We are not big fans of Burger King's creepy ad mascot, The King, and we know that we're not the only ones who feel a little uneasy when his commercials come on. Burger King, and the various advertising firms that represent them, likes to take their promotions into that extreme zone, though, so perhaps we should just be glad that their advertising isn't worse than it already is.

For example, take a look at this Burger King Germany wrapper, which contains instructions for building a throne to your Whopper out of ketchup packets and french fries. According to the person who photographed the wrapper and submitted it to Instructables, the directions say that the throne is for resting your burger and worshiping it.

Let's be glad that they haven't incorporated this idea into their King-centric US advertising yet. Can you imagine how strange the commercials would get?

[via tfs]

Milk consumption in Japan is steadily declining and there seems to be no drop in production, which means that there is a lot of extra milk that needs to be disposed of every year. A liquor shop owner in Hokkaido, Chitoshi Nakahara, began to wonder what could be done about the oversupply of milk when he was struck the idea of combining milk and beer. He dubbed his new product "bilk."

Bilk is 30% milk and took six months to develop with the help of a local brewer. The production process is much like that of regular beer and the resulting brew "apart from a slight milky scent looks and tastes like ordinary beer." It is currently being produced in limited quantities and is available via mail order, but Nakahara says that he has gotten so much media attention that he is totally out of stock for the moment. Despite this, bilk's success won't be assured until the novelty wears off and Nakahara can find out whether people will continue to buy the product.

When I first came across the idea of nailing Jello to a wall, I thought it was pretty funny. Strange, but funny. Now that an alert reader has pointed out to me that this was not an isolated incident and that many people out there devote time to the very same thing, I have to admit that I am a little disturbed.

My Science Project has taken their love for all things Jello and conducted a study into the "feasibility of securing Jell-O to a vertical surface by means of manually impacted cylindrical metal fasteners." In other words, they attempted to nail jello to a wall. They tried the standard recipe, jello with holes molded into it, jello with straw supports and jello with fruit. The best recipe was one they termed "ballistic jello," which involved about an ounce of gelatin in 2 cups of water.

I'm thinking that this challenge could be some sort of a party game. Possibly at the same types of parties that serve lots and lots of jello shots early in the evening.

[thanks, Eric]

A Mexican man, Manuel Quiroz, loves chilies with a passion. Perhaps disturbingly so. Not only can he "down dozens of Mexico's spiciest chilies," but he can "rub them on his skin and even squeeze their juice into his eyes without so much as blinking." Why on earth anyone would want to do that on a regular basis - or how they came up with such a bizarre idea in the first place - remains to be seen, but Manuel to showcase his unusual... talents. He believes that he can eat more chilies than any person on the planet and wants to prove his claim with a title. Unfortunately, there are no contests to crown the "World Chili-eating Champion" just yet, so Manuel will have to wait. With the popularity of eating contests, however, he many not have to wait long. The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFCoE) seems like they are always keen to add new events and if they can get any of their current champs to agree to participate, you can bet that they'd be willing to sponsor such a contest.

Kobayashi vs. Quiroz, anyone?

The owner of a restaurant in Mumbai has, in what appears to be a case of very poor judgment, opened a restaurant called Hitler's Cross. It is covered with large portraits of Hitler, as well as the red, white and black swastika of the Nazis. The owner claims that he simply wanted the restaurant to be memorable. "This is the one name that will say in [peoples'] minds," said owner Punit Shablok. "We are not promoting Hitler. But we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different."

"Different in the way he was different"? Does that mean that the restaurant owner wants to lead a fascist nation? That he is a Nazi? Or did Hitler have some previously unknown passion for "continental food" - presumably vegetaraian food, at that - served in small restaurants in India?

Needless to say, many people in the community (and in the rest of the world) are angry about the name choice, which is offensive to many. It remains to be seen whether public outcry will be strong enough for the restaurant to change its name. Both the owner and the manager have already expressed a desire to turn the restaurant into a chain.

After getting stuck under a lawnmower, Des Moines radio personality Van Harden says that he lost his taste for bread completely. Harden said "Doctor's can't explain it," but it could be the case that he experienced a side effect as doctors revived him from anesthesia after his surgery. With no appetite for bread, Harding was essentially living an Atkins-style life, but he did miss the taste pizza even though he didn't actually want to eat the wheat-based crusts.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so Harden came up with a 100% cheese crust pizza, complete with toppings. Think of it as being a stuffed-crust pizza, without the actual crust. Over the weekend, in what appears to be the first release of the product, over 200 were sold at two Des Moines Hy-Vee stores. More store are scheduled to offer the Atkins-friendly, gluten-free pie soon.

... no one would be hungry. Or, there would be two pieces of bread at opposite sides of the planet and, due to the fact that the majority of the Earth is inedible, you would just end up with an interesting experiment. The earth sandwich project was conceived by zefrank on an episode of The Show. Spurred into action by the thought of doing something never done before, viewers around the world set out to plant slices of bread in their neighborhoods and, using the opposite tool, hopefully have someone finish the 'wich.

