Saturday, May 31, 2014

Mango 101: How To Cut A Mango


National Mango Board's Megan McKenna covers all your mango basics -- how to select a mango from the grocery store, cut it up and share it with your family and friends. Find other mango tips and recipes at http://www.mango.org.


Michael Chang vs. Ivan Lendl: 25 Years After French Open Battle | The New York Times



The New York Times  In 1989, few people thought a 17-year-old American named Michael Chang would beat the No. 1-ranked tennis player, Ivan Lendl, in the fourth round of the French Open.

Produced by: Vijai Singh and Erik Olsen

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Iron Maiden • Live At The Rainbow (1981)


Iron Maiden • Live at the Rainbow (1981)

Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden are captured live at London's Rainbow Theatre in 1980, playing tracks from their eponymously titled debut album. The gig was performed in the aftermath of controversy over the artwork for their second single 'Sanctuary', in which their crazed robotic mascot Eddie is seen to attack recently installed PM Maggie Thatcher with a knife.

01. The Ides Of March
02. Wrathchild
03. Killers
04. Remember Tomorrow
05. Transylvania
06. Phantom Of The Opera
07. Iron Maiden  
Paul Di'anno - Vocals
Steve Harris - Bass
Dave Murray - Guitar
Adrian Smith - Guitar
Clive Burr - Drums

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

"Slave To The Rhythm" by Michael Jackson | Produced by J-Roc & Timbaland


"Slave To The Rhythm" by Michael Jackson | Produced by J-Roc & Timbaland

She dances in these sheets at night
She dances to his needs
She dances 'til he feels just right
Until he falls asleep
She dances at the crack of dawn
And quickly cooks his food
She can't be late, can't take too long
The kids must get to school

[Chorus: x2]

She's a slave to the rhythm
She's a slave to the rhythm of
She's a slave to the rhythm
A slave to the rhythm of,
The rhythm of love, the rhythm of love

She dances for the man at work
Who works her overtime
She can't be rude as she says,
"I must be home tonight."
She dances to the kitchen stove
Dinner is served by nine
He says his food's an hour late
She must be outta her mind




[Chorus]

She works so hard, just to make her way
For a man who just don't appreciate
And though he takes her love in vain
Still she could not stop, couldn't break his chains
She danced the night that they fell out
She swore she'd dance no more
But then she did, he did not quit as she ran out the door

She danced through the night in fear of her life
She danced to a beat of her own
She let out a cry and swallowed her pride
She knew she was needed back home, home

[Chorus x5]

Monday, May 26, 2014

Dog That Was Chased Away by Heroic Cat Has Been Put Down


Dog That Was Chased Away by Heroic Cat Has Been Put Down

The Labrador-Chow mix, was euthanized after a video of the attack went viral — despite opposition from animal groups and online petitioners.
The infamous dog that attacked Jeremy Triantafilo; a four-year-old child, who was evidently saved by a heroic cat in a video that was seen by millions, has been put down by an animal control in Bakersfield, California.
Supporters of Scrappy -the aggressive dog, should be aware that he tried to attack staff members during his stay at the center.

Albeit the protest, thousands of people signed online petitions requesting that the dog, who was voluntarily surrendered to animal control, to not be euthanized — sadly their wishes were not answered.



Tara -the Heroic Cat, who launched herself against the dog in the video, threw-out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game last week.

Pet owners are responsible for their animals, it is your responsibility to prevent them from harming innocent human beings.

Cat Saves Little Boy From Vicious Attack By Neighbor's Dog



Loyal feline springs into action to avert dog attack and rescue a toddler in distress.


Tara the Heroic Cat

"Chicago" by Michael Jackson | Produced by J-Roc & Timbaland



"Chicago" by Michael Jackson | Produced by J-Roc & Timbaland

[Verse 1]

I met her on my way to Chicago
Where she was all alone
And so was I
So I asked her for her name

She smiled and looked at me
I was surprised to see
That a woman like that
Was really into me

[Chorus 1]

She said she didn’t have no man
Raised her kids the very best she can
(She was loving me)
She told me she was all alone
Said at home she didn’t have no phone
(She was wanting me)
She said just to give her a place
To spend the night was the goal she played
(She was loving me)
She lied to you, lied to me
Thought she was loving me, loving me
Yeah

[Verse 2]

I never would have thought she was living like that
Her words seemed so sincere
When I held her near
She would tell me how she feels

