Flickr pics are here.

We are back home. I’m tired. I’ll put up picture links later.

Need coffee. Need water. Need aspirin.

I’m leaving in about an hour for this year’s Cincinnati adventure. Stay tuned–pictures and tales of our shenanigans are to come…

Pictures from my quick excursion to Nashville with the Bossman and the New Guy. Drove up there for the hockey game, had a nice time making new bar friends, and drove back this morning.

The rest of the pics are here. Hopefully it was a good practice run for next weekends trip to Cincinnati…

Robert Goulet for Emerald Nuts:

Also, though it wasn’t a Super Bowl ad, I am currently enjoying this one:

“You’ll thank me for this…”

I got the following email from my dear mother today. Pay special attention to the last little bit:

Water or Coke?

I could not believe this….. Very interesting

WATER

#1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half the world population.)

#2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is mistaken for hunger.

#3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as 3%.

#4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

#5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

#6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

#7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

#8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%., and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should drink every day?

COKE

#1. In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from
the highway after a car accident.

#2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.

#3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

#4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

#5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

#6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

#7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

#8… To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into the load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

#1. the active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase of osteoporosis.

#2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup! (the concentrate) the commercial trucks must use a hazardous Material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

#3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean engines of the trucks for about 20 years!

Why she sent this to me I have no idea. But it pissed me right the hell off. Look, there is really no possible way to argue that drinking water is better for you than Coke. So my question is, why the hell do people (or whoever wrote this crap in the first place) have to make crap up? I sent her the following response:

Not that I don’t agree water is better for you, but lets at least back it up with some facts that are, ahem, TRUE. The t-bone claim alone is just completely farcical and ridiculous. Look and see how many recipes you can find where Coke or Pepsi is used as a marinade. I don’t think people would do that if it dissolved the meat. Better yet, go and ask a mechanic if they would use Coke, a product with sugar and corn syrup in it, to clean their engines. Doubtful…

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/acid.asp

Remember: just because someone sends you an email with pretty pictures, doesn’t mean they have a clue what they are talking about.

This really pissed me off because I just despise arguments that are riddled with logical fallacies, and the straw man argument is the worst of the bunch (except for maybe a really nasty ad hominem attack.) Someone making a claim does not make that claim true. I get furious at people who just regurgitate the crap they are fed without even bothering to run it through the bullshit detector. Without doing any fact checking, I can disregard the claims made in the Coke email. Why? Because they just don’t stand up to the scrutiny of plain old common sense. I mean seriously, using Coke to clean an engine? I’m not trying to single out dear old mom (who I’m sure was innocently trying to improve my life) but she is just as capable of rational thinking as anyone. So she doesn’t get a pass. Shame on you, Mom!

It’s lazy thinking, and it’s an epidemic in this country (and probably others.) I have little tolerance for it (as you can see in my “Blurb” series over at Swingin’ Dick.) People, you have a brain. I think. USE IT!