Your fast food burger may one day come in an algae container. Alginsulate is a packaging and insulating foam created by puffing up dried brown algae. It is biodegradable and not appetizing to mice and insects, which is a problem for packaging made from corn and potatoes. Alginates are the same seaweed derivatives that are used to thicken ice cream. There’s a pilot plant now in operation to produce Alginsulate and more applications are being considered.
Yeah, I know, it’s another cat in distress story. I’m just a sucker for ’em. This time, though, the cat isn’t stuck up in a tree. This one got stuck in a puddle of asphalt. Ouch! Two jars of mayonnaise and one container of dishwashing detergent helped to pry off two pounds of asphalt from the little kitten. I don’t think this cutie will have to wait long for an owner with an “awwww” inspiring rescue story like this. (thanks Jen!)
There are new Best of Bowie CDs coming out this month, but Bowie compilations with past releases aren’t that exciting for me (except for that snazzily packaged Sound+Vision set). However, there is also a Best of Bowie DVD coming out in November. DVD means videos! 47 songs, 2 discs. Everything from old “Top Of The Pops” performances to the requisite Ziggy Stardust movie bit, to that embarrassing butt-bumping “Dancing In The Street” video with Mick Jagger, and of course all the new stuff that isn’t classic yet. This totally makes up for all the MTV I didn’t get to watch in the 1980s (we didn’t have cable). Like, totally.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has opened in Egypt, after years of effort to bring it to fruition. The original Library of Alexandria, founded in the fourth century BC, had in the neighborhood of 700,000 papyrus manuscripts by the middle of the first century BC. These were all catalogued and shelved alphabetically by author. It was an unbelievable collection, unlike anything known at the time. Alas, the library was eventually destroyed by fire. A “daughter library” that had been built for additional storage was deemed “pagan” by Christian rulers in early 400 AD and was also lost. It wasn’t until 1974 that the University of Alexandria began planning a replacement library. UNESCO got involved in 1986. Snohetta was awarded the architecture contract after an open competition and their design is certainly fitting for a monument to knowledge. It currently houses 240,000 volumes, so it has a ways to go to catch up, but it is also counting on the Internet Archive to boost its electronic holdings. Their website is available in Arabic, French, and English.
Cracking toast, Gromit! Steve linked to a set of info from BBC News on the new Wallace & Gromit shorts. Here’s the press release with AtomFilms. The first episode is available for free. The package of ten episodes plus a “making of” video will be released on October 22nd for a one-time fee of $9.95, exclusively in the Windows Media video format. Don’t despair Mac folks, despite what you may think, there is actually a Windows Media player for MacOS (Solaris too!).
The Washington Post offers a look into the economics of college financial aid. According to this article, top tier colleges who attract the top students only offer discounts to those who can not afford the sizeable tuition. The schools below the top tier used to behave similarly, but over the last 15 years have caught onto the ideas taught in their Econ 101 courses. Instead of using financial aid merely in a charitable capicity, colleges are employing it as a tool for attracting better students to their schools. Desirable applicants get preferred packages with more grants than loans, and marginal applicants may be accepted if they agree to pay full price. The resulting offers make it difficult for parents and students to determine what the best value is for their situation. Is the school with the bigger reputation that is offering not much aid worth it over the not so bad school that’s offering a hefty discount? Schools may employ help from “student enrollment management” experts to package their deals. I suspect parents are calling financial advisers for help on their side. (bonus links: Harvard’s financial aid information; many top schools continue with “need-blind” admissions, despite the financial hurdles; Brown, the only Ivy without need-blind admissions has plans to change)
How can you pass up a headline like: “Spacewoman Stuck in Orbit with Too Much Shrimp“? Peggy Whitson, an American astronaut on the space station planned to have 40 shrimp meals during her stay (she’s just had her 130th day in orbit), but found that she didn’t care for shrimp in space as much as she did back on the ground. Her Russian cosmonaut friends are happily helping her out with this dilemma. In related news, Pamela Melroy and the rest of the space shuttle crew, were awakened Friday by a song recognizeable by many a Wellesley alum (of which Melroy is one): “Oh Thou Tupelo,” performed by the Wellesley College Choir. Ahhh.
A couple years ago I read about Anna Morris who works as a hotel concierge at the Westin Santa Clara. I’m not sure why I did not link to her story then, but I ran across it again today and I’m not letting it go this time. Anna Morris provides the usual concierge services, making restaurant reservations, getting theater tickets, recommending sights. But she does this all from the convenience of her own home, 75 miles away in Antioch. The Westin did not want to lose her abilities when she went on maternity leave so they agreed to a plan she concocted to do her job via video conferencing technology. She works a split shift, which allows her to be available during the two chunks of time her services are most needed. When she steps away, she displays a PowerPoint slide on the flat plasma monitor. And she likes to wear slippers while she works.
With a clientele of “a number of three-letter agencies,” Virage is poised to capitalize on their video indexing and searching technology. They wouldn’t mind if their products were also popularized in the public sector. Imagine being able to search television programming for keywords, or videotaped conference proceedings for relevant topics. I would be surprised if Google soon added a “TV/Radio” tab. At the very least it would be great to have automatically generated transcripts of specific programs that could then be keyword searched like any text document. Imagine having all the information broadcast on NPR shows also available for searching.
There is a purveyor of psychic readings not far from our house, and we noticed that there has been no shortage of cars in the parking lot recently. When the economy goes down, business goes up for psychics. San Francisco area psychics are getting more requests to reveal their customers’ futures in business instead of love. A spokesman for The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal says “People turn to irrational beliefs in times of uncertainty — when pressure is on financially for people they’re attracted to paranormal and irrational beliefs.” It would seem that survival in bad times would benefit more from rational behavior, but perhaps anything that may spur creative energies is helpful when you’ve had little luck.