Energy Drinks - The "new" gateway drug?

Energy drinks...generally carbonated soft drinks laced with all sorts of plant extracts generally offering 'stimulating' of 'focus' effects (or 'highs') . Formulated science waters can offer all sorts of modern day concoctions - with vitamins and minerals as well as recommended dietary 'supplements' mixed into water and a slash of 'natural' colour and flavour too, perhaps.

'Energy' drinks are nothing new. Can you imagine a cave-person slugging back on icy cold bottle of refreshingly tasty cola...a concoction packed up the ying-yang with sugar and caffeine?

It'd be like a modern day hill billy high on some pure Mexican shard ('crystal meth')-CHAOS!!

And yet it's beyond that now with 2000> energy drinks offering all sorts of 'exotic' berries and plant extracts. It's like a South American Stimulant crossed with Asian focus powders. Who needs that much concentration?!?

What's a bit more concerning is the classification of caffeine as a 'food' rather than a 'drug'. Has pure caffeine have any nutritional value over say ye-yo (cocaine)?  In that case why isn't cocaine considered a culinary offering from Mexico and Mexico's neighbours? A culinary offering that North American's happen to LOVE!!

So with seemingly no rules or regulations surrounding 'energized'+sugar-laden beverages and their sale...other than the ridiculous prices attached to them.

And as the juiced up techno-teens that grew up downing the popular branded energy drinks now reach drinking age, they are simply 'ruski-ing up/Irishing up/Scotching up' (adding alcohol to) their favourite energy drink.

Nothing like a stimulant/depressant drug cocktail to chase the blues away!

Oh and the other caffeine 'junkies' are the stereotypical 'workers' - Coffee addicts. Pods, bags, espresso, double-shot, etc all chasing their next hit of caffeine...living life from on drum of ground beans to the next.

Interested to know what contains caffeine? If so, below is some information  relevant to your interest :)

Food -- Caffeine content

Percolated coffee -- 60-120 mg/250 mL cup

Formulated caffeinated beverages or ' Energy' Drinks -- 80 mg/250 mL can

Instant coffee (1 teaspoon/cup) -- 60-80 mg/250 mL cup

Tea -- 10-50 mg/250 mL cup

"Coca Cola" -- 48.75 mg/375 mL can

Milk Chocolate -- 20 mg/100g bar

Designer Drugs of 2012 and Beyond

Personally think it's hilarious that there were two allotments of time given on National Television in the past <24 hours on the subject of 2012 designer drugs developed specifically to bypass ill-advised legislation (referred to as 'poisons' in some regions no less) and create their developers and manufacturers (and everyone in between) a SHIT LOAD of Cha-ching $$$ !!!

A law enforcement officer admitted, on recorded video that he 'was not a chemist' but essentially knew how the crafty devils get around the laws (current). A wise monkey that one.

And doctors are 'worried' about the consequences of ever-emerging NEW "designer" substances? I wonder if the potential for something really untested to reach the LEGAL market concerns them more than the substances that creates the demand for them in the first place - i.e. Does cannabis use 'worry' them as much as a newly released 'legal high' created to mimic marijuana?

I really feel for the victims of 'designer' drug use, and drug use and misuse in general. However I do not feel that the blame should be placed on the substance itself, but rather those that push people towards the consumption of these risky substances because they want to prohibit 'drug' use.

The TV Shows were both on the 7 network of Australia.

-Anon2012

Screw Android - DELL

Technology giant DELL have revealed that they will be withdrawing from the smartphone market and Android at least for the short term future, with website 'techbuffalo' reporting the news.

Instead DELL look to gear themselves up with their range of MICROSOFT O/S tablets. Is that a big middle finger to Google from DELL?!? Sounds very much like it to this observer :)

Source: 

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2012/12/12/dell-says-its-retiring-from-smartphones-not-going-to-invest-in-android/

Additionally, "Google says that it is not developing apps for Windows Mobile or Windows 8". It's not even the end of 2012 and Google decide to give modern Windows products the cold shoulder with DELL doing likewise to the Android OS. This should make for interesting times. Again, in this observers opinion, this sounds like a severe case of Google being a whiny little runt of an organisation. So much self involved and proud are they that they won't develop for what could be a key market for everyone. 

And to think, if Windows had combed out their undesirable app developers andf Google were on it, a stink would surely have been created over it.

With a strongly fought battle between Apple and Samsung over the mobile O/S device market already and with these announcements all us tech-enthusiasts can do is sit back and watch the fireworks and place bets on who will get buried first.

