King County, which contains Seattle and surrounding areas, keeps an up-to-date list of restaurants closed by the Public Health department. Re-openings are also listed.

Here’s a refreshing new wedding idea. Make your wedding cake a blank canvas for your guests to decorate. This couple provided flowers, gumdrops, sprinkles, and other candies. One guest brought action figures to represent the newlyweds. Wet naps were also provided for sticky fingers.

William Calvin, who writes engagingly about the brain and evolution, has a new book coming out in March. He’s a theoretical neurobiologist and most recently has been thinking a lot about the role of climate in evolution (his last book was A Brain for All Seasons). The new book, A Brief History of the Mind pulls together his previous themes of cultural change, climate shifts, and physical evolution into a journey through 7 million years of human thought, and even beyond.

Orchestras in European Union member countries need to begin protecting their musicians from sounds higher than 85 decibels, which is a reduction from the prior 90 decibels regulation. Depending on what instruments musicians have the (mis)fortune to sit in front of, they can experience sound in the 130 decibel range. The EU law allows for averaging of weekly exposure, and there is a transition period for adjusting to the regulation which began last year. Special earplugs, plexiglas screens, and alternate seating arrangements are among the possible solutions. Some European orchestras have formed “noise teams” to propose ideas. Repertoire changes are, of course, another way to reduce noise, but skipping the loudest pieces isn’t the ideal solution. Meanwhile, over on this side of the Atlantic, OSHA doesn’t deal much with the hazards of the musical workplace, but orchestras easily conform to the allowed 90 decibels over an 8 hour day, and a 97 decibel limit over 3 hours with their short bursts of peak blasts and limited rehearsal time. (source N.Y. Times)

Now there’s scientific proof that opera supertitles should probably be used for all languages, not just foreign ones. Researchers in Australia published findings last week which demonstrate that as sopranos sing higher, their pronunciation becomes distorted. The techniques they use to project the high notes, tuning their vocal tracts for the best resonance, come at the expense of their vowels sounding similar. There are other reasons for unintelligible lyrics, most notably, designing the reverberation of a music hall for both orchestral and vocal performance involves compromises. With non-supertitled opera, it’s best to just enjoy the beauty of the music and make sure to read up on the plot beforehand. (via Andante)

With winter in full swing, it’s an ideal time to visit the world of snowflake photography. Wilson Bentley was the first to take magnified photos of a snowflake crystal, and he published his technique for others to follow. Current pursuers of the fascinatingly beautiful art are nature photographer Mark Cassino, Caltech physics professor Ken Libbrecht (sometimes he grows his own flake designs in the lab) who published a book with photographer Patricia Rasmussen, and scientific photographer Ted Kinsman. The variations in the crystals are astounding with some surprisingly simple and of course the amazingly complex.

Seattle’s Finest Exotic Meats sells your more familiar exotic meats like frog legs, lamb, venison, and rabbit, and also truly exotic items (for mainstream America anyway) such as snapping turtle, rattlesnake, llama and kangaroo. (via larkfarm)

Feast your eyes on the beauty of the Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs. Fifty are believed to have been made, and nine of them are in a Forbes collection which will be auctioned off by Sotheby’s in April. Ten are in the Kremlin Armoury Museum. Eight are unaccounted for. The Forbes collection includes the elegantly simple Hen Egg, the first to be commissioned. It has a plain white exterior with a gold band. A gold hen sits inside. The subsequent eggs feature much more ornate detailing. One takes the form of a miniature orange tree sitting in a fancy planter, roped off with jeweled chains. My favorite, in terms of theme, is the pink egg encircled with lovely lily of the valley sprays. Estimates for the various eggs range from $3 to $24 million. Will they join their brethren in other collections of Imperial eggs, will they each go to a different new home? Will the missing eight ever show up?

The Vos Pad is “the world’s first apartment solely lit by LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes).” The NY Times wrote up a feature on this cleverly lit abode and speculated on the future of LEDs as replacements for incandescents. There’s more than LEDs to this high-tech Pad. Designed by Marcel Jean Vos, the apartment’s floors are cleaned by the Electrolux Trilobite, LCD screens are embedded in walls, the kitchen has sleek Neff appliances. Of course there’s a plasma screen television, computer controlled lighting, and a multi-room audio system. The 360 L.E.D. arrays and 20 yards of glowing semiconductors use the same energy as four 100-watt incandescent bulbs. Of course the cost of the lighting itself is still beyond practicality, but it’s still pretty slick.

Stonyfield Yogurt has been my favorite for a while. Back in October, Corby Kummer took a look at Stonyfield’s recent history, particularly their emphasis on organic ingredients. I had been concerned that Danone (Dannon)’s stake in the company would lead to some negative changes, but it seems that company head Gary Hirshberg is steadily working on his goals. The company has concentrated on creating market share in order to support sustainable, organic farming for both their dairy suppliers and even fruit growers. Instead of bending consumers tastes to a more natural, tangy yogurt, Stonyfield evolved bacterial cultures that were milder, less acidic. They are keeping in line with America’s sweet tooth, offering dessert-based flavors. It’s a pragmatic approach to coaxing our food manufacturing into healthy results and sustainable processes.