- It’s back, Kiwis. It, in this case, is the sticky black
sandwich spread known as Marmite. After a one-year Marmite drought, supermarkets
began selling the popular spread this week for the first time since March 2012,
when supplies ran out. The drought was humorously dubbed “Marmageddon” by fans
of the product, who found themselves forced to suffer with less tasty
alternatives because of a shortage caused when a series of earthquakes in the
city of Christchurch forced manufacturer Sanitarium to close the only factory
that made New Zealand's version of the yeast-extract product. England makes its
own version of the spread, but the taste is markedly different and not anything
like the glorified take on axle grease that Kiwis and Australians love on their
toast at breakfast. Prior to the shortage, New Zealanders were buying an
average of 640 metric tons of Marmite a year. Grocery chain Foodstuffs had
Marmite lovers lining up at its stores on Wednesday, when the spread returned
to the shelves. Spokeswoman Antoinette Shallue said customers are "really
excited" about Marmite's return and Sanitarium also played up its return. “You’ve
rationed, you’ve scraped, you’ve survived Marmaggedon — and now the wait
is over!” the company announced on its website this week. “Thanks for not
freaking out and for waiting patiently for the black gold’s return.” During
Marmageddon, Sanitarium General Manager Pierre van Heerden suggested that
customers get innovative to make their existing supplies last longer. “With
toast it's a little bit warmer so it spreads easier and it goes a little bit
further,” he suggested in a recent radio interview. “What we're asking
consumers if maybe they could have their Marmite on toast, ration it a little
bit, maybe only have it once a day or every second day.” Thankfully, the time
for rationing is over……..
- California: Alternative fuel utopia or place with too many
unwanted vegetables on its hands? The answer may be yes on both counts, at
least in California's
Central Valley, where the formerly omnipresent sugar beet has come back from a
near-total disappearance to become a staple at area farms. However, these beets
aren't destined to end up being processed into any type of sugar; instead, they
are on track to become another alternative-fuel source. A new endeavor by a
dozen farmers, with support from university experts and a $5 million state
grant, will turn those sugar beets into biofuel. Construction is set to begin
soon on a Fresno County demonstration plant that will convert the beets into
ethanol. If the demo plant is efficient enough and successful in producing
clean, usable fuel, the farmers will build the nation's first commercial-scale
bio-refinery in nearby Mendota. The United States currently lags well behind
Europe in this area of fuel production, as the continent currently boasts more
than a dozen such plants. The majority of ethanol in the U.S. – 95 percent – is
made from corn. The farmers involved with the project pitched their idea as not
only being beneficial from a green energy point of view, but also in terms of
bringing jobs and investment to an area that's dealing with water pumping
restrictions and overly salty soils. There should also be an added boost for
California’s reputation as a place where people down wheat grass shakes, drive
hybrids and hug their favorite tree on a daily basis……..
- Sadly, it turns out that a hip injury cannot keep Lady
Gaga down. The injury, which forced the contrived pop hack to cancel her world tour last month, will not keep her
out of the studio or from one of the more unusual collaborations to hit the
music world in a long time. Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, will soon hit the studio to record a jazz album with musical
icon Tony Bennett. Bennett confirmed the album Thursday and said the project
will take place over the next few months. "We're working on it from now until June, and then we'll record
in June. She's phenomenal," Bennett said. "I get along great with
her. She's looking forward to it and so am I." The veteran singer spoke at
the Amy Winehouse Gala and Inspiration Awards, which recognized him with a
Lifetime Achievement honor. Doing an entire album together is an outgrowth of the
pair’s previous collaboration, "The Lady Is a Tramp," which appeared
on Bennett's “Duets II” album. "Once you have an idea, then you go
for it," Bennett said. The new, as-of-yet untitled project will be
recorded at a studio in Astoria, Queens and a producer that has not been tabbed
yet will helm to effort. When asked what impresses him about an artificial,
fabricated and overproduced pop hack whose entire career is essentially a giant
gimmick rolled into an absurd publicity stunt, Bennett said he respects Germanotta’s business sense. He recalled seeing a skyscraper-length advertisement for
Fame, her women's fragrance line, during a visit to Germany last year.
