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)

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)

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.