Coke vs. Pepsi. Crest vs. Colgate. HD DVD vs. Blu Ray. Sega vs. Nintendo. There’s a new rivalry in town: The Snuggie vs. The Slanket.

For the past few months, The Snuggie had an easy run. No competition, a catchy name and even a deal clincher with every purchase, a free book light. But now there’s trouble in the sleeved blanket market. A new kid on the block backed by the marketing powerhouse that is QVC, The Slanket (a clever combination of “Sleeved Blanket”) and by the looks of it they’re ready for a fight to the death.

With QVC entering the sleeved blanket marketplace, the stage is set for an exciting 2009 as both brands will duke it in what is sure to be an ugly, months long battle royale. The Snuggie currently offers a tremendous buy one, get one free offer and an included free book light for the low price of $19.99 plus $7.95 shipping handling for each Snuggie. It’s obvious that The Snuggie means business with the free tie in and the extra Snuggie thrown in for free (well, not so free if you count the $7.95 for shipping and handling what I’m sure is a very soft and fluffy sleeved blanket).

The Slanket, which claims to have been invented in back in the day in 1998, is offered in 11 beautiful colours (like Apricot, Moss Green, Ruby Green, Castlerock, and a colour by the name of Texas Tea?!), claims more inventive uses, is so big that it can fit “almost anyone,” and has an introductory price of $29.96 (at least on the QVC website). But, there’s no buy one get one free offer or freebie tie in, which makes The Snuggie the winner based solely on price. Maybe higher price for The Slanket can be attributed to a higher thread count or because it’s manufactured in America. Based solely on price there’s a tough fight ahead for The Slanket. A “big mountain to climb” if you will.

But, at least it’s a good time to be in the sleeved blanket business. Whoever wins this epic battle will be sitting on a giant pile of cash to come up with the next Shamwow!. As the American (and world) economy continues to tank and people wanting to save on their heating bills (and all bills in general) as a result it’s a good time to be selling something that’s going to keep America warm, productive and comfortable. It’s the American way!

Decide for yourself who will come out on top in 2009. Check out the commercials below.

Here’s The Snuggie in all its glory:

And, here’s the new kid on the block, The Slanket:

STOKED – Wind Chill

There is a whole lineup offered in the Stoked family of energy drinks. I’m starting off with the Stoked Wind Chill.

The art on the can is awesome. This is the best looking drink I have seen so far in my drinking history. I’m not usually into the whole dragon thing, but for this drink I’ll make an exception. (What’s also cool is that they have a dragonology section on the can. Details are awesome)

The drink it’s self smells like ginger-ale with a slightly orange colour to it. After pouring it into a glass for further inspection the ginger-ale smell disappears and al that is left is a very faint orange smell very much like orange Gatorade.

I really don’t know what to expect from this drink. The can is blue and it’s called Wind Chill… that makes me think this should be minty and refreshing. In reality, the drink is murky yellow and smells of orange… wtf is going on here?

After taking a few gulps of this canned mind f***, I can defiantly taste the orange. It tastes almost exactly like orange gatorade (watered down orange flavor). I also noticed that the back of my throat feels tingly… almost numb. I think I understand why this drink is called Wind Chill now.

This chilling sensation in the back of my throat isn’t uncomfortable. I can notice that it’s there but it’s not bothersome. Reminds me of strong mints.

This drink provides no noticable buzz. It’s possible that im more focused, but nothing special.

Caffeine: 160mg per 473ml
Taste: 3 out of 5
Buzz: 1 out of 5
Verdict:Not bad, but not really worth it either.

Side note: I like caffeine.

It’s taken a few listens to get into Keane’s new album Perfect Symmetry but the sonic goodness that is Stuart Price production is definitely winning me over. Yeah, I know, it starts off sounding like The Killers for about 30 seconds (which is funny because apparently Stuart Price has produced their next album as well) but after that it’s a new sound for a band that many think have had their day.

Just watched an amazing documentary on the theories of Hugh Everett and a son’s quest to connect with his deceased father.

The Nova documentary, Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, follows Mark Everett (aka E from the band Eels) on a quest to find out who his father really was some 26 years after his premature death.

