Glasses that Remind the Wearer to Blink

http://www.popsci.com/gear-amp-gadgets/article/2009-07/wink-glasses-remind-computer-users-blink

Serendipity in Research: Finding a database exists already.

I love this story of sleuthing out a database that already existed to explore the risk of getting fat if your friends get fat - social contagiousness. 

 NYTimes: Is Happiness Catching?

Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler say your friends — and even your friends' friends — can make you quit smoking, eat too much or get happy. A look inside the emerging science of social contagio

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/magazine/13contagion-t.html

How to Handle a Tire Blowout

This video explains that you neither brake nor coast when a tire blows out - you gently accelerate. They actually forced blowouts in motor homes to prove their point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkwOE1yKY5c

Arctic Shortcut Beckons Shippers as Ice Thaws

Shortening the journey from Yokohama to Rotterdam by 4500 miles versus
the Suez-canal route is worth the troubles of a 6-week summer season,
the need for an ice-breaker escort, and battling Russian red tape.

Arctic Shortcut Beckons Shippers as Ice Thaws

Two German ships are poised to complete, for the first time, a
commercial shipment transit from Asia to Europe over the waters of the
Arctic north of Russia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/science/earth/11passage.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

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NYTimes: Repair Options for Ailing Electronics

Fixya.com

Repair Options for Ailing Electronics

Electronic devices, seemingly built for quick obsolescence, can
sometimes be repaired for much less than it would cost to replace them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/technology/12shortcuts.html

NYTimes: Big Food vs. Big Insurance

As soon as insurance is extended to everyone at the same cost through health reform, it'll be the insurers who will be motivated to change America's dietary habits:

"Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like "pre-existing conditions" and "underwriting" would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change."
"...few things could do more to slow the rise of Type 2 diabetes among adolescents than to reduce their soda consumption, which represents 15 percent of their caloric intake"
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: Big Food vs. Big Insurance

The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html

nytimes

Italic writing - easier to read.

Italic handwriting is much easier to read than the classic looped 'Palmer' method cursive. It's well explained and illustrated in this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/09/04/opinion/20090908_opart.html?em

World's most complicated drum set.

Here's a time lapse of a ridiculously complicated drum set, and two videos of the drummer paying it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xir6EVkzDws

Cheese that keeps without refrigeration

Mimolette

http://books.google.com/books?id=TI6xXXak_PwC&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=mimolette+no+refrigeration&source=bl&ots=m71KjzCJgR&sig=lNDGQjQBee9LshZ91b-KMtM6hAA&hl=en&ei=6tieSuHAGYPMsQP759EY&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#v=onepage&q=mimolette%20no%20refrigeration&f=false

Hard grating cheeses, with less than 34% moisture, tend to keep better without refrigeration.

http://www.publichealthmdc.com/environmental/food/documents/cheese.pdf

NYTimes: More Sun for Less: Solar Panels Drop in Price

According to this article, prices have dropped and incentives increased for installing solar panels. Some municipalities or companies will even cough up the initial cost and be repaid with the utility rebates you earn over time.

More Sun for Less: Solar Panels Drop in Price

More factories that make the material used in solar panels have
opened, and the global demand for them has fallen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/business/energy-environment/27solar.html

NYTimes: $300 a Night? Yes, but Haying’s Free

Take a "haycation" - sounds like fun.

$300 a Night? Yes, but Haying's Free

A small number of farms in the United States have begun to offer
vacationers a chance to camp in a tent, milk goats and pick vegetables.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/dining/26farms.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

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NYTimes: Prolonging the Life of Berries

Dipping berries in 145-degree water prevents mold growth.

THE CURIOUS COOK: Prolonging the Life of Berries

Thermotherapy, a very hot fruit bath, is an effective way to stave off
mold growth on berries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/dining/26curi.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

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Geoglyphs on Google Earth

A quick tour of the globe with some man-made art visible from space.



This one shows the coordinates of a few -

Time lapse satellite weather

Yesterday I flew out of an airport just minutes before it closed in the path of a passing hurricane, and the cloudscape was beautiful as we rose through circulating pillars of cloud. I wondered how that pattern moves with time, and found some interesting time-lapse videos of weather:

Here are a few people who have waaaaay too much time on their hands. I don't expect you to watch the whole thing, but the ballet of cloud movements has a compelling beauty all its own.

Time lapse of visible clouds

Time lapse of radar images

...of water vapor

...of infrared

...and of arctic sea ice over 20 years

...and of a hurricane's eye

...and just because it's related, flying the eye of a hurricane

Experiencing Life, Briefly, Inside a Nursing Home

A novel program places medical students in nursing homes for a few weeks, to experience elderly life firsthand. Their glasses are smeared with vaseline and ears plugged with cotton wool to simulate being old.
"friendships ... in a nursing home, where there is nothing to do but talk, are forged quickly and deeply"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/health/24nursing.html?em