Giant tweety bird -funny Looney Tunes

http://touch.dailymotion.com/video/xafbpm_looney-tunes-tweety-sylvester-hyde_fun


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Dear Jack - the power of punctuation - from Lynn Truss' "Eats, shoots, and Leaves."

http://www.onlinegrammar.com.au/the-power-of-punctuation/

 Lynne Truss's book, Eats Shoots & Leaves (Profile Books 2003), has a wonderful Dear Jack letter.

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours?
Jill

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jill

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A New Breed of Medical Screws Dissolve In Body and Promote Bone Growth | Popular Science

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-03/biodegradable-medical-screws-disolve-body-and-promote-bone-growth

And these ones - resolvable screws that you 'zap' into place with ultrasonic hearing do they meld into bone cavities.
http://www.klsmartin.com/fileadmin/Inhalte/Downloads_Prospekte/Osteosynthese_CMF_Bio/90-300-02-09_10_12_SonicWeld.pdf


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ThinkGeek :: SnūzNLūz - Wifi Donation Alarm Clock

Hilarious! Every time you hit 'snooze' this alarm click donates to a charity you hate! Ha!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/snuznluz.shtml


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Can Artificial Meat Save The World? | Popular Science

"Beyond Meat, a four-year-old company that manufactures a meat substitute made mainly from soy and pea proteins and amaranth...Where one pound of cooked boneless chicken requires 7.5 pounds of dry feed and 30 liters of water, the same amount of Beyond Meat requires only 1.1 pound of ingredients and two liters of water...What sets Beyond Meat apart is how startlingly meat-like its product is. The "chicken" strips have the distinct fibrous structure of poultry, and they deliver a similar nutritional profile...but with zero cholesterol or saturated and trans fat"

"For example, a single pound of cooked beef, a family meal's worth of hamburgers, requires 298 square feet of land, 27 pounds of feed, and 211 gallons of water. "

"New York Times food correspondent and best-selling cookbook author Mark Bittman tried Beyond Meat in a blind taste test last year...and said that it "fooled me badly." "

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/can-artificial-meat-save-world

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Cameras everywhere - Google Glass, Russian dash-cams

I thought this article on the ubiquity of cameras explored some good questions.

"Mr Gurrin wears a wide-angle camera around his neck which snaps several pictures of his field of view every minute, recording its location and orientation... for more than seven years... he has built up an archive of 12m images"
"Adding a run-of-the-mill digital camera to a phone, or pretty much anything else, costs about $10"
"Steve Ward of VIEVU, a Seattle firm that has been selling wearable cameras ... says the devices can help protect any professional who takes on legal liabilities: repairmen, estate agents, doctors..."
"More than a million cars in Russia now sport dashboard-cams that record the road ahead. This is mainly so that drivers can defend themselves against fraudulent insurance claims"
"patients with impaired memories should wear such devices...could alleviate some symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer's"
"The plan is to perch all the functions of a smartphone on the bridge of the user's nose...imagines apps that provide historical information to sightseers in foreign cities, or that help people identify plants and birds in their gardens. Telling people what they are seeing can make them more observant, more absorbed...Mr Gelernter has a deep dislike for the way it would interpose itself between the user and his world, including the other people in it...people surreptitiously using Glass as a teleprompter, perhaps to seem more knowledgeable, could put at "risk the very frankness and honesty of human communications"."
"...creepy. Take, for example, an idea on which Google applied for a patent in 2011: a camera that would keep track of which adverts and billboards its wearer noticed, and of any emotional responses they evoked..."
[Facial recognition] "Governments check whether faces are turning up on more than one driver's licence per jurisdiction; police forces identify people seen near a crime scene."
"Well aware of such concerns, Google has banned the use of face recognition in the apps that it makes available for Glass (dubbed Glassware)."
"But face recognition has its attractions, too. Bar staff and bouncers could be warned of trouble on the way (a British company already provides such a service); the ability to greet everyone cheerily by name might be welcomed in many service industries."
"What about a world in which, simply by living their lives, people create vast searchable records of all they have seen—a world, not of Big Brother, but of a billion Little Brothers? "



From The Economist, Nov '13
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21589863-it-getting-ever-easier-record-anything-or-everything-you-see-opens

Tesla is doing very well thanks to the government

Tesla surprised analysts by repaying their federal Department of Energy loan of $465M early. On the heels of a 5-star crash rating, they are doing very well.