How to set up a blog website

Hey I noticed when I typed into Google search "how to set up" that 'website' and 'blog' were suggestions made by Google, therefore they must be somewhat popular searches.

I'll be honest, if I can create a blog and maintain it for a considerable amount of time anybody can match that :P

I've been blogging with Google Blogspot (Blogger) for around 5 years now however I only really got into it last year because I realised the potential to earn some potential passive income via ad hosting.

Google have made the process of having a website or a blog as easy as creating an account and creating pages...which is like creating any other word processing document, as well as having options to link to YouTube videos, images (upload or direction to image that is online) and text options...not to mention options on how the blog itself actually looks!

I created my first website with Geocities...anyone remember that?

I would encourage anyone that likes to share thoughts, ideas, findings, and anything worth documenting should create a blog...I would remind anyone interested to just be mindful that people will be able to view what you have posted - Some may not agree with your opinion, so if you're intending to be offensive confess to it upfront.

If you have a blog existing or just created I invite you to follow me as I generally will follow back those that have interesting blogs :)

Coca Cola prices: Then (2008) and Now (2012)

Years ago I saw 2 Litre bottles of Coca-Cola selling for an all time high price...at $3.14 I snapped a photo :P I have held onto it for all these years. Here it is.

I always figured if I held onto it long enough that it would be an interesting look back. And now it is. I still remember thinking how expensive this price tag was back in May 2008 when I took it. The other day, in the same supermarket I saw what I thought was an odd "special". It just didn't seem that cheap. I lifted the tag and guess how much a 2L bottle is in March 2012?

Have a look for yourself...

As you can also see, the price tags now have unit pricing...and the quality my camera produces has improved :D These prices are in AU$ - In US$ this product would cost $4.01 according to www.xe.com at the time of writing.

Do you think this is overly expensive? Please note that this is on a regular store shelf, it is not provided chilled.

Metal Gear Auction Price - NES

Someone just bought the 'original' copy of 'Metal Gear' (Released March 1988) for the Nintendo Entertainment System for $AU85 and $AU6 postage - About $97.50 US Dollars at the time of writing.

Metal Gear Solid Hd Collection for XBOX360/PS3 is selling for $AU69 (expensive? Well...yeah :( Australian gamer) and is essentially 3 games in one...

...So, Can't beat the classics? Nostalgia O.D? Work of art?

Personally I think some of each :)

I remember how difficult this game was, especially without the map, instructions or things like the internet for walk-through's, cheats or assistance...and because this game wasn't highly popular at the time (I think a certain magazine *cough* Nintendo Magazine System *cough cough* gave it a rating of something like 56%

The Angry Video Game Nerd (do a video search) has even reviewed this game as well, with plenty of criticisms :P

Anyhow for anyone that has this game or are interested in an auction price for a complete set (box, manual, map, dust jacket, and cart) here is a screen capture for evidence. Note the time and date is Australia Eastern Standard Time.

Orange Candle

I'm not sure what it was that made me discover making candles from oranges on the internet, but it happened and I'm writing about it now...what interests me often interests you :)

Basically you have to carefully peel an orange so that you have two halves, intact, and without the orange 'meat' inside.. The 'stem' of the 'pith' (is that correct terminology?) acts as the wick of the candle which is burned anyhow refer to the pics below, they are pretty self explanatory but I'll provide some comments for each in any case. Enjoy :) Feel free to point people to this entry if you think they might like it. Perhaps something for Earth Hour 2012

Halved Oranges (if you don't know how - Google some techniques) with air vent cut in top half

Some oil is poured into the bottom half with the natural pith 'wick' make sure it gets saturated but not drowning in the oil

The natural wick after being lit

With the top half 'lid' on top

Some oranges have some pretty natural patterns, I think they resemble Halloween Jack-O lanterns

And you can always get creative with the top 'lid' half - Just be careful. I made mine look like the Sun :)

Extracting Juice from Oranges

I finally have my juice extractor at my place. I always figured it took up too much room and it was a pain to prepare product for and cleaning up afterwards.

Well as I have been drinking a lot of orange juice lately, I figure the long life stuff on the shelf is sort of weird when fresh is available, and that the fresh stuff is a bit steep for what you get. I'm talking about $5-6 for 1.5L-2L of so-called fresh Orange Juice in the chilled section of major grocery stores/supermarkets.

A 3kg bag of Valencia Oranges was like $3.50 or something, so I decided I could perhaps do better myself.

