“Progressive Men Employ Progressive Methods” The text of the 1931 edition of “Songs of IBM” is online thanks to someone who understands the amazing power of the Internet as an archival medium. The site includes a wav file recording of employees singing “Ever Onward”. Some of the tunes may no longer be familiar, but there are plenty of lyrics written for well-known classics such as “Over There”, “Glory Glory Hallelujah”, and “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Times have certainly changed. (via /usr/bin/girl)

A couple of years ago, I lamented that American Express was not actually producing their Blue card as advertised with see-through plastic because of problems with ATM machines. Well, I held a recently issued one in my hand yesterday, and it was most definitely clear. So if you have an opaque Blue card, you may want to accidently misplace it and call for a new one. Or, perhaps, they have already sent you one you can peer through.

I was a big fan of Pirate’s Booty for a while last year. It’s a puffed cheese snack and it fueled late night Diablo II sessions without puffing up the fat cells. After I had eaten too much of it, though, it started reminding me of those new environmentally friendly packing peanuts that dissolve in water. So I haven’t had any in a while. But William Grimes of the NY Times recently tried it out, after having been pestered by acquaintances about it. Turns out Good Housekeeping verified his disbelief that the product was as low-fat as it claimed. The Good Housekeeping Institute sent bags out to independent labs for analysis. One ounce of Booty contained 8.5 grams of fat and 147 calories. The bags were labeled as having 2.5 grams of fat and 120 calories per serving. Oops. When contacted, the company claimed that they knew about the problem and the cause was a new manufacturing process and the bags would be relabeled. They then recalled the misleading bags. Currently, the information on their site claim 5 grams of fat and 128 calories. Ah well. I am much more enamored of Good Health’s Rosemary Olive Oil Potato Chips. They are so full-flavored that you can be satisfied after just a few chips (though you may find yourself eating up the entire bag).

The latest fashion statement from the bio-tech industry is jeans dyed blue by genetically altered bacteria. These little buggers, none other than a strain of the well known E. coli, take in sugar and produce tryptophan (also well known for its Thanksgiving Day nap-inducing properties) which is converted to indigo. This is a more environmentally friendly way to create our favorite blue denim color as it does not create toxic by-products.

There’s hope for tinnitus sufferers with a new therapy method based on differentiating between computer generated tones. This practice actually reduces the disproportionately large areas of the auditory cortex that are believed to be the cause of the ringing noise. (And I apologize to those people who now hear a ringing noise because of the fact that I made them remember they had one.)

Keeping kosher? Want your dog or cat to keep kosher too? KosherPets was founded by a Florida couple who started feeding kosher meat to their dog for health reasons. Their high quality homemade pet food impressed their Jewish neighbors who kept asking for it even upon their return to summer homes. A business was born, and they are now certified kosher for Passover.

Russel Wright brought modern design to the masses with flowing styles that are still fresh today. With his wife, Mary, Wright pioneered the concept of an entire lifestyle marketed via the Russel Wright brand. Martha Stewart’s branded empire pales in comparison, after all, she is no designer, but a shrewd tactician who merely passes her tastes along to the public. Wright’s designs appealed to the changed post-depression lifestyle and tracked perfectly with the more minimalist tastes of the post-war years. The Cooper-Hewitt Museum is running a retrospective of his work. And if you don’t want to shell out collector’s prices for the originals, Oneida is releasing updated versions of popular pieces from his dinnerware collection. An added plus, these reissues are microwavable and oven and dishwasher safe.

Ever wonder where those Oscar statuettes come from? Not from a rare hidden tree in the Hollywood Hills. R.S. Owens & Company casts, electroplates, and buffs each 8.5 pound Oscar. They also make the Emmy and the MTV Video Music Award. Encore Awards makes the Golden Globe Award.

A NY Times article reports that Chinese-language newspapers in America have recently been switching from up-down printing to left-right. This also means that what used to be the front page is now the back. Immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong were accustomed to the vertical positioning and also traditional characters. Communist China uses simplified characters and horizontal printing. The switch therefore, has an unintentional political overtone to it. Recent immigrants from mainland China are more likely to pick up a paper in left-right style. The publishers state that printing English terms is easier that way, and they are, after all, American newspapers. As can be expected, readers from different backgrounds have different reactions. One man states that children will be more inclined to learn Chinese if the paper is left-right, since it makes it easier for them. The article also mentions that most Chinese language websites use horizontal orientation as did many of the papers’ ads. It’s a strange experience to have the format of your reading material drastically altered. The fact that it also brings up cultural evolution and political divisions makes it a poignant one as well.

Amanda Hesser continues to garner attention from her fellow journalists as the Boston Phoenix jumps on the bandwagon with a feature article. It covers a few of the controversial aspects of her rise to fame such as the criticism that her “Food Diary” column is too much about her life, not enough about food. But her writing makes the topic accessible, as she says “I’d like to reach some people who don’t normally read about food.” The article also takes a slight dig at the NY Times itself: “And as the New York Times reportedly seeks a more populist readership — as evidenced by recent articles on Botox and Mariah Carey on the paper’s front page — it’s no surprise that Hesser has received such a prominent platform for her work.”