"...the government loaned Tesla startup money, it helps bring in customers with tax incentives, and it guarantees Tesla at least some return through emissions-credit system. Short of sending congress to the factory to bolt together cars, there's not much more government can do for Tesla."

-Aaron Robinson, Car & Driver, Nov 2013.

Clip-on works to repel mosquitoes.

Evaluation of commercial products for protection from mosquito bites. 

"...The personal diffusers: - OFF!(®) Clip-On™ and Terminix(®) ALLCLEAR(®) Sidekick - provided superior protection compared with all other devices in this study. These diffusers reduced biting on the arms of volunteers by 96.28% and 95.26% respectively..."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23092689/?i=7&from=cinnamon%20comparative

MBNA privacy policy - beware!

Can you believe this privacy policy?? They even reference it by saying "Protecting your privacy is important to us."
Directly from their privacy policy, buried deep under "additional detail" it says
"

Companies, such as retailers, merchants, manufacturers, direct marketers, communications companies, travel companies, and the like, offering products or services not directly related to the financial product or service we are providing to you

Name, postal address, telephone number (including for text messaging), date of birth, SIN (if provided), occupation, Account number, expiry date, e-mail address,

"
Are you kidding me? They will share your social insurance number and date of birth, enough info to apply for a loan or steal your identity, to direct marketers etc.

All this from a multinational giant that has leapfrogged its way to billions in profits. Thanks!
http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=dlj

Abundance of a species overwhelms predators - predator satiation.

Here is a popular science article about predator satiation with the humble defenseless cicada.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/why-do-cicadas-invade-such-crazy-numbers

Here is a wikipedia article on the phenomenon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_satiation

The antarctic is an example of an ecosystem characterized by sheer abundance:
"Fauna exists in overwhelming abundance, especially during the brief austral summer. Hundreds of thousands of penguins gather to breed and feed. Whales, seals and albatross share the vast spaces. Krill, the most abundant animal in the world, occupies a central place in the Antarctic ecosystem and provides the basic food source for many Antarctic predators. "
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/polarbound/antarctic.asp

Peter Gabriel at his best

This incredibly imaginative concert, Growing Up Live, is veritable performance art. See what artful use he makes of the stage and props, especially in "Downside Up" (at 3:42) and "Growing Up"

The whole concert is available in very low quality filmed from the audience here or as a DVD video.

Peaches and Cream Pie Recipe - Cook’s Country

http://www.cookscountry.com/recipes/Peaches-and-Cream-Pie/29123/

The traditional Swedish way to eating surströmming

Swedish delicacy - fish fermented by anaerobic bacteria. Incredibly stinky. You're supposed to open the can underwater to prevent a stinky explosion as you open it.

http://youtu.be/DmaedvVBkV8

NYTimes: The Good Men of India

The typical Indian male is "committed, concerned, cautious; intellectually curious, linguistically witty; socially gregarious, endearingly awkward; quick to laugh, slow to anger"

http://nyti.ms/1bGgHVO

In a country now famous for sexual violence, don't forget about the many loving husbands and fathers.

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NYTimes: Why We Make Bad Decisions

In big decisions, ask questions of the expert AND of yourself. (Are you getting a dopamine rush from news you want to hear that is clouding your thinking?)

http://nyti.ms/16mMoQd

We listen to the information we want to hear and ignore the rest.

Amateur music

He can't play the drums or the piano, but he can sure edit!

http://youtu.be/JzqumbhfxRo

As he explains at 3:03, he can't play but he edits the actual audio and video.

NYTimes.com: Is Music the Key to Success?

Sent by tomelwood@hotmail.com: Opinion Is Music the Key to Success? By JOANNE LIPMAN What it is about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in many diverse fields? Or, copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://nyti.ms/160Y6VU

To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book.

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Update on self-driving cars

http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2013-09/google-self-driving-car

Thought you'd enjoy this article above. Self-driven cars have logged 500,000 miles already, proving they're at least as safe as human drivers. The system currently costs $100,000 but economies of scale will drop that to affordable levels. Traffic will move faster, drivers will arrive more refreshed, fuel economy will increase. 