It felt so real to me
This girl, she had to be
An angel sent from heaven just for me



[Chorus 2]

She said she didn’t have no man
Raised her kids the very best she can
(She was loving me)
She told me she was all alone
Said at home she didn’t have no phone
(She was loving me)
She said just to give her a place
To spend the night was the goal she played
(She was loving me)
She lied to you, lied to me
Thought she was loving me, loving me
Yeah

She tried to live a double life
Loving me while she was still your wife
(She was wanting me)
She thought that loving me was cool
With you at work and the kids at school
(She was loving me)
She said that it would never end
Tried to keep me any way she can
(She was wanting me)
She lied to you, lied to me
Because she had a family, family
Yeah

Why...ooh no
Alright
Ohh
(I’m in love, love)

[Verse 3]

I didn’t know she was already spoken for
‘Cause I’m not that kind of man
Swear that I would’ve never looked her way
Now I feel so much shame
And all things have to change
You should know that I’m holding her blame

[Chorus 2 2x]

Friday, May 23, 2014

Viral Michael Jackson Performance — by Brett Nichols


A sensational junior named Brett Nichols performed at Pitman High School in Turlock, California and became an internet overnight sensation when his talent show performance of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" went viral.


Brett Nichols



Thursday, May 22, 2014

TED TALKS: David Epstein — Are Athletes Really Getting Better, Faster, Stronger?



TED   When you look at sporting achievements over the last decades, it seems like humans have gotten faster, better and stronger in nearly every way. Yet as David Epstein points out in this delightfully counter-intuitive talk, we might want to lay off the self-congratulation. Many factors are at play in shattering athletic records, and the development of our natural talents is just one of them.

TED TALKS: Andrew Solomon — Life's Worst Moments Makes Us Who We Are



TED  Writer Andrew Solomon has spent his career telling stories of the hardships of others. Now he turns inward, bringing us into a childhood of struggle, while also spinning tales of the courageous people he's met in the years since. In a moving, heartfelt and at times downright funny talk, Solomon gives a powerful call to action to forge meaning from our biggest struggles.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Peru — World's Greatest Civilization?




Fredrik Hiebert: Peruvian Gold

Fredrik Hiebert: Peruvian Gold


Marvel at centuries of dazzling craftsmanship in gold and silver with National Geographic Archaeology Fellow Fredrik Hiebert as he explores the history and treasures of Peru's rich pre-Inca heritage.
The National Geographic Live series brings thought-provoking presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, photographers, and performing artists right to you. Each presentation is filmed in front of a live audience at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. New clips air every Monday.










Mark Hamil's Resurrection From Star War's Luke Skywalker -to- Batman's Joker



Mark Hamill


A career in two acts. Act One: Hamill's immortal turn as Luke Skywalker, which led to steady work in geek-centric projects like TV's The Flash and seaQuest DSV and theWing Commander video game series.

 Act Two: One of the most heavily-employed voice actors in the last few decades of animation, including his defining role as the Joker in various Batman projects. —Darren Franich

—BREAKING NEWS—


Mark Hamill Retires From His Role as The Joker After 19 Years

Last year, actor Mark Hamill announced that the video game Batman: Arkham City would be his final performance as the voice of The Joker. The game finally went on sale this week, and it looks like Hamill’s sticking with his decision.

Writing on Twitter today, Hamill bid a fond farewell to the legendary character he’s been voicing for nearly 20 years.In creating the voice of the Clown Prince of Crime on Batman: The Animated Series and a succession of other shows, games, animated films and even roller-coasters, Hamill defined the character for at least two generations of fans in the same way that his co-star Kevin Conroy defined Batman. Hamill performed the role longer and better than anyone else, and it’s his version that I hear in my mind whenever I read The Joker in comics books.
Hamill, the star of Corvette Summer and a fairly obscure space fantasy series called Star Wars, wasn’t actually the producers’ first choice to play The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. The role was originally given to Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue star Tim Curry, who recorded several episodes.

According to producer Bruce Timm, Curry was unable to perform the voice as needed on account of his “violently coughing between takes. Hamill, meanwhile, was brought in to provide the voice of gangster Ferris Boyle in the Mr. Freeze episode “Heart of Ice.” When Curry finally dropped out, Hamill was offered the role of The Joker, arguably the most prominent and important part on the show aside from Batman himself.

