Untold Stories about the McRib Sandwich

Chances are you've either had a McRib Sandwich or you at least know what it is. This sandwich has gained a cult following all to itself over the last thirty years. McDonald's, the marketing and food powerhouse that it is, introduced the sandwich back in 1981 to a rave audience. However, the sandwich disappeared in 1985. It wasn't until the mid-90's that this beloved sandwich made a return to McDonald's restaurants, but this time there was a catch: it was only available for a limited time. So, what's the deal with this sandwich? Well, here's more of the story about the McDonald's sandwich that caused a unique following, and also info that may make you think twice about having it.

The McRib Sandwich was created as an alternate food item to help the overburdened poultry industry. Yes, that's correct. In 1979, the Chicken McNugget was introduced, and demand was more than anticipated. In fact, demand for the McNugget was so intense that the American poultry market had too much strain, so McDonald's came up with a different food item other than beef and chicken. What naturally would that be? Pork!

After a trip to South Carolina, McDonald's executive chef was inspired by the southern bbq of the area. He chose to model the new sandwich to look like pork ribs. But of course, there can't be bones in a sandwich, much less a fast food sandwich. So, McDonald's created the shape of the McRib using what is called "restructured meat technology". This technology takes heart, tripe, and scalded stomach and mixes it with salt and water to extract proteins from the muscles. These proteins allow the meat to be molded into any shape that is desired. In the case of this sandwich, the desired shape was a fake slab of ribs. Interestingly enough, the process from pork to frozen McRib sandwich (yes, they are flash-frozen at the plant and transported to the restaurant) takes about 45 minutes.

If that isn't enough to make you think twice about the sandwich, think about what's in it. Did you know that there are 70 ingredients in the sandwich, 35 of which are in the bun alone? Two of the most interesting/alarming ingredients are azodicarbonamide and ammonium sulfate.If you're not familiar with these, don't be surprised. But I bet you know what else they're used in. Ammonium sulfate's most common use is in soil fertilizer. Azodicarbonamide is a flour-bleaching agent that's also used in yoga mats. And if that doesn't change your mind, just think of the nutritional information: 500 calories, 26 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbs, and 980 milligrams of sodium.

So, what's the big deal with the sandwich? It's a piece of marketing genius. Ever since the McRib came back in a limited supply in the mid-90's, random McDonald's across the US have periodically offered the sandwich for a limited time. This caused an uproar from people who wanted it. It has spawned a website to track where you can find the sandwich at any given time. By not having the sandwich available at all times, demand for the sandwich is always high, which keeps the cult of the McRib going.

If you are still a fan of the McRib, then have fun! Maybe it's coming to a McDonald's near you soon.Keep in mind that the franchise owner can order the McRib almost anytime, so keep checking to see when they will offer the sandwich again.

Bracket Odds

Now that March Madness is nearly over, people all across the country are either hopeful about their brackets or have already thrown in the towel. For those of you (like myself) whose brackets are completely rubbish after the multitude of upsets this year, fear not. You're not alone. To make you feel better, here are some stats on how unlikely it is you will get a perfect bracket.

First you have to figure out how to find out what the odds are of getting a perfect bracket. The way you have to look at it is if you have a 4 team bracket (Team A vs. Team B, Team C vs. Team D), then you will have two winners and two losers. That means that on each side, you have two possible outcomes: Team A could win or Team B could win, and Team C could win or Team D could win. So, two possibilities on the left, and two possibilities on the right, which you multiply together for a total of 4 possible ways the final matchup could be. Then when you have the winner of both sides, you again have a possibility of two scenarios: the winner of the left will win, or the winner of the right will win. So you multiply the 4 possibilities from the left and right brackets by the 2 possibilities in the final matchup, which leaves you with 8. What does that mean? It means that if you have a 4 team bracket, you have a 1 in 8 chance of picking the winner. The shorter way of figuring it out if that of the 4 teams, 3 will fail. Each failure has 2 possibilities of who will win, so you multiply 2 three times, or 2 x 2 x 2, which still equals 8.

