With @Home having cut off AT&T; Broadband customers, I am back to a 56K modem. It is interesting to discover how my habits had acclimated to “always on, very fast” Internet access. Doing a little research to spur on a thought for a dinner recipe no longer has low enough overhead to maintain my train of thought. And I have visited the foodtv.com home page twice and left before it had a chance to fully load. Checking my email is back to being more of an event than a side activity. AT&T; is claiming that they will restore service within 10 days. 850,000 users provisioned in 10 days. If they pull that off and the speed is back to what it was before, I’ll be very impressed.
The SF Chronicle is declaring that Krispy Kremes have made the “crossover” into “capturing the carriage trade”, which is a rare feat for a doughnut. With a wine pairing of Silver Oak Cellars’ 1997 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and availability at high-end supermarkets, this Southern comfort food is conquering the West Coast yuppie palate.
40 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.
28.1 million of those people are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
47% of the adults living with HIV or AIDS worldwide are women.
2.7 million children have AIDS (2.4 million in Sub-Saharan Africa).
AIDS caused the deaths of 3 million people in 2001.
21.8 million people have died from AIDS.
Today is World Aids Day.
(data from the UNAID’s latest statistics, all noted as estimates)
The National Automatic Merchandising Association has a timeline that chronicles the history of vending machines. It begins in 215 B.C. with a device that dispensed holy water in Egypt. Then in 1076 A.D. there was a coin-operated pencil vending machine in China. But I am having trouble figuring out what they mean by “pencil”. I suppose it refers to some sort of writing implement, but I assume brushes were commonly used and certainly not our modern pencil which was invented, most likely, in England. Creators of early Chinese writing made use of carving and sticks, but what was a “pencil” in 1076 A.D.? (thanks eft)
I was fascinated by this page of moving mechanism blueprints created with Java applets. The illustrations have a lot of appeal even if you aren’t into mechanics. The one everyone should recognize is the “hookless fastener” (aka the zipper). I take a lot of things for granted that have to do with amazing mechanical creations. (thanks Pavel)
Spreading the geeknews: Need more animals on your shelf? O’Reilly books are 43% off for a limited time at Bookpool. Even if your company pays for ’em, with this economy why not save them some moola? (via BrainLog)
Elephants are pregnant for 21 months? Wow. The National Zoo has a new Asian elephant and he is a cutie. His father lives at a park in Calgary, Canada; Mom was artificially inseminated. His birth weight was 325 pounds, but he is expected to gain 2 pounds a day so he won’t stay itsy bitsy cute for long.
The NY Times article on the artisanal cheesemakers north of San Francisco made me want to drop everything and go make yummy cheeses for a living. But then I realized that I’d have to get up early to milk the goats and I am just not capable of becoming an early bird. But I do have an unhealthy love for cheese and a healthy curiousity about the wonders of helpful molds.
Space Shuttle Endeavor’s countdown to a Thursday launch is underway. “High security” is an understatement in describing the protections in place for this event. “We are going to take all measures to protect ourselves whether it be land, air or sea threats,” said Major Mike Rein, a spokesman for the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we visited The Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. Outside the museum is the Trieste II, which has descended to 20,000 feet. Inside are interesting things like diving outfits, scary looking torpedos, remotely operated vehicles, seafloor maps, ocean ecology exhibits, and the history of the adjoining naval base. It is intimidating to comprehend the amount of warfare that has taken place on (and under) water.