Currently, glitches occur once every 300 miles, and self-driven cars are estimated to drive 36,000 miles before making a severe (close call) mistake requiring driver input. 

The whole research field was spurred ahead greatly by the DARPA challenge races. 

Crane FAIL Compilation 2013

Ouch!

http://youtu.be/cz22Wty5Rks

Square Wheels - whod'a thunk?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Tq3Gsj6lY&sns=em

Stickhandling

Incredibly fast work with hockey sticks:

http://youtu.be/REAqCB9vfbU

Car Crash Compilation - MAY 2013 # 2

Watch at 3:43 where the taxi passenger steals the taxi driver's cell phone when he's busy attending to the guy he's almost killed. Unbelievably taking advantage of a bad situation.

http://youtu.be/XZ0c3GD1tdE

Trucks!

At 0:14-0:28 this is how to steer out of a skid!

http://youtu.be/MZzuw-lQ_yQ

Trucks on the road Compilation July-August 2013

I don't get it. Watch at 3:48 where a truck full of hydrogen (extremely explosive) hits a car, pushes it for hundreds of feet, puts his hazard lights on (so he's obviously aware he hit the car) and continues on his way as soon as the car finally gets tossed to the side. I just don't understand Russian driving. Yikes!
http://youtu.be/OJFOE8w9OnA?t=3m50s

http://youtu.be/OJFOE8w9OnA

Russian truckers that don't use their mirrors

Hilarious - at 0:50, trucker is unaware that their load is on fire.

http://youtu.be/mglZ2CuswNQ

Smartphone Quadcopter navigates autonomously

http://www.tuwien.ac.at/en/news/news_detail/article/8332/

Russian Truck crash compilation 2013 - Part 1

http://youtu.be/TCL74h5cXHo

How It Works: Honeybee Society | Popular Science

"Foragers are programmed to be frail in order to protect the colony: Rather than bring infections or toxins back to the hive, they typically die out in the field."

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-03/honeybee-society

Strudel scour - erosion of the sea floor by fresh water plummeting through ice into the sea.

"causes scour depressions more than 4 m deep and as much as 20 m or more across in the sea floor below"

http://m.jsedres.geoscienceworld.org/content/44/2/409.abstract

They are a risk to subsea oil factories: 

http://m.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-03/under-sea
"...warm river water that bores through sea ice and creates a downward jet of water that exposes buried pipelines"

Treehouse Bed and Breakfast B&B

Fall City WA

http://www.treehousepoint.com/

http://www.cedarcreektreehouse.com/

Vithyri resort India

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1232778-d307536-Reviews-Vythiri_Resort-Kalpetta_Kerala.html

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Drowning signs aren't like the movies

Bystanders close by have no idea he's drowning.

http://youtu.be/X1mVcSUttX4

How To Wash Pesticides Off Fruit & Vegetables | Suite101

Vinegar is the best, as tested by Cooks Illustrated
http://suite101.com/article/how-to-wash-pesticides-off-fruit-vegetables-a174074

Sailing on hydrofoils

Very fast transportation - the Moth

http://youtu.be/YZU_SqMW_5Y

Unshackling Evolution: Evolving Soft Robots with Multiple Materials

Evolution in action: random iterations "evolve" in computer simulation by rewarding for improvements in speed.

http://youtu.be/EXuR_soDnFo

'quantum computers’

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130516-big-bets-on-quantum-computers/1

Beat boxing to Julie-Oh - very cool by Pentatonix

Here's a fiery performance in a more traditional style by the virtuosic cellist Joshua Roman:


Here's the original more classic version by its composer, Mark Summer.

This video makes a good point.

This video makes a good point about how we see ourselves:

Mosquito netting for cherry trees

http://www.mosquitocurtain.com/store/raw-netting.html?gclid=COPdrrraircCFQdgMgodu2EA9Q

The netting should be taut enough to pass a "bounce test" so it doesn't ensnare animals.
http://www.bats.org.au/downloads/garden_fruit_trees_and_wildlife_08.pdf

You can assemble panels of netting using duct tape:
http://youtu.be/piUlQmIF-AM

Society is doomed.

