I love the flavor of mint, and using it to enhance drinks like lemonade and cocoa is especially refreshing. So I am intrigued by the appearance of Sprite Ice, a new mint flavored (well, "flavoured" actually) soda that is available in Canada and Belgium. It's the same lemon-lime Sprite but with a "hint of mint" that is supposed to make it extra refreshing. Hopefully it doesn't give your tastebuds a reminiscence of mouthwash or toothpaste. (via Pop Culture Junkmail)
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A new mobile phone from MyOrigo Ltd incorporates some interesting user interaction. The screen automatically adjusts its orientation depending on which way the user is holding the phone. Similarly, a user can tilt the phone to scroll to different areas of the content being displayed. There is haptic feedback; when virtual keys are pressed, the screen vibrates in response. The touchscreen also uses gestural input. You can turn a page by making a flicking motion. I'm curious to see how phone manufacturers balance use of virtual keys and physical keys in the next few years.
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Friday, June 27, 2003

Before TechTV (which used to be ZDTV) there was a show on MSNBC called "The Site." It was a refreshing look at the daily tech news, and it was hosted by Soledad O'Brien, who was not a geek. But she was as smart as a geek, and a solid contributer to the show, not just a pretty talking head. She rose up the NBC ranks to host Weekend Today, as close as she could get to her idol Katie Couric's position without Katie leaving the show. Now she's left NBC to take on CNN's morning show. But I bet if Katie ever leaves, she'll be thinking hard about going back.
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Understanding the appeal of the sparkling rock, the Smithsonian is exhibiting seven of the world's rarest diamonds at the Natural History Museum through September 15. On loan for exhibit are the DeBeers Millennium Star (by far the biggest of the bunch at 203.04 carats), the yellow Allnatt (101.29 carats), the Steinmetz Pink (59.60 carats), the Heart of Eternity (blue, 27.64 carats, pictured in the middle of this page), the Pumpkin Diamond (orange of course, 5.54 carats), the Ocean Dream (blue-green, 5.51 carats), and the Moussaieff Red (5.11 carats). The Smithsonian, of course, already has the infamous Hope Diamond on display. (Here's a page of famous diamonds.)
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Thursday, June 26, 2003

UFOs galore can be sighted at the new Alien Museum in Portland, Oregon. Skeptics and serious ufologists will find something to entertain or educate. There's even a sheaf of "authenticated wheat from the Forest Grove Crop Circle."
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Want to recreate the McDonald's experience at home? Yeah, I figured you didn't. Well, just in case you are craving a recreation of the Big Mac experience, the McBurgers website has all the details on the steps to making your very own version. (via larkfarm)
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Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Featured in the suitably named Tacky Living site is a writeup on tacky television antennas. If the simple, classic rabbit ears aren't fancy enough for you, there are directions for building your very own antennas to decorate the interior and exterior of your home. (via Yahoo Picks)
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The Chocolate Exhibition that was developed at The Field Museum in Chicago is now enticing visitors at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. On their schedule are weekly free chocolate tastings (yum!) from chocolate makers and pastry chefs.
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Pottery Barn has launched a catalog specifically for teens. PB Teen has no online shopping yet, but the catalog promises "hip, exclusive designs. From shag rugs and CD racks to furniture and frames."
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Tuesday, June 24, 2003

There was no mention of controversy in the NY Times Vows column on the baseball-themed nuptials of Lauren Ackerman and Paul Forte, which took place at Shea Stadium on June 14th. But a quick search through Google News reveals a bit of grumbling over the event, as Newsday and the NY Post report that the division championship games for the city's high-school baseball teams were scheduled for Shea that weekend. But the wedding took precedence and the games were moved to KeySpan Park in Brooklyn. The bride is the daughter of Queens Democrat, Rep. Gary Ackerman. And it wasn't actually the wedding that conflicted with the games, but the rehearsal.
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For $25 Peter Gabriel fans can purchase a two CD set recording of one of his summer tour performances, recorded off the soundboard. There are 15 shows available, and the extremely devoted can purchase all of the recordings for $325. Touted as "authorized bootleg CDs" this system of recording live performances and selling them to concertgoers has also been used by The Who and Duran Duran.
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Monday, June 23, 2003

