I'm Chris Hanson

FINALLY some Chris Hanson up in here!




Jack Webb is a close second

Mmmmm. Zeigeisty.

NOM NOM NOM

CHICAGO -- Burger King Corp. plans to swap its generic fast-food feel and bland tiles and tabletops for a vibe that's more sit-down than drive-through.

As part of a plan to be revealed Wednesday in Amsterdam, the company will announce a massive effort to overhaul its 12,000 locations worldwide. The sleek interior will include rotating red flame chandeliers, brilliant TV-screen menus and industrial-inspired corrugated metal and brick walls.

"I'd call it more contemporary, edgy, futuristic," Chairman and CEO John Chidsey told The Associated Press. "It feels so much more like an upscale restaurant."
But that comes with an upscale price: The new look is expected to cost franchisees, who operate 90 percent of Burger King's locations, between $300,000 to $600,000 per restaurant.

The company said the new design, called "20/20" at the Miami-based chain, is already in place at about 60 locations around the world. Burger King expects about 75 more redesigned restaurants to be open by the end of next year. But it will take years before all its locations are transformed.
Burger King franchise owners are contractually required to update their restaurants after a set period of time, and executives said the redesign will be the primary option for future upgrades. All new restaurants will be built using the plan.

So far, remodeled restaurants have seen sales climb about 12 to 15 percent, while restaurants that are torn down and completely rebuilt at the same location have seen sales climb by as much as 30 percent, Chidsey said.

Observers say the hip, urban and masculine elements in the redesign may be a hit with Burger King's most loyal customers -- young men who frequent the chain known as much for its signature Whoppers and "steak burgers" as its sometimes-creepy "King" commercials. But some experts are skeptical about whether sales will grow as much as the company claims and how eager franchise owners will be to part with that kind of cash, particularly in a sour economy.

Chidsey said he thinks most franchise owners, who typically own both their restaurant's building and the land, won't have trouble obtaining financing and will be swayed once they see how sales can climb.

Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy said the reformulated restaurant could keep diners at the table longer but may not draw in enough extra diners to justify the cost.

"I don't think they'll change their perception," he said. "They're pretty entrenched in their reality."
A group representing Burger King franchise owners didn't immediately comment.

Fast-food restaurants typically get almost two-thirds of their business from drive-through or carryout orders. More appealing interiors could help the company compete with sit-down counterparts that many customers think offer better food and better ambiance.

Ron Paul, president of the food consultant company Technomic Inc., said he thinks the redesign shows just how determined Burger King is to compete with "fast casual" restaurant chains such as Chipotle, Starbucks and Panera, which customers think of as a cut above typical fast food.

"People in the fast-food category are recognizing they've been losing customers to the fast-casual player," he said. "What this sounds like is an attempt to get that dining-in business back by making it an attractive environment."

They might also help Burger King, the No. 2 burger food chain the U.S., stand out from larger rival McDonald's Corp. and other competitors, including regional chains, who've begun to add bigger and better burgers to their menus as they clamor for a share of the growing burger market that's worth $100 billion in the U.S.

"It's a competitive necessity to square up against the competition," Chidsey said.

While the most noticeable changes will be inside restaurants, Burger King executives also plan to update exteriors, too, adding metal canopies and more signs proclaiming "Home of the Whopper."
At the same time, the company is beefing up its value menu, temporarily adding a $1 double cheeseburger to U.S. menus. And it's also in the final stages of installing new broiler ovens that cut energy use and will let the company roll out new menu items in the future.

On deck is the Steakhouse XT burger, which has a thick patty topped with mayonnaise, fried onions, lettuce, steak sauce, cheese and tomatoes. It's slated to join menus in February.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/burger-king-plans-edgy-fu_n_311830.html

Oh boy.

From ABC News

Is the U.S. stepping up preparations for a possible attack on Iran's nuclear facilities?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been sparring with President Obama over whether Iran is developing the technology to build nuclear weapons.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)The Pentagon is always making plans, but based on a little-noticed funding request recently sent to Congress, the answer to that question appears to be yes.