Almost every one of Western Civilization's greatest philosophers believed that popular culture drove politics, not vice versa, which is one of the many reasons they prized good manners, humility, and a sense of common humanity.  A society with no boundaries, no sense of propriety or shame is doomed. Period.   DG

Useful Scrabble words

bap adit arsis kvetch enation chadarim

dal ague cudjo laogai habutae

daw ajee dhoti noetic uxorial

edh alow fakir seiche

fet auge faqir slangy

goa birl furze vahine

kea coly fytte zedonk

kef fico gaeta zoeae

kex gaea ixia

kop gael klong

oba herl piura

oho idem quoin

peh inly quoit

piu inro solei

pyx jivy tegea

rax jota thuja

roc khat upolu

tav kief zaire

vav loid zayin

vug midi zonae

zax peag

zug pfui

pirn

prex

unai

vail

wadi

zebu

ziti

zoon

Inside the mind of an autistic girl

I have worked a lot with autistic kids, and this really, really surprised me. Made me rethink my approach to them.

http://youtu.be/vNZVV4Ciccg

Time lapse world weather - beautiful, mesmerizing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_avFzBdd34

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2jEcBqKdbQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh011eAYjAA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikX7SV-y2GE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Gd_7Vd6lw

Seiche

Definition: 

noun
an occasional and sudden oscillation of the water of a lake, bay, estuary etc., producing fluctuations in the water level, and caused by wind, earthquakes, changes in barometric pressure etc. 

Awkward train situations

Funny!

Car crash dashcam in Russia

See inside a car from normal to mayhem in the blink of an eye -
http://youtu.be/6C_yVh-OqYw?t=10m28s

Magnetic therapy for depression.

"Active TMS was significantly superior to sham TMS on the MADRS at week 4 (with a post-hoc correction for inequality in symptom severity between groups at baseline), as well as on the HAMD17 and HAMD24 scales at weeks 4 and 6. Response rates were significantly higher with active TMS on all three scales at weeks 4 and 6. Remission rates were approximately twofold higher with active TMS at week 6 and significant on the MADRS and HAMD24 scales (but not the HAMD17 scale). Active TMS was well tolerated with a low dropout rate for adverse events (4.5%) that were generally mild and limited to transient scalp discomfort or pain."

http://depression.wustl.edu/O'Reardon%20Pivital%20trial.pdf

Also

Rapid-rate transcranial magnetic stimulation treats depression.

http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/8684201

Magnetic stimulation treats depression.

http://m.bjp.rcpsych.org/content/182/6/480.short 

Map of travel advisories - where not to travel?

http://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories

Trace Your Route | Popular Science

Web Internet routing shows map of the path your web search took to reach you.
http://www.popsci.com/content/trace-your-route

Here's the trace tool:
http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert/

anesthesia and changed mental function

Does postoperative cognitive deficit predict the onset of Alzheimer's? Yes. 

"[It is...] More likely in the elderly with pre-existing declining mental functions, termed MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) (Silverstein 2007). MCI is a transitional zone between normal mental function and evident Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. It is insidious, and seldom recognized, except in retrospect after affected persons are evidently demented."

http://www.anesthesiaweb.org/dementia.php

Fracking vs the alternatives

This Op-Ed New York Times piece mitigates against the outcry over fracking and makes the point that fracking occurs at 5 times the depth of any surface water, and the natural gas it yields causes much less carbon loading of the atmosphere than coal (the alternative fuel source grown in America). The author admits that the chemicals used are not regulated or monitored. I worry that the hydrocarbons (diesel, benzene) used to extract the sticky mess are by necessity more volatile than either coal or crude oil and more likely to contaminate overlying water sources no matter how much more superficial they are.

http://nyti.ms/Zzp8u8

Hagfish Slime Makes Super-Clothes : Discovery News

A nasty smelly fish that emits a protective protein defense that happens to be a useful protein filament which may one day be made by bacteria through recombinant engineering.
http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/hagfish-slime-super-clothes-121203.htm

Solar water heating

Flat plate collectors - run fluid through a black tube, basically.
Since the system can't be turned off, it has to be drained. Just one hour of excessive temperature chemically converts the glycol into glycolic acid, which erodes the pump and copper pipes, necessitating glycol replacement at considerable expense.

