Product placements of consumer goods in movies are commonplace. And nowadays real-life high-tech devices are advanced enough to be featured in the movies. No more mocked up wristwatch TV when you could have the real thing. So tech companies are pushing product placements like RSA’s key-sized ID device. Meanwhile (further down in the article), TiVo is so hot with those in the television industry that it is popping up on all the popular shows as part of the vernacular. The company claims that it hasn’t pursued product placement, but I wouldn’t be surprised if TiVo units are often a part of those Hollywood party overstuffed goody baskets that I always read about. In fact, a unit was part of the the 2000 Emmys loot.

Flor de Sal
If you’ve watched any of the current generation of cooking shows, you are familiar with the ubiquitous pleas from celebrity chefs to use “unsalted butter please”, “kosher salt”, “unbleached flour”, and the everpresent “EVO” (extra virgin olive oil). You also get exposed to ritzy ingredients like Meyer Lemons, Valrhona and Callebaut chocolate, and fleur de sel. This latter ingredient, an expensive finishing touch, is harvested in Brittany. But in the March issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Corby Kummer seeks out a “wonderfully sweet and nuanced” salt, cheaper than the French stuff, harvested from salt marshes in Portugal.

Two graduate students wanted to use these salt marshes to produce algae that creates natural dyes. But they first had to restore the neglected wetlands on the property. So the salt pans were brought back to production quality and a remarkably white “flor de sal” was the result. Unfortunately, Portuguese law places their salt, high in healthy minerals not allowed in Portugal’s classification of “table salt”, into a category “fit only for dumping on roads.” So it cannot be legally sold at prices that will recoup their costs. The government is being petitioned and the two entrepreneurs are hoping to get back to their algae project someday soon. Will we hear about this “flor de sal” in the next crop of cooking shows? Keep an eye out for it.

Legal Double Eagle
When is a $20 gold coin worth $6 million? Apparently when it is illegal to own it, or, more exactly, was formerly illegal. Sotheby’s is holding a single lot auction on July 30th, solely for the purposes of selling “the only 1933 Double Eagle now or ever authorized for private ownership by the United States Government.” These 1933 coins were ordered destroyed after Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6260 which prohibited banks from paying out gold, taking the U.S. off of the gold standard. However, ten of them are known to have mysteriously disappeared from the mint. Nine were discovered and destroyed. Another, perhaps this one, surfaced at auction in 1954, but the sale was halted by the U.S. government. The coin was not destroyed, however, and it is believed to be the one that surfaced again in 1996 when a respected British dealer tried to sell it to Secret Service agents posing as coin collectors. After five years of legal bickering, the U.S. is allowing this Sotheby auction, and turning this one coin into legal tender. The sale price will be increased by $20 which will go to the United States Treasury, effectively sealing the legality of this much traveled piece of gold history.

I’ve had late rehearsals all week, so I’m taking a day off from the weblog. Have a pleasant weekend!

Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory “combines the processes of classic industrial-scale automotive production with manual craft tasks.” Customers can follow the assembly of their Phaeton, a top of the line sedan, through the facility which has “27,500 square metres of glazed facades in a production area covering 55,000 square meters”. No, the car isn’t transparent, just the factory.

Colored plastic cell phone faceplates are a significant moneymaker for companies like Nokia. They cost almost nothing to churn out, and retail for $20 or more. And the target market is teenagers, some of who buy more than one. Wildseed is putting a new twist on the faceplate market by making them “smart”. With the help of SIM (subscriber identification module) cards, their “smart skins” will have customizable features. Imagine a Coca-Cola sponsored skin with a special ring tone, marketing offers via text messaging, and custom games. Wildseed will have to get the interest of sponsors, wireless providers, and the cell-toting teens, so they may have a rough road ahead.

The Mercury News ran a business article about the decline of the kimono manufacturing industry. Sales on Muromatchi Street, where the kimono dealers of Kyoto are located, are estimated to have fallen by almost $1 billion in the past five years. A mid-range kimono goes for $3,800 and involves the skilled crafts of weaving, dying, tailoring, and designing. Only those people involved in the traditional ceremonies and professions are still purchasing them. One can hope that the skills will be passed down to a few in the next generation before all the techniques are lost.

Randy Cohen‘s weekly NY Times Magazine column, entitled “The Ethicist”, was a puzzling amusement to me when I first noticed it reprinted in the Mercury News. It reminded me of Judith Martin’s “Miss Manners” in that it imparted advice firmly rooted in common sense with the sparkle of a witty writing style. I wondered “Who is this guy? How did he get this job?” and sometimes on my grumpy days “Who the heck does he think he is anyway?” But I always find his advice sound and reasonable. I figured he was some university ethics professor. Well, as I found in a Yale Daily News article, he’s not. Cohen has no formal training in ethics. He was a music composition major. And, here’s what really threw me, he spent seven years writing for “Late Night with David Letterman”. He wrote for “The Rosie O’Donnell Show”. Basically, he’s a writer. It makes sense. Many people can tell you what the right thing to do is, and they may indeed be right, but the person that is able to clearly express why it is the right thing to do will win you over. (via MediaNews)

A marvelous site, Gigposters “is dedicated to the artists, designers and musicians who create amazing gig posters to advertise shows and events.” It’s even fun to browse through bands that you are unfamiliar with to see the various artistic styles. (via xBlog)

When I was learning grade school math, my brother used to say “chisenbop” whenever he noticed me using my fingers to count. I never investigated what that meant besides “using your fingers to count,” which was deemed a bad thing to do. (One of my friends admitted to using her tongue and teeth to keep track of her numbers in an inconspicuous manner.) Well, as we all know, if it exists, the web usually defines it, and chisenbop has been duly described and defined by Andy Harris. There are even streaming media tutorials on how to use this technique. So if I ever take up counting on my hands again, at least I’ll know how to do it the proper way. (via Memepool)