Things I’ve Learned From Bad Dreams (first in a potential series)

When the president is on every channel of the television, he will continue to appear on the screen even if you turn it off. Unplugging the TV does not help. Throwing bricks at it is not advised.

If two tigers regularly prowl about your property looking for tasty treats, you must disclose this fact if you are selling your home. However, if you are selling a condiminium, you are not legally obligated to tell potential buyers about any tigers.

Never sleep in the dishwasher.

The Museum of Ancient Inventions, virtually housed at Smith College, grew out of a course on the history of science. Students in the Ancient Inventions course researched and constructed all the items. Some are surprisingly sophisticated. There’s a coin-operated machine that dispenses holy water, a battery, and a steam engine. (via whim & vinegar)

Did you know that grapefruit juice is not the best way to wash down certain prescription pills? In simplified terms, grapefruit juice increases the absorption of some medicines, which is sometimes not how they are intended to work, and in rare cases can be life-threatening. These pages go into more detail about the science behind the interactions and also some deaths that have resulted from it. Although I can’t verify all the information presented by that site, there is a list of references at the end.

Snarkout’s latest post has some interesting links for environmentally friendly homes: solar shingles, efficient windows, and bamboo flooring.

I have not been watching baseball closely enough. I just learned about the traditional ball flip to the first baseman from this article. “In every major-league game, each time the side is retired and the first baseman trots off the field, someone in the dugout tosses him a ball. It is the infield warm-up ball.” What other bits of baseball heritage have I been missing and what has been lost to the ages? On the opposite end, new baseball trends, the Oakland A’s pitching coach has been working with a sports medicine surgeon to map pitching motions and analyze the movements of good pitching. They hope to reduce injuries and keep the pitching staff in good form.

Violinist Joshua Bell was featured on Prairie Home Companion this past weekend. You can listen to his segments from the show in Real Audio format. Josh has been working with the MIT Media Lab’s Hyperinstruments Group on their HyperViolin.

Product placements of consumer goods in movies are commonplace. And nowadays real-life high-tech devices are advanced enough to be featured in the movies. No more mocked up wristwatch TV when you could have the real thing. So tech companies are pushing product placements like RSA’s key-sized ID device. Meanwhile (further down in the article), TiVo is so hot with those in the television industry that it is popping up on all the popular shows as part of the vernacular. The company claims that it hasn’t pursued product placement, but I wouldn’t be surprised if TiVo units are often a part of those Hollywood party overstuffed goody baskets that I always read about. In fact, a unit was part of the the 2000 Emmys loot.

Flor de Sal
If you’ve watched any of the current generation of cooking shows, you are familiar with the ubiquitous pleas from celebrity chefs to use “unsalted butter please”, “kosher salt”, “unbleached flour”, and the everpresent “EVO” (extra virgin olive oil). You also get exposed to ritzy ingredients like Meyer Lemons, Valrhona and Callebaut chocolate, and fleur de sel. This latter ingredient, an expensive finishing touch, is harvested in Brittany. But in the March issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Corby Kummer seeks out a “wonderfully sweet and nuanced” salt, cheaper than the French stuff, harvested from salt marshes in Portugal.

Two graduate students wanted to use these salt marshes to produce algae that creates natural dyes. But they first had to restore the neglected wetlands on the property. So the salt pans were brought back to production quality and a remarkably white “flor de sal” was the result. Unfortunately, Portuguese law places their salt, high in healthy minerals not allowed in Portugal’s classification of “table salt”, into a category “fit only for dumping on roads.” So it cannot be legally sold at prices that will recoup their costs. The government is being petitioned and the two entrepreneurs are hoping to get back to their algae project someday soon. Will we hear about this “flor de sal” in the next crop of cooking shows? Keep an eye out for it.

Legal Double Eagle
When is a $20 gold coin worth $6 million? Apparently when it is illegal to own it, or, more exactly, was formerly illegal. Sotheby’s is holding a single lot auction on July 30th, solely for the purposes of selling “the only 1933 Double Eagle now or ever authorized for private ownership by the United States Government.” These 1933 coins were ordered destroyed after Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6260 which prohibited banks from paying out gold, taking the U.S. off of the gold standard. However, ten of them are known to have mysteriously disappeared from the mint. Nine were discovered and destroyed. Another, perhaps this one, surfaced at auction in 1954, but the sale was halted by the U.S. government. The coin was not destroyed, however, and it is believed to be the one that surfaced again in 1996 when a respected British dealer tried to sell it to Secret Service agents posing as coin collectors. After five years of legal bickering, the U.S. is allowing this Sotheby auction, and turning this one coin into legal tender. The sale price will be increased by $20 which will go to the United States Treasury, effectively sealing the legality of this much traveled piece of gold history.

I’ve had late rehearsals all week, so I’m taking a day off from the weblog. Have a pleasant weekend!