Even when properly drained, a thin film of glycol remains and degrades into glycolic acid, damaging the components and lowering the heat-transfer capacity.

An evacuated tube system captures the heat in a thermos-like glass cavity, increasing efficiency and allowing hot water generation in sub-zero conditions.
The system can't be drained in over-temperature conditions, so it has to have a radiator to waste excess heat not being used on very hot days. This means complexity - an extra pump and tubing and controls.

http://www.suntracsolar.com/downloads/SunTrac_Care_and_Maintenance.pdf

Rostropovich bio

Fwd: NYTimes.com: Mediterranean Diet Can Cut Heart Disease, Study Finds

Nuts, olive oil, and avoid red meat, baked goods, soda... Mediterranean Diet Can Cut Heart Disease, Study Finds By GINA KOLATA Until now, evidence that the Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of heart disease was weak, and some experts had been skeptical that the effect of diet could be detected

Rapid winter chains

Thule rapid winter tire chain

World's Top3 Humanoid Robots - Asimo vs HPR-4 vs NAO!

Thought you'd enjoy seeing these very lifelike robots, especially the third one which seems to have quite a personality!

http://youtu.be/N_m56irWKeI

Kicking a robot off balance!

Robot walking is some very complicated terrain:

http://youtu.be/cNZPRsrwumQ

Fancy footwork

Top ten things to do in Seattle

Take a tour:

Three really fun ways to your downtown: 

By Segway - learn to ride a Segway, and learn all about downtown while you're at it. About $75 each, but deals on Groupon. 

The underground tour - an interesting bit of Seattle history. 

Seattle Bites tour - get a taste test of a dozen downtown restaurants. 

- Ride a 'duck' boat out onto Elliot Bay. Touristy but fun. They really make everyone laugh.
-tour Lake Union on a hot tub boat http://hottubboats.com/about/ or an electric boat http://www.theelectricboatco.com/ - both are several hundred dollars, but are unusual and fun. 
- Take a bay cruise on an Argosy boat. There's a version of the tour that goes through the Ballard locks and you catch a bus back downtown - it's good but it's 2-3 hr and there's not a whole lot to see all the way.
- Take a tour of the Ballard canal locks "Chittenden locks."  Watch the fish swimming through the fish- ladder bypass for the locks. Best when the fish are running, of course!  Or watch a boat go through the locks - more likely on weekends.
Here's a list of free (or cheap) tours.

Visit a museum:
-Get a citypass (http://www.citypass.com/seattle) for a deal that's worth it if you visit 3 or more of the attractions.
-The Boeing factory tour at the Everett plant: a long way out (about an hour's drive from downtown) but unforgettable to be in the worlds largest building.
- The Museum of Flight at Boeing Field: you can go inside an actual Concorde, and see the stealth SR71 up close.
- Experience Music Project, a contemporary music 'museum' at Seattle Center. An incredibly innovative building (look at these photos!) that people either love or hate. The museum isn't worth the price of admission, but you can walk all around the lobby for free and take in the building, and even see the giant 'Skychurch' screen.
- The Olympic Outdoor Sculpture Park: this is at the north end of downtown, and you'll be close to it at some point anyway. Unusual giant outdoor sculptures.
- The Museum of Glass, in Tacoma is 40 miles away but on weekends they have artists blowing glass in the museum and explaining what they are doing. If you just want to see glass sculptures, go to Chihuly gardens right under the space needle - http://chihulygardenandglass.com
- Gold Rush National Historic Park, in Pioneer Square: this is a hidden downtown gem and really worth the trip: it recreates the feeling of getting a gold rush expedition together.
-Discovery Park is a large public park with a view up and down Puget sound and many half mile trails. -Alki beach is a similar long public beach and great place to stroll and people-watch with an expansive view.
- The Woodland Park Zoo is ok; I'd rather see The Seattle Aquarium

Visit a landmark:

- Pike Place Market: fun to walk around and see food and crafts.
- the revolving Restaurant at the Space Needle and Seattle Center. The food is better than you'd expect for a touristy place, ascend  it's fun to dine in the restaurant, which slowly rotates. But it's about $40 a person! At least if you're dining you don't have to pay the $15 a person to ride to the top, so you can factor that into the cost. However, see my suggestion about the Starbucks in Columbia Tower, below.
- Seattle Waterfront - good for a sightseeing stroll. You can take a ferry trip for a nice water view and it's only about $7 to walk on.
- Seattle Public Library - spectacular architecture!

