While skimming through an article about ordering paper maps online I discovered a fact that was new to me. Mapmakers at Hagstrom and AAA add a nonexistent destination to every map in order to protect their copyright. The director of cartography at Hagstrom says "Every map has a few signature streets, usually something off a cul de sac where you're not going to lead someone astray, and our researchers name them after their cats or something." I idly wondered if there are people who make a hobby out of finding the fake streets on maps. If so, it's not easy to find them on the web, so if you know of a site that lists fake map locations, send it along. I did find an old article that called these copyright features "key traps" and "paper streets". It also quotes someone who says that mapmakers have always done this to protect their work. But a Rand McNally spokesman says that their maps are as accurate as possible, with nothing fictitious. That's bad news for the cats of Rand McNally mapmakers.
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Feeling nostalgic for 1960s Disneyland or want to do some advance planning for a trip to Six Flags Over [take your pick]? Theme Park Brochures has brochures and maps from parks all over the world. From the 1964 Disneyland brochure: "KEN-L-LAND Located to the right outside the Main Entrance. You may leave your pet in an airy, individual enclosure at a cost of 25 cents for the day. The charge includes a choice of Ken-L-Ration pet food 'dinner.'" Disneyland still has a Kennel Club where they will take care of your pet for the day at a cost of $10. Yesterland lists Disney's discontinued attractions and they have a photo of Ken-L Land. Sponsors since then have included Kal Kan, Gaines, and Friskies. (thanks kafka!)
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Thursday, August 29, 2002

Reader Mail
Marc Takeno sent me three great links. First, in response to yesterday's Starbucks post, he pointed me at an interesting Seattle Times article that describes the competition between Tully's and Starbucks in Japan. Tully's is holding its own with a smoking section (Starbucks is smoke-free) and an older clientele who stay loyal to their brand. Starbucks is trying to transition from being a trendy brand enjoyed by young consumers to having some staying power in a fickle market. The next link from Marc is the NASA Java applet that lets you see the path of the satellites orbiting our home planet. Examine the cluster of satellites in geosynchronous orbit over North America sending info to those little dishes attached to houses. Figure out which Iridium satellite you'd be using if you had one of their phones. And marvel at how far away the GPS satellites are when you can use a handheld device to access their transmissions. Last link from Marc: A Pringles can turned wireless Internet antenna.
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Food, glorious food...
The Exploratorium in San Francisco has started an Accidental Scientist series which focuses on the science in everyday life. Their first subject is the science of cooking. Now that's something every kid can really sink his or her teeth into. From little bread yeasties to the bacteria that make the lactic acid in pickles, this website takes a multicultural look at how various foods are produced. There's a fun tour of a lollipop factory and tips on making good barbecue.

If you weren't pleased with the updated "Joy of Cooking", Ethan Becker, the grandson of the book's original author, agrees with you. He thinks the "committee of 100" approach in the 1997 edition took away much of the book's family voice and left it less usable. Although he was listed as an author of that edition, he says the editor shoved his contributions aside. Critical information was not included, such as how to use different yeasts and the differences between types of flour. This time around, Becker and his wife will be taking the cookbook back to its family roots. No word on whether the porcupine, armadillo, raccoon, beaver, woodchuck, muskrat, and bear cooking instructions will return, but you know, there's always the web to turn to. (full L.A. Times article available, registration req'd)
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Wednesday, August 28, 2002

"Boston residents line up for 'Big Dig' tour" See, there's actually something being built under there! 14.6 billion dollars of something. Meanwhile, discussion is open on what to do with the 25 acres of land on top of the tunnel that will be exposed when the Artery comes down.
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In response to Monday's book leasing post, a reader wrote in with the information that Brodart, a library services company in Williamsport, PA, has an outlet store. You can purchase previously leased, almost new books for cheap! So if you're visiting the home of Little League Baseball you might want to try stopping in (or you know, you could make a special trip).
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Dunkin' Donuts, the ubiquitous New England landmark, used a similar tactic to Starbucks' store clustering technique. Starbucks cannibalizes their own locations for long term gains. They'll cheerfully open up stores close to each other and actually experience an increase in sales over time from increased awareness. They are their own advertising, effectively creating demand just by being everywhere. The article does discuss the risks of the tactic of opening too many stores too quickly and ends with a bit on a guy who is trying to visit every Starbucks in the world. I fear it may take several lifetimes.
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Tuesday, August 27, 2002