So how does this work with a bracket containing 64 teams? In the same way. Out of 64 teams, 63 will lose. Each matchup has 2 possibilities, so you mutiply 2 times itself 63 times, one time for each loser. Do you have any idea how big of a number 2 times itself 63 times is? 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, or what mathematicians call 9.2 quin-trillion. So, essentially, you have a 1 in 9.2 quin-trillion chance of filling out a perfect bracket. That's just the sheer math of it. If you know some about basketball, you have shave off a bit of that, but your odds still aren't that good. So, knowing how unlikely it is to fill out a perfect bracket, are you curious about the sheer facts about this huge number?

1. If everyone on the planet each randomly filled out a bracket, the odds would be 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) to 1 of anyone having a perfect bracket.
2. If 1 bracket per second were filled out, it would take 292,000,000,000,000 (292 trillion) years to fill out all possible brackets.
3. If everyone on the planet filled out a bracket per second, it would take 43 years to fill out every possible bracket.
4. If all possible brackets were stacked on top of each other on regular paper, it would reach from the earth to the moon and back 1.1 million times.
5. If you weighed all possible brackets that are on regular paper, they would weigh approximately 90,000 times heavier than every person on earth combined. 

Also, keep in mind that if you had a 90% chance of picking the correct games, your odds of filling the rest out correct would be 763 to 1. 

So if you're feeling low because your brackets have failed, don't worry. You're definitely in good company with the other 9.2 quin-trillion of chances!

Nintendo's Long, Strange History

Nintendo is a huge company that came to the forefront of the world in the 1980's with the still popular Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES reinvented the failed and disastrous video game industry collapse of the early 1980's. Most people think of this as the company that began with the NES, then went on to create other popular consoles such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the Game Boy, the Nintendo 64 (N64), the Game Boy Advance (GBA), the Gamecube, the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo Wii, the Nintendo DSi, the Nintendo 3DS, and most recently the Nintendo Wii U. They are known for their memorable character franchises such as Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, and Kirby. But when did this company start? Did they always do video games and video game consoles?



Amazingly, the Nintendo company has been around for a very long time. A topic for another day is the infamous video game industry collapse of the early 1980's. After this, it was nearly impossible for any kind of video game console to be sold in America. That is, until 1985. A superb marketing campaign by the Nintendo company took their Family Computer (or Famicom) and introduced it in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System, which supposedly would let you do more than just play video games on it (there's even a port underneath for "future use" but was it ever needed?). But what happened before 1985?

Nintendo actually got into the video game industry in 1974 when they purchased the rights to distribute Magnavox's Odyssey video game console. In 1975, they released their first video game called EVR Race. In 1977, they began making hardware with a console simply called Color TV Game, which were four different plug and play consoles (these basically each had variations of the same game). Their first big success came when they released Donkey Kong in 1981. This was hugely popular, but they were able to cash in on it because it was licensed to port in with other consoles at the time: Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision.

 

Here's the really interesting part of Nintendo: they existed before 1974! What did they do? They first started out as a playing card company. They handmade playing cards, and the demand made the company grow. The company still makes playing cards in their native Japan, and even sponsors a bridge tournament called the Nintendo Cup.

After a trip to America, the head of Nintendo decided that playing cards wasn't the best venture for the company. He changed the name from Nintendo Playing Card Co. to just Nintendo Co. They then went into a number of odd things such as a taxi cab company, a TV network, selling instant rice, and even a love hotel chain. All of these things eventually failed, and the company tried their hand at making toys such as the Ultra Hand, the Ultra Machine, and the Love Tester. They tried a series of laser gun shooting games, and even set up in abandoned bowling alleys laser clay pigeon shooting games. These had to be shutdown because of the high costs. During this time, they created the popular Wild Gunman arcade game, made famous in Back to the Future II. But because of the lessons learned by these latest ventures, they turned themselves into the video game company now legendary.

