Is it a trend yet? Altec Lansing has decorated earbuds with crystals, essentially turning them into earrings.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic for the ol’ fashioned world wide web so I did some quick searches to find personal sites for: a sugar packet collection, a tea bag collection, and an eraser collection. Remember when the web was just real people with home pages? Oh, and their cats.

Wikipedia lists more than ten variants of Mahjong and I have no idea which one I was taught, though I have some idea of which ones I wasn’t.

For baseball minor leaguers from Latin America, developing the experience to get to the major leagues may be their main goal, but learning how to get by in American culture and the English-speaking environment of airports, restaurants, and baseball terminology is also important. It’s deemed so critical by the Seattle Mariners’ management that their new Latin American players and prospects attend mandatory classes on how to assimilate into the culture. Instructor Becky Schnakenberg teaches them how to navigate airports, menus, umpire calls, and even dating.

If the falling dollar isn’t discouraging you from visiting Europe, Rick Steves has a round-up of what’s new in the old world. New museums, closed museums, changed museum hours, “rangers” at the Cliffs of Moher, new non-smoking laws (even in France!), faster trains, new funiculars, it’s all in there. The ABBA museum opens in June, by the way, and you can book your tickets online now.

Lots of fascinating marine animal data is showcased at the Tagging of Pacific Predators website. The different types of tracking tags are described halfway down the About page, and there are of course maps and data galore on the 11 species currently under surveillance. One of them is the juvenile white shark released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in February who apparently high-tailed it down to Cabo in time for spring break.

Chef William Belickis is closing Seattle’s famed Mistral Restaurant (we’ve actually eaten there), but don’t panic, he has plans for a new place. According to a P.I. food writer, he’s thinking of a place with different areas for different types of dining: short stops for a drink & snack, a relaxed meal with friends, fine dining, haute cuisine, and a place in the kitchen for the severely serious foodies.

Baseball and peanuts go together like peanut butter and jelly. But peanuts don’t go well with the 1.5 million Americans who are allergic to them. Peanut dust and shells drifting across the seats and floors of baseball stadiums provide no comfort to those who are at risk of anaphylactic shock from just a small amount of exposure to peanuts. A few major league baseball venues have been kind enough to set aside nut-free zones for a few games a season so that fans, often young kids, can enjoy America’s pastime without worry. Skyboxes, executive lounges, or a section of seats are cleaned and set aside as safe zones. The Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, and Washington Nationals are among the teams that have thus enabled parents to take their peanut-allergic kids to the ballgame.

How is managing a hospital like building cars? Ask the staff at Virginia Mason, a Seattle area hospital where managers were sent to study Toyota’s “lean manufacturing” system. Since their first trip in 2002, the staff has implemented several process changes to eliminate wasted time and supplies, improve productivity, and of course provide better care for patients. Their improvements center around improving workflows, taking care of problems and communications immediately, and making sure staff and tools are used efficiently. The return has been impressive, productivity has increased by 93%, lab results get to patients 85% faster, and inventory costs have been lowered by $1 million. Hospital CEO Dr. Gary Kaplan pictures a future when a patient goes from the parking garage straight to their appointment, with no waiting room in between. I suppose that will allow for a savings in magazine subscriptions as well.

On March 24th the Olympic flame will be lit in Greece. Between then and August 8th, the Olympic torch will travel the world, making one stop in North America on April 9th. The USOC chose San Francisco, location of the U.S.’ oldest Chinatown and one of the largest in North America, home of many Olympians, and as yet unsuccessful bidder for Olympic host, as the sole visit for the flame. They claim to have “absolutely anticipated” the fact that San Francisco is also, as the Chronicle politely puts it, “known worldwide for its spirit of protest and dissent.” But I’m not sure if they truly thought through how spirited this protest and dissent may be, as the USOC also said that no one has protested at a U.S. torch run before. The city is currently keeping the details of route and time secret and denying permits for demonstrations. They will instead set aside “free-speech zones.” I think we’ll be seeing torch bearers with a close security detail.