A Washington Post article runs through the latest happenings with "shelter mags". Looks like "House Beautiful" is aiming to shed some of its tony image and go after folks in the country too. But "Architectural Digest" and "House & Garden" are sticking to their luxurious guns. There's a trial issue of a new design magazine called "Living Room" from the publishers of that old standby "Better Homes & Gardens". This one isn't for moms though. It's aimed at single women in a first home of their own. But like its parent, it offers a mix of recipes, gardening tips, decorating, and crafts. Also coming out is "Chic Simple", designed for a similar audience. This new arrival will likely be little more than a thinly disguised catalog of merchandise, shopping being the purported only way to get your home decorated, of course. It's neat, though, that there are magazines aimed at women who have their own money to spend on what they want (and it's not clothes or cosmetics). Fancy that!
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September 24th is a CD release day chock full of goodies. The CD from the Buffy musical episode will be released (it's an "Original Cast Album"!). Bonus tracks include music from some key episodes like "Hush" and a demo of one of the musical's songs sung by Joss Whedon and his wife. Also on the 24th, the long-awaited Peter Gabriel album will finally see daylight. Check out this collected timeline of events that led to the release of "Up". And another almost equally long-awaited album (though I didn't know until today that I was waiting for it) is Alison Moyet's first release in 8 years, "Hometime", which will also hit the shelves that day. And if you can't wait for those, Aimee Mann's new album "Lost In Space" was released today.
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Monday, August 26, 2002

If you haven't been by to visit monkey in a while (and why not?), well he's developed a new exercise program to supplement his Cuisinart stairmaster routine. Observe the freestyle aerobic and wrestling movements developed expressedly for creating a yummy sorbet in a zippy sack. No doubt monkey wanted to look svelte for his photo exhibit at Artists For Tibet.
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On the "new fiction" shelves of our library I noticed many red stickers on the book spines that said "B&T". Intrigued, I looked closer and found one book that had a sticker with a full name "Baker & Taylor Leasing". Ahhh, a clever idea I had not noticed at the other libraries I used to frequent. A library can lease popular titles when everyone wants to read them and not have to buy so many copies. I imagine that with advanced notice, leasing can be planned into a library budget quite effectively. As I was talking about it with my husband we discussed how this would be perfect for computer titles since those often become obsolete as quickly as the processors and software they are written for. When a software package or tool is new and popular, many people would like to learn about it at the same time, and as soon as possible, but later on only one copy is really necessary. So it's not a surprise to find that Baker & Taylor also provides a "Computer Book Leasing System."
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Friday, August 23, 2002

Good news. The media, apparently realizing that the public is catching on to all those celebrity drug endorsements (I wrote about Rob Lowe shilling for Amgen last month), is starting to be more upfront about their interviewees. The NY Times reports that CNN has a new policy to disclose their guests' financial ties with companies if they wish to talk about a medical issue. Other networks are considering being more careful as well. A senior vice president at CBS says they will also start asking celebrities to reveal any financial connections to drugs they may be promoting.

