If there's a time when anybody can be driven to Red Bull, it's the holidays.

It's the biggest travel time of the year, and chances are excellent that you're sharing the interstate and airport with your American equals: the hurried, the harried, the sleep-deprived.

And nothing announces your pledge to simply get through the next few hours like a Red Bull. Or Jones Energy, SoBe, Full Throttle or Rock Star.

What you want, of course, is that little pop of stamina and intense concentration that you used to get when you could routinely back a street-legal dose of Suphedrine with a 16-ounce cup of burner-crusted caffeine-concentrated coffee: Call it suburban meth, but it got you through the car pool.

But because most energy drinks are at least $1.50 a pop if you buy them in bulk, and at least $2 each from your convenience store cooler, you have to ask: How potent is this brew in a can?

We know that energy drinks are pervasive enough in our culture that the best kind of story - the Urban Legend - has sprung up around them.

CIA Claims Cyberattacks At Fault In Blackouts

Check more often than once a night on your Google homepage man. This week has had more 'conspiracy' theory evoking stories (usually from asinine comment posters) than the last few, but the majority of the stories HAVE been business related. And unlike some blog viewers, I don't mind the volume of copyright/IP stories. It's a shame that there ARE that many, but I'm not looking at this site for entertainment like some others are.

Good God, Mike.

Chocolate-Espresso Pudding Cake

To prepare the batter, combine the flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the milk, melted butter and vanilla until blended. Spoon the batter into a 4-quart slow cooker.

Campaigning in hard times

Indeed, in the tight race now unfolding, Democratic strategists exude calm certitude that, barring a catastrophic world event, the Republicans are toast. "All the fundamentals point to the Democrats winning the White House," says veteran party pollster Mark Mellman, who predicted that Michael Dukakis would lose in 1988 even when midsummer polls showed him 17 points up. The reason: a strong Reagan economy.

The calculus isn't always so clear-cut. Consider a few recent exceptions: In 2000 the economy was tipping toward recession - the dot-com stock bubble began bursting in March - but no one thought Al Gore, the incumbent-party candidate and winner of the popular vote, suffered for it. Two years later the economy was still recovering from the 2001 recession, yet President Bush's Republicans enjoyed unprecedented gains in the congressional midterm elections as a new threat, terrorism, trumped economic concerns.

Court delay keeps Port Phillip Bay dredging in limbo

A COURTROOM saga over the future of Port Phillip Bay's controversial $1 billion dredging project will drag on for at least another 10 days after the case was adjourned today.

But the Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) will seek to have those conditions relaxed in a separate hearing this afternoon, on the grounds that Blue Wedges has caused the delay by seeking to amend their original application to the court.