I don't think it's been done yet and since a fair amount of the surface of the planet is Ocean, it may be difficult to complete some of the existing half-sandwiches. Perhaps a boat would help.

[via Gadling]

It is a sad day, indeed, when venues like nursing homes start prohibiting homemade cakes on the grounds that it is more "responsible" to allow only store-bought cakes. Today, unfortunately, is that day.

A former nurse and award winning baker, Elaine Richards, was told that her homemade cakes were not permitted to be served to any residents of the Age Concern center in Barnstaple, UK. A director said that "they have many disabilities and some of them are diabetic and our policy is to keep them as well and safe as possible." Richards thought this was ridiculous, given that her cakes are made with natural ingredients and free-range eggs, without the artificial colors, flavors and other components of the store cakes.

Granted, homemade cakes don't have nutritional facts printed on them, or warnings about allergens. But is it necessary to have a complete ban? Given that Richards is a nurse, it seems likely that she would be in a good position to prepare appropriate cakes. How many people are baking cakes for the elderly?

Not nearly enough.

[Image BBC]

We've seen fast food fashions before, but designer Chris March is doing some thing a little different than the familiar french fry dresses we've come to know. He is making haute couture out of vegetables. With what looks like inspiration from Carmen Miranda, as well as a nudge from Wish-Bone salad dressings, which sponsored the creations, March made hats and dresses out of fresh salad greens. He used lettuce, tomatoes, celery and cabbage, among other produce, to decorate his pieces. A few of the veggies in his creations are artificial, like the green onions, so they will withstand the hot runway lights when they debut in a NY fashion show on June 2.

For good-looking produce, March went to a specialty vegetable market to pick up materials. The only question left to ask is whether any of it is organic.

[Image NYT]

During a political rally in Sullivan, Illinois in 1960, Richard Nixon ate a barbecue sandwich. He didn't quite finish it and when he went to throw it away, Steve Jenne saw his chance. He dashed in a grabbed the uneaten portion, then saved the sandwich for 46 years. He's brought it on "tours" with him across the country since that time,  carrying it in a cooler packed with dry ice. Jenne has not yet made any move to sell it on eBay, which would seem to be the most common thing to do with "trophies" of this nature.

The question remains as to why someone would take a half eaten sandwich from a presidential candidate, saving it for nearly half a century despite the fact that Nixon lost that campaign and didn't win the presidency until 1968.

[Image AP/CNN]

It is likely that many pizza delivery people have second jobs. It is possible that some of those second jobs are in funeral homes. And the number of people who are delivery people with second jobs in funeral homes and who think it is acceptable to transport pizzas in the same car as a corpse is exactly one.

A Domino's delivery driver in Pennsylvania, who also happened to be driving with a suspended license, was pulled over for failing to have an inspection sticker on his bumper. The officer noticed that there was a stretcher in the back of the 1993 Buick, whereupon the driver explained his second job was transporting corpses. This does not violate any health ordinances in that county (though perhaps it should), despite the fact that the pizzas were sitting by the stretcher amidst "rubbish and wet clothing."

I don't live in Pennsylvania, but just in case, I'll stick with carry-out. Better yet, maybe I'll go with frozen or homemade.

Nabisco makes more than a dozen varieties of Oreo cookies, not including the ones that have their fillings dyed for each holiday, in addition to 4 Oreo ice creams and 8 other Oreo-related products. They do not sell what is rapidly becoming one of the most popular types of Oreo, albeit the unhealthiest: deep fried Oreo's.

A popular fair and carnival food, just like the deep fried Snickers bars, it involves dipping an Oreo into a thick batter and popping it into a sizzling hot pot of oil. When pulled out, hot and crispy, they are topped with powdered sugar and served. According to many,  they are delicious and more easily justifiable than a Snicker's due to their relatively small size. One blogger described them : "The Oreo loses it's hard crunchy texture and becomes a warm chocolately cake delight. The creamy center melts and creates an inner glaze." Should you want to risk the health hazards of deep-fried foods for the delights of one of these treats, you can find instructions both here and here.

[Image the farmers wife] 

Sounds like heaven - a Norwegian woman turned on her tap and instead of water out pumped BEER!

"I turned on the tap to clean some knives and forks and beer came out," Haldis Gundersen told Reuters from her home in Kristiansund, west Norway. "We thought we were in heaven."

A bar two floors below mixed up the piping connecting a new barrel of beer to the Gundersen's flat. And not a cheap error to make either as beer in Norway is really, really expensive with a 0.4 liter (0.7 pint) costing about 50 crowns ($7.48) in a bar.

If it happens again she should request Bailey's!

[via Days that End in Y]

It's not that the Vietnamese government has anything against grapefruit per se. Rather the powers that be have banned the URL www.buoi.com.vn because of a confusion that arises from the Vietnamese language's use of markings to indicate one of six pronunciation tones, reports the BBC. Without the proper accent marks, buoi reads the same as the slang for penis. Unfortunately for the grapefruit wholesaler in Ha Tinh province who tried to register the name there is as yet no way to indicate such diacritical marks in Web site addresses.