At ABC they did ask Peggy Fleming's representatives if she was pitching a drug when she came on to talk about heart disease. ABC claims they were told she was not, nevertheless, their interviewer was prepared with competing drug brand names when Fleming dropped the name of the cholesterol-reducing drug she takes. The drug company claimed ABC's producer was clearly told ahead of time, but who can you believe? Luckily, it is easy to always question the validity when a celebrity mentions a name of a product that they claim to use. Don't take advice from strangers. Celebrities, as much as you may think you know them, aren't your friends unless you really do know them personally.
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PalmPilots may be native, but the trees aren't
When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area I didn't give much thought to the palm trees that dotted the landscape here and there. Hey, it's California. But when I was told that they were not native to the area, I started taking note of them. These symbols of California life have been imported into the landscape of the Bay Area. The California Fan Palm is the only palm tree native to western North America and its natural range is farther south. But some Californians like their palm trees and they brought them up north to retain that sunny lifestyle. Once I drove a visiting, wide-eyed 12 year old girl around as she pointed out palm trees while exclaiming "Look! I'm really in California!" I didn't have the heart to tell her they weren't actually native. So how do these palms get transplanted all over? Palm dealers, of course. Real estate developers, landscapers, hotel builders get their palms from Sea Crest Nursery, "California's largest palm purveyor". These dealers also keep an eye out for palms as they travel, watching for mature plants that could use relocation away from power lines or construction. It's not surprising that the Bay Area's population diversity extends to the flora. I could go on about the Eucalyptus too.
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Thursday, August 22, 2002

EphemeraNow.com is a collection of expertly scanned advertising art from the middle of last century (that would be the 1950s era). There are a lot of car brochures and ads, Coca-Cola ads, and products and companies from everyday life. (via dollarshort.org)
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From the "learn something new everyday" department, an entry in A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia gave me a clue to the derivation of the world "algorithm", which I had never pondered over before. Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Bagdad, which was founded in the 800s for the study of Greek philosophy and science. Al-Khwarizmi lived from approximately 780-850. His work on algebra, Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala, gave us the world "algebra", with "al-jabr" becoming "algebrae" in Latin. He also authored a treatise on Hindu-Arabic numbers, which had a Latin translation titled "Algoritmi de numero Indorum" or "Al-Khwarizmi on the Hindu Art of Reckoning." It is that Latin title which gave us the word "algorithm". (Another spelling of his name is Al-Khowarizmi and there are slightly different spellings of the book titles as well.)
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Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Sew it has come to this...
Bernina's artista 200 is the first sewing machine powered with Microsoft® Windows®. Actually it's Windows CE .NET, but that doesn't make the wisecracks go away. This "sewing system" has a USB port, a CD-ROM drive, an optional modem that attaches via a PC-Card slot, and, of course, that intuitive Windows-based user interface. Seeing this machine makes me very glad that I rescued an old model Singer from the depths of a dumpster near Lake Tahoe.
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And now for a snooty restaurant review...
For our first wedding anniversary on Monday we went to Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971 with her philosophy of serving local, naturally grown food in season. You have her to thank for all the mesclun (that baby greens mix) that is everywhere you turn these days. I'd been to the upstairs Cafe a few years ago and what I remember from that lunch was the profoundly fresh taste of a green leaf of some sort. It was as if I had picked it from a plant outside the window and eaten it immediately. I felt that even if I grew my own vegetables I wouldn't be able to recreate that vivid, clear flavor.

Our anniversary meal began with two small radishes presented on a dish. They looked exactly like the ones depicted by the art on Alice Waters' bio page, and were cleanly spicy and crisp. The bread basket had a few slices of a tan sourdough and a two little twin loafs of a wonderfully crusty, narrow bread whose air pockets even seemed to carry flavor. The first course was a ratatouille tourte with frisée salad. The tourte was like a frittata, a fluffy egg mixture with various veggies, and it sat in a yummy sauce of unknown origins. The frisée, also known as curly endive, was dressed with the slightest of vinaigrettes and delectable cherry tomato halves, orange and red. There was a bowl of these tomatoes decorating the table by the door and I wanted to grab a handful when we left.

