john eden

male pale and stale
"brainstorming" is a shit exercise anyway - people chuck out a load of ideas someone writes them down on a flip chart and then the paper gets taken away and is never seen again.
 

swears

preppy-kei
Talking of strokes of marketing genius, I was delighted to see the words EAT MORE POTATOES on a bag of spuds I bought today. Er, OK then!

I'd like to see this extended; DRINK MORE BOOZE on cans of beer and SMOKE MORE FAGS on cigarette boxes...

Hahaha, awesome.

Were you wearing some special sunglasses that you found in a box behind a run-down church when you bought these spuds?
 

STN

sou'wester
I like it when cafes have menu sections headed things like 'On Toast' as though it's a piece in the collected essays of some philosopher.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Or "Why not try a piece of cake with your coffee?"

Why thank you, you have just blown my tiny mind with your leftfield suggestion.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I saw a good one in the local 'news'paper put out by Tower Hamlets borough council, advertising some arts and music workshop: "Are you aged between 13 and 19 and live or study in Tower Hamlets?"

Yes, I am live in Tower Hamlets! :D

Is that the work of the Cyprus Potato Marketing Board ("The Max Cliffords of Cypriot Root Vegetable Products") by any chance?

Sadly these were ordinary boring Anglo-Saxon potatoes that only a fascist would go out of his way to eat. I can't say the CPMB is really pulling out all the stops as I've never seen an advert for them that I can remember - but I did by some recently and they are the yummiest potatoes I've ever eaten. A lovely rich yellowy colour and they taste really buttery even before you've put any butter on them.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Snaisbury's isn't it?

I saw that, I thought this was potentially irresponsible nutritional advice. How do they know I haven't already consumed a near fatal quantity of potatoes?

Nah, this was Scummerfield.

People who like to promote the inalienable human right to smoke ourselves silly 24/7 like to point out that cannabis has a higher LD50 (the theoretical dose that kills half of subjects when ingested in one go) than potatoes - I think you could OD on spuds because they contain small amounts of cyanide.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
rereading this again. so classic. methinks a body of work encapsulating some of the greatest moments of lolcat culture.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Rolcats are brilliant.

I always chuckle when I hear announcements on the tube introduced as "an update from the control room at Manor House (or wherever)" - makes it sound like a big room with a load of sixties computers with reel-to-reel tape things and blinking lights and men in big glasses, when it's clearly just a broom cupboard with a microphone in.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
People who like to promote the inalienable human right to smoke ourselves silly 24/7 like to point out that cannabis has a higher LD50 (the theoretical dose that kills half of subjects when ingested in one go) than potatoes - I think you could OD on spuds because they contain small amounts of cyanide
Surely that should be lower... or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

"I always chuckle when I hear announcements on the tube introduced as "an update from the control room at Manor House (or wherever)" - makes it sound like a big room with a load of sixties computers with reel-to-reel tape things and blinking lights and men in big glasses, when it's clearly just a broom cupboard with a microphone in."
Well that's what it's like in The Taking of Pelham and I can only assume that that's still our best guide to the "workings" of an underground railway system such as the tube.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Surely that should be lower... or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

The more of something you need to kill yourself, the less harmful it is (in that very basic sense, at least). So potatoes having a lower LD50 than cannabis means it would be easier to OD on them; they are, in a sense, 'more poisonous'.
 
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nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
The more of something you need to kill yourself, the less harmful it is (in that very basic sense, at least). So potatoes having a lower LD50 than cannabis means it would be easier to OD on them; they are, in a sense, 'more poisonous'.

Is the LD50 the threshold for cyanide tolerance in humans/animals then? Probably some kind of ratio or very small number in a potato.

We get trace amounts all the time. Apparently, you can build up your resistance to some poisons by slowly dosing higher and higher. Not sure if cyanide is one of them, though...heavy metals (like thallium) I think don't work that way.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
The name of the chemical 'Sodium Laureth Sulphate' (the main ingredient after water in most shower gels), which sounds like it's really just plain Sodium Sulphate but insists on using its middle name in that slightly precious "I've got three names you know, and I'd be most obliged if you used them" celebrity kind of way. Like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alexander Graham Bell.

Plus you can so easily imagine 'Laureth' being some utterly obnoxious spoiled blonde Valley Girl from an early '90s teen comedy. With a name based on shampoo. It's just too perfect.
 
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swears

preppy-kei
My little brother's mate who offered me some cashews with the line "Hey man, you like peanuts? Then check this shit out."
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
The name of the chemical 'Sodium Laureth Sulphate' (the main ingredient after water in most shower gels), which sounds like it's really just plain Sodium Sulphate but insists on using its middle name in that slightly precious "I've got three names you know, and I'd be most obliged if you used them" celebrity kind of way. Like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alexander Graham Bell.

Plus you can so easily imagine 'Laureth' being some utterly obnoxious spoiled blonde Valley Girl from an early '90s teen comedy. With a name based on shampoo. It's just too perfect.

This is because in product manufacturing, many companies still use the old names rather than the IUPAC names. Should be "sodium lauryl ether sulfate" which sounds much closer to what the compound actually is.

Don't ask me why they insist on using the old system because doing so is very annoying, and forces us all to have to learn it. Complete with "ic" and "ous" distinctions and all that jazz.

No, it's not ferric sulfate, it's iron (III) sulfate you numbskulls.
 
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