Obviously, Hamill did a truly incredible job with The Joker, making the character his in a way only the best voice actors can. His nuanced performance — which included 19 episodes of Batman: The Animated Series plus spin-off movies, video games, and related shows like Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League — went far beyond previous animated versions and surpassed even the live-action portrayals of The Joker by the legendary actors Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson. Seemingly influenced by Frank Gorshin’s role as the Riddler on the 1960s Batman television series and feature film, Hamill’s Joker danced seamlessly between manic laughter and sinister, homicidal menace — sometimes even in the span of a single sentence.

Credit is certainly due to the writers and producers of the various Batman shows for embracing the humor in which The Joker was rooted and twisting it into something genuinely scary when necessary, but it’s Hamill who sold those stories to the audience with a note-perfect portrayal every single time. 

He brought a sense of menace and unpredictability to the part even in humorous episodes like “Joker’s Favor,” in which The Joker hilariously bypasses the witness protection program by tracking an innocent man to Florida and threatening his family with death simply to get the poor guy to open a door all the way back Gotham City so that Harley Quinn can wheel a giant cake through it. 

By contrast, in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Hamill’s villain was as a force of evil so terrifying that the film — which was part of a franchise already noted for its sophistication, darkness and appeal to older viewers — had to be toned down before it was released.

You can watch “Joker’s Favor” on DC Beyond, and the video below compiles some of Hamill’s work from the animated feature Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which beautifully demonstrated the range and complexity Hamill brought to the role.

Mark Hamill owned the role of The Joker, and as sad as I am to see him leave it, I feel even worse for the person who gets picked next. Between Hamill and the late Academy Award-winning Heath Ledger, whose performance in The Dark Knight had to have been influenced by Hamill’s definitive take, the next guy is looking at some pretty big shoes to fill.

But is Arkham City really the end? After all, at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, Hamill told an audience of fans that he’s always wanted to record an audiobook version of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke, the graphic novel that, like Hamill’s own work, defined the character for generations. Judging by the deafening cheers with which that suggestion was met, I’m pretty sure it would be a hit. But even if that never happens, Mark Hamill’s 19-year contribution to the world of Batman is more than enough to be proud of.

Analog -to- Digital: Scott Adams — Dilbert's Switch To Graphic Tablet



From Analog to Digital Dilbert's Scott Adams With The Cintiq Companion


Scott Adams, creator of the renowned comic strip, Dilbert, talks candidly about how moving from an analog to digital workflow added years to his drawing career. Scott began using a Cintiq interactive pen display in 2005 and has not looked back since. He cites many reasons for making the switch including the ability to work much faster and in a more comfortable fashion.



Additionally, Scott finds that not having to worry about art supplies is quite the liberating experience. And speaking of a liberating experience, Scott speaks to Wacom's recent introduction of the Cintiq Companion and how its mobile capabilities are allowing him to create while traveling.



Scott Adams, Drawing the Line

For most of his career, nationally syndicated cartoonist Scott Adams has needed just two hours to produce a three-panel episode of "Dilbert," his celebrated comic strip satirizing cubicle life and misguided management. Those two hours take him from initial pencil sketch to the final inking of such beloved miscreants as Dogbert, the evil management consultant, who emerges from the pen in "one unbroken smooth line" that extends from his nose to his tail, Adams said.

But one morning last November, working in his home office in Dublin, Calif., Adams, 47, found that smooth line nearly impossible to execute.

"My pinky started moving again," he said. "Specifically, my pinky flexes. It goes stiff; it goes straight out."

That was a cue that his focal dystonia was flaring up to threaten his career once again. Adams was diagnosed with the condition -- a neurological movement disorder, marked by involuntary muscle spasms--back in 1992, around the time he launched "Dilbert." The problem affects his right hand -- the one he uses to draw.

"I would look at [my fingers] and tell them to do one thing, and they would do jagged things instead," Adams recalled. "I'd have full muscle control for everything -- except putting a pen to a piece of paper."

The first time around, he'd foiled the condition by drawing left-handed. Meantime, he was doing a conditioning exercise he devised: During the meetings that filled his old day job, he'd hold down a pen tip to paper until he felt a twinge, then pick it up quickly and rest his hand before a spasm would set in. He did this repeatedly, extending his pen-gripping time bit by bit. Eventually, he said, the problem "just went away."

But it was an arduous process he wasn't eager to repeat. "I couldn't go through another year like that," he said.

