IKEA organized a trip to their Emeryville store for East Palo Alto residents as they prepare for the March election which will decide if cutely named Swedish items and the accompanying traffic snarls will be coming to their city. Opponents and supporters alike traveled up by bus to see what the fuss is all about. I can imagine that the sight of the imposing yellow and blue behemoth may have not been convincing, but perhaps the prices and nifty products inside were appealing. This article notes that some residents would prefer to have a grocery store, which East Palo Alto does not have, in IKEA’s proposed location. Swedish meatballs and lingonberries just won’t cut it.

Palm and 3Com will have to post a $50 million bond as they appeal the ruling that Graffiti infringes on a Xerox handwriting patent. But a motion by Xerox to have Palm Powered handheld sales halted was denied. So perhaps they got off easy.

You’re probably familiar with Rosie the Riviter, but women were also recruited for other roles in the war effort. This collection of World War II posters illustrates the various jobs women were encouraged to take on, and also the psychology used to encourage participation: your parents will be proud, your little sister will be envious, and your brother will come home sooner. And if that wasn’t enough motivation, there was also the pay scale. (via coudal partners)

“Is the mind of a Mandarin speaker different from the mind of an English speaker?” Lera Boroditsky’s research (abstract here) has shown that the different representations of time in the two languages result in a difference in how the speakers think about time. The study of language’s effect on cognition has been controversial in the past as Benjamin Lee Whorf’s findings from the Hopi Indians were used for racist theories which supposed that speakers of primitive languages were incapable of abstract thought. But, despite the potential for improper use of the results, experiments into how language shapes our brains open fascinating windows into understanding how the brain works, how we represent concepts as we are cogitating. (via xblog)

Footnote: as I was delving into Boroditsky’s background, I came across the honors thesis of someone I know who has worked with her. Lauren Schmidt’s thesis shows that gender assignments for objects in languages affect the speaker’s mental representation of the objects. Studying French changed my view of various objects as I projected various characterizations on them in order to better remember their gender assignments. And I always wanted to know more about how they were assigned in the first place.

Blindsight is a phenomenon where visually impaired people actually know where objects are without having been conscious of seeing them. It demonstrates that there is both unconscious and conscious processing of sensory input. There is much we do that seems to happen unconsciously, but blindsight seems almost magical while also being scientifically verifiable. Actions which become habitual or intuitive, such as reacting to driving conditions, are at a different level of unconscious behavior compared to the basic skill of knowing where something is when you have no idea that you saw it. (spotted in a Wired News article)

The History of Eating Utensils contains objects from the Rietz Food Technology Collection which is housed at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The entire collection consists of 17,000 objects, most of which are eating utensils from many cultures and time periods. Such a variety of materials has been used to create utensils! The section on portable utensils has folding knives, forks, spoons, and travel chopsticks.

Julia Child’s kitchen has arrived at the Smithsonian and they are unpacking and cataloging it in view of the public. The accompanying website chronicles the documenting, dismantling and packing up of the kitchen, its 12,000 objects, and some of Julia’s memories as well. The two month process included much measuring, videotaping, and an unhealthy amount of dishwashing as the staff took care not to carry back any organic matter along with the items.

Missing a note or two in a solo performance would be embarrassing enough, but violinist Thomas Zehetmair missed his entire performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra last week. Thinking the performance was in the evening, the violinist went out for an afternoon walk, then opened the paper only to find on its pages that he was supposed to be on stage. It was an understandable mistake, considering that it was a Friday afternoon concert, not a typical Sunday matinee.

Less forgivable, perhaps depending on your perspective, was the trouble members of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic caused on a flight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles. Crew members booted them off the plane in Washington D.C. for their drunk and disorderly behavior. They were not allowed back for the second leg of the flight and had to spend the night in D.C. Someone must have had a time finding hotel rooms for 100 musicians, many of them inebriated. Chances are good, however, that they were able to get to L.A. in time for their performance. (both stories via Obscure Store)

I’ve posted many entries about how a Frontline program about diamonds and DeBeers’ control of the market opened my eyes to the myths behind the marketing of this sparkly gem. More recently, the media attention towards “conflict diamonds” has not appeared to have dulled the engagement ring sheen. And you may have noticed that jewelers now advertise their own unique brands and cuts of diamonds in order to differentiate and control their product. National Geographic’s March issue features “Diamonds: The Real Story.” From the excerpts on the site, the article appears to cover much ground, from DeBeers’ latest marketing tactics (promoting that sparkly ring in China) to the historical significance of Indian royal jewels, and the shady journey from mine to consumer including the sometimes stressful shaping of rough stone into perfectly polished gem.

The American Theatre Organ Society is striving to preserve the culture of the theatre pipe organ. Their site’s Story of the Theatre Organ describes the origins, design, downturn, and rebirth of the powerful instrument that accompanied the rise and fall of the old time movie palaces. The SF Bay Area has “more world-class theater organs than any area in the country” and David Hegarty has played them all. He appears almost daily at the mighty Wurlitzer in San Francisco’s Castro Theatre and twice a week at Palo Alto’s Stanford Theatre. I’ve enjoyed the grand nostalgia of Stanford’s glorious organ many times.