Stuff from November, 2006
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on November, 2006.
Retro Furniture
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on November, 2006.
Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.
— Larry Lorenzoni
All Hallows - This is about so much more than Halloween. You can always count on The Morning News for wonderful writing.
This entire week has been an atrocity. Busy everytime I turn around, the time I’m taking to write this right now is borrowed from a lab that I got time off from (it’s also my lunch time). That said, I was unlocking my bike yesterday to race to a workout and couldn’t help but notice a Rice Crispies bar lodged between my front reflector and tire. My first reaction to the foreign substance on my bike was anger - it was an inconvenience to kick the dang thing off. A moment or two later, though, I looked at the bar on the ground (it had a bite out of it) and the humor sunk in. I mean … there’s a Rice Crispies bar wedged into my bike. That’s funny. Try to make an argument against the humor there. I could just imagine some guy (I’m assuming it was a guy … do you know girls who litter desserts?) walking up to my bike and taking the time to carefully set the bar in there so it fit just so. As Daniel Bogan would say, “People can be so damn strange sometimes.”
The Ultra-Extreme Calorie Restriction Diet Test - An illuminating journey into the world of extreme calorie restricted diets.
“When at last the Biosphere 2 crew emerged from their bubble, tests proved them healthier in nearly every nutritionally relevant respect than when they’d gone in, and the case for Calorie Restriction in humans was no longer purely circumstantial.”
Conan does the monster mash - Great mashup featuring clips of Conan set to “Monster Mash.”
Vera Bee’s portfolio - The highly provocative and extremely skilled art of Vera Bee. Brilliant, if you ask me.
In February of 2005, I mocked up an idea I had for attaching the iPod shuffle directly to my full size headphones. Today, when I got a second-generation iPod shuffle, I was able to realize this idea and correct a shortcoming in this newest iPod. Note that the shuffles currently ship with the previous generation iPod earbuds. You know, the ones with slightly inferior fit and sound quality to the newer ‘buds. Thanks, Apple. I had assumed the pictures depicting the old earbuds on the Apple website were used simply because the newer model was not available at time of photography/photoshopping (I’m not sure how those images were originally generated). In an effort to correct the earbud shortcoming, I realized I could combine headphones and a shuffle into a cords-free wundermusik contraption. In short, I could make my original idea a reality: a version 2.0, if you will. I’m still looking to get a shorter y-cable (1/8” stereo jack to 1/8” dual mono … anyone?), but for now this works pretty well. I’ll walk you through it.
iPod Shuffle 50 and 1418 errors - If you are gettting the errors -50 or -1418 when you try to use iTunes 7 to put music or change settings on your new iPod shuffle, use the trick from “Albertech842 ” in this link, and your problem will be solved!
The Cullinan Diamond - Uncut, it weighed over a half a kilogram.
Tannoura Dervish - Brilliant photograph.
This will be useful next election - Too bad I didn’t hear about this sooner - it looks like a good resource during election times.
I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down.
— Jack Kerouac
An absolutely massive doughnut at the Caribou in the mall. Again, no scale to show the amazingness.
Robot Identifies Human Flesh As Bacon - An excerpt from the article: “Upon being given a sample, he will speak up in a childlike voice and identify what he has just been fed. The idea is that wineries can tell if a wine is authentic without even opening the bottle, amongst other more obscure uses … like ‘tell me what this strange grayish lump at the back of my freezer is/was.’ But when some smart aleck reporter placed his hand in the robot’s omnivorous clanking jaw, he was identified as bacon. A cameraman then tried and was identified as prosciutto.”
Solar power becoming more affordable - “Last month, Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corporation showed off its new system for focusing sunlight with a fresnel lens (like the one used in lighthouses) onto superefficient solar cells, which are about twice as efficient as conventional silicon cells.”
Still under construction at time of photography.
I went home for fall break a couple of weekends ago, and while I was studying for my cell biology at my old desk, I opened up the file drawer on it. In it, I have a hanging folder folder marked “sentimental” in which I have an entire scrapbook worth of old scraps of paper I saved from high school and junior high. I’ve got band concert programs, my valedictorian speech, the brochure I received at the Sears Tower during my junior high trip to Chicago, and so much more. It’s grounding to occasionally return to these scraps. I know times were “tough” in their own way during the years I gathered these scraps, but the human power of retaining the good and forgetting the bad charges this eclectic stash with sentimental value.
How to descend a mountain - This is the most amazing video you’ll see this year. These guys combine hang gliding and skiing to descend a mountain in an unbelievably short time. Ben Saunders, the guy who links this, has done solo skiing expeditions to the north pole, and he calls this video “the most hardcore thing I’ve seen for a long time.”
Hotel room that looks like a drawing - What they did was outline all the corners in thin black lines, giving the appearance that the room is a comic book sketch. Unbelivably convincing illusion.
Toddler headgear - I am hard-pressed to think of anything funnier than the pictures of these poor toddlers subjected to this padded neoprene protective headgear, all in the name of “safety.”
I’m fairly confident that the thousands of years of toddlers preceding the ones today did just fine without this sort of ridiculously overprotective hindrance to movement and dignity. I implore you not to buy one.
It’s important to do what you think is good.
— Shigeru Miyamoto
Remember that giant doughnut from a couple of days ago? Here it is, kindly brought to me by Mykala, for scale!
The hypothesis was as follows: the Binz Refectory would be crazy to keep desserts over the Thanksgiving break, so the desserts set out today should be fresh. Cautiously, I nudged the Rice Crispies bar with some plastic tongs, testing to see whether it would decay into a ball of rice sawdust, or if it was fresh enough that its mallow constitution would impart to it the structural integrity of silly putty. Thankfully (and rarely, at the Binz) the latter was the case. “Mykala!” I eagerly squeaked, “The Rice Crispies are edible!” I handed one to Mykala, carefully chose one for myself, and suddenly all was right in the world. In our eyes shone golden nuggets of a heavenly blend of cereal and marshmallows, renowned the world over for their symbiotic blend of disparate foodstuffs. Christmas music played merrily on the dining room soundsystem as we walked out of the building, cradling delicious nuggets of joy. Little did we know that our happiness was doomed to a transience of incredibly brief duration.
Victorinox Bertrand Wool Cashmere Coat - Most amazing coat I’ve seen in a long time. It looks like the kind of coat that a soldier or night watchman from the early 1900s would wear. Unfortunately, way too expensive.
The Christmas Cactus, instead of blooming March like it did before, is now blooming at a more normal time.
Welcome to one of the best recording studios in the world - What do you imagine when you think of a recording studio? A small, soundproof room with ratty carpet and a dilapidated mixing booth? Try this place on for size. Started by George Martin, the producer of the Beatles, AIR Studios has three absolutely world-class recording areas in its facility. Click the photo on the linked page to browse their stunning gallery of pictures.