This time Adams approached the problem like the computer nerd he says he is, and found an answer online. The fact that his comics have continued uninterrupted since he began using a new drawing tool in January speaks to his success. Only his very closest followers may have noticed subtle differences in recent strips -- like Dilbert's too-skinny arm and oversized nose -- while the cartoonist was mastering the new technique.

But Adams is satisfied the approach works.

"[I figured] if I could find something that allowed me to draw that didn't have the same look and feel to my brain," he said, "my brain would not stop me from doing it."

Barbara Karp, deputy clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), who has researched dystonia for 15 years, said Adams had the right idea.

The first line of treatment for dystonia, she said, is "changing techniques."

"It's just the most straightforward thing to do," she said. "It doesn't cost anything. [There are] no potential side effects. . . ."

The only problem, she said, is that often the approach doesn't work.

A Puzzling Condition

Focal dystonia, which can affect the hand (where it's commonly called "writer's cramp" when it affects writing), the neck (the most common site), eyelids or vocal chords, is something of a mystery. First reported in people who do fine finger work, including writers, seamstresses and musicians, it affects an estimated 29.5 individuals per 100,000 population -- or about 87,000 people nationally -- according to calculations made in a 1998 study. Though its causes are largely unknown, "we think there's a genetic component," Karp said. Often, focal hand dystonia patients are people who use the small muscles of the fingers and hands.

Whether overuse or misuse play a role in focal dystonia is debated, Karp said. The overuse theory meshes with Adams's experience, particularly since his case emerged during what the cartoonist calls his "running years" from 1989 to 1995, when he'd get up at 4 a.m. to draw "Dilbert" before heading off to his day job.

"We think the disorder is largely associated with the basal ganglia," which are deep brain structures that help regulate movement, Karp said. One theory is that repetitive movements or some other cause somehow trigger abnormal learning patterns in the brain. That makes the sources of the problem difficult to treat, Karp said. "We just treat the symptoms."

While changing manual techniques is a logical first course, often the change is not different enough, Karp said. "Sometimes the problem is more widespread in the brain and it affects multiple tasks."

Other treatments include rest, physical therapy, occupational therapy and medications. The most common drug treatment, said Karp, is injection with botulinum toxin, more commonly known by its brand name Botox, which weakens overcontracting muscles. Internationally famed concert pianist Leon Fleischer credited Botox for restoring him to two-handed piano playing last year, decades after focal dystonia in his right hand left him able to strike the keys with only his left hand.

Botulinum toxin "relaxes the muscle, and thereby releases the spasm," said Karp. But, she said, Botox treatments can cause more muscle weakness than is desirable.

There are also highly individualized tricks that some patients practice to help them cope. Some with focal dystonia affecting their mouth and jaw say holding a toothpick in their mouth appears to ease symptoms, said Karp.

"Sensory training" for focal dystonia patients is a "hot field of interest right now," she said. In some studies, patients are learning to read Braille to retrain the sensory area of the brain that may provide feedback on motor performance. If they can correct the distorted sensory processing, said Karp, they might be able to correct the motor problems.

Geeks to the Rescue

Since January, Adams has been sketching and drawing "Dilbert" using an interactive display developed largely for graphic artists. Produced by Wacom Technology, based in Vancouver, Wash., the Cintiq 21UX LCD tablet allows artists to use a stylus on a pressure-sensitive computerized tablet. For Adams, this means he doesn't have to push down hard to draw. In addition, the software requires him to draw on an enlarged scale. Together, these effects keep his brain from prompting his hand to freeze up, he said.

Adams said he bought the product, which retails for about $2,500, and has no financial ties to the company. But Wacom posted Adams's photo on its Web site, along with the photos of other graphic artists who use the device. (While most cartoonists use computer technology at some point in the drawing process, Adams is one of the few who use it exclusively to produce his cartoons, said Steve Behling, managing editor of comics at United Media, the company that syndicates Adams's cartoons.)

For Adams, mastering the new tool -- which looks like the monitor of a laptop computer on a tiltable, rotatable stand -- involved a learning curve. In January it took him six hours to turn out his first Cintiq-produced "Dilbert" strips, which ran in March.

There were imperfections. "The hardest part was the body and head shapes" -- anything with a curved line, Adams said. Adjusting to the change in scale -- the software doubles Adams's usual 4-by-4-inch panel size, making Dilbert's nose about the size of a quarter -- also took time. "They definitely looked different for a few months. Suddenly, one of the characters would look too small. Things were too big or too small," said Adams. "Artistically, I just didn't have the eye" to adjust for the characters' suddenly larger size.

