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Three and a half hours in a single step, more at the pole
We all know that parallel lines never meet, and it’s convenient to think of the lines of longitude and timezones as parallel, but they really aren’t. The former because they’re inscribed on the (more...
View ArticlePlay to your strengths
Top search terms for this blog, largely in order, lightly curated, in haiku form: Babka, Bialy, Square car, Linkedin API, Ferris wheel at night. Murphy bed, Fisheye camera, Man bag, Blackboards,...
View ArticleWord of the season: Equinox
You probably know that today is the Autumnal (in the Northern hemisphere) Equinox, the end of Summer and the start of Autumn. In fact, it’s right about now, 5:44pm ET. I thought it was odd that the...
View ArticleIn a funk? Bring da noise, but make sure it’s the right kind
I’ve gone on record as being against individual offices and for working at a standing desk in a common space with colleagues. To this I generally get two different kinds of objections: first, “but I...
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Snowbound? Try Hyperdecanting!
It was cold. Really really cold. And snowy. So we opened a bottle of wine. Wouldn’t you? Well, it wasn’t a great bottle of wine, sort of young and rough around the edges. But we’d opened it and we...
View ArticleAnother miraculous property of peanut butter
I thought I knew a thing or two about peanut butter, but today I learned two new things: Peanut Butter in a jar is a liquid Peanut Butter sandwiched between crackers is not a liquid How can this be,...
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Proof of concept: catnip-filled toxoplasma gondii cat toy
Toxoplasma gondii tachy, via Wikipedia There is no shortage of cat toys that are in questionable taste, but the one I was looking for – a soft, catnip-filled replica of the parasite that causes...
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Welding wood
Last year I wrote a couple of posts about my various infatuations with various wood products, many in conjunction with various electronics products made of metal. The estimable yobyot commented,...
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Invisible Manhattanhenge
Last week saw the second and last occurrence of Manhattanhenge this year. If you’ve been blissfully slumbering under a rock, or for some reason just not using Manhattan as the measure of the world,...
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Duck on the water, fire in the sky
This week in giant ducks, we have Energy Duck, a project proposed for Copenhagen’s harbor by a team of London artists. Energy Duck isn’t just a glass and steel foil to my house fave, Florentijn...
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Space Duck Mother Mother
Ordinarily I would not post twice in a week about giant ducks, but this has been no ordinary week, gentle readers. As you are no doubt aware, the European Space Agency spacecraft Rosetta is heading for...
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Happy pi approximation day
Today, July 22, or 22/7 as the Eurostyle daters would have it, is pi approximation day. Why? Because 22/7 = 3.1428… which is a an approximation of pi, one that’s a bit bigger and a lot less irrational...
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Second Little Pig: Vindicated
Since the googles said it was faster to walk from the Innovation District to South Station than to take the Silver line, that’s what I did. It was hot and