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April 13, 2006

Google Calendar launches; Webby Award nominees announced; Argentina on two steaks a day

Google Calendar screenshot
Google Calendar, a free Web app, launched today -- it's beta, of course. Here's the ZDNet story.

Fodder for new bookmarks: The 10th Annual Webby Awards nominees are out, in an amazing number of categories. The best approach may be to treat the list as a way to check out sites new to you.

Otherwise you might start to wonder how The Smoking Gun from Court TV News is nominated in the Humor category, and what's so thrilling about the OralB Pulsar site. There's even an Insurance category, and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island is a nominee.

If there was any doubt that the Web is no longer a funky, fun thing, the corporatization of the Webby Awards smacks you in the face with this. For a little fun, you have to turn to Boneless Pig Farmers Association Of America in the Weird category.

AP
Meerkats play with Easter eggs filled with meal worms at the London Zoo.

Argentina On Two Steaks A Day: A good read about eating in a country where beef rules and cows roam free, the ice cream is excellent, the bread and coffee are awful, and restaurants begin to open at 10 p.m. for the convenience of families with small children. (Adults eat later.) Excerpts:

There are no factory feedlots in Argentina; the animals still eat pampas grass their whole lives, in open pasture, and not the chicken droppings and feathers mixed with corn that pass for animal feed in the United States. Since this is the way of life a cow was designed for, it is not necessary to pump the animal full of antibiotics. The meat is leaner, healthier and more flavorful than that of corn-fed cattle. It has fewer calories, contains less cholesterol, and tastes less mushy and waterlogged than American meat. And the cows spend their lives out grazing in the field, not locked into some small pen. You can taste the joy.

and

You might think that fruits and vegetables would get short shrift in this animal paradise, but they are actually delicious. Tomatoes, for example, have odor, flavor, and are colored red, an intriguing novelty. You can get excellent salads in any restaurant, although just like with the steaks, you get only what you ask for. Celery salad is a bowl of celery, with nothing else; carrot salad is a bowl of shredded carrots.

Posted by Sheila Lennon at 9:17 AM | Permalink