http://www.tissuepathology.typepad.com/files/prayson_anndiagpath_dec2008.pdf

ABSTRACT: Americans consume about 5 billion hamburgers a year. It is presumed that most hamburgers are
composed primarily of meat. The purpose of this study is to assess the content of 8 fast food
hamburger brands using histologic methods. Eight different brands of hamburgers were evaluated for
water content by weight and microscopically for recognizable tissue types. Glial fibrillary acidic
protein (GFAP) staining was used to evaluate for brain tissue. Water content by weight ranged from
37.7% to 62.4% (mean, 49%). Meat content in the hamburgers ranged from 2.1% to 14.8% (median,
12.1%). The cost per gram of hamburger ranged from $0.02 to $0.16 (median, $0.03) and did not
correlate with meat content. Electron microscopy showed relatively preserved skeletal muscle. A
variety of tissue types besides skeletal muscle were observed including connective tissue (n = 8),
blood vessels (n = 8), peripheral nerve (n = 8), adipose tissue (n = 7), plant material (n = 4), cartilage
(n = 3), and bone (n = 2). In 2 hamburgers, intracellular parasites (Sarcocystis) were identified. The
GFAP immunostaining was not observed in any of the hamburgers. Lipid content on oil-red-O
staining was graded as 1+ (moderate) in 6 burgers and 2+ (marked) in 2 burgers. Fast food
hamburgers are comprised of little meat (median, 12.1%). Approximately half of their weight is
made up of water. Unexpected tissue types found in some hamburgers included bone, cartilage, and
plant material; no brain tissue was present. Sarcocystis parasites were discovered in 2 hamburgers.

Here’s my working theory:

The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are….less than good.

If you’re the studio owner, you’re left with potentially a multi-million-dollar sinkhole.

What do you do?

Simple: Have the movie leaked on the torrents and claim the damages on insurance and on taxes. And you get bonus points, too, because you get to further your conglomerate’s aims in regards to file-sharing and DRM, too.

That the movie has, indeed, blown up (so far) is simply proof that the superhero-movie audience will eat anything.

From RocketryPlanet.com, via /.

DC District Court judge Reggie Walton has finally ruled in the 9-year old court case pitting the model rocketry community against the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ruling is a ’slam dunk’ for the rocketry community, stating that the BATFE ignored scientific evidence and overstepped its bounds by classifying ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) as an ‘explosive.’ Effective immediately, the BATFE has no legal jurisdiction over hobby rocket motors, and a federal Low Explosives User’s Permit will no longer be needed in order to purchase APCP motors.

Stewart nails Jim Cramer:

1.) File a frivolous action challenging the trademark request for a logo of a competitor whose annual revenues are tenths of a percent what your own are.

2.) ????

And here’s a link to the tiny David fighting the corporate Goliath, with creamy SEO goodness: Charleston, South Carolina Real Estate

It’s pretty obvious now that Rush isn’t going to stop until he either owns the GOP, or is completely destroyed by it.

RushLimbaugh.com – A Few Words for Michael Steele

Steele to Rush: I’m sorry

Sure is fun watching the ‘Pubs eating their own, though.  Too bad they didn’t start doing that earlier, when it would’ve counted for something.

Even though this is about a decade overdue, it’s nice to see that the government is finally seeing the light and closing the door on patent trolls. [link]

So it appears that Charles Barkley will be doing time in Sheriff Joe’s sideshow tents. [link]

It’ll be interesting to see whether this brings Barkley’s inimitably brash voice into the debates surrounding Arpaio’s policies as Sheriff, which, like a lot of sheriffs around the country, seem to be geared more towards electoral stunts and gaining media attention than with protecting the public.

(My short list of regular readers will notice a promised post that hasn’t appeared yet; I’ve been ill the last few days, and that post will appear tomorrow.)

Glenn Greenwald has posted an excellent synopsis to his blog on Salon of the way that the Right is managing to paint itself as the victim of Obama’s stimulus measures, which were of course made necessary by the policies of the Republicans, and how it represents one more step down the road to a civil war fought along class and racial divides, rather than the regional stresses that led to the original Civil War.

I’ll expand on the particulars of the post, in two parts. (Edit: Actually, I’m not going to bother with the second part.) First, I want to look at the recent rabble-rousing rant by CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli. In the second post, I’ll examine the way the “Patriot Movement” is once again growing, and once again proving itself the knowing accessory to unconstitutional, unreasonable, and unsustainable policies they claim to be against, as long as those abrogations of principle are made in their own self-image.

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