XM Radio has patented a “Method and system for providing geographic specific services in a satellite communications network” (#US6347216) and the National Association of Broadcasters is very upset. They are expecting XM Radio to honor their pledge to stay out of the local radio programming business. But the technology covered by the patent allows them to determine a listener’s location with local repeaters and, presumably, offer local information and compete directly with broadcast radio. XM Radio says it still plans to offer only nationally syndicated programming. I’d venture a guess that local traffic and weather would be a nice future addition. (Note: the US Patent Office’s online database is down at the moment, so I used the database at Delphion, IBM’s intellectual property spinoff company)

Here is a PDF of the NAB’s official complaint to the FCC (854KB) which also has the complete patent attached to it. The FCC allowed XM to install the repeaters, something the NAB fought against.

How Stuff Works has detailed explanations of all three satellite radio providers and their technology. XM Radio has two Boeing satellites, named “Rock” and “Roll”, in parallel geostationary orbit. Sirius has three Loral satellites in “an inclined elliptical satellite constellation.” WorldSpace has a satellite over Africa, Asia, and plans for one to cover Central and South America.

IKEA won the East Palo Alto vote.

Women Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses, Amazons 1500-1650 is an exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. It uses the visual arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods to study how women of power were portrayed and depicted during those times. These works of art relate both the struggle of women to define their own images as well as artistic interpretations outside of the subject’s influence. (via Yahoo’s Picks)

Gourmet coffee at the office is a lingering afterglow of the “dot boom”. Rumors of expensive cappucino machines still float around. But not all high-tech companies provide free caffeine. Intel’s employees have to buy their own coffee, and over at WorldCom they voted to eliminate free coffee and $25 of free long distance calls per month instead of increasing their insurance payment contributions. Starbucks, Peet’s and FilterFresh have become the main players in supplying gourmet coffee to offices. Starbucks and Peet’s sign up partners to manage the delivery, while FilterFresh continues to buy up smaller vendors to increase its market share. Some people say coffee at work just isn’t the same as at the cafe, though. There’s a lack of consistency and quality control, not to mention the vastly different atmosphere.

What happens in your brain when you reach a meditative state? By using brain imaging on Buddhist monks, Dr. Andrew Newberg has discovered that meditation can lead to a decrease in activity in the part of the brain responsible for orientation and an increase in the area that is active when you focus on a specific task. This can certainly match the meditative experience of being outside of space and time. Dr. Newberg has been using research such as this to explain why humans continue to believe in the mystical and, indeed, in God. “Our brains may, in fact, be naturally calibrated to spirituality.” This trait may have been essential to our survival. Our reality of knowledge and emotions can be a scary place without faith, whether you place it in yourself or others. (This article reminded me of a Wired Magazine piece called “This Is Your Brain on God” which described Michael Persinger’s quest to invoke spiritual experiences by tickling people’s temporal lobes.)

My brother sent me an interesting article from Andante (a site I noted in September but promptly forgot to keep checking). It is about John Rockwell’s stepping down as editor of the NY Times’ Arts & Leisure section. Respected internationally as the definitive source for commentary on the performing arts, Arts & Leisure concentrated on an audience of both amateurs and professionals with “love and passion for the arts.” But Howell Raines, the new executive editor of the paper, apparently wants to appeal to more general audience. The section does cover pop culture along with what may be considered the more sophisticated arts, but culture editor John Darnton would like it to be more mainstream and provocative. Some are worried that the leadership shift will dumb the section down. I hope they realize that covering trends and being trendy are two different things.

From the vigilant NY Times, an update on the lack of TV reception in the Manhattan region. New York City is anticipating a hefty increase in franchise fees from the rise in cable subscribers following the loss of the World Trade Center antenna. With viewers signing up for cable instead, broadcast networks have felt less frantic about settling on replacement plans. But “in order to comply with federal mandates for over-the-air service and to house their digital transmitters” they will have to put a tower up somewhere, sometime.

Food writer Amanda Hesser is a recent favorite of mine, coming in for me on the heels of M.F.K. Fisher, with a refreshingly more modern bent. After noticing her NY Times Sunday Magazine “Food Diary” column, I poked around for every new Hesser article in the Food section and eagerly awaited her Sunday dispatches. I based our new coffeemaker purchase on her researched opinion and linked to her articles here at least twice. A couple weeks ago I had the epiphany that perhaps she had already written a book and discovered her lovely memoir/cookbook, “The Cook and the Gardener : A Year of Recipes and Writings for the French Countryside“, at the local library. I tried her asparagus risotto recipe. Yummy.

A man has been making frequent appearances in her “Food Diary” columns. She gave him a cute nickname at first, “Mr. Latte” (reminiscent of Fisher’s Chexbres). As the relationship progressed for the better, he became Tad (he’s actually New Yorker writer Tad Friend). And this past weekend, in a cleverly constructed column on the relationship between her cooking and her moods, she revealed that he was now her fiance. I shed happy tears.

More from and on Hesser:
Foodie to Watch
Finding Success (hard work and a little luck)
Corby Kummer on her cookbook
Hesser on Pilates

Hooray, here is a well-researched article on trans fats from the SF Chronicle. It includes newer information I had not yet heard about. Trans fat may be a large contributor to the oddly named “Syndrome X” which has been linked to a cell’s inability to process insulin. It is almost impossible to avoid trans fats in the American diet. Out of “140 varieties of crackers on a typical supermarket shelf, only three brands had no partially hydrogenated oil.” It is in “70 percent of cake mixes, 75 percent of chips and other salty snacks, 80 percent of frozen breakfast foods like waffles, and 95 percent of cookies.” Fifty percent of breakfast cereals have some. Keep reading those package side panels!

I did not realize that Sony owned a controlling interest in Aiwa. It is probably a lucky thing now, because they are not doing so well. Sony intends to buy out the remaining percentage it does not own and turn it into a subsidiary. This will probably mean more layoffs for Aiwa manufacturing, but the brand has a chance to live on.