The main course was called "cassoulet d'ête" (summer cassoulet with shellfish sausage, house-cured halibut, and fresh shell beans). Cassoulet is very traditional French comfort food comprised of sausage, beans, and pieces of meat. Recipes vary, but it's typical to use white beans, duck (with plenty of duck fat), and pork sausage. In this version, the beans were lima and cannellini (extremely fresh, of course). As I remarked to our waiter, I never dreamed I could enjoy eating beans this much. I'm not a fan of lima beans, but these had a subtle goodness instead of the overpowering flavor of usual lima beans, and no crumbly texture. The sausage was mostly lobster meat, extremely tender and sweet. The halibut was a little salty; I think I would've preferred a different preparation, but it was flaky and fresh tasting. There was also one lonely shrimp which I cut into tiny savory pieces to make it last. The entire dish was topped with crunchy bits of a crumbed bread, like panko (the Japanese breadcrumbs).

Dessert was Suncrest peach galette with mulberry ice cream. The galette had a crispy crust, but I almost wished I had been able to sample the peaches fresh as well. The ice cream was tart and a lovely shade of purpley red. We finished off with coffee served with cream and sugar (raw, of course). I actually enjoyed the coffee's taste without sugar and cream, but habit prevailed and it was even yummier sweetened. Mondays at Chez Panisse are a little cheaper at $45 per person, with 3 courses instead of 4, but I didn't mind the reduced menu in the least. I do wish I had nabbed a handful of those cherry tomatoes though.
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Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Ever wonder what the Lost & Found department at New York's Grand Central Terminal must be like? Satisfy your curiousity with the NY Times' peek into life at what must be one of the country's busiest Lost and Found offices. There are drug "mules" who come in seeking their lost contraband only to meet their fate with the police. There are "shoppers" who claim they have lost umbrellas (on rainy days), sunglasses (on sunny days) or coats (on cold winter days). Prosthetic legs and arms (more legs than arms) are turned in. As you may expect, there are boxes of cell phones, beepers, and children's toys. It's a little slice of life in a gathering of the mundane items of everyday existence.
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At Los Angeles' new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels the 6,019 pipes of the organ are being tested and adjusted by a team of "voicers" at a rate of about 61 pipes per day. Dobson Pipe Organ Builders won the organ project by creatively incorporating pipes from the original organ into the new design and meeting space restrictions. The L.A. Times article contains a clear introduction to the workings of a pipe organ if you need to acquaint yourself with this most immovable of musical instruments and also provides the derivation of the phrase "pulling out all the stops". At 2:30 p.m. each day silence descends in the cathedral which is still under construction, and the voicers go to work, tweaking each individual pipe to perfection. They are also fighting the building's acoustics which need to project human speakers clearly, while providing reverberation for the organ. Adjustments will continue as an acoustics team fine tunes the cathedral's speaking and musical voices into peaceful coexistence.
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Monday, August 19, 2002

Ricochet wireless Internet access is trying to be a phoenix rising out of the Denver area, home of new owner Aerie Networks. Service is also planned for San Diego in October. Aerie gave Denver's government some free service and 1,000 modems to help get their support. This fits with their strategy of going after the municipal market, instead of original owner Metricom's "mobile warrior" marketing. They are also better off launching in areas with less broadband coverage as a viable, though slower, alternative to DSL and cable. The wireless advantage is a big plus for paying $45 a month, comparable to other broadband services, when your only choice is dial-up.
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A Review of a Review?
I got a big kick out of Caitlin Flanagan's review of Christopher Byron's book on Martha Stewart (Martha, Inc.). A few pages in, I said to my husband "this reviewer thinks the author is an idiot!". A few minutes later I exclaimed "Oh my goodness, she actually did call him an idiot! She used the actual word 'idiot'!" And a few pages later, "ohhhh, she called him a jerk too!" Mind you, Flanagan finds Stewart to be "the most unpleasant person on television", so she's not defending her love for the domestic businesswoman. But what Flanagan does understand, which Byron misses, is what makes the output of Stewart's multimedia empire appealing. She boils it down to this: "women like pretty things." (I'd like to think that many men do too, if they are the type to notice their surroundings.) Byron seems to think Stewart has successfully pulled the wool over her fan's eyes. But Flanagan points out that the Stewart empire is built on the longing for a reconnection to the tasks of keeping a home in order, elegantly. It's something of a guilty pleasure to crave domestic elegance as women busy with work and/or children may only find time for the minimum upkeep. We look at the Martha Stewart Living magazines and television shows and we either avoid them because we know she's selling an unrealistic dream, or we keep going back to them because we want to hold on to a vision. Either reaction is fine, in my book.
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Friday, August 16, 2002