But soon he was getting the hang of it, and expressing relief that the method let him preserve the integrity of his work. To have somebody else draw the strip -- something some cartoonists do -- "would greatly decrease my happiness," he said.

"One of the reasons why you like to do your own drawings is, your style changes over time. And there's something about that that keeps it fresh to the viewer. This will be yet another change that I think people will enjoy without knowing why."

As of last week, it took him only an hour and a half to produce a strip, he reported.

You can't blame him for feeling he's got the upper hand again over his focal dystonia. That's better than things looked back when he first received the diagnosis. "I would sometimes sit in a crowded restaurant," he said, "and say, 'You know, I'm the only person in this restaurant who can't draw.' " — Samantha Sordy l Washington Post

TED TALKS: Ian Dunbar — Dog-Friendly Dog Training


Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, trainer Ian Dunbar asks us to see the world through the eyes of our beloved dogs. By knowing our pets' perspective, we can build their love and trust. It's a message that resonates well beyond the animal world.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

RZA's Exclusive EP — Dr. Pepper's One Of A Kind Studio Sessions



RZA: STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE

RZA is as versatile a visionary as you will ever come across. Here, the all-around game changer discusses what makes him truly One of a Kind.

Dr Pepper took the unprecedented step of pairing a trio of master producers with four up-and-coming musicians to create three brand new EPs. The end result is One of a Kind Studio Sessions: 12 new tracks from 12 different collaborations, each with their own unique flavor, and all One of a Kind.

RZA 5.14.14

THE LEGEND WHO ROSE UP FROM THE SLUMS OF SHAOLIN LENDS HIS VERSATILE EXPERTISE TO NEW TRACKS FROM ROCKIE FRESH, TINASHE, ROBERT DELONG, AND RAC.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

"Let Me Down Gently" by La Roux


"Let Me Down Gently" by La Roux

Let me down gently
That's what I think I need
But when you let me down gently
It still feels it hard, hard
Turn me into someone good
That’s what I really need
Tel me that I’m someone good
So we’re not so far apart, apart
I hope it doesn't seem like I’m young, foolish and green
Let me in for a minute
You're not my life but I want you in it

Set me up I’m slowly
That’s what you do to me
Oh you set me up slowly
Now I can’t come down, down
Let me down gently
That's what I think you need
But when I let you down gently
And you try to hide your frowns, frowns
I hope it doesn't seem like I’m young, foolish and green
Let me in for a minute
You're not my life but I want you in it




And I hope it's sinking
Left behind your perfect skin
There’s a part of you that’s free
And I know there’s a place for me

Let me down gently
That's what I think I need
But when you let me down gently
It still feels it hard, hard
Turn me into someone good
That’s what I really need
Tel me that I’m someone good
So we’re not so far apart, apart

I hope it doesn't seem like I’m young and foolish and green
Let me in for a minute
You're not my life but I want you in it

And I hope it's sinking
Left behind your perfect skin
There’s a part of you that’s free
And I know there’s a place for me

The Truth Behind The $2.9 Million Lawsuit — Woman Burned By McDonald's Hot Coffee



Not Just a Hot Cup Anymore

The New York Times   In 1992, Stella Liebeck spilled scalding McDonald's coffee in her lap and later sued the company, attracting a flood of negative attention. It turns out there was more to the story.

More than 20 years ago, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck ordered coffee at a McDonald’s drive-through in Albuquerque, N.M. She spilled the coffee, was burned, and one year later, sued McDonald’s. The jury awarded her $2.9 million. Her story became a media sensation and fodder for talk-show hosts, late-night comedians, sitcom writers and even political pundits. But cleverness may have come at the expense of context, as this Retro Report video illustrates. And below, a consumer affairs reporter for The Times reflects on how the world has changed since the lawsuit.
It was pretty much a pre-Starbucks world.
Back in February 1992, when Stella Liebeck ordered the 8-ounce cup of McDonald’s coffee that would famously spill and turn her, briefly, into a court-made millionaire — until the amount, the video reports, was lowered to about $500,000 — we were not the coffee culture we would become.
For those seeking reforms in the legal system since a jury tried to award Ms. Liebeck $2.9 million for the third-degree burns she suffered from the spill, little has changed despite efforts to cap multimillion-dollar verdicts like her original amount.
But when it comes down to the morning brew at the center of the case, a lot has transpired in the two decades since the lawsuit caused such an uproar.

