McDonald’s. Yes, They Really Are Everywhere.

Image by Stephen Von Worley

Image by Stephen Von Worley

You’re looking at a map of the contiguous United States visualized by distance to the nearest McDonald’s.

I guess it’s some consolation that being on the East Coast, I don’t need to ever worry about finding one. Maybe I should worry that I can name three within ten minutes of my house.

The map was created by Steven Von Worley, who was inspired by the appearance of a McDonald’s literally in the middle of nowhere, in the Los Angelos basin. Both the map, a larger wallpaper size version, and the explanation for how it was created are here.

Won Worley warned me when I emailed him that the map isn’t perfect, however.

“In the interest of full disclosure, please note that the McFarthest Spot is
measured as the crow flies, at 107 miles.  Also ~145 miles by car, but it’s
entirely possible that there’s another location that’s closer as the crow flies,
but farther travelling on the roads.   Indeed, regarding the latter, there’s
places in the lower 48 that you can’t even drive to/from with a car - that is,
by auto, infinitely distant from MickyDee’s.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a sudden craving for French fries.

Holocaust 'Industry' More About Money than Memory?

Edwin Black: The Holocaust 'Industry' Is More About Money than Memory

Source: New York Jewish Week (9-12-09)

[Edwin Black is the award-winning bestselling author of IBM and the Holocaust, and his first book, The Transfer Agreement, now re-released in a 25th Anniversary edition (Dialog Press). He can be reached at www.edwinblack.com. ]

During the first months of the Hitler regime, in 1933, leaders of the Zionist movement concluded a controversial pact with the Third Reich, which, in its various forms, transferred some 60,000 Jews and $100 million-almost $1.7 billion in 2009 dollars-to Jewish Palestine. In return, Zionists would halt the worldwide Jewish-led anti-Nazi boycott that threatened to topple the Hitler regime in its first year. Ultimately, the Transfer Agreement saved lives, rescued assets, and seeded the infrastructure of the Jewish State to be.

Fiery debates instantly ignited throughout the pre-War Jewish world as rumors of the pact leaked out. That acrimony was rekindled in 1984 with the original publication of my book The Transfer Agreement-and has never stopped. Why?

Simply put, The Transfer Agreement came out a decade ahead of its time. When the book first appeared, in 1984, the world was still preoccupied with the enormity of Nazi genocide. The world's emphasis was on the murderous events of the war years. Organized remembrance was collectively fighting an anti-Semitic revisionist movement that was trying to deny or minimize the Holocaust with rabid pseudo-history. Few had spoken of the financial aspects of the Holocaust until I did. Few had publicly ever used the words "Zionist" and "Nazi" in the same sentence until I did.

For perspective, consider that the first network television attempt to treat the Holocaust was a TV series called "The Holocaust," which aired in 1978-the same year neo-Nazis marched through Skokie. That was the year I began researching The Transfer Agreement. At the time, the Second Generation movement of children of Holocaust survivors was just forming. The First World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors was only in the planning stage. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which received its charter in 1980, was several years and many controversies away from opening. Organized Holocaust education was essentially nonexistent. For society and for survivors, the dominant priority was coming to grips with the genocide-not the assets.

What has changed in 25 years?

Assets are now part of almost every Holocaust discussion. Zionists are compared to Nazis everywhere by anti-Semites and opponents of the existence of the State of Israel. Holocaust remembrance has become a business. The survivors' efforts at recovering assets or restitution have been expropriated by national and international organizations claiming to speak for them and then pretending to pay homage to them. Hence, we witness the spectacle of thousands of survivors in Brooklyn and Miami and elsewhere living at or near the poverty level. My Dad in Palm Beach has nothing but a roof over his head. But the well-heeled movers and shakers of communal remembrance travel first class, create vibrant websites, and talk the talk… all on their "fair share" of the diverted recovered assets or restitution of the actual survivors.

Every day the survivors, in their newsletters and online exchanges, rail against the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for sequestering their access to the all-revealing Bad Arolsen archives while tiny Luxembourg, with few survivors, just gained a full copy. No one listens.

Prominent national Jewish leaders find it easier to give well-funded communal cover to the perpetrator corporations, including insurance companies, who victimized the Jews. Holocaust historians find it more lucrative to go on the payroll of perpetrator corporations such as General Motors, IBM, I.G. Farben, and Deutsche Bank, murk the facts, and then slam the files shut.

My mother jumped from a moving train on the way to Treblinka into a snow drift, never believing that the next generation speaking for her would quarrel endlessly and often arrogantly about the measure of her misery.

The Holocaust has indeed become an "industry" where the facts are lost, and all too often not faced. The victims have become tertiary to the process. It is no longer about memory; it is more about money. Facing the reality of the Holocaust is no longer about confronting the horrifying decisions Jews and Zionists had to make with a gun to their head. The Transfer Agreement was one of those most terrible choices. Hence, the message of the book is unchanged 25 years later and its searing question asks this of history: "Why must Jews always make such terrible choices."

via hnn.us

Know When to Avoid the Restaurant Special

So you're seated at the restaurant of your choosing when the waiter approaches and asks if you'd like to hear the daily specials. Here's what you should know before plunking down for that filet mignon or other chef's special.

Photo by toyfoto.

Smart Money offers some cautionary advice for those prone to ordering items off the daily specials menu. Specifically, some restaurants reconfigure the day's surplus food into the next day's specials, so knowing how to distinguish a good special from a bad one can make the difference between an appetizing meal and one less worthy of its "special" title.

Haiku OS project gets ready to take the wraps off alpha release


Back in the early 1990s, BeOS appeared on the operating system scene promising a simple, uncluttered desktop designed to tackle digital media chores. Though Be is no longer "alive," its memory lives on thanks to a devoted community of supporters - like those behind Haiku.

At long last, the Haiku OS project is getting close to an initial alpha release. Even better, they're making nightly builds available on Haiku-Files.org so that anxious OS Evel Knievel types can get an early look at what's in store.

Can't believe this. BeOS was so incredibly fast - you could boot your machine to a working desktop in less than 10 seconds. I actually downloaded a pre-alpha VMware appliance of Haiku just a few weeks ago, you know, just to see how things are going, and I must admit I was seriously impressed.

Aspirin Not Recommended For Healthy People

Healthy people who take aspirin to prevent heart failure and heart attacks are putting themselves at risk, according to research conducted by British scientists.

Millions of people take aspirin daily to keep their arteries unclogged - but no proof exists that this actually works. In fact, there is now proof that Aspirin increases the risk of hospitalization due to internal bleeding. The risk is small. The study included 29,000 people between 50 and 75, out of which 3,000 were given a daily Aspirin, and another 3,000 a placebo. Out of 3,000 Aspirin-eaters, two percent (34 people) developed major internal bleeds, while 1,2 percent (20 people) did in the placebo group. The heart attack rate in the two groups was the same.

The doctors involved in the study do not recommend people that have suffered heart attacks stop eating Aspirin, as it can still be beneficial if you are susceptible to the disease.

New Yelp App Has Hidden Augmented Reality Mode

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Woah! Wicked... I can confirm this works pretty well in my Montréal neighbourhood. I always liked Yelp and their iPhone app, but this new version is really slick (and free!). To activate the hidden AR mode (dubbed "Monocle"), just launch the app and shake your phone three times. Then simply move your phone around until restaurant and club reviews start popping up on screen.