A few hours away: 
Tour the Wild Horse wind turbine farm near Ellensburg for free. Tours from April-Nov.
Tour the world's sixth largest hydroelectric dam for free at the Grand Coulee Dam visitors center, open year round.

Now the important part: restaurants. Seattle is known for its fine dining, but here's a list of cheap, interesting, small places. 

Go for coffee.
Coffee culture is such a central part of Seattle culture, but where to go to get that unique Seattle take on coffee? Here's a video:
https://youtu.be/iVSFg35NS1w
Slate coffee:
https://goo.gl/maps/3m3oLw2uXPJ2
La Marzocco
https://goo.gl/maps/mZcrhsmR6Kp
Ghost Alley Espresso
https://goo.gl/maps/VEQEtH6gBYt
Mabel coffee (for their bulletproof coffee)
https://goo.gl/maps/YAVBuyiJfBA2
Broadcast Coffee
https://goo.gl/maps/yb6CehDpswL2
Or, take a ferry to Pegasus Coffee

https://goo.gl/maps/uMiN5ikRZt92

Breakfast café: 

Exquisite pastries and breads

Macrina Bakery

Cheap good, crowded, and fun:

The Dish

Wholesome, flavorful, interesting converted home setting:

Hi-Spot
Liam's (http://m.yelp.ca/biz/liams-seattle) in University Village, from the owners of Beecher's handmade cheese (best steak, ever)

Best Starbucks view ever: Columbia Tower. Take a free public elevator up the tallest building in Seattle with a curved black shape. On the 40tg floor there's a Starbucks with an incredible view. 

London Plane: beautiful, yesteryear feel with huge windows, white woodwork, Staff in aprons, and gorgeous food. http://m.yelp.ca/biz/the-london-plane-seattle#

Ethnic: 

Indian: excellent almost-too-fussy service, bottomless cups of homemade Chai

Taste of India

This one is close to the Space Needle and has a great cheap buffet lunch

Roti

Thai: hole in the wall, cheap, spicy, good, and you watch them cook it just a few inches in front of you. 

Thai Tom

Cuban sandwich

Incredible, so tender, delicious bread - an unforgettable greasy wonderful spicy meal

Paseo

BBQ beef sandwich

This ones to die for. Incredible sauce. 

Pecos Pit BBQ

Fresh fish:

Eat looking out at the boats of Deadliest Catch. Cheap, noisy, good but not great foo

Chinook's

Ethiopian
There's a large Ethiopian population in Seattle, and plenty of restaurants. 
I've tried this tiny cheap place and enjoyed their sampler platter. 
You eat with your hands and scoop up curry dishes with interesting ethnic bread. 
Cafe Selam.

Southern
I've heard great things about Ezell's Fried Chicken, but haven't been there. 
They have several locations. 
The original one is now called Heaven Sent Chicken, apparently, but doesn't rate as well as the franchised ones.
http://m.yelp.ca/biz/liams-seattle

A Yelp collection of things to do in Seattle:

https://www.yelp.com/collection/NDC1r-AgvxmBLbq0Trk-tw?ytl_=764887f83b3ac81730e1b75c971bad70&utm_medium=email&utm_source=community_email&utm_campaign=May-07-2021

Unenabled

starbucks ubiquity

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjStI7hEWixP8_2bSWOoqmHFl0moo2bMv2nBxxHJW00eheSES0jcxU8uG4CvTdQaZZHB2zK93BVmRfHfIObFVTgA7IpbknXulQ5YelObwKwZkT0V8iaBZif3OAYzD07TDnxD6S_Pp6UjtW0/s400/starbucks_escher.jpg

Biggest and smallest production vehicles

Top Gear is so funny.

Unusual vehicle. Watch from 0:57 to see how "easy" it is to start riding.