Fruit crates used to have colorful labels pasted on them and these artistic prints are now collectibles. Paperstuff.com offers a variety of vintage fruit labels sorted into various categories (type of fruit being one, of course). The prices range from $1 up to $100 for a rare orchid design. Most are in a very affordable range with plenty under $10. Sizes depend on the crate configuration which seems to depend on the fruit type. Avocado labels are narrow, orange ones are 10" x 11", lemons 9" x 12", pears vary. Hmmm, it's a chance to collect something affordable (for now) that doesn't take up much space (yet). (via xBlog, Boing Boing, The Ends of the Earth)
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The New Yorker's food issue is out this week and they have complemented it online with relevant articles from their archives. Defrosted Dinners from 1945 discusses the novel concept of frozen dinners. Developed by William L. Maxton and used for airplane meals, these frozen prepared foods were first popular with the Navy. Maxton obtained permission to market them for civilians and the rest is TV dinner history (with some later innovation from Swanson). Interestingly, Maxton's dinners were placed in "cardboard treated with a coating of phenolic resin plastic", whereas Swanson's dinners came in those once-familiar aluminum trays. We've circled back to cardboard now thanks to the microwave oven.
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Thursday, August 15, 2002

It's nice when something the government does makes me cry -- in a good way. Zhenfu Ge, the 74 year old grandmother whose daughter died last year, walked out of an INS office with her green card yesterday. Ge's daughter was also her green card sponsor and Ge was a few days away from completing the process when her daughter passed away from cancer. The law at the time provided no way for her to stay in the country and help her son-in-law with his two children. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Lynn Woolsey sponsored private relief legislation which was specific to her case, however Congress and the President went one better and signed into law an act (the Family Sponsor Immigration Act, H. R. 1892) that allows anyone with an approved pending green card application to change family sponsors if the original sponsor dies. The alternate sponsor does not have to be a blood relation. This act wasn't expected to pass in the current climate of strict immigration policies. Ge can now continue to raise her grandchildren and also finally travel back to China to see her other three children for the first time in four years.
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Dear Amazon.com,
I am enjoying your beta restaurant feature which shows scanned menus from restaurants in various areas. It is especially nice to be able to search for specific menu items and dishes and to be able to show friends the menu of a place before we decide to eat there. I have one recommendation. I would like to be able to add restaurants to my "wish list" so that I can remember places I want to eat at, or, perhaps allow someone special to surprise me with a visit to one of them. Thank you.
Yours in consumerism,
Lilly
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Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Slashdot is taking questions for their "Ask Alton Brown" interview and the number of postings is healthy (797 as of this writing). I gave up going through and answering all the questions I knew the answers to. The world hates a know-it-all anyway, and geeks especially so. (The most popular recent /. topic is one that was covered closely here in the past: "Diamonds are they really worth the cost?" with 1543 comments. Ahh geek love.)
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Atlantis' plumbing cracks have been welded but now NASA has found a problem with the crawler transporters that shuttle the shuttles between the assembly building and the launch pads. Broken bearings in this 37 year old equipment probably should not come as a surprise. Eight spare bearings are ready to go, but they may have to gather parts from both transporters to create one working one. Atlantis may launch Sept. 28 or Oct. 3.
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Bunny Archeologists?
Rabbits who have taken up residence on the remains of a 14th century manor house in England are digging up fragments of a medieval glass window. Sharp-eyed archeologists working nearby noticed what these house renovating bunnies were uncovering and they are hoping to gather up enough sections to piece together the window. The glass deteriorates quickly when it is exposed to air so they are working fast. Unlikely as it is, wouldn't it be cute if the design had bunny rabbits in it?
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Tuesday, August 13, 2002

