Saturday, December 15, 2018
Walkable cities - 4 components
4 characteristics of walkable cities
1 a reason to walk
2 safe
3 confortable
4 interesting
(6:18) "Urban sprawl and traditional (walkable) neighborhoods contain all the same things - it's just how big they are, how close they are to each other, and how they are interspersed together."
(7:18) "Transit - you can have a perfectly walkable city without it, but perfectly walkable cities require public transit because if you don't have easy access to the whole city as a pedestrian, you get a car. And if you get a car, the city begins to reshape itself around your needs, and streets get wider and parking lots bigger."
(15:38) "So then, the comfortable walk has to do with the fact that all animals seek prospect and refuge We want to be able to see our predators, but we also want our flanks to be covered...the proper ratio of height to width...if you get beyond 1:6, you're not very comfortable any more. You don't feel enclosed."
Friday, December 14, 2018
Kristin and Jen Try Every Trader Joe's Frozen Dessert
These vapid, vacuous, sardonic twerps somehow come up with a useful list of the worthwhile Trader Joe's desserts, which might just save you from buying a lot of desserts you wouldn't like.
World’s First Test-Tube Steak
Cell-cultured meat is an amorphous mass of muscle and fat cells, good for making chicken nuggets and hamburgers that taste pretty close to the real thing. But the holy grail is replicating the macro-structure of steaks and chicken breasts. One company featured here thinks they are getting close. The advent of these cultured meat products is inevitable, to the chagrin of ranchers, because they use vastly less resources to produce.
Costco Opening Its Own Chicken Farm?
At Costco, chicken is their loss leader, so getting the price even lower by vertical integration (owning the entire supply chain) makes sense. And perhaps they are going about it in a way that avoids farmers becoming indebted sharecroppers.
The largest private bunker community on earth
Doomsday private bunkers for sale. Vivos xPoint bunkers are in South Dakota, cost $25K, and to outfit them with systems is another $22K and up.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
F1D Indoor Free Flight
Obsessed with the world of 3 gram airplanes. At 3:33 he describes the particular batch of rubber elastics made in May 1999 that are the perfect power source that hasn't been matched since.
Inside the Life of an Instagram Star
Making a living in Seattle as a social influencer - not as easy as it seems.
The CBD craze - 21st century snake oil
Nice catchy conclusion - "If you can claim everything, you can sell anything." Most cannabidiol products contain trivial amounts compared to proven effective doses.
Snake oil "many 19th-century... entrepreneurs advertised and sold mineral oil (often mixed with various active and inactive household herbs, spices, and compounds, but containing no properties of snakes,) as "snake oil liniment", making frivolous claims about its efficacy as a panacea."
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
What do these words have in common?
aba, abaya, bubu, huipil, chiton, dashiki, cotta, dhoti, ephod, haik, izar
They are all types of simple garments.
aba - a loose sleeveless outer garment worn as traditional dress by men in the Middle East
abaya - a full-length, sleeveless outer garment worn by some Muslim women
They are all types of simple garments.
aba - a loose sleeveless outer garment worn as traditional dress by men in the Middle East
abaya - a full-length, sleeveless outer garment worn by some Muslim women
bubu - a long flowing garment worn in Mali, Nigeria
huipil - traditional garment worn by indigenous women from central Mexico
chiton - a long woolen tunic worn in ancient Greece
dashiki - a loose, brightly colored shirt or tunic, esp. West Africa
cotta - a short garment resembling a surplice, worn by Catholic priests and servers
dhoti - a garment worn by male Hindus, consisting of a piece of material tied around the waist
ephod - a sleeveless garment worn by Jewish priests
haik - a large outer wrap, typically white, in N. Africa
izar - long, usually white cotton dress that covers the body completely, worn by women
Cute!
From an article* in Popular Science "Why do we think tiny things are cute?" The article also points out that the original meaning of cute was "clever or shrewd," alluding to the fact that intricately-made small things interest us.
*https://www.popsci.com/why-do-we-think-tiny-things-are-cute#page-2
*https://www.popsci.com/why-do-we-think-tiny-things-are-cute#page-2
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
How overparenting backfired on Americans | Jonathan Haidt
Very interesting social commentary about how, starting in 1995, we suddenly stopped letting our kids go outside on their own from ages 8-12 or so, robbing then of an opportunity to learn to act independently.
Here are some other untruths exposed by the same author:
https://youtu.be/VzGH97DQzA4Trader Joe's
A podcast about how this company does everything differntly and has garnered a loyal following and big profits:
Very interesting - made me understand Trader Joe's a lot better. And the "paradox of choice" was interesting, too. An excess of choices draws you in but paradoxically makes you less likely to commit to a purchase.
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