admin0

This is an example of one of our members’ home bar project as it progresses from dark, dank, wasted basement space to a warm & inviting home bar that will rival any corner bar or tavern. This particular member had some help from a local contractor, along with plans and design ideas found at barplan.com.

You’ve worked many years on your website, learning, tweaking and shaking the bugs out of your marketing and SEO. You probably have hundreds if not thousands of hours invested in your work. Suddenly you see a competitor site that has been stagnant for months or years suddenly gets it in their fat head that it’s easier to steal good copy that to create it themselves, or they find you have a good position in the search engines  and they decide to steal fragments of your copy, your keywords and in the worst case your entire business model. Their goal? It’s simply a greedy attempt to steal what you have already developed.

We know exactly how you feel, we have competitors too. Some are courteous and respect others copyrights and trademarks and while toes may get stepped on from time to time a letter requesting the removal or modification of site copy might resolve the problem, or it might make it much worse.

Web site operators with overblown egos can take the request as an insult and begin an all out campaign to steal customers or have you dethroned from the serps. In most cases this attempt will result in the opposite. Duplicating another sites sales copy is tantamount to search engine suicide it will also make you look like the bad guy.

Some really desperate sites will attempt an all out copying of your business model, using identical file locations and every one of the third party scripts you employ. While there is nothing illegal about the use of the scripts by themselves, there is a problem when the intent is to arrange those scripts in an identical manner that you have used. Any court in the land will be able to see that the permutations of arranging identical scripts in an identical manner within the same business niche is not a coincidence, it’s malicious.
One sure sign of a guilty site is hiding their tracks by blocking archival robots or cloaking pages.

This is similar to an artist using the colors Red Green and Blue. Alone each color is harmless, but when you arrange the three in the exact same way as your competitor, isn’t that forgery? Web site forgery does not have to be exact in appearance, and while theme is important, it’s the function that is infringing.
This is a gray area of the law that will become more important as the web grows and the thieves make themselves known.

We know of one such thief, but the questions then becomes how to deal with them.
There are several approaches. First, you can get pissed off (which you will) then fly off the handle and send them a personally written cease & desist letter. This rarely works. You can try the nice approach, but that too rarely works. If the infringement would cause financial damages, then best approach is to find a local attorney who handles copyright or trade dress issues. Depending upon the degree of infringement, they might not want to set the hook right away. Sometimes it’s best to let the fish take as much line as possible to build a better case. Then when the infringer gets bolder, which they typically will, the hook is set. If the case is severe, the attorney will not only set the hook, but they’ll probably drop a few stick of dynamite in the water too.

Rightly so; copyright and trademark infringer’s are no different than thieves. It’s just that the IP bank is a lot easier to rob. A simple viewing of another sites source code can reveal a lot. Being dumb enough to use it against your competitor is, as they say, lower than “whale s**t”. Our advice to those who copy other sites is this: Think about what you are doing. Is it right? Did you come up with the idea 100% on your own? If not, you might want to spend some of that extra money you’re making off your competitors on good legal counsel.

Being that most site owners are located long distances apart, a jury trial is probably out of the question. Short of formal legal action, the best way to cripple a copy cat site is to file a DMCA take down complaint against them. Get your ducks in a row for this one and consult with an attorney before you file. If you are justified in making the claim, your competitor will be out of the internet business for a long time. Be warned, if you commit perjury by making a false claims or statements then expect legal action from a higher court.

If you’re not smart enough to read books or find your marketing or website concepts by researching sites outside your niche market and offer up something unique then your days as a successful internet business may be numbered.

For copy cat site operators plagiarism may become a catch 22. Once a site tries to copy something from another site it can become an endless Wild West battle to out do each other, creating more work overall work for the thief that if they’d gone in their own direction. They must remember their greed will bring out the best competition they’ll ever experience as legit IP owners defend their rightful creation. If all else fails, the defender may decide that “two can play at this game” and give the thief a serious content beat down.

In the end the best, honest & most persistent site will win.

This article is not intended as legal advice. Always consult with an attorney.

Merry Christmas from The Easy Home Bar Plans Builder’s Community website! 2009 will bring many new changes. Many surprises await as we enter the new year! Looking for a beautiful wreath for next season or to give your bar that holiday felling all year long? Check out this site> WreathsGalore.comfor a wide selection of affordable realistic looking artificial Christmas wreaths, swags and garland. Happy Holidays to all.  Cheers!

The best christmas light troubleshooting tool 15 bucks can buy

The best Christmas light troubleshooting tool a measly 15 bucks can buy!

If you’ve ever spent hours of time trying to fix a string of Christmas lights, you know first hand what a complete waste of time that can be.
My usual reaction to a dead string of lights is to toss them in the trash, even after one season of use. The problem with this is that the new LED lights just don’t have that warm incandescent glow and they are extremely expensive! The old style 2.5w bulbs are cheap and with a little patience and the proper knowledge and tools, they can be repaired cheaply and easily.
The Light Keeper Pro is one tool that looks pretty cheap, but does a great job of fixing burnt out strings of Christmas lights. I spent a few hours today working on a garland string, then went down to the store to pick up this tool that I had seen the day before, but passed over.
Within 5 minute out of the package, the Light Keeper Pro had located three bad bulbs in a 50 bulb string, it was amazing! So, don’t toss those old lights in the landfill yet, they may have more life left in them for next season & beyond. Works great for repairing novelty light sets for your bar too!

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