danbruno.net

I shit you not. Everyone’s favorite beverage conglomerate plans to “launch” Coca-Cola Blāk next year in France:

Coca-Cola Blāk is an invigorating and stimulating blend that has a perfect balance of the effervescent taste sensation of Coca-Cola and natural flavors, with real coffee. The lightly carbonated, mid-calorie beverage, which is designed to appeal to adult consumers, is yet another example how The Coca-Cola Company reaches out to new audiences and addresses new beverage occasions.

Or maybe it’s yet another example of marketing idiocy. If they couldn’t get New Coke, C2, or Coke Zero to sell well — all of which were based heavily on the original flavor of Coke — how do they expect cola mixed with coffee to succeed? This is the dumbest idea since Budweiser came out with caffeinated beer. “New beverage occasion,” indeed. (via)

I was going to write something about the Naked Quad Run, the illustrious Tufts tradition in which hundreds of naked students run laps around the Residential Quad in the middle of December. However, it would be hard to trump fellow Tufts blogger Kenneth Richstad’s hilarious account. Check it out.

Reason #3000 to love Béla Fleck:

[...] many artists have spoken out about all forms of copy-protected CDs, including Matthews, the Foo Fighters and Christian rock band Switchfoot. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones are set to release a new album on Sony in January, and it will not be copy protected, says Fleck’s manager, David Bendett.

Frustrated when he bought a copy-protected Dave Matthews release and couldn’t copy it to his Apple iPod, Fleck insisted that Sony not release his new album with such restrictions, Bendett says.

Good on you, Béla. (via)