First, some background: Back in October 2007, ABC News reported that the Pentagon had asked Congress for $88 million in the emergency Iraq/Afghanistan war funding request to develop a gargantuan bunker-busting bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It's a 30,000-pound bomb designed to hit targets buried 200 feet below ground. Back then, the Pentagon cited an "urgent operational need" for the new weapon.

Now the Pentagon is shifting spending from other programs to fast forward the development and procurement of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. The Pentagon comptroller sent a request to shift the funds to the House and Senate Appropriations and Armed Services Committees over the summer.

The comptroller said the Pentagon planned to spend $19.1 million to procure four of the bombs, $28.3 million to accelerate the bomb's "development and testing", and $21 million to accelerate the integration of the bomb onto B-2 stealth bombers.

'Urgent Operational Need'

The notification was tucked inside a 93-page "reprogramming" request that included a couple hundred other more mundane items.

Why now? The notification says simply, "The Department has an Urgent Operational Need (UON) for the capability to strike hard and deeply buried targets in high threat environments. The MOP is the weapon of choice to meet the requirements of the UON." It further states that the request is endorsed by Pacific Command (which has responsibility over North Korea) and Central Command (which has responsibility over Iran).

The request was quietly approved. On Friday, McDonnell Douglas was awarded a $51.9 million contract to provide "Massive Penetrator Ordnance Integration" on B-2 aircraft.

This is not the kind of weapon that would be particularly useful in Iraq or Afghanistan, but it is ideally suited to hit deeply buried nuclear facilities such as Natanz or Qom in Iran.

Definition of Amazing

There is a man named Jon McNaughten.  He painted a lovely scene.  He included some descriptive Alt-text.  He is awesome.  But, the Wonkeratti are awesomer.

Good:

Gooder:

Goodest:

SEE THE REST OF THE GOODNESS HERE:

http://www.shortpacked.com/McNaughton%20Fine%20Art.htm

Lack of Evolution - OR- Why Al Franken Rules

(Howie Klein @ HuffPo)

Today the Senate "debated" the Department of Defense appropriations bill passed by the House (H.R. 3326) for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. Republicans added frivolous amendments all day, that were defeated one after the other. The amendment du jour, however, came from Al Franken D-MN.

And what a doozy it is! S. Amend. 2566 simply prohibits "the use of funds for any Federal contract with Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., any of their subsidiaries or affiliates, or any other contracting party if such contractor or a subcontractor at any tier under such contract requires that employees or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding certain claims." The "certain claims" have to do with sexual assault.

I might have phrased it differently myself -- like "prohibits any member of the executive team and Board of Directors of Halliburton and KBR from ever getting out of prison for any reason whatsoever" or something like that. But my amendment probably wouldn't have gotten many votes, unlike Franken's which passed 68-30, every Democrat being joined by 9 Republicans. (Does anyone know if LeMieux has to call Charlie Crist and get his OK before he votes?)

Franken offered the amendment because a KBR employee, Jamie Leigh Jones, age 19, was raped by a bunch of KBR workers in Iraq and then locked up in a crate when she tried reporting them. After she was rescued and returned to America she was informed that she couldn't take KBR to court because there was some fine print in her -- and everyone else's -- contracts that don't permit any such thing. [See the video below.]

Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, an especially corrupt member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was the key spokesperson for the GOP against the legislation which he called unfair to Halliburton, one of the biggest Republican Party contributors in history.



Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howie-klein/senate-passes-amendment-t_b_311866.html

People Who Have No Idea What They Are Walking Into; Shep Smith Edition

(Jason Linkins @ HuffPo)

Earlier this afternoon, Fox News's Shepard Smith demonstrated some of that trademarked independent thinking that so often gets him in dutch with the cable network's most dedicated viewers, when he took on Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and offered up some serious-minded and well-informed pushback on the public option. His initial response, for my money, is rich with substance and exceedingly well-expressed:

