Friday, June 27, 2008

Cheese Friday™ : Etymology of Cheese

From Wikipedia.org

"The origin of the word cheese appears to be the Latin caseus,[2] from which the modern word casein is closely derived. The earliest source is probably from the proto-Indo-European root *kwat-, which means "to ferment, become sour".

In the English language, the modern word cheese comes from chese (in Middle English) and cīese or cēse (in Old English). Similar words are shared by other West Germanic languagesWest Frisian tsiis, Dutch kaas, German Käse, Old High German chāsi — all of which probably come from the reconstructed West-Germanic root *kasjus, which in turn is an early borrowing from Latin.

The Latin word caseus is also the source from which are derived the Spanish queso, Portuguese queijo, Malay/Indonesian Language keju (a borrowing from the Portuguese word queijo), Romanian caş and Italian cacio.

The Celtic root which gives the Irish cáis and the Welsh caws are also related.

When the Romans began to make hard cheeses for their legionaries' supplies, a new word started to be used: formaticum, from caseus formatus, or "molded cheese". It is from this word that we get the French fromage, Italian formaggio, Catalan formatge, Breton fourmaj and Provençal furmo. Cheese itself is occasionally employed in a sense that means "molded" or "formed". Head cheese uses the word in this sense."



There won't be a test later, but you should still pay attention.

Only learning things that, "are on the test", may not be the best philosophy in the long run.

Knowledge purely for self enrichment is a nice thing to have in our lives.



-Mr. DNA (doesn't always answer "C")




The Smart Patrol goes political

Supreme Court Backs Right to Bear Arms
Dick Anthony Heller (R), 66, an armed security guard, speaks outside the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C. USA on 26 June 2008. The court handed down a decision today upholding the right of individual American citizens to own firearms for self-defense and hunting. Heller sued the District of Columbia for the right to keep a gun in his home. EPA/STEFAN ZAKLIN


Somewhere Charlton Heston's hairpiece is smiling.



We now return you to our regularly scheduled programing...

-Mr. DNA

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Friday, June 20, 2008

Cheese Friday™ : Science!

Q: How do you make the perfect Cheese sandwich?
A: With a mathematical formula, of course!



Click here for the full story or click the above pic for an online calculator (really).


-Mr. DNA (don't know much about a Science book)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Monkey Bush?

This is a stuffed animal. It belongs to my son.
Now is it just me, or does it bear a striking resemblance to our Commander in Chief?



-Mr. DNA (is not running for office)

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Ink-and-Iron Festival: Tattoo & Kustom Kulture Weekend

Last weekend Jason and I went to the Ink-and-Iron Festival at Long Beach's Queen Mary. It was a lot of fun but the emphasis was more on the ink than the iron. Jason's Dad is considering getting a tattoo and Jason wanted to vet potential artists. I'm not tattoo'd myself but enjoy the culture so it was pretty cool.



Adam joined us on Saturday and I think it was a really good time. You could tell he was itching to get another tattoo, and I soon realized that Jason was too. Truth to tell, I was getting a bi nervous that I was going to be peer-pressured into getting something done, just to be one of the 'cool kids'.

Adam was hungover.

If you've ever been to the Queen Mary then you'll know that it's right by the hanger formerly occupied by The Spruce Goose, which is huge. I thought that the lion's share of the car and kustom culture stuff would be in there. I really wanted to see some pinstripers and maybe get something to go with the toolbox I picked up in Vegas. It turns out that the hangar was just for bands, practically empty, and a bit of a disappointment. Because we'd run around the tattoo stuff so much (Adam has no shopping strategy) we didn't have a lot of time to check out the cars and stuff anyway.

"I'm a cool kid"

The next day Jason returned to the show with his Dad in tow. I guess Tom saw some pieces that he liked and some artists that he'd consider. However it was Jason that plunked down some bucks and got himself a new piece.

What a Wookie!

And I have to say that it's pretty friggin' cool. I don't want to be there when his hair starts growing back and he's bitching about the itching. But for now, enjoy the new ink.

ThePrisoner (ink free)

Thursday, June 05, 2008

"I'll take Irony for $200, Alex"



If you don't get this, read a book once in a freaking while.
Or listen to one.

No, it's not lazy.

Clue:



thePrisoner (

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Some Excerpts from ForChumps.com (aka forchumps.blogspot.com)

Cutting Random Bits Of Sound Out Of The Theatrical Release Of Your Film To Fight Piracy Is For Chumps!

What the f*ck Paramount? I paid somewhere between $8.50 and $11 to see your mediocre movie. Don't punish me further for someone else's mistake. Why would you want to degrade my already taxing movie going experience? If I'm going to be forced to see a sub par version of the film I might as well wait and buy it from some guy selling burned copies out of the trunk of his Dodge Stratus or to download it from the intranet pirates you are so desperately trying to stop.

Being Dragged By Your Significant Other To See the "Sex In The City" Movie Without The Promise of "Special" Sexual Favors Is For Chumps!

If you couldn't come up with some excuse to NOT see the Sex In The City movie this weekend, you my friend are a super chump! You deserve whatever hellish nightmares now run through your head after sitting through 145 minutes of pure drivel. Just think of all the better things you could have done during that 2 hrs and 25 minutes:

(Sorry for another blatant plug. But, we have to spread the word to fight Chumpness world wide.)

Don't be a chump! Read ForChumps.com.

Monday, June 02, 2008

SKUNKWORKS: The Smart Reviews is (are) GO!!!!

Not satisfied with pontificating on all points minute and ephemeral, some of your favorite bloggers to The Smart Patrol have started a second blog dedicated to the pursuit of filthy lucre.

The Smart Reviews is just that, smart (as in informed, smart alecky, and smart assed) reviews of all the things that we use, are exposed to or have anything more than a passing interest in reviewing.

Like music... We love telling other people that the crap on their iPods is crap.




Like gadgets... We are not married, don't have kids or drug habits, so where do you think all the money goes?


There are a lot of sites out there that have tech or music or movie reviews, but only one site dares to call itself The Smart Reviews... mostly because we got the domain name before someone else did.

Please check us out, we're reviewing stuff all the time so you don't have to.
Also we're gonna give stuff away, but that's a secret.
And we have a twitter feed (if you don't know what that is, don't worry you don't need it)

At The Smart Reviews we don't let the fact that we have no idea what we're talking about stop us from having a strong opinion about it. Check it out and tell your friends.


thePrisoner