Search a database of 30,000 kosher foods. You can even search by rabbi name. (via Library Stuff)

Frying an egg on a CPU. 11 minutes on a copper coin heatsink. (via misnomer)

A Korean couple met and fell in love while playing Diablo II. They got married this past Sunday. (via eatonweb)

The Guerilla Girls have taken their Anatomically Correct Oscar, designed for The Nation in 1999, and put him up on a Hollywood billboard. Whether or not you agree with their poster campaigns, perhaps they will make you stop a minute and think about why women are under-represented in the positions of power in the arts.

I caught live views of the New York City skyline from the Staten Island webcam. They have streaming video and still image shots. The 88 beams of light that form the two towers of the “Tribute in Light” memorial will be lit from dusk until 11 p.m. every night until April 13.

The Humanities Media Interface Project at Keio University in Japan has been producing high-resolution digital images of old texts, such as the Gutenberg Bibles at the British Library. They are now working on a first edition of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The creation of the digital images is surprisingly swift. 1,300 pages of the bibles were photographed in just 4 days. The team can obtain even higher resolution results using scanning cameras instead of “single shot”.
(Note: The web pages displayed fine on my browser without installing Japanese characters.)

Many of us have specialized knowledge that can clutter our movie-watching enjoyment. When I’m watching movies or TV shows I pick up inconsistencies and mistakes in portrayals of instrumentalists and use of computers. Many people in the Silicon Valley audience laughed as we watched Tom Cruise’s Macintosh and Laserwriter make noises they were incapable of during “The Firm.” And I am still trying to figure out how Sigourney Weaver managed to play the cello in “Ghostbusters” with her tight skirt on. But Mike Simonson has knowledge that can apply to many a movie. He’s a graphic designer with a special fondness for typeface design. His article “Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies” points out movie bloopers that I would never have picked out in a million viewings. Film makers may pay attention to authenticity of costumes and props, but modern typefaces have found their way into films that took place before their time. (via xBlog)

Looking for a classic apprenticeship? How about learning about the art of casting type? Lewis Mitchell is seeking to pass on his knowledge in the area of typecasting. It’s a profession that should be kept alive in our age of electronic presses. Letterpress printing is a niche luxury market, so learning to cast type could keep you clothed and perhaps not too shabbily if you market your wares well. (via rebecca’s pocket)

Many orchestra and band musicians, particularly in the Silicon Valley, have envisioned an electronic sheet music display system, preferably networked to the conductor and other members of your section. It would allow you to easily share annotations, bowings, fingerings, changes, and even keep time, if that is necessary! Well, many have talked about it, some may have even sketched it out on napkins, but Harry Connick Jr, went ahead and implemented it. He even patented it. US Patent 6,348,648 covers “A system and method for coordinated music composition and display among musicians.” His system uses G3 Power Macs and had the help of his neighbor, David Pogue. His patent also covers the handwriting recognition aspect of his system where the score can be edited and quickly shared with the other players. Connick has a big advantage over other performance groups since he is writing his scores himself on Finale. Transferring the classical orchestral repertoire to electronic form is very possible, but a daunting task when you consider all the different versions, markings, and copyright issues involved. Hopefully Connick will be lenient with his licensing fees for the good of cash-poor orchestras everywhere. (from NY Times Patents column)

The Museum at Old-Computers.com has 535 computers catalogued in their online collection. The photos are accompanied by technical details, and a paragraph or sometimes much more of recollections, often from former owners, of the model’s life and times. (via memepool)