There was a scary, but thankfully short, moment before our plane headed west to California on Sunday. We were waiting in line for takeoff when the pilot announced that all westbound flights had been grounded and he would let us know when he found out more. He never did tell us if he found out why, and our plane took off soon afterwards. The possibly related news items I have seen are the "super-heightened" alert for the Golden Gate Bridge over the weekend, the charter plane crash that killed Galen & Barbara Rowell (sad), and the emergency landing of a Boeing 777 at San Francisco. I could imagine that any of these would cause air traffic control to pause for a few minutes to take stock of the situation and decide whether to proceed with caution. I know that the worst crossed my mind and many others' when we heard the pilot's words and the relief felt when we took off didn't stem merely from the knowledge that we would arrive on time.
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Goodyear Walker, from the California State Lands Commission, sent an interesting tale in response to the recent Gold Double Eagle auction. The cargo of the ship "Brother Jonathan", which sank in 1865 off the northern California coast, included a large number of gold coins, some of them uncirculated Double Eagles. In a case that was taken to the Supreme Court, the salvage company that found the wreck fought with California over the rights to it and its cargo. The settlement resulted in a split of the "treasure" with 20% going to the state. The state also agreed not to sell the coins for 15 years. Other items recovered from wreck have been catalogued, such as the contents of a crate which was opened in 2001. The gold coins sit in a safe deposit box under the control of the CSLC. I end this tale with a quote from Mr. Walker's email: "I have this vision that after I retire the coins will remain in the safe deposit box, like the Ark in Indiana Jones, lost to bureaucracy forever....."
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Monday, August 12, 2002

I never know if I should be happy or sad when a subject I've decided to research is already handily written up on a trustworthy web page and no further work needs to be done. But, I suppose, it's a timesaver at best, so I should be happy. So now I present, with no further wordsmithing from me: "Where do salad dressings get their names?" I'm guessing the people who live in Thousand Island know something I didn't until today.
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Overheard at a Wedding
In the northeastern part of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania there lies about 390 acres of old growth forest. A dispute or misunderstanding over cutting rights between two parties spared this swath of land from a clearcut. It was named the "Alan Seeger Natural Area" and contains hemlock, yellow birch and white pine, some over 500 years old. I was told that Alan Seeger was the first American to die in World War I, but I don't know the possible caveats to that statement. He graduated from Harvard and moved to France, which he grew to love. He wanted to join the French Army, but was unable to, not being a citizen of France. So he did something that for the rest of us is merely an idle threat. He joined the French Foreign Legion and was killed on July 4, 1916. He is famous for his poetry, particularly the poignant "Rendezvous with Death." Pete Seeger is his nephew.
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Friday, August 09, 2002

Another NY Times Notes from Music Camp is in, and this one concentrates on the man himself. Itzhak Perlman's love for food (horrified by the steamed asparagus, legend has it, he made sure it was grilled with sea salt and olive oil from then on) and growth in conducting skills (he used to use a pencil to direct since he didn't feel worthy of the baton) are discussed between accounts of his words of wisdom for students. He prompts students to critique their own playing and tries to bring out their individuality. Fellow instructor Patinka Kopec has worked with both Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman and shares that "Itzhak's responses are always of an emotional nature, and Pinchas's are always of an intellectual nature." Combining and balancing the two is, perhaps, the ultimate method.
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Despite being a programmer by trade and a musician by hobby, I never would have conceived of this project to use musical cues to represent structural elements in computer programs. The idea is to create auditory clues to how a program is executing so the programmer can actually hear the logic progress. Not surprisingly, "false" statements use a minor key, while "true" is major. The system, dubbed Caitlin, was Paul Vickers' PhD project which is available online, including the contents of the accompanying audio CD. The hope is that bugs in programs can be more easily located through auditory means. Their experiments showed that the added sound did help undergraduate computer science students with debugging. I'm not sure how it would work for more complex systems, with multithreading and other asynchronous event handling, but I suppose problems could be broken down into smaller trains of logic which can then be debugged with aural help. It's an intriguing concept.
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Thursday, August 08, 2002

