Frito Lay has been on a roll recently with its new flavor combinations, from Spicy Sweet to the Cool Ranch/Habanero combo bags.  But, this new flavor with an online game tie in ( www.doritosthequest.com/) were pretty disgusting to both my co-worker and myself.  Now these are advertised with the tag line “guessing the flavor is just the beginning…”  We’ll it didn’t take long for me to figure that out. (Nacho Cheese Doritos pictured to the right)

As soon as I opened the bag I picked up the “hint” of lime, in fact it was so overpowering I was afraid to try these things.  But, I moved on and grabbed a full size chip and looked it over.  Again, I doubted myself after seeing one side of the chip being coated in green powder that was obviously the lime flavoring. So I finally bit into one, the lime flavor was extremely over-powering and tangy.  The acid was incredible and my tongue is still feeling the effects 2 hours later.  An interesting note here is that these chips have MSG (wiki link) in them.

I’ll certainly think twice in the future about trying any of these experimental variations from Doritos and stick with the identifiable flavors.

Update: Apparently these are Mountain Dew flavored. Did a little searching online and started the quest at http://doritosthequest.com/.

10 Fastest Growing Real Estate Markets – Think you still can’t make a buck in the housing “slump,” think again, CNN gives us 10 hot real restate markets.

The Six Scariest Real Estate Markets – Since we had the 10 fastest markets, lets look at the scariest ones thanks to MSNBC.

World’s Most Controversial Destinations – Concierge.com takes a look at 14 of the World’s most controversial vacation destinations, from China to Iran and Syria to Zimbabwe.

Victorian Porn – The Telegraph gives us an interesting look at one of photography’s oldest uses, porn. (NSFW)

Anteaters Wearing Sweaters – Can’t resist posting this because it is hilarious.

This weeks Friday Factoids are focusing on the history of lotteries and some interesting facts about some winners.

• Lotteries can trace their roots back to the Han Dynasty sometime between 205 and 187 B.C. where Keno got its origins.  Proceeds from Chinese lotteries like this went to finance the Great Wall.
• The first appearance of a lottery like we see today, tickets being sold and cash being the reward, were in the mid-15th century in France, Belgium, and Holland who used the proceeds to increase fortification for local towns against attackers.
• As was discussed in an earlier Friday Factoids, you have a better chance of being struck and killed by lightening than you do of winning the lottery.  Powerball: 1 in 80,089,128 Mega Millions: 1 in 76,275,360
• In order to fund the American Revolution, may towns ran lotteries to raise money for troops and supplies.
• Top Prizes:
• $390m – Mega Millions on 6 March 2007 (World’s largest jackpot)
• $365m – Powerball on 18 February 2006
• €180m – EuroMillions on 3 February 2006
• Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, and Wyoming have no state run lotteries at all.
• Looks like miracles do come true for some, a Katrina victim who lost two houses claimed a $97m winning Powerball ticket becoming Louisiana’s largest lottery winner.

Colossal Castle or Humble Home? Same Price – Your Choice – Divine Caroline discusses what half or a million dollars will get you in some major US cities versus the rest of the world, I think I’ll move to France now.

Amazing pictures: The lightning storm that engulfed an erupting volcano – Great pictures from the Daily Mail of the volcano that is erupting in southern Chile.

How China gets its troops to stand to attention – Another nice article from the Daily Mail about how China gets its troops to stand at attention, by using pins and crosses.

The bone detective – Finally, we learn that more women are becoming forensic anthropologists than men, interesting shift.

Can We Return Man to the Moon? – Time takes a look at what we’ll need to do as a nation to get man back on the moon, including an interview with Gene Cernan and Alan Bean.

This can’t wait to be featured in a Monday Maniacs segment, so take a look at this sicko (INTERPOL and BBC) wanted for sexually abusing boys between six and ten years old.

Lessons In Electric Circuits – Need to learn something about electronics, check out this free course which covers just about everything.

This weeks Friday Factoids focuses on the top ten deadliest drugs according to an article in the Archives of Internal Medicine called “Serious Adverse Drug Events Reported to the Food and Drug Administration”.  Drugs are listed next to their placement and the number of deaths between 1998 and 2005 is listed in parenthesis with the drugs common use underneath.

10. Etanercept (1,034)

Used as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, I think I’m safe on this.

9. Risperidone (1,093)

Marketed in the US as Risperdal, this drug is commonly used as a treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, again I’m safe for now.

8. Interferon beta (1,178)

The entire Interferon family of drugs is used to treat multiple sclerosis, luckily I don’t personally know any one with this disease as it can be quite devastating.

7. Infliximab (1,228)

Infliximab is used to treat autoimmune disorders as well as psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis.  Man, I hope I don’t get arthritis, that’s two drugs on the list.

6. Methadone (1,258)

Methadone is most commonly used to treat addiction to opiates such as heroin.  The death rate for overdoses is actually higher than what’s stated here which figures on proper use of the medication.  It seems every few days you hear about a kid who got into their parents’ methadone and overdoses, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen to me.

5. Acetaminophen (1,393)

Acetaminophen is the main ingredient in many over the counter pain and cold medications.  Damn it, now I can’t even take Tylenol or Excedrin for my headaches anymore.

