Friday, July 14, 2006

Cases, Bulls, and Ice Cream

I was on my way to Fry's to covet some new hardware (I'm getting the Antec P180 case but they were out of stock) and NPR had a story about Pamplona.

Running with the bulls, don't you know.

It was a long story, and they must have used the phrase "running with the bulls" about twenty times. Look, you people aren't running with the bulls--you're running away from the bulls.

Accuracy often drains glory. You wouldn't turn to your buddy and say "Hey, let's fly to Spain, go to Pamplona, and run away from the bulls!"

Popular Science, which is not related to running away from the bulls at Pamplona in any way, seems to have a continuing fascination with making ice cream quickly. Liquid nitrogen, sure, but this month they've found a new way, and all you need is a fire extinguisher and a pillow. Here's an excerpt:
...Discharge a 10-pound CO2 fire extinguisher full blast into a pillowcase for about 10 seconds, and you'll have several pounds of finely powdered dry ice. (Don't play with it, though. Dry ice can give you frostbite in a few seconds).

Then you just fold it slowly into the ingredients and keep stirring until frozen. Here's another excerpt:
So is it edible? Because they're intended to be used in restaurant kitchens, CO2 fire extinguishers are usually filled with food-grade CO2. (Do not try this with a dry-chemical fire extinguishers).

Insane. And the ice cream is actually carbonated, believe it or not. If you want more details, then pick up the August issue at your local newsstand--its not on their website yet. They did say that it won't be replacing regular ice cream anytime soon, unlike their liquid nitrogen experiment, which supposedly produced the best ice cream they'd ever tasted.

Site Meter