My birthday was yesterday. My son claims to have the humor gene in the family so he picked out the cards. Punchline for the card, “Remember only one wish per customer.”

Mr. Chávez’s reintroduction of the coin invokes a period when Venezuela enjoyed large foreign investment and remarkable price stability. A common response then to the question “how are you?” was “en la lucha por la locha,” an expression revolving around the coin, meaning roughly “struggling to make a buck.”

This quote from the NY Times stuck my fancy. I was in Venezuela during the period of stability that Mr. Chávez longs for. Compared to the rest of South America, Venezuela was both a prosperous and progressive country. In the 1960’s Venezuela was making major strides in many areas. I believe I was there for the first free elections. Since much of the population was illiterate, the candidates were assigned colors. If you wanted to vote for a candidate all you had to do was remember their color. This was a major step forward for South America who traditionally relied on the military to make changes. This was also a period in which American businesses dominated the economy. It is ironic that as Mr. Chávez is nationalizing industries he fondly remembers a period marked by a very close relationship to foreign investment. I guess he has to learn the fundamentals international economics the hard way.

Trot ON, Hortensia! This is the iJoyRide, a fitness machine that thinks it’s a horse. It’s got four speeds (Warm Up, Taking It Easy, Getting Serious and Pump It Up) and 30 minutes on it will burn the same amount of calories as a 30-min run or bike ride. Wannabe mustang riders could probably play Pimp My iJoyRide and turn it into a rodeo bulls to practice on. It’s yours for $770 and all the embarrassment in the world. ”“ Ad Dugdale

Product Page [iJoyRide via Daily Mail]

Link to iJoyRide: Get Off Your Horse and Drink Your Lo-Cal

Another fitness toy soon to fill the aisles of Goodwill. Nothing beats the the real thing.

Link to Day By Day Cartoon 01/02/07

Been there…Done that! Although I think the constant talking to oneself is more related to the number of years you have been married. The scary part is that if you pause to search for the right word, your spouse will wake up and finish your sentence.

Gizmodo reader/potential vampire Shaun just popped this interesting graph in our email this morning, comparing the price of HP ink to other various fluids, some bodily in nature. He calculates that a $30 HP #45 black ink cartridge gives you 42ml, pricing out to $0.71/ml. Meanwhile, blood apparently costs $200 for 500ml from the Red Cross, pricing out to $0.40/ml.

The numbers are only more staggering as you realize that the blood of weekend Gizmodo writers, running at a constant 1:1 blood to alcohol ratio, is worth even less. Does that mean we can sell our blood at wholesale? Dealzmodo supplemental! ”“ Mark Wilson

Link to HP Ink Costs More Than Human Blood, Booze

The Best College Football Play Ever
submitted by soapdev 1 day 3 minutes ago (via http://youtube.com/watch?v=woz…)

Best Ending to College Football Every. Nuff Said.

Expert: 40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted | TwitchGuru

An expert in computer, Internet and video game addiction believes that 40 percent of the more than 6 million subscribers suffer from a clinical addiction to the game and wants warning labels on the game boxes similar to the Surgeon General’s warnings on cigarettes. TwitchGuru has the interview.

I know that my son is addicted. He says that he is getting bored after playing it for the last couple of weeks so I am hopeful for the school year. Parental controls is always an option. I have used it once in the past and my son decided to regulate his play time. One of his school friends who also is a WOW player tried to give me some grief over using parental controls. I reminded him that I knew his father’s phone number and was more than willing to explain to him how this boy’s father could implement parental controls to control his son’s play time. That boy is so respectful now!

Dog Pack Kills Alligator In FloridaAt times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the ‘apex predator’ in its natural eco-system, can still fall victim to implemented ‘team work’ strategy, made possible by the tight knit social structure and ‘survival of the fittest pack mentality’ bred into canines over the last thousands of years by natural selection.See the remarkable photograph attached, courtesy of Nature Magazine. Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while the remainder of the pack prevents the beast from rolling.
Beware! This is not for the squeamish!

Click here ONLY if you are ready to view image….

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Texas FactsNobody asked for them, but here are some little known Texas facts:

• Beaumont to El Paso: 742 miles
• Beaumont to Chicago: 770 miles
• El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas
• World’s first rodeo was in Pecos… July 4, 1883.
• The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water.
• The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full time coach for Rice University in Houston.
• Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America.
• Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America’s only remaining flock of whooping cranes.
• Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.
• The worst natural disaster in U.S. history was in 1900 caused by a hurricane in which over 8000 lives were lost on Galveston Island.
• The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was HOUSTON.
• King Ranch is larger than Rhode Island.
• Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43″ in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July 1979.
• Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, instead of by annexation. (This allows the Texas flag to fly at the same height as the US flag. The Treaty also provided that Texas can split itself into 5 States, if it wants. And the Treaty also provided that Texas can secede from the Union, if it wants.)
• A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.
• Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.
• Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period after Dr in Dr Pepper.

Texas has had six capital cities:

1. Washington-on-the-Brazos
2. Harrisburg
3. Galveston
4. Velasco
5. West Columbia
6. Austin

• The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. (by 7 feet).
• The name TEXAS comes from the Hasini Indian word “tejas” meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas.
• The State animal is the Armadillo. (An interesting bit of trivia about the armadillo is they always have four babies! They have one egg which splits into four and they either have four males or four females. Well…I thought it was interesting anyway!)
  The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – TEXAS STYLE

People here in Texas have trouble with all those shalls and shall nots in the Ten Commandments. Folks here just aren’t used to talking in those terms. So, some folks out in West Texas got together and translated the “King James” version into “King Ranch” version:

Ten Commandments, cowboy style.

Cowboy’s Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Fairlie, Texas.

1. Just one God.
2. Honor yer Ma & Pa.
3. No telling tales or gossipin’.
4. Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
5. Put nothin’ before God.
6. No foolin’ around with another fellow’s gal.
7. No killin’.
8. Watch yer mouth.
9. Don’t take what ain’t yers.
10. Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff.

That’s kinda plain ‘n simple don’t ya think?

Via the Braden Files