Fifty years later, the NY Times visits with eight of the twenty college women who were selected as guest editors for Mademoiselle magazine in the summer of 1953. That one month experience opens Sylvia Plath's autobiographical novel, "The Bell Jar." A few students present at the reunion were the inspiration for characters in the book, and some recounted events that were captured in its pages. These women faced the challenges of balancing their artistic dreams with family life, a decade before Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" was published. Plath, coincidentally, committed suicide the year of its publication.
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The summer of 1989 a friend and I were walking up Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge from Central Square to M.I.T. when I stopped and inhaled deeply. "Mmmmmm. Buttermint!" I said. "Buttermint?" he responded skeptically. "There's no such thing as buttermint. You just made that up." I was indignant. "That's what it smells like. Buttermint!"

Situated just off the M.I.T. campus is the yummy smelling factory of the New England Confectionary Company, makers of NECCO wafers and Valentine's Day hearts. A set of old train tracks wends into the loading docks, and only the often present smell of sweetness divulges the activity that takes place inside the covered windows. But after almost 75 years, Necco is consolidating its operations in Revere, MA. Biotech is moving in. Novartis has taken a 45 year lease on the building and is investing hundreds of millions on renovations. The smell of buttery, minty goodness will rise no more.

And, by the way, I did not make up the term buttermint.
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Friday, June 20, 2003

I thought I was excited about the new Ikea opening in East Palo Alto this summer, but my enthusiasm deadens in comparison to the five eager shoppers who camped outside of the new Ikea store in College Park, Maryland. The first five to enter the store were given $2,000 Ikea gift cards, so there was more enticement than to be the first in the door. These "Ikea Dreamers" were provided with a large tent, and bedroom furniture to spend their waiting time on. The furniture was not preassembled.
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The Computer History Museum has "gone alpha" in its snazzy new home located in the former flagship building of Silicon Graphics in Mountain View. 500 items are on display in their "visible storage section" starting from old wooden calculators and ending with a still-life painting, designed and painted on canvas by a computer.
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Thursday, June 19, 2003

Lychee season is almost over, and the moist winter has made it a good one. You can often find them fresh during May and June in Asian markets, but they can also be ordered online for overnight shipping from Florida: LycheesNow.com and LycheesOnline.com. Some farmers planted lychees after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew.
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Along with celebrating the twentieth anniversary of her first flight in space, America's first woman in space, Sally Ride, is inaugurating her own science camp for girls. Run by Galileo Educational Services, the one-week of "overnight camp" has one session at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia and three sessions at Stanford University in California. The Stanford program offers concentrations in Astronomy, Structural Engineering, and Bio-Engineering. Oh, and the Stanford sessions are completely full. Hooray!
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Wednesday, June 18, 2003

The teaser poster for Matrix: Revolutions is out. Slick.
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British illustrator William Heath Robinson is part of the British vernacular, defined in a British : American online dictionary simply as "Rube Goldberg." Born in 1872, he aspired to become a landscape painter, but realized that a career in book illustrations would be more lucrative. Although he had success with book publishers, it was his magazine illustrations that brought him widespread fame. His depictions of fancifully practical inventions forever associated his name, in the British language anyway, with overly complicated and clever contraptions. Often his work imagined the absurdity of the human capacity for problem solving. Always his work was grounded in real world physics. According to his BBC biography, he died in 1944 after disconnecting himself from a contraption that was keeping him alive.
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Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Last night we caught part of the rebroadcast of the Antiques Roadshow episode featuring the most valuable item ever appraised on the program. In 2002 a man brought a Navajo blanket to the Tucson visit of the popular PBS program. He wiped his eyes over and over as he learned that the blanket, which was in spectacular condition, was worth $350,000 to $500,000. In the followup article on the PBS website, the appraiser Don Ellis planned to put the blanket up for sale at the New York City Winter Antiques Show the following January. But there was no further follow-up. I found a mention of the fate of the blanket in the Maine Antique Digest. Don Ellis was unable to find a buyer at the show, and said it was the first time he had been unable to sell the feature object of his display. The fate of the blanket: "soon it will be presented to the trustees of an institution for consideration." Where is it now???
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I enjoy a research challenge. Ned makes note of the immensity of the upcoming Harry Potter book. But Amazon doesn't list the hefty tome's weight. The Canadian edition, printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, processed chlorine free paper, is 768 pages long and weighs 2.09 lbs. The Royal Mail in Great Britain is promising overnight delivery of the 1kg (2.2lbs) book, printed on extra-light paper, and is prepared to cope with the demand. In the U.S. the 896 page book tips the scales at 2.8 lbs.
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Monday, June 16, 2003