4. Morphine (1,616)

Morphine is one of the most commonly used opioid based pain killers used today.  Its also one of the most addictive, which explains the high death count.  Sorry, I’ll take my pain killer in the bar, thanks.

3. Clozapine (3,277)

Clozapine is an antipsychotic, used to treat schizophrenia and to reduce suicidal behavior.  Again, luckily I’m not that crazy that I need these drugs.

2. Fentanyl (3,545)

Fentanyl is another opioid based pain killer which is 80 times as strong as morphine, and probably 80 times as addictive.  With the increased strength comes the increased risk of overdose.

1. Oxycodone (5,548)

Commonly marketed as Oxycotin, this is a powerful opioid based pain killer.  Oxycotin carries a very high rate of dependency and is a popular street drug, mostly crushed up and snorted or cooked like heroin and injected.  This is some wicked stuff, again, just give me a beer.

Source

Version 2.5 adds quite a few new features, hopefully we can use the new image gallery features.  But most of it is under the hood fixes.  We’ll see and I’ll keep you updated.

This week’s Monday Maniacs features John Wayne Gacy (aka Pogo the Clown and The Killer Clown).  Between 1972 and 1978 Gacy raped and murdered 33 young men and boys, of those nine victims remain unidentified.  Stay tuned after the article, page 2 contains the A&E Biography on John Wayne Gacy.

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was born on March 7, 1942 to father John Wayne Gacy and mother Marion Elaine Robinson.  He was raised in a middle-class Chicago suburb where he would routinely take jobs after school.  His father was abusive towards him and an alcoholic.  During childhood, Gacy’s father would hit him and call him a "sissy."

During Gacy’s senior year of high school he attended four separate schools and eventually dropped out.  He would go to spend some time in Las Vegas working odd-jobs, but was never happy there.  Gacy worked for three months to save enough money for a ticket home where his mother and sisters gladly took him back.

In 1964, Gacy was married to Marlynn Myers.  He would go on to work as a manager at a KFC owned by his father-in-law.  He worked hard to learn everything he could from his father-in-law in the hopes that he could one day take over the chain of restaurants that his wife’s family owned.

His dream of running the chain of restaurants would come to an end in 1968 when Gacy was convicted of child molestation.  Gacy had committed sodomy with a boy named Mark Miller.  The judge in his case would sentence him to 10 years, the maximum for this crime, in prison.  However, Gacy would be out in 18 months due to his exemplary behavior.

When Gacy got out of prison, his wife’s family had turned their backs on him and his relationship with his wife started to go down hill.  His wife began finding magazines with naked boys and men in their house.  By March of 1976 she had had enough and filed for divorce.  Gacy would begin killing a month later.

As boys continued to disappear around Gacy’s neighborhood, people started to get suspicious of Gacy.  When Robert Piest disappeared from outside the pharmacy he worked at while his mother waited for him, the police finally had reason to suspect Gacy.  Piest had told his mother that he would be right back because a contractor had offered him a job.  When police found out who the contractor was they went to talk with Gacy.

After the meeting between police and Gacy, something just didn’t sit right with the detectives.  After discovering that he had previously done time for child molestation and sodomy, the police obtained a search warrant and returned to his house.

When police entered Gacy’s house on December 13, 1978 they found some interesting items.  Some of the items included: marijuana and rolling papers, stained sections of rug, handcuffs, police badges, a dildo, and a hypodermic needle among other things.  The real shock for police, however, would come when they started to investigate his crawl space.

On their first search, they didn’t notice anything out of place besides a rancid odor (chocked up to being sewage) and the fact that the floor was covered in lime.  Gacy was booked on possession of marijuana charges, while police tested the evidence.  Before the second search, police had done some tests on the items found in his house.  They found that one of the rings in Gacy’s possession had belonged to a missing boy.

Gacy would eventually admit that he had killed someone, in self-defense.  With a second search warrant in hand, police would head back to Gacy’s house to further inspect the crawl space.  They would soon discover a mound of dirt, once dug up they discovered the remains of a body.

Gacy eventually confessed that he had killed at least 30 people and buried them under his house to hide the evidence.  The police continued to dig under Gacy’s house.  They had brought in a professional house mover to determine if they could life the house and move it so they would have more space to work.  That was quickly ruled out as the pneumatic jacks needed would most likely disturb evidence and the beams wouldn’t fit between the houses.

In total, the police removed 27 bodies from the crawl space.  Police were still digging up remains well into February.  As search members dug, the holes would fill in with mud and before long the entire crawl space was nothing but a mud pit.  Police conducted the dig much like an archeological dig, roping it off into quadrants and recreating them in the back yard where they could sift through the dirt for any evidence and bones.

Gacy’s trial would begin on February 6, 1980.  The trial would last almost the entire month of February.  Gacy’s defense attorneys had tried to argue that he had a mental disease and should be a ward of the state.  However, when the jury finally went to deliberate on March 13, 1980, it would only take then two hours to return a verdict.

John Wayne Gacy Jr. was executed on May 10, 1994 by lethal injection.  However, his death would not be the end.  Shortly after being declared dead, his brain was removed at autopsy for private study and is currently in the possession of Dr. Helen Morrison.

Gacy’s house would eventually be torn down and the land allowed to grow over in an effort to keep from reminding people of its horrific past.

The Victims

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