We have become a society that totes hot liquids everywhere. Our palms seem to be permanently attached to an elongated cup with a plastic lid.
This is partly a matter of growth and supply. The number of Starbucks stores in the United States has swelled from 146 in 1992, mostly in the Northwest, to 10,924 all last year, in cities, strip malls and small towns throughout the country. (There are six in my one-square-mile ZIP code on the Upper West Side of Manhattan alone and a seventh is opening soon.)
The point is, the world now caters to the coffee drinker. The idea of getting into a car without cup holders and lifting the lid off the cup in order to add milk and sugar and drink the coffee, as the facts of the case show Ms. Liebeck did that morning, seems strangely anachronistic.
Within the ensuing years, some genius invented a sculptured lid with a little sipping hole in the top, eliminating the need to open the cup and reducing the potential for spills. Sloshing grew less likely once the lip was raised above the cup rim.
Let’s not forget the evolution of the cup holder. Teams of car engineers continuously work to perfect their design for drivers in the front and those passengers two rows back.
Coffee technology has definitely come a long way.
We now have that little cardboard thing that goes around the disposable cup so you can hold a cup of hot coffee without discomfort. (It actually has a name: the zarf, and one Jay Sorenson is said to have invented it in 1993 and he holds a patent on it under the trademark Java Jacket. Now multiple companies make them.)
Berry Plastics, a company based in Evansville, Ind., that manufactures cold-drink cups for fast-food vendors, including McDonald’s and Starbucks (they’re the ones who created those clear plastic cups with the dome tops for Frappuccinos), recently got into the hot-drink business by developing a “fully recyclable thermal management packaging solution.” In other words, a cup.
But not just any cup. This one — called Versalite, with 20 patents pending, and currently being tested in several markets — is a disposable cup that insulates the liquid to keep hot coffee from cooling but also to keep the cup from feeling hot to the touch. “We’ve known for a long time that there’s been a need for a better insulating cup,” said Jon Rich, president and chief executive of Berry Plastics. (Incidentally, the Versalite cup performs the same function for cold drinks.)
Not to mention the variety of insulated, metal refillable travel mugs, with any number of push-button, sliding openings from which to sip a hot or cold brew.
But all of this means we are even more lackadaisical about the potentially scalding liquid we carry. We nonchalantly sip coffee over babies, while pushing them in strollers (and stow them in the holders intended for bottles and sippy cups). We jostle one another on crowded subways and buses while clutching our coffee cups. We take them to class, carry them through stores, in libraries. Museums seem to be one of the few places that forbid them.
Sure, warnings, then and now, are plastered all over cups and tops: “Careful, the beverage you are about to enjoy is extremely hot,” says the Starbucks cup. “Caution Contents Hot,” says the lid. “Caution Handle with Care I’m Hot,” says the McDonald’s cup.
Nevertheless, an average of 80 people a year are hospitalized for coffee and tea scaldings at the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said Dr. Robert W. Yurt, the chief of the division of burns, critical care and trauma. Seventy percent of them were children under 6 years old, he said, though the majority of those accidents occurred at home.
During the Liebeck court proceedings, McDonald’s said it served its coffee between 180 and 190 degrees. The company has refused to disclose today’s standard temperature, but Retro Report shows a handbook for franchisees calling for temperatures 10 degrees lower.
At my local Starbucks, I asked the young barista who took my order (grande 1 percent latte) how hot the store brews its coffee. “We brew it at 200 degrees,” she said. (That is also the standard recommended by the Specialty Coffee Association of America.)
But the serving temperature is lower than McDonald’s was back then. “We let it sit for a half-hour,” she continued, “so it is about 170 or 180 when we serve it.”
These days, with so many choices on the coffee menu, customers may be more protected today from a scalding by inadvertent shields. In 1992, little in the way of milky coffee drinks was available that would act to drop the temperature a few degrees.
After all, the word “latte” — whether whole, skim or soy — had yet to become part of the mass lexicon. — Hilary Stout | The New York Times Retro Report



Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald's coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America's legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts?

Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald's, while exploring how and why the case garnered so muchmedia attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.




WARNING — GRAPHIC IMAGE — WARNING


WARNING — GRAPHIC IMAGE — WARNING




WARNING — GRAPHIC IMAGE — WARNING

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