Weekly Update.

– Boxing: Nothing really worth mentioning except if anyone wants to go see Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriokis Gamboa at the Theater at MSG next Saturday, let me know.  Probably going to have to pay $75 for decent seats, so understandable if you don’t want to go.

– Why Coke tastes different in different countries: The main reason is that the sweetener used varies by country.  In the US high-fructose corn syrup is used while in Mexico they use cane sugar.  Turns out the New York Times Magazine did a feature on this.

– Empty lot by Harter: It looks like as far back as 2006 SJP Properties was having trouble finding tenants to start construction on the third building of the Waterfront Corporate Center.  No start date is set, and it seems like they need to see a turnaround before continuing with the project.

– Elephants and mice: The myth appears to have come from the fact that elephants are afraid of “unidentifiable” sounds, and is categorized as false on snopes.com.  But when the Mythbusters did field tests they find the myth “plausible”.  Let’s let the nerds show us:

– Avatar: Saw it in IMAX 3D at Lincoln Center this week.  Definitely worth seeing, it has fantastic visuals but the storyline, acting, and everything else sucks.  Basically, you’ll love what you see but there’s a got to be a problem when I’m laughing at natives shooting arrows at metal.  Haven’t they been fighting “for years”?  Shouldn’t the Giant Smurfs know their arrows are ineffective?

– Hurt Locker: Watched this on DVD, intense film.  Highly recommended.

– Ultraviolet Earth: This shot comes from Europe’s Rosetta comet probe:  (Wired)

– Paul Krugman inadvertently argues US is better than Europe: He was attempting to write about how Europe’s more socialistic political structure is wrongly attacked and is quite successful.  However, he failed miserably and just proves our style is better.  Here are some quotes and stats from his op-ed:

• “It’s true that the U.S. economy has grown faster than that of Europe.”
• U.S. GDP +1.95% per year since 1980; +1.83% for the E.U.
• 80% employment rate for 25 to 54 year-olds in E.U. and that’s “about the same as in the United States.”
• “Output per hour in France and Germany is close to U.S. levels.”
• “Taxes in major European nations range from 36 to 44 percent of G.D.P., compared with 28 in the United States.”  He used this line to counter that taxes in Europe were exaggerated.  Right, because taxes that are 57% higher aren’t really that much higher… seriously?

Other good gems include him asking if it’s “entirely a bad thing” that Europeans are “less likely than we are to work when young or old.”  That slayed me.  The whole point of our system is to have social mobility and a big key to that is working while young and working while old.  Here are stats Krugman could have used:

• E.U.’s life expectancy: 78.67 vs U.S.’s 78.11
• Infant mortality rate: E.U.’s 5.72 per 1,000 vs U.S.’s 6.26 (though this is skewed because in the US we count premature infants in the mortality rate while the E.U. does not.)
• But U.S. has a better birth rate (13.82 per 1,000 people vs 9.9 for E.U.), death rate (8.38 per vs 10.28), and fertility rate (2.05 children born per woman vs 1.51 for E.U.).  I found these stats at the CIA’s World Factbook.

– How to kill snow: A gallery of ten things that are used to get rid of snow.  (Gizmodo)

– MLS new uniforms: Go here to see all of them, but hats off to the Colorado Rapids for bringing back Chatham Township colors:  (Uni Watch)

– Flight patterns in US: Go to the site to select which planes you want to see, but here is all of them:  (Wired via zero hedge)

– Cheap gasoline: The alt energy fad hit a fervor when Oil was trading in triple digits, but now Exxon found oil in the United States for $8.50 a barrel.  Oh, and they found it from an oil field they thought was dead.  New technology, better extraction methods, and you can understand why there is a large group of extremely smart people that think we won’t ever run out of fossil fuels.  (Alan)

– Life: From the people that brought you Planet Earth comes Life.  Here’s a video I want to embed, but for whatever reason I can’t figure it out.  (Gizmodo)

– What do people think of the healthcare bill? 49% for, 46% against.  Not the best numbers:  (Gallup)

– Got arthritis? Find a cobra and take its venom.  It should alleviate your pain.  (Discovery)

– Nice pictures of weed: Because why not.  (The World’s Best Ever)

– Brits love adultery: Especially when snowed in.  (Yahoo!)

– Cellphone radiation is a good thing: At least for lab rats.  According to a study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, cellphone radiation can protect against and reverse Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice.  (Dad)

– Twitter leads to murder: Apparently an argument over Twitter escalated into actual bloodshed.  (Gizmodo)

– Twitter update: Blake has 24 followers (up from 23).  No mentions and no RTs this week.

– Tweet of the week: Danny DeVito (Danny_DeVito) is Vietnam and instead of showing pictures of himself or his family, he posts pictures of his foot.  He’s also named his foot Troll Foot.  Anyway, here’s his tweet and the accompanying photo:

“Troll foot munch atHue temple. Dragon sucked on toes a while said he always wanted to taste limberger”

– What you missed: Steve Breaston scored a touchdown against the Packers on Sunday.  I’m sure you saw it.  And I’m sure you saw his celebration.  But did you know he was doing a Razor Ramon dance?

– What I missed: The rodeo was at the Garden last week.  I didn’t go, but Mark Lee did.  He recommends it to anyone who has a chance to go to a rodeo and said one of the best parts was watching little kids race sheep across the arena:

Don’t know how I had no clue the rodeo was in town.  Maybe next time.