Hip hip hooray! Our cable modem service has been restored. We’ve lost our static IP and there’s a 1.5 Mbps download speed cap (there was already a 128kbps upload cap), but once you’ve had always-on broadband, you take what you can get.

I’ve been known to experience yearnings for a buttery soft leather purse or a finely tailored pocketbook. These coveted items are typically $200-$300 in comparison to my usual budget of $30-$50 for a handbag. But way up within the range of the high and mighty, or the less well-off victims of fashion, the bag that is currently deemed worthy of desire is $5,300. That is the price of a Birkin from Hermès. The lofty price tag is not the only barrier. There is an eight month waiting list, and the list is often closed unless, perhaps, you’re a Mrs. Seinfeld as Kate Betts reveals for the NY Times. Artificial or not, the scarcity does have some basis in the intensive hand manufacturing methods employed by the Paris saddle manufacturer that, like its counterpart Gucci, discovered the gold mine in luxury goods with a horsey provenance.

Hermès trains their leather craftsmen for five years before they can begin a Birkin. With the labor intensive work and the 35 hour work week imposed by the French government, output is limited. A UK Observer article goes behind the scenes, with not-for-PETA peeks at how the ostrich, calf, crocodile, and shark hides are carefully cut to provide only the highest quality materials. Workers hoard their tools, passing them onto favored apprentices. The result is a product that lasts generations. It is the heirloom silver of handbags, passed from mother to daughter, sent back to the factory for careful refurbishing. Despite the current trendiness and bloated pricing, the old world craftsmanship does demand respect.

Walrus, cobra, koala, or penguin? Vote for which animal should be added to Barnum’s Animal Crackers. (penguin. penguin. penguin.) I think your vote gets counted even if you don’t enter the private info for the contest. (penguin)

With @Home having cut off AT&T; Broadband customers, I am back to a 56K modem. It is interesting to discover how my habits had acclimated to “always on, very fast” Internet access. Doing a little research to spur on a thought for a dinner recipe no longer has low enough overhead to maintain my train of thought. And I have visited the foodtv.com home page twice and left before it had a chance to fully load. Checking my email is back to being more of an event than a side activity. AT&T; is claiming that they will restore service within 10 days. 850,000 users provisioned in 10 days. If they pull that off and the speed is back to what it was before, I’ll be very impressed.

The SF Chronicle is declaring that Krispy Kremes have made the “crossover” into “capturing the carriage trade”, which is a rare feat for a doughnut. With a wine pairing of Silver Oak Cellars’ 1997 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and availability at high-end supermarkets, this Southern comfort food is conquering the West Coast yuppie palate.

40 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.
28.1 million of those people are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
47% of the adults living with HIV or AIDS worldwide are women.
2.7 million children have AIDS (2.4 million in Sub-Saharan Africa).
AIDS caused the deaths of 3 million people in 2001.
21.8 million people have died from AIDS.
Today is World Aids Day.
(data from the UNAID’s latest statistics, all noted as estimates)

The National Automatic Merchandising Association has a timeline that chronicles the history of vending machines. It begins in 215 B.C. with a device that dispensed holy water in Egypt. Then in 1076 A.D. there was a coin-operated pencil vending machine in China. But I am having trouble figuring out what they mean by “pencil”. I suppose it refers to some sort of writing implement, but I assume brushes were commonly used and certainly not our modern pencil which was invented, most likely, in England. Creators of early Chinese writing made use of carving and sticks, but what was a “pencil” in 1076 A.D.? (thanks eft)

I was fascinated by this page of moving mechanism blueprints created with Java applets. The illustrations have a lot of appeal even if you aren’t into mechanics. The one everyone should recognize is the “hookless fastener” (aka the zipper). I take a lot of things for granted that have to do with amazing mechanical creations. (thanks Pavel)

Spreading the geeknews: Need more animals on your shelf? O’Reilly books are 43% off for a limited time at Bookpool. Even if your company pays for ’em, with this economy why not save them some moola? (via BrainLog)

Elephants are pregnant for 21 months? Wow. The National Zoo has a new Asian elephant and he is a cutie. His father lives at a park in Calgary, Canada; Mom was artificially inseminated. His birth weight was 325 pounds, but he is expected to gain 2 pounds a day so he won’t stay itsy bitsy cute for long.