What do you think? I'll let the pictures I took (below) do the talking :) Make sure you keep an eye on my blog (I know you all do anyway right? ;P ) as I have some other pictures associated with this entry.

I cleaned these up a bit, removing the pith...though the machine would have taken care of it :)

Ready for Juice Extraction

The end result 

Australian Police Officer Bashes Victim Caught on Video

Hi everyone,

I've been coming up with blanks for content lately so sorry but there's not too much I can do about that - I'd change it if I could but it's outside my control really.

Anyhow a news story I saw today compelled me to right.

A video has been released of a uniformed New South Wales Police Officer punching an allegedly drunk spectator who (again allegedly) didn't follow orders when asked to leave...an embedded YouTube video (Bite me SOPA ?) is below, and below that is some more of my insight on the matter.

Also, the reason I said "allegedly" some many times was because news reports say the police officer 'allegedly' punched the person - I get that the news don't want possible legal issues with influence and whatnot...but it's not an even playing field...as the victim in all this was outed as being drunk that they failed to follow orders to leave, and resisted...arrest? Is that what they're trying to convince was happening here? Anyway...

My comments:

• The officer has been identified in news articles as being the State of NSW's Police Commissioner's son (like father like son?) 
• The officer's 'partner' nor the security personal seemingly nothing to stop the brutality
• The officer completely ignores the screaming spectators plea
• The attack appears methodical...with the officer having enough time to think about his course of action as the others constrain the victim
• The officer didn't seem to understand that citizen's don't tolerate this mass abuse of power...or that almost everyone has a video camera on them at all times
• Again, the media (some? not all?) discriminates by presuming the police to be innocent until proven guilty, however the victim is branded as a drunk who didn't do as told and resisted.
• Police have ample tools to deal with such situations...I mean when the victim was held back by FOUR people why didn't he just whip out the hand cuffs and drag him out where he wouldn't cooperate with walking to the police vehicle?

Another element is the responsible service of alcohol laws...these particular cricket games at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) have had full strength beer reintroduced where other events are limited to selling low of mid strengths. With this incident occurring so soon after these changes you'd have to imagine that this will be dragged into question thanks to a thuggish prick in a uniform with a badge.

Welcome to 2012

Hi everyone, just wishing everyone good health and prosperity in 2012. 

Personally I am gearing up for the Chinese New Year on January 23rd as this year marks the year of the Dragon...and I am hoping it brings some positive enjoyable times to look forward to :) And Australia Day occurs 3 days after too :D

Considering my visitors enjoy pictures here is a picture of a piece of 'latte art' I managed to pull off (somehow). Enjoy :) ...And of course feel free to share to anyone you like (or otherwise :P)

'Love Heart' Latte Art

The sad truth about Australian Retail

Recently I've read speculative reports that 2012 will see mass lay off's in the Australian retail sector. The thought of this coming to fruition unsettles me. Why? Because I too believe that there is a good chance that this scenario may be experienced.

A local trade 'n' sell page on Facebook saw one individual listing for sale a copy of a particular SONY PS3 game for $75 (firm lulz) that they had only played once but didn't like, adding that they had only recently paid $109 for it.

See the thing is I can buy this on-line at a vendor I know of for $57.99...it's overseas of course but it does offer free shipping and secure payment methods. To those wondering if $109 for a game is a ridiculous claim...sadly, it might not be as Australian gamers suffer having to pay premium prices for pretty much everything gaming such as software and hardware (those following from the earlier days might remember THIS older post about Australian video discrimination when it comes to release dates and prices http://viewknowdo.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-it-sucks-to-be-aussie-gamer.html

Apple were (/are still??) doing something similar; read about that HERE 

If these offers are recognised by the surging numbers of people activating Android and iOS devices (especially over Christmas + Boxing Day Holiday's) and Facebook being a massive scale Bulletin Board System (BBS) chances are word will get out and become 'viral' as they say these days...which could be catastrophic to 'traditional' stores.

What's worse for retailers is so-called 'Smart Phones' capability to act as a sophisticated bar code reading  device that can potentially return price results from a number of stores advertising their price and categorizing them by parameters such as how has the cheapest price.

I guess the real winner where all this takes off, will be the consumer. The effects of everyone having everything they could ever want and need plus more? That's a little harder to predict this early :P 

Thanks for reading, if you know anyone that might enjoy this site please let them know about the place. 

Seeing as how my visitors like pictures here is one of Gil from The Simpson's with a timeless quote that may unfortunately be echoed by some retailers here in Australia. I do not own this image it is merely a URL so if you are the owner and have objections please speak with me...Using the work in good faith