Whole Cloth, Discovering Science and Technology Through American History is a curriculum begun by the Society for the History of Technology to introduce science, technology, and invention to students through the history of textiles. There are eight units; three are available online. The focus on textiles takes students from the cotton gin on through to nylon stockings.
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Wired News ran a three part series on Clear Channel communications this week. The first article focused on Clear Channel's growing control over regional radio markets, as they have snapped up station after station, sometimes circumventing the eight station limit in a market by taking over control but not purchasing. In San Diego they rule the airwaves with 14 stations and have even taken over five stations in Tijuana, Mexico, where they don't have to conform to any U.S. rules but have English speakers in range. The second article discusses new technologies that allow DJs, often not from the local market, to program shows ahead of time. A five hour show can be recorded in 45 minutes. Clear Channel owns the technology it uses, the Prophet digital automation system. That the name sounds like "profit" has to be intentional. With fewer DJ openings through consolidation and time shifting, will there be more quality or just more blandness? At least there is always the need for local traffic and news.

The final article covers Clear Channel's future as their dominance is not going unnoticed by politicians. Despite reporting a large profit, their stock is down because of the bad publicity. Republicans deregulated to Clear Channel's benefit and won't likely reverse that growth, but Wisconsin Democrat, Senator Russell Feingold has proposed a bill to stop payola and put limits in place. Clear Channel's response was to point out that the film and record industry are much worse when it comes to having a few companies dominate an industry's profits. There's no question to me that they stand on shaky moral ground, but they are abiding by the letter of the law. If advertisers continue to buy into it, local radio will be as regionally varied as your neighborhood shopping mall of national brands. At least you won't have to leave your familiar local station behind when you travel. (Also noted, via MediaNews: Clear Channel ended legal wranglings with an industry magazine critical of its activities by buying it out.)
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Wednesday, August 07, 2002

The National Academy of Engineering has done a fine job creating Engineer Girl!, a site to educate girls about careers in engineering. An explanation of the process of chocolate manufacturing covers chemical, mechanical, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, and industrial engineering. It takes a lot of science to mass produce chocolate! Other engineering disciplines are listed with encouraging descriptions. A companion site for parents, teachers, and mentors describes the myths that discourage girls from pursuing engineering careers and offers advice for encouraging them. There is a lot to delve into with these sites, including links to external resources.
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Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet's "The Juliet Letters" is one of my favorites to listen to over and over. It didn't fit any radio niches, though the divorce ditty "Jacksons, Monk & Rowe" got some airplay, but I had a hunch that it was treasured by many as a fascinating and tuneful departure from the norm. The performance of it I attended at Davies Symphony Hall was packed and very well received. I recently ran across what amounts to a chronicle of a wonderful reaction to this work, written by Teller (as in Penn &) for The New Yorker. There are two versions of the article, the second is an equally entertaining longer draft. I found much to relate to in Teller's experience of getting to know the album and his musician friends' dissection of the inspirations for the motifs. There's always more to uncover in the interplay of the string arrangements or the wry lyrics. And I wish I could see them perform it again. Perhaps I should invest in the score or sheet music.
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Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Repair work on space shuttle Atlantis will begin next week and it could fly as early as September 28. The cracks that were found in the metal liners inside liquid hydrogen pipes will be welded by a team that was "hand picked during a 'Superbowl of welders' for the critical job that requires the steady hands of a surgeon." Imagine having that on your welding resume. Endeavour is up next for similar repairs, but Columbia, the oldest shuttle, has a different type of metal in the cracked parts, so NASA is doing further investigation.
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Combining the creativity of traditional arts and crafts with new technologies leads to fascinating new jobs and products. Typically the technology is a tool that helps composers to create modern music, architects to design complex buildings, or textile designers to map out intricately woven patterns. But more and more often the technology is part of the result, electronic music, a kinetic sculpture with sensors, or, in the case of International Fashion Machines, a tablecloth with electronic embroidery that lets you play Jeopardy. The field of e-textiles is not much of an industry yet, but research is continuing with the hope of more government funding in the future. Imagine the military applications of dynamic camouflage clothing.
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Monday, August 05, 2002