"She sold one billion bottles of perfume," he said. At the age of 86,
Bennett is more or less bulletproof musically, so working with the current
flavor of the week in pop music won't damage his rep, but that doesn’t mean Germanotta is any less of a hack……..
- T-Mobile is pushing to ready its LTE networks nationwide
and the day of their debut is nearing quickly. The plan is for the launch to
happen Tuesday and in advance of that occasion, T-Mobile engineers have been
spotted testing out the new networks in San Jose (and a few other Bay Area regions),
Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, San Diego and Kansas City.
Scores of T-Mobile customers have been anxiously awaiting the company’s
addition of LTE (Long Term Evolution), which offers faster data speeds. A leaked
internal document revealed plans to go live on March 26 in Baltimore, Houston,
Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, and Washington, D.C. Some customers
already have LTE-compatible devices on T-Mobile’s networks, but as such
networks spread across the U.S., others will undoubtedly have to go out and pay
good money to upgrade their hardware if they wish to take advantage of the
faster speeds. Even after the new networks launch, not all towers in the
affected cities will be upgraded to LTE immediately, meaning coverage may be
spotty in the early going. In preparation for the upgrade, an update was
recently pushed out for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 on T-Mobile so users could
convert to LTE once it became available. Owners of the BlackBerry Z10 and T-Mobile
Sonic 2.0 will also be able to make the jump right away and in the near future,
LTE-ready phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One will be available.
Unofficial tests in cities where the new networks have been detected showed 25 Mb/s
download and 8 Mb/s upload speeds, numbers that are solid but must be viewed
through the prism of not having any users on them at present……..
- Los Angeles Lakers myopians have been desperately
clinging to the idea that their beloved team can still become an NBA title
contender this season, if only they can get healthy and have their four
superstars on the court together for an extended period of time to build
chemistry. Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni has a message for those individuals: It’s
not happening. After the team came from ahead to tank and lose 103-100 to the
lowly Washington Wizards on Friday, D'Antoni sounded very much like a man
who had lost all hope for his squad. "This is a good team that just for
whatever reason can't collectively mentally get stimulated to [play hard] every
time," D'Antoni said. "I told them today, we put our hands in [the
huddle], and you guys have probably seen it, we say, 'Championship,' and go out
[on the floor]. That's laughable. Championship? You got to be kidding me.
Nobody understands the importance of every possession offensively and
defensively. Every time they got to come out with some kind of determination to
be a good basketball team, and [until] then, we're just, we're fooling ourselves.
Right now, that's what we're doing. We're just making a 'sham-mockery' out of
it." Blowing an 18-point first-half lead against one of the worst teams in
the NBA can have that effect, even if the Lakers hold the eighth and final
playoff spot in the Western Conference – for now. They have also lost two
straight games to opponents with a record hovering around 20 games below .500
and the man who is supposed to have answers – their coach – has none. "There's
no explanation for it," D'Antoni said. "I can't explain it, but every
time we get up 16 [points], it's like, 'Well, we're really good and we don't
have to play hard,' and we start messing with the game. You start messing with
not moving the ball. You start messing with, 'I'm just going to go one-on-one every
time.' You start messing with the basketball gods, and they get you.” Despite
the loss, the Lakers still lead Utah by 1.5 games for the eighth playoff spot
in the Western Conference, mostly because the bumbling Jazz have gone just 2-8 over their past 10 games. Friday’s
loss was especially painful because injured stars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol
returned to the lineup. Their presence seemed to boost L.A., which led 35-19 at
the end of the first quarter, only to see that lead slip through their fingers late
in the game as they once again turned a certain victory into a painful
defeat………
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