Everything you could ever want to know about the history and making of butter is in the WebExhibit on butter. Who knew there was so much to know about butter? Farm wives would use butter as cash, exchanging their home-churned product for mechandise at the general store. Butter has been stored and shipped in wooden barrels, casks, tubs, and eventually paraffin paper and parchment. During the Yukon gold rush, butter was packaged in cans to keep fresh for shipment to Alaska. Of course there are butter collectibles: butter molds.
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Last year I linked to news of a new tiny watermelon called the PureHeart. Patented by Syngenta Seeds, the PureHeart is now available in 30 states. But it has competition coming up. The Bambino, from Seminis Vegetable Seeds, is expected in stores by the end of the summer. These tiny melons were created the old fashioned way: crossbreeding. Other premium fruits and veggies are under development by the two companies like colorful carrots, sweeter canteloupes, and better tomatoes. (source: NY Times)
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Friday, June 13, 2003

I'm on a business trip. Back next week.
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Thursday, June 12, 2003

A recursive weblog link
There was a "Garfield" Atari video game in the works in 1984, so writes the geeky person I married. Pick up lasagna and other foods, get fatter, avoid Odie and mice. Just like real life.
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A tiny bit of sleuthing
Martha's PR machine had marthatalks.com registered on June 2, 2003, all ready to go for her indictment. The domain is owned by Citigate Sard Verbinnen who provide "strategic corporate, financial and crisis communications counsel and services." Meanwhile, Sandra Goroff, a publicist for authors had marthaspeaks.com registered on April 1, 2003. It may be a completely different martha, but I was intrigued by possibility that someone had registered a domain in hopes of making a bid to help out. The New York Daily News speculated that the FBI was checking out marthatalks for "juicy tidbits." The article also claims that Stewart's attorneys may be gathering information on the right types of people to select for jurors. It's a strange world wide web sometimes.
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Wednesday, June 11, 2003

It's difficult to describe the difference between home-cooked ethnic food and typical ethnic restaurant food unless you've truly experienced both. I have to blame my mother's cooking for making my best friend's first experience at P.F. Chang's her last. When I eat Indian or Thai food in a restaurant I always wonder what the real home-food experience would be like. Living in the Bay Area with its large population of Indian immigrants, we have a healthy selection and range of Indian foods to try. But even when the place is devoid of Caucasians, I have to wonder: is this anything like home? Even the very popular dosa restaurant we go to is a chain from India, which doesn't translate to home cooking. Our local paper has pointed out three places that offer "home-style Indian comfort food." One, Annadaata, is a delivery service offering "$5 meals on wheels." Popular for lunch delivery to companies and "home before you are" dinners, the meals may not be just like mom's, but the pricing and convenience make up for any difference.
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Though she chronicled extraordinary and horrible circumstances, Anne Frank was at heart a writer, and under happier circumstances would have continued to write tales from her life and imaginary lives. The book "Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex" contains short stories and reminiscences which illustrate the ongoing practice of her writing skills. Now an exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will display notebooks and papers of Anne's writing. Director Sara Bloomfield succeeded in tricky negotiations to allow these works to be part of the 10th anniversary of the museum's opening. The small, but significant set of papers rescued from the Secret Annex that will be on display include three of her original notebooks, the third volume of her diary, loose pages from her edited diary, and her photo album.
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Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Twenty-five years of that fat, oranged cat with stripes. Yup, Garfield is still with us and celebrating a quarter century. Creator Jim Davis continues on with the lasagna obsessing, spider-smashing, and Odie bashing. His ambition is to "write that one gag that makes the whole world laugh." Because the Garfield universe is timeless, Davis can work far in advance. He's currently working on strips for next summer. That's around the time a feature-length film about the grumpy kitty is scheduled for release.
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(It seems to be NY Times week here!) The second article in the NY Times' series on the creation of a Steinway piano delves into the genesis of the sounding board. Piano No. K0862's board is comprised of about 15 strips of spruce, selected from a pile of wood, the majority of which was rejected for miniscule imperfections. Only the slowly grown, stronger grained wood is allowed in the soundboard. The article also goes into some history of the Steinway workers and the company's continued reliance on hand manufacturing while competitors sell pianos, some with higher price tags, made mostly with machines. Last week, the Times also published an article on the pianos exhibited in museums. There is actually a Museum of the American Piano in Manhattan where you can see various incarnations of keyboards and cases.
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Monday, June 09, 2003