SMITH: Over the last ten years health care costs in America have skyrocketed. Regular folks cannot afford it. So, they tax the system by not getting preventative medicine. They go to the emergency room in the last case and we all wind up paying for it. As the costs have gone up, the insurance industry's profits, on average, have gone up more than 350%. And it is the insurance companies which have paid, and who have contributed to Senators and Congressmen on both sides of the aisle to the point where now we cannot get what all concerned on Capitol Hill seem to believe and more 60% of Americans say they would support, which is a public option. This has been an enormous win for the health-care industry, that is an unquestioned fact. But I wonder, what happens to the American people when we come out with legislation now which requires everyone to have health care insurance -- or many more people -- but does not give a public option? Therefore millions more people will have to buy insurance from the very corporations that are overcharging us, and whose profits have gone up 350 percent in the last ten years. It seems like we the people are the ones getting the shaft here.

Barrasso's response to this is to limply offer up the criticism that "we have not allowed the American people to read the bill," which to my knowledge, does not contain a section entitled, "Oh By The Way, We Are All In Bed With Lobbyists, Like Whores." Smith continues to press the point: "But with every vote against the public option is a vote for the insurance companies, sir, it is."

As much as I appreciate Smith for some informed support of the public option, it's a far rarer thing to see someone in the media, anywhere, who's willing to pin the blame for the degradation of the health care reform package on the toxic relationship between legislators and lobbyists. The only thing that would improve on this exchange would be for Shepard Smith to levy the same charges at Max Baucus or Kent Conrad, who, unlike John Barrasso, are actually relevant to the debate. But, hey, you go to war against the idiots that show up, I guess!

Looks Like Magna Doodle...

Shroud of Turin Reproduced

ROME (AP)-- Scientists have reproduced the Shroud of Turin -- revered as the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb -- and say the experiment proves the relic was man-made, a group of Italian debunkers claimed Monday.

The shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping out of nailed hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen fibers at the time of his resurrection.

Scientists have reproduced the shroud using materials and methods that were available in the 14th century, the Italian Committee for Checking Claims on the Paranormal said.

The group said in a statement this is further evidence the shroud is a medieval forgery. In 1988, scientists used radiocarbon dating to determine it was made in the 13th or 14th century.

But the dispute continued because experts couldn't explain how the faint brown discoloration was produced, imprinting on the cloth a negative image centuries before the invention of photography.

Many still believe that the shroud "has unexplainable characteristics that cannot be reproduced by human means," lead scientist Luigi Garlaschelli said in the statement. "The result obtained clearly indicates that this could be done with the use of inexpensive materials and with a quite simple procedure."
The research was funded by the debunking group and by an Italian organization of atheists and agnostics, he said.
Garlaschelli, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pavia, said in an interview with La Repubblica daily that his team used a linen woven with the same technique as the shroud and artificially aged by heating it in an oven and washing it with water.
The cloth was then placed on a student, who wore a mask to reproduce the face, and rubbed with red ochre, a well known pigment at the time. The entire process took a week, Repubblica said.

The shroud is first recorded in history around 1360 in the hands of a French knight -- a late appearance that is one of the reasons why some scientists are skeptical of its authenticity.

Measuring 13 feet (4 meters) long and three feet (one meter) wide, it has suffered severe damage during the centuries, including from fires.

Owned by the Vatican, it is kept locked in a special protective chamber in Turin's cathedral and is rarely shown. The last public display was in 2000, when more than 1 million people turned up to see it, and the next is scheduled for 2010.

The Catholic Church makes no claims about the relic's authenticity, but says it is a powerful symbol of Christ's suffering.

The shroud has been strongly debated within the scientific community. Some researchers claim that patches used in the Middle Ages to repair the cloth after a fire altered the carbon-dating results.

Another study, by the Hebrew University, concluded that pollen and plant images on the shroud showed it originated in the area around Jerusalem sometime before the eighth century.

Garlaschelli told Repubblica he didn't think his research would convince those who have faith in the shroud's authenticity.

"They won't give up," he said. "Those who believe in it will continue to believe."
__

On the Net:

The debunking group (in Italian): http://www.cicap.org/

Shroud Web site of the Turin diocese: http://www.sindone.org/