You always wanted to dance like Michael Jackson didn't you? OK, maybe not. But maybe you'd like these glow in the dark stepping stones for your front walk. Even if you can't be like Mike, you can pretend he was there. Too bad they don't automatically turn on when you step on them though. (There's matching edging too.)
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A top winner in the Home Arts clothing division at the Santa Clara County Fair was a wired vest with green and red LEDs, the three buttons reading "2, 4, 6". This was a signal that we were still in Silicon Valley despite the surroundings of homemade jams, flower displays, and many wonderfully designed and stitched quilts. The bobbin lace demonstration was fascinating since I had never considered how it was made. I have crocheted lace, but never seen the setup of pillow, bobbins, and pins that are the tools of a bobbin lace maker. Over in the livestock area we saw pig after pig after pig. After a while, the pigs, most were sleeping, started to look the same, as did the sheep. But the goats were full of character and spunk as they stuck their noses out between the bars, hoping for food. And the cows? Cows are big. And the ones bred for beef are even bigger.
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Friday, August 02, 2002

Digging through the mass of Flash at Gem.net reveals many sparkling jewels. The site is funded by Swarovski, the crystal company, and a gem distributer. Learn about the 62 carat Rockefeller sapphire that was purchased and repurchased by a father and his son multiple times at great profits. It was most recently sold at auction for $3.1 million and it sure looks like a million bucks with its brilliant blue clarity and clean lines. Read about the jewelry designed for Lord of the Rings and visit a pearl farm in Tahiti. Dig even further to see what gems you uncover.
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I been noticing for T-Mobile everywhere. It sprang out of nowhere, unlike mlife which announced itself with annoying regularity before revealing it was just an AT&T cell phone marketing ploy. But where are T-Mobile's roots? Well, it used to be VoiceStream, but was renamed in California and Nevada. Soon it will be renamed everywhere else too. Doesn't it seem like wireless providers change their names constantly? Pacbell Wireless is now Cingular. GTE Wireless is now Verizon. There was a flurry of changes around AT&T Wireless' investments. Most of those rebirths were the result of mergers and acquisitions, but the fancy new naming keeps the companies fresh in the crowded marketing space. Do wireless phone consumers gravitate more towards new names promising new technologies rather than knowing who is tried and true in the market? Since every company has its share of dropped calls and bad coverage areas, a makeover is probably a better tactic than keeping your name and promising experienced service. Oh, and WorldCom's wireless customers, a money-losing venture for the bankrupt company, are being sold to various bidders.
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Thursday, August 01, 2002

New York's landmark Russian Tea Room took a final gasp but closed this past weekend. Its popularity never returned despite an expensive remodel.
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The $20 Double Eagle gold coin that was supposed to be destroyed but mysteriously disappeared and then resurfaced a few years ago was auctioned off for $7.59 million. It is now officially legal tender, with $20 paid to the U.S. government. But no, I don't think we're going back on the gold standard again.
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Cooper Black: Behind the Typeface (Flash req'd) is a clever Behind the Music parody on the surface, but is actually a fact-filled documentary on a popular typeface, complete with an appropriate commercial and cute interviews with letters. (via antenna)
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Fool yourself with Grand Illusions or perhaps learn new tricks to befuddle your friends with. They sell some of the props too. (via Larkfarm Weblog V2)
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