The Musee Mecanique has found a temporary home at Fishermen’s Wharf. Interestingly, Disneyland “expressed interest” in housing the collection at California Adventure. Let’s hope the permanent home negotiations with the National Park Service go well.

A cat is stuck in a tree in the town next to ours. The owners of the tree are paying about $350 to have landscapers in a cherry-picker try to rescue it. It’s been there almost a week. And they don’t know whose cat it is!

I’m always suspicious of motives, sometimes overly so. When I browsed through the fluffy Parade Magazine that comes with the Sunday paper and read about Rob Lowe’s involvement in cancer research working with Amgen (this was in the “In Step With” column), my first thought was “shill! shill!”. Bells rang in my head when he said “I’m not endorsing any medicine…[but] talk to your doctor about infection…” But the article also mentioned that he has lost relatives to cancer and his dad has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, so I felt guilty about my cynicism. Then I read in Salon that Lowe has “recently embarked on a drug-company sponsored awareness campaign for a cancer-related illness called febrile neutropenia that will reportedly net him $1 million.” My cynicism came back. I appreciate that people can get paid (and paid well) to raise awareness, so I don’t fault him or anyone for making money hawking anything. But it’s good to know all the motives. When he says he’s not endorsing any medicine, but he clearly is “raising awareness” for Amgen’s Neulasta, it makes me feel duped. Raise your own awareness about health issues and products by researching why people say what they say. Lowe has good intentions, I’m sure, but he’s being paid too.

Even more forward motion has been announced on the issue of trans-fat labeling. The Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, released a report on Trans Fatty Acids yesterday (report in PDF format). The report lists funding from various U.S. and Canadian public service groups (e.g. FDA, NIH) and a “Dietary Intakes Corporate Donors’ Fund” which has contributors like Roche Vitamins and M&M; Mars. The finding of the report which has weighty bearing on the FDA’s plan to alter food labels is that there is no safe level of trans fats to recommend for people’s diets. You know how the nutrition labels have a “% Daily Value” column? Well, that doesn’t work when the RDA of trans fat is a big fat zero. Despite a suggestion to combine the saturated and trans fat amounts and keep an RDA, the FDA food labeling chief is currently maintaining that there will be a separate line. Will it be clear that no amount of trans fat is good for you? And how furiously will the food industry fight back against this new policy? Trans fat is everywhere in processed foods, and it is about to be brought out of hiding.

A SF Chronicle writer tested out the Sirius satellite radio service and found it similar to the XM system he tested in November. The main difference was that he installed the XM himself in a 1993 Chevy company car, whereas the Sirius system he tested arrived preinstalled in a new BMW X5 SUV. We now know who’s putting their PR money where it counts. Both have CD quality sound, decent coverage, and similar station lineups. Sirius is a little more expensive because it is commercial-free. Both are using ground repeaters to enhance coverage; XM has many more since it has one less satellite up there. Will we soon be buying radio the same way we buy cable/satellite TV? (for satellite radio news, check out the SatRadio weblog)

I’ve been wondering how old the tree in front of our house is. It is an American Sycamore, which means it will drop seed balls all over the lawn every year. It isn’t huge, but it probably was planted by early owners, if not the original owners of our house, which was built in the 1950s. Although a home inspector told us that the roots were not going to disturb the foundation, I don’t know if he meant not in the near future or not in twenty years. For that reason, I wish the tree was a little further away from the house, but it does offer ample shade. I stumbled across an article in The Washington Post about determining the age of trees. Many trees aren’t as old as people would like to assume. With good conditions trees can grow large in a short amount of time. An increment borer can be used to take a core sample and read the growth rings, but it can harm the tree. We seem to be over-eager to place historical significance in trees when they are not actually as old as we’d like to believe.

Alton-Brown-Watch: Looks like he’s doing a few benefits and a mini-tour of Sur La Table cooking classes later this year. Mark your calendars. (also noted: Alton-Brown’s-Watch)

This goes in the “learn something new every day” department for me: “Mohawk ironworkers have built bridges and skyscrapers throughout the United States and Canada for more than 100 years.” The National Museum of the American Indian has a photography exhibit that covers the past and present of ironworkers who came from the Akwesasne and Kahnawake communities. Mohawks began working on bridges in the mid-1800’s and have helped construct the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, George Washington Bridge, World Trade Center and, currently, the AOL Time Warner towers. (source: NY Times)

The Glass Museum in Tacoma, Washington had its grand opening this past weekend. The docent training includes drama techniques as professional actors will be adding theatrical elements to the tours. Dale Chihuly’s website has photos of the 500-foot-long Bridge of Glass. It was commissioned by the museum and gifted to the city.

A NY Times article lists retailers who are getting wired, or should I say unwired, up with radio frequency identification. 5.5 million people have signed up for Exxon Mobil’s Speedpass, which lets them buy gas and convenience store items at 7,500 of their 16,000 locations. McDonald’s is testing Speedpass at 400 locations in Chicago. Personal preferences can be stored with the account, so if you like a plain burger you may not have to say “just the meat and the bun” again. Phillips Petroleum and Shell Canada are testing systems, but Shell in the U.S. ended its trials this year. McDonald’s tests have been successful enough for them to try two other systems, FreedomPay, and a hookup with E-ZPass that allows people with the automatic toll paying devices to buy burgers at the drive-through window. Imagine a standing morning order at a drive-through coffee shop. Just pass through on your way to work, pick up your latte, and get back on the road in seconds.