Who sells peanut butter for $375 a pound, 40 grams of powdered milk for $156, 50 grams of corn starch for $151, and a three-ounce jar of baby food for $58.25? Well, this isn't any ordinary grocery store. These items are reference materials supplied by The National Institute of Standards and Technology. Their nutritional components have been completely analyzed for fat, fatty acids, elements like copper and calcium, and amino acids. The foodstuffs themselves are unremarkable, having been obtained from the same commercial sources your grocer patronizes. But if a food manufacturer or lab ever needs to check their own analysis against that of The Peanut Butter, they can order Standard Reference Material No. 2387. Of course if you need something a little different, like various types of Gold Bullion, Portland Cement, or perhaps Tomato Leaves, take a skim through their price list. (source: NY Times article)
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Sales of men's clothing has gone down because more women have jobs. That theory sounded counter-intuitive to me at first. But then I realized that women who do not work have more time to shop. They also have more time to think about what their husbands should wear, how they can accessorize, and have time to do laundry and iron (if they enjoy that kind of thing, of course). But the revolution, as it were, came much more recently that I would have thought. According to polls by the NPD Group, three years ago women shopped for 76 percent of men. Now women shop for less than half of men. And the typical male doesn't treat clothes shopping as entertainment, but more as a chore necessary only when he needs a particular item. It's a difficult time for retailers and some have scaled back their men's departments. No one knows if there will be a rebound; perhaps a fashion trend or an improved economy will get more men buying more clothes. It's unlikely, however, that droves of women will be back to the men's store. (source: NY Times article)
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Friday, June 06, 2003

Urban details are chronicled and explored in Ruavista - Signs of the City. Pretty graphics are found on the manhole covers of Paris and London. The dying art of painted wall advertisements is captured in Paris. And there are twenty-year-old hand-painted ads still attached to the trees of Buenos Aires. (via SixDifferentWays)
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Byron Hoyt, a wonderful sheet music store in San Francisco, has put together a Historic American Sheet Music Collection that you can view online. The collection consists of 3.000 pieces of sheet music, published between 1850 and 1920. Each is completely scanned, from cover to back. There are patriotic war songs, pleas for secession, tunes that fight for women's rights, waltzes, polkas, and many a love song.
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Thursday, June 05, 2003

Ever wonder how jewelry photographers get rings to seemingly levitate for their close-ups? It's not clever image manipulation or wires, as I had thought. This guide to photographing jewelry for print and the web says that the answer is "ghee". No, not clarified butter, but a mixture of kneaded eraser and modeling clay. The two ingredients are combined by the photographer to the proper consistency and a small blob provides a suitable invisible perch for a ring.
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It's unfortunate that the Vienna Philharmonic does not allow its members to speak to the press. It would be useful to get some perspective on the orchestra's business manager's statement, "naturally they are shy," which he made when asked about women auditioning for the orchestra. Six years after the orchestra voted to admit women, there are still very few females. The NY Times fails to get a spectrum of interviewees for this article on the scarcity of women in the Philharmonic. We do not hear from any rejected female musicians who, presumably, do have the right to speak to the press, to get their point of view on whether other women are too "shy" to audition. A better word might be "intimidated" or a better phrase may be "unwilling to deal with the discrimination they will face."

The NY Times article is incredibly tame when compared to this write-up of the Vienna Philharmonic's employment practices as of December 2002. In here, it is made very clear that actual orchestra membership is only granted after three years of tenure in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, and even then it is subject to vote. The women currently performing with the Philharmonic are not members, but are working through their three year Opera terms. This essay also claims that women substitutes are brought along specifically for U.S. tours and not used in other places. For an in-depth look at one woman's experience in a European orchestra, read through an account of the twelve year legal battle of trombonist Abbie Conant versus the Munich Philharmonic. These last two articles were written by Abbie Conant's husband, and thus cannot be called completely objective, but he notes his sources and is not using false data, just biased tone.
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Wednesday, June 04, 2003