So, I'm sure you're thinking "that's all nice but when did the company start?" Well, let's go backwards. They introduced the NES to North America in 1985. They switched over to video games entirely in 1974. Their stocks were at all-time lows after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. They tried their hand at the odd ventures mentioned above between 1963-1968. The head of Nintendo renamed the company in 1963. They changed their playing card types in 1956. And before that they made playing cards... since 1889. That's right: Nintendo has been around since 1889.

Bet you never knew they were that old!

What Are the Largest Bills in American Money?

We all know about the US dollar bill denominations up to the Benjamin Franklin $100 bill. But what about higher denominations? Were there real American dollar bills printed with higher amounts? Run away with expendablenlightenment for a little while into the land of the big American bills of the past.

Many dollar bills have had different lives. They have come in a large bill format and a small bill format (the small bill format is what we have today). They have also changed the faces on the fronts from time to time, even for the lower denominations we use today. But for the large denominations listed below, the faces on them are the ones most recently published.

$500 bill



The $500 bill had President William McKinley on the front.

$1,000 bill



The $1,000 bill had President Grover Cleveland on the front.

$5,000 bill



The $5,000 bill had President James Madison on the front.

$10,000 bill



The $10,000 bill had Salmon P. Chase on the front.

$100,000 bill



The $100,000 bill had President Woodrow Wilson on the front. This bill, the highest denomination ever produced by the US, was not released to the public. It was released by the Treasurer to Federal Reserve Banks. It was only used as official transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. Unlike the other bills, this one was only printed from December 18, 1934, to January 9, 1935.

These large bills were last printed in 1945, and were taken out of circulation in 1969, though most of the higher denomination bills had mostly disappeared by then. These high bills were mostly used by banks and the government, though some private citizens used them.

Some of these high bills can still be seen today, although they are becoming increasingly rare. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury still consider the bills to be at face value, but collectors will pay much higher prices to obtain a piece of history.

In 2009, there was a search to try to find the remaining numbers of the bills in existence. They found this:
Of the $1,000 bill, there were 165,372 known to exist.
Of the $5,000 bill, there were 342 known to exist.
Of the $10,000 bill, there were 336 known to exist.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened to the public on July 1, 1940. Its opening had much pomp and circumstance associated with it. Great exaltation came with its opening, and immediately it became a household name in the area. But it didn't become known so quickly for what it did, or how beautiful it was, or how practical it was. No, it became known for something that bridges aren't supposed to do: wobble. Because of its unique trait, the bright became known as "Galloping Gertie".

If you've ever really looked at a lot of bridges, have you noticed how frail they appear to be? Buildings are large structures that weight a lot, but they have fully formed walls; they aren't just metal beams with open walls. Most bridges appear to be open beams all over the place. So why is that? Well, let's just say that if the Tacoma Narrows Bridge had been built that way, then it'd probably still be standing today.

You see, bridges have to be built with so many open spaces in them to allow wind to move through them. Buildings don't have that, but they are built to "sway" with the wind. The enormous Burj Khalifa in Dubai (over 2700 feet tall!) will sway six feet at the top with the wind. Buildings have to be strong, yet flexible. Bridges shouldn't move so much because you're driving at a decent rate of speed over them, so instead of swaying as much as buildings, the bridge has to let the wind pass through them.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was built too solidly, not allowing the wind to pass through it. As a result, the driving deck literally would wobble with the wind. It was a common attraction in the area. However, the longer it was there, the more violent the wobbling became.

On November 7 of that same year, the winds were blowing in at over 40 mph. The wobbling was the most violent it had ever been. The bridge was cleared, and in front of everyone, the bridge ended up shaking itself apart. The famous footage of the collapse was filmed by Barney Elliot on a 16mm movie camera. His film, part of which is in this video, is in the National Film Archive.



Four months after it was opened, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed because of a simple design flaw. The planned rebuilding of the bridge was halted because of the buildup to and the entry of the US involvement in World War II. The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge just goes to show that simple math can go a long way in such a large structure.

Simple Solutions - Aircraft Carriers

The aircraft carrier has been around since World War I. But there was a fundamental flaw in the designs, a flaw that was sometimes contributing the deaths of the airplane (and later jet) pilots.