Specifically, the documentary highlights Hugh Everett’s controversial theory of Many Worlds (or Parallel Worlds) which he wrote for his Ph.D. dissertation in 1957. Unfortunately, Hugh Everett’s revolutionary theory was shunned by academia and influential scientists such as Neils Bohr and was forgotten for many years. It wasn’t until the mid 1970s, with the help of a few fringe physicists, that Hugh Everett’s theory began to pick up steam as a possible working model to explain some of the basic principles by which our known universe exists. Almost 20 years after the original theory, Hugh Everett was finally getting the respect he deserved from the Physicist community.

While watching Parallel Worlds, I really enjoyed the intimate connection I felt as Mark Everett traveled around America to better understand his father and some of the unfortunate events in his young life that caused him to become distant and disconnected from his family. The emotional journey that follows as Mark Everett talks to some of his father’s colleagues and tries to better understand the ground breaking theory his Dad presented to the world back in 1957 is some of the best television I’ve ever watched.

Original GURU

As you probably just witnessed in the video above, we got a package from our new friends at GURU (we are friends, right?). That box made me feel like I was 5 years old on christmas morning. I had the biggest smile on my face opening up and admiring all 24 cans of the assorted GURU greatness. It was an amazing day.

Out of all the drinks within that box there is one that truly stood out, the Original GURU Energy Drink. It changed my energy drinking life forever.

Crack open the can and you are greeted with a somewhat familiar smell. The smell reminded me of jumbo sour keys. I was pumped. The drink has a very faint golden colour to it, oddly inviting. It took me a few sips to grasp the flavor: Sweet candy, with some bitterness. Not too bitter mind you. It was perfect. It was very light in my mouth and went down easy.

Most energy drinks carbonate it to the max. Some even past the max. All that carbonation is hard on your throat. GURU is just slightly carbonated. Just enough to make it refreshing.

The all natural ingredients within the GURU energy drinks is a drawing factor. In this day and age where we are constantly pumping crap into our systems (*cough* bk) its nice to have a drink that boosts energy and wont trash your system as much as the other drinks I have had before (I’m looking at you JOLT).

Another notable difference in the GURU line of drinks is the new can size. The new 355mL cans are the perfect size, they are just enough to feel satisfied and not too much to make you need the washroom every 5 minutes.

Shake Test:
This caffeine doesn’t fool around. I expected the average boost in energy, but I wasn’t ready for something like this. Similar to the Full On Lemonade I tested the caffeine hits very hard and keeps going for a longer than average run.

Caffeine: 125mg per 245mL
Taste: 5 out of 5
Buzz: 4 out of 5
Verdict: This is my #1 choice for a drink when I’m craving good taste and an awesome boost in energy.

Side note: I’m spinning in my chair.

Imagine a world when, with the press of a button, you are presented the perfect playlist of music that all just flows together.

Oh. Apple already did this? Cool, does it actually work?

Apple’s new iTunes 8 presents a slew of new features including the ability to generate playlists of music that goes together. The website makes it sound so easy:

1. Select a song
2. Press the Genius button
3. A list is generated

Apple wasn’t lying, this is the way it works… but you will need to do some work before you can just “press the Genius button and pow its there”.

I have over 4,000 songs in the iTunes playlist so trust me when I say this process took a while. When you press the Genius button for the first time it asks you to log into the iTunes store. After logging in you are asked to agree to some terms of use. after you sign your life away you get to wait while your playlist is uploaded to iTunes, then while they generate your matches and you download them. It was painful sitting there watching the progress bar inch along at a snails pace. Maybe it was slow because I did this a few hours after iTunes 8 came out. Anyone else find the service slow?

Once you have the Genius list generated the system works just as advertised. Press the button and volia. One thing I do not like is the new side bar that comes with Genius… but this is totally optional so I have nothing to complain about.

Something worth noting is that all the new iPods that support Genius require you to generate the Genius list in iTunes before the feature becomes available. Not a big deal, I was just slightly disappointed with all the waiting. Clearly I’m impatient.

Anyone else find soemthing they really like about the Genius or any other new feature in iTunes 8? The visualizations are pretty sweet.