NASA has been successful in reducing the sonic boom created by an aircraft. A redesigned skin and nose of a Navy F-5E jet produced a “dull thud” instead of a sharp crack. The hope is that supersonic aircraft will be able to travel over land without noise issues, not only for passenger travel but for stealth military travel as well.

With Fry’s comfortably ensconced in Renton, I am tempted to track other signs of impending, encroaching California civilization. Of course this means waiting for the arrival of In-N-Out Burger. The California burger joint, which I’ve witnessed converting strict vegetarians into beef-eaters, is wending its way through California, Arizona, and even Nevada, but hasn’t made it further up the coast yet. I’m not aware of any plans for expansion. However, Burgerville, a Vancouver, WA based chain, is planning to expand into the Seattle area. With Northwest beef, Tillamook cheese, marionberry milkshakes, and Walla Walla onion rings, Burgerville puts the spotlight on fresh, local ingredients. Jane and Michael Stern of Roadfood fame have sung its praises (though they seem partial to Dick’s Drive-In)

A treasure trove of Beatrix Potter artwork was brought to Antiques Roadshow (the original BBC version) in Dumfries, Scotland. The owner knew the watercolors and drawings were by the famous artist but had no idea they could be worth an estimated £250,000. The works, which pre-date her Peter Rabbit books, “show small animals like kittens or mice and rabbits set in human settings doing human things.” That’s Beatrix Potter all right.

Up in Canada the diamond mines are revving up production and HRA Investments Ltd. is gearing up too, with a venture for automating the cutting of diamonds. Computer software examines a rough gem and suggests the optimum cut. A robot can then be programmed to actually perform the cutting, and it can do in an hour what would take a human cutter one day to complete. How long will it be before we have a fully automated system with a diamond making machine attached to a robotic cutting device? Is it DeBeers’ worst nightmare or their vision for a sparkly future? (via Gizmodo)

Pipes, pipes, and more pipes. Zinc pipes, silver pipes, wooden pipes, tin pipes, lead pipes, and chimes too. This is the world of Carl Dodrill, vocation: neuropsychologist, avocation: restorer of pipe organs. Dodrill has founded the Pipe Organ Foundation to help preserve and place these instruments in suitable settings. Donations of organs and their parts are accepted to further their efforts in keeping this instrument alive for future generations.

For a last cooling blast of summertime, visit the digital watergun museum. (via memepool)

A prominent attraction at this year’s Bumbershoot Festival, the “Space Harp” was formed out of 6,000 feet of wire strung from the 200 foot level of the Space Needle. Created by MASS Ensemble‘s Bill Close, the harp was originally strung onto the Field Museum in Chicago in 1999. Since then, the group has attached this “world’s largest” string instrument to buildings across the U.S., the tallest so far being the Prudential Center in Boston at 700 ft. The harp is played by pulling down the length of a string with rosined gloves. The sound is deep and resonant. I spliced together a panoramic photograph of the entire length of the instrument. In this smaller photo you can see the curved wooden structure where the strings are attached in front.

Yellow hats, overnight campers, full parking lots, and a Valkyrie greeted shoppers at the opening of the East Palo Alto Ikea.

The Seattle library’s collection of old menus was perused by a Seattle Times food writer. The food and drink trends of past decades are revealed in the pages of long gone dining selections, along with their tiny prices. (past related link: Los Angeles Public Library searchable menu index)

It took me a few weeks, but I finally had the revelation that with Amazon.com headquartered in Seattle, the local menu selection for their restaurants feature would be very thorough. And indeed I’ve been able to pull up the menus for many places that I’ve noticed and wondered about. Now I can select Thai places which have a broad range of salads and search for yummy words like “risotto.”