If you’re missing the old White House web site already, various snapshots of Clinton White House web sites have been saved by the National Archives. Will the question “Under what administration was the first White House web site created?” be on a future AP US History exam? I suppose it’s more likely to pop up on Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

The other day I tripped, took a nice fall and hurt my knee (but saved the precious hands). It wasn’t until later in the day that I started laughing because I suddenly realized I had stumbled over the handicap ramp. (On a related note, I once saw an ad for a literary magazine that had a drawing of an old-fashioned iron with a slash through it — ie. “no irony”. I immediately thought “OK, there’s one magazine I’ll won’t bother sending my stuff to!”)

Odwalla redesigned their bottles and it doesn’t seem that they gave any thought to ergonomics. And their slogan is “juice for humans”? The quart bottles no longer have an indentation for your hand to rest in; I almost drop them when I grab them from the fridge. The handles on the half gallon jugs are small enough to squeeze maybe three of my fingers in. And the caps are now the “turn ’em really really hard the first time” variety instead of the pull off tab. That is not the best action for my aching wrists. Did anyone try using these bottles before they approved them? Or did the usual marketing tactics happen? “Hey, these are so pretty and distinctive and really stand out from all those imitations that have appeared.” Odwalla continues to ship the best tasting juice (I’ve tried a few other brands), but I can’t ignore their lack of consideration for the human factor. I may be adding regular trips to Trader Joe’s for their fresh orange juice instead.

Ketchup World has an impressive selection of ketchups. I came across the site today when I heard on the radio that ketchup was originally sold as a patent medicine. They bought a Google AdWord, so their link popped up when I did a condiment search. I have been using ketchup with lunch on Mondays (Hobee’s Eye Opener: scrambled eggs, chicken apple sausage, hash browns, zebra rye toast) and I know it’s got high fructose corn syrup, which isn’t the best sugar to consume. So perhaps I should test some other types. There is one made with honey and fruit sweetened varieties.

Vera does wonderful research (and writes it up, just like you have to in school!) in her weblog. Most recently she enlightens us about butter, guns, and a precursor to the slide rule. You can actually keep track of butter prices online. Which reminds me, the NY Times had an article on the difference between French and American butter. French butter has more butterfat and the premium ones are made with a time consuming process that includes a ripening period and churning in small batches. It makes a big difference for those yummy French pastries. There are some American butters that feature higher percentages of butterfat, and you may also be able to find imported butter at an upscale market.

Whew… I’ve been so busy I don’t know where I keep finding things to log. And then when I do find something and think it is quite lame, that is invariably the one that generates the most positive email. So goes Murphy’s Law. Anyway, this one came up on a mailing list I’m on. The National Arbor Day Foundation has online voting for America’s National Tree. Many trees are so symbolic of certain regions of the U.S. that it is hard for me to pick one that makes me think “America”. I have loved the dogwood trees of my native New England and gently cursed the imported palm trees in the place I now call home. I’ve yelled at schoolmates for peeling bark off of white birch trees and gawked in wonder at enormous redwoods up and down the western coast. For a true symbol of American hardiness, and because when I think “tree”, it’s what appears in my mind, I voted for the mighty oak.

Has the NY Times developed a quirky sense of humor? Or is the author of this article really named Jennifer 8. Lee? The article is about the demand for phone numbers with lucky digits in China. A man paid $2,500 for 8889988 at a charity auction. Cell phone stores advertise their best numbers. Discounted numbers (ending with unlucky 4s) are sold below cost. But there are customers who refuse to pay more for lucky numbers. At any rate, Jennifer 8. Lee is looking for prosperity in her byline, and it seems The Old Grey Lady is happy to play along. It’s not so grey anymore anyway with the color photos that still take me by surprise. (Update: Turns out Jennifer just has very cool parents! They wanted to give her a unique name, Jennifer Lee being very popular. So 8. it was. I had done a search in the NY Times archives for “Jennifer Lee” when I wrote the post to see if she usually used the 8, but the search engine was too smart and didn’t return any “Jennifer 8. Lee”s, just “Jennifer Lee” in a few places. But I should have searched for “Jennifer 8. Lee” to begin with. Actually I should have remembered I’ve read plenty of her 8. bylined articles already. Thanks for the info, Seth Gordon!)

The U.S. Postal Service has announced the Chinese Lunar New Year stamp. The Year of the Snake commences on January 24th. The snake stamp is actually pretty nice looking, considering it’s a snake. The cutest in the series was the bunny for the Year of the Hare. Stamp designs in the new 34 cent value seem pretty slim right now, so I’m glad they’re getting the Lunar New Year design out. I’m sure new designs are coming down the pipeline.

GeekT.org, Geek History through T-shirts. Wish I’d thought of that. I only wrote about my own (oh, so self-centered).

The Center for Cognitive Sciences at the University of Minnesota created a list of Cognitive Science’s Top 100 works. Included are such classics as “The magical number seven, plus or minus two”, “The information available in brief visual presentations” (which introduced iconic memory), and “Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects”. Other notable inclusions are Piaget’s work with children and the development of the mind, and Chomsky’s “A review of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior” which helped put behaviorism to rest. There are also a couple works that were published after I got my degree, which reminds me that I can’t continue to claim expert knowledge with such a new science if I don’t keep on top of the latest stuff.