To understand the flaw, you have to see how the system was supposed to work back then. You have your airplanes on the flight desk preparing to take off. But a squadron of other planes are coming in to land. So you have to wait for them to land first. When they land, there are a series of cables that stretch across the flight deck to grab the plane and stop it. There's only one runway on the flight deck, so what if a plane misses the cables?

USS Langley with single straight deck

That was the problem. The planes that were waiting to take off had to wait on the same runway that was letting planes land on it. If a landing plane missed the cables, then it would run head-on into the waiting planes.

After some time, it was decided to put up a net to catch the planes that missed the cables. That way, they could stop the runaway planes in time. The problem was that the planes sometimes missed the net and still crashed anyway.

Meanwhile, World War II came and went. If you want to look at the irony, you can see it plain as day. On one hand, we had planes landing and taking off from the same flight deck which meant a high risk of crashes and potential deaths. On the other hand, in the same amount of time, scientists were able to discover how to split the atom and even the beginnings of space exploration. We just couldn't figure out how to make the aircraft carrier safer.

It wasn't until the early 1950's when the idea finally was struck: have two runways! The most common versions of this can be seen on the Nimitz class carriers. The new feature has one runway for takeoffs which is straight, and then next to it is an angled runway that is 9 degrees off straight for landings. This allows takeoffs and landings to occur at the same time, so faster turnarounds in takeoff/landing. This also allows for safer landings. If a landing plane misses all the cables, then he simply revs the engines and takes back up, circling to land again.

USS Forestal with angled flight deck, launched in 1954

Yes, it took many years to come up with such a simple feature, but it has been an important safety feature of the aircraft carrier ever since.

The Incredible Lorre Coincidence

For four months in late 1977 to early 1978, a duo of men terrorized the Los Angeles community by kidnapping and killing your women from the age of 12-28. These two men were known as what the papers called them: "The Hillside Strangler". The men were called this because at the time, it wasn't known that the Strangler was actually two men. The term 'hillside' was used because this was the hills above Los Angeles where they found their victims.

This is a morbid, tragic event in Los Angeles history. There were two pieces of good news that come from this: one is the regular good news, and the other is the unique, which is why this story has made it into the expendablenlightenment lore.

For the first piece of good news. Both men (Angelo Buono Jr. and Kenneth Biancha) were both captured. Buono was first captured, and Biacha escaped to Washington state before he was captured. Biancha tried an insanity plea, but it was obvious he was faking, so he plead guilty and testified against Buono. They both received life sentences.

Now for the second piece of good news, this is one of those pieces of information that your friends might find interesting. Did you know that one woman escaped from the Hillside Strangler? Her name was Catherine Lorre. In 1977, the two men picked her up. She needed a ride, they wanted to kill her. In the car, they talked and they found out who she was. Her father was a really famous actor who'd died in 1964. They were such huge fans of the actor, that they decided to let her go out of respect for the actor they loved to watch. She had no idea who they were until months later when it was revealed that the men had been arrested.

Who was the actor? You might heave guessed. It was none other than screen legend Peter Lorre. Peter Lorre was born in a town in Austria-Hungary (the town is now located in Slovakia) and starred in German movies before coming to the US to perform in movies. At first, he learned his English lines phonetically, having to be told what the lines were and memorizing the sound. Most known for his smooth, accented voice and his unmistakable eyes, Peter Lorre was an icon of the screen for many years before dying of a heart attack in 1964. His most famous roles were in films such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Arsenic and Old Lace, and the German movie M.

Iconic image from the film M.
Peter Lorre sees himself.

If you are not familiar with Peter Lorre's career and filmography, then here's your coincidence moment of this posting. Before Lorre began appearing in English movies, he made the movie M in 1931, a German masterpiece of cinema. The movie is about a child serial killer that the police can't capture, so they enlist other criminals to help them. Peter Lorre played the serial killer. Perhaps Buono and Biancha appreciated Lorre for this performance? Or maybe it was one of the others? Either way, Catherine Lorre is lucky to be alive, thanks to the work her father did.