It even does tricks -

from treehugger:

As CoolHunting.com explains it, the Solowheel is "geared for the mobile urbanite." It's a "self-balancing electric unicycle" that uses gyro sensors, a 1,000-watt motor and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

It charges up in as little as 45 minutes, according to Inventist.com, and lasts for about two hours on a charge. The poor person's Chevy Volt? The unicycle recaptures energy when going downhill or slowing down.

Trisled velomobile Avatar - only $AU 14500

Trisled Avatar is 55 lb and totally enclosed.

Trisled Rotovelo carbon is a remarkable 44 lb, lightest I can find anywhere.

https://trisled.com.au/hpv/rotovelo-carbon/
http://www.trisled.com.au/avatar.asp

How Google searches

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/19/google-search-knowledge-graph-singhal-interview

That was the time, in the prehistory of about 1995, when our ideas of "search" still carried the sense of the word's Latin roots – a search was a kind of "arduous quest" ...
Until now, Google has been an unprecedented signposter of knowledge. It has not "known" the answer to anything itself but it has had an awfully clever way of directing you to exactly the place you can find out...
"the semantic web", the version that had understanding as well as data, that could itself provide answers, not links to answers...Thus, when you type "10 Downing Street" into Google with Knowledge Graph, it responds to that phrase not as any old address but much in the way you or I might respond – with a string of real-world associations, prioritised in order of most frequently asked questions.
Google has already come closer than anyone could ever have imagined to the "nothing was left to be collected" part of that equation. It is in searchable possession not only of the trillions of pages of the world wide web, but it is well on the way to photographing all the world's streets, of scanning all the world's books, of collecting every video ...This data has been collected not just for the purpose of feeding it back to us as accurately as possible, but also for the wider purpose: of teaching Google how to think for itself. 
Search analysis is divided into "long clicks" and "short clicks". ... A short click ...occurs when a user performs a search, clicks through on a result and quickly comes back to the result set to click on an alternative result.
"We are maniacally focusing on the user to reduce every possible friction point between them, their thoughts and the information they want to find." - Amit Singhal

http://www.google.ca/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html


http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/12/20/norways-fjord-cooled-data-center/

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-bomb-shelter-now-it-produces-green-energy/

Non-prescription hearing aids: Able Planet Personal Sound™ Amplifiers

http://shop.ableplanet.com/personal-sound/personal-sound-amplifiers.html

When engineers become cooks: engineering high-tech food in a laboratory

When the world's best chefs want something that defies the laws of physics, they come to one man: Dave Arnold, the DIY guru of high-tech cooking

...his uncompromising conception of culinary perfection requires that gin and tonics be completely, crystalline clear...

...Carbonated watermelon. Gelatin spheres with liquid centers that pop in your mouth. Broths and sauces whipped into foams. Shrimp flesh extruded into "noodles." Hot-center desserts with exteriors flash-frozen by liquid nitrogen. Vanilla beans sizzled tableside with lasers...

..."He´s helping chefs take their food to the next level."...

...Dufresne was (and still is) interested in sous vide and other methods of cooking food slowly in liquids, at low temperatures, until the exact moment it is done...

...hydrocolloids, a class of ingredients familiar to anyone who´s perused the labels of processed foods-cellulose, xanthan gum, agar, alginate, carrageenan, gelatin-but that, until recently (with the exception of gelatin), were not a fine cook´s ingredients. Generally, hydrocolloids are used to thicken, gel, or stabilize liquids; they can also be used to great effect to change texture, enabling a chef to produce a foam that won´t collapse or, in Arnold´s case, to make a "sponge cake" with methyl cellulose that can be shot from a compressed whipped-cream canister onto a plate without requiring baking...

see the whole article at:

http://www.popsci.com/node/8923

Also, on a related note, 

Inside a high-tech laboratory that's spinning out the future of food (in a centrifuge at 13 Gs)

The 20,000-square-foot warehouse outside Seattle that houses the research lab of Intellectual Ventures. The former Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft had an idea for a cookbook he wanted to write, and he needed some kitchen space.

...tour started with the ultrasonic bath that cleans the grime off whatever's submerged in the water via high-energy cavitation. The team discovered that subjecting cut potatoes to the bath creates tiny fissures in their surfaces; which, when the potatoes are French-fried, result in a much crispier exterior...