It's a good thing basset hounds are so cute and forgiveable. Jewelry store owner Joy Kilner's basset swallowed an $1,800 diamond. Kilner was transferring the gems to a safe when the dog bit down on the tray and consumed a half-carat, triple ideal cut, round diamond. It has not reappeared, even in x-rays.
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When I heard from a friend that Stonyfield yogurt was now coming in 6oz sizes instead of 8oz, I didn't believe her. "Are you sure you didn't buy the organic yogurt by mistake?" I was still seeing 8oz containers at my store. She thought maybe she had. But then, more recently, I visited the Stonyfield website and was greated with disappointing news: "we reduced the size of our fat free cups to a 6oz. size that's more appropriate for snacking." Snacking? I eat these for breakfast! Apparently most people think yogurt is a snack and would prefer a smaller size. Hmph. Then, just yesterday, I was informed that Dannon was making the same changes. Their reasons are gone from their website and had to be retrieved from a Google cache of their FAQ:

Why have you reduced your product to a 6 oz size?
Dannon regularly reviews consumer feedback and preferences to stay in touch with our consumers' needs. Our most recent market research indicates that most consumers prefer a 6 oz container. The smaller product is just the right size for consuming yogurt as a snack or as part of a meal.

Suddenly, I remembered that Dannon had purchased 40% of Stonyfield a couple years ago. Now both are going the way of smaller serving Yoplait. I may be going the way of the Brown Cow.
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Tuesday, June 03, 2003

Weight-loss jewelry? Well, whatever works, I suppose. Balance Bands come in sets of five. You put all five on your right wrist in the morning, then move one to your left wrist for each serving of fruits and vegetables you eat. SlimmerBeads are calorie counting bracelets. One bead equals 100 calories, and you slide them over as you consume. Tali bracelets use a system of beads and charms to track calories, glasses of water, exercise, whatever you'd like to keep track of.
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With the FCC relaxing the rules on media ownership yesterday, I started thinking again about satellite radio. If all my local media is going to start sounding the same anyway, why not just go for the full network radio effect? After a rocky start, XM and Sirius are making excellent headway. They are even talking about breaking even in the next couple years. XM has 500,000 subscribers and Sirius, a year behind due to technical problems, has 68,000. Car manufacturers are offering the receivers as optional equipment. You can buy the radios at electronics stores now, and even Wal-Mart. The two companies have slightly different tactics for their road to profitability, and the competition should be clean and healthy, a fun fight for both parties. Some critics say people will just use mp3 players instead, but getting exposed to new music, talk, and news is still a big draw for radio. And mp3 players still have some overhead for obtaining and arranging your music, whereas radio music plays without any fuss. Now a combo satellite, FM, AM, TV-audio, mp3 player with Tivo-like-capabilities...that would be perfect.
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Monday, June 02, 2003

The phone number of the new Apple Store in Bellevue, WA is the same as that of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, except for the area code. Has Apple already reserved the 206 version of Gates' (I assume) unlisted Medina, WA number for use when they open a store in Seattle?
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Historical maps galore of New York City and Long Island. Think back to a time when maps of a town included the name of each property owner. You can see the pattern of families who divided up parcels or, perhaps, purchased adjoining lots. You can also marvel at the plethora of "Smiths." (via Anil's purple sidebar)
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It's the time of year to cull what wisdom we can from those commencement speeches that few college graduates remember clearly after they descend from their ivory towers. As always, I start with my own shiny tower where this year NPR's Linda Wertheimer gave some election advice: "I would suggest, vote all women. Generally speaking, they haven't been around long enough to be seriously evil." At Trinity College, Garry Trudeau exhorted graduates to "go forth and raise hell" as "Civilization has always advanced in the shimmering wake of its discontents." Opera singer Renee Fleming totaled up a statistic that Julliard students may not have wanted to sum up: "Those of you who perform - musicians and dancers - will have by now practiced perhaps 3,000 hours a year, times 15 years, which equals 45,000 hours." As a group she calculated that the graduates had practiced 11 million hours. Thus she encouraged them to make it time well spent: "Challenge the idea that the arts are for a select few - teach, make more people love what you love, and help them to understand why you dedicated those 11 million hours in the first place." (more commencement excerpts from the New York Times)
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