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/tour-modernist-cuisine-kitchen-laboratory

Definition of loid from Dictionary.com

Definition of loid: to open (a locked door) by sliding a thin piece of celluloid or plastic between the door edge and doorframe to force open a spring lock.

From (cellu)loid, circa 1955-60.

Websites to order skis.

Websites to order skis.
Asogear.com
Levelninesports.com
Evo sports Seattle
http://www.evo.com/
Outlet coupons


Sent from my iPhone

A brilliant plan

From a good friend -
"I got an Achilles tendonitis so I bought a kayak and will paddle that till I mess up my rotator cuff, then go back to the bike.  This seems to me a brilliant strategy; having enough sports that injure differing parts of the body and a good insurance plan. "

Gesture-based control of computer windows.

http://youtu.be/I36Aqk1A6vY

Gesturing to do complex things that are finicky with the mouse on the computer. As Tom Cruise does in 'Minority Report'

See at 0:17 in

http://youtu.be/xMtUVcOHPtw

Humankind: Be Both.

Just some insight into the root of the quote. It was made popular by an event production company named Pallotta TeamWorks back in the early 2000s. 

The company is closed now, but you can still find their website at "http://www.pallottateamworks.com". If you click on the "Photos & Videos" menu item, and select "Our Videos", and look for the one named "What Can Kindness Do?" (the last one one the right), you will hear that the "Be Both" is the last line of the poem in the video. (It's actually phrased as a question: "Can Humankind be both?")

From 

http://justjan1.blogspot.ca/2011/05/humankind-be-both.html?m=1

Sent from my iPhone

Google's Streetview now includes interior panoramas.

I was looking up a restaurant in Seattle, and realized that now Google Streetview can show you the interior of selected locations.

Here's the restaurant interior. (I was looking at it because the proprietor is raising money for a cookbook.)  

And here's a nearby hat shop I never knew existed. 

If they don't work, google map downtown seattle, and hover the Streetview icon (the little yellow 'pegman,' is apparently what he's called) over an area of downtown on maximum zoom, and look for a yellow dot over an interior. 

Of course the aim of showing interiors is to attract customers, as google says in soliciting these photos. So now you'll have even more ways to pick a hotel at an unfamiliar destination, restaurants, and doctor's offices and who knows what else. 

Anyway, this makes me ask a bunch of questions, and maybe you can answer them. Why does this interior world not connect seamlessly with the outside street? You can navigate out the door of an establishment, but that world stops and you need to zoom out to map view to reconnect with the regular exterior Streetview. 

Don't you think there will be great uses for these interior shots in a hundred years? Since you can view historical satellite images on google earth, I'm sure that historical archives of these interior shots will soon be available at a click.  Now these sort of interiors wil be on google earth and easily accessible. You can look into a store and see all the items on a shelf.  I find it hard remembering what things I could buy at the store that are no longer available, like Playbox cookies.

 But now you'll be able to browse historical store shelves. Imagine 20 years from now taking a virtual stroll through a familiar store and seeing all the items on the shelves from years ago. Lots of possibilities. 

Here's how to look at historical satellite images, though they neglect to tell you until the end that you have to enable "Historical imagery" under the 'View' tab.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vwHGG1dgujc

But I digress - back to the social implications of interior photos. 

And why do these businesses have their interior photographed empty? Wouldn't it sell better if they were full of people? Google would blur out the faces, so there aren't privacy issues. 

And what are the limits on this exercise - will Google absorb real estate photos of interiors and keep those on file? 

The amount of data they keep is increasing exponentially - first maps was just the depiction of the flat surface, then it was 3D, then it included the ocean floor, then streetview, then updated street view over time, now interiors.  And you can tell from the multiple panoramas they take of each interior location that there is no concern about the amount of data they are storing.  

It reminds me of when google traffic went from municipal data for a few large cities to street-by-street live traffic from crowd-sourced data from people's GPS-enabled phones, and google now uses such data to predict your arrival time when giving directions.

UPDATE

...A few years after posting this I watched an interesting google lecture on the history of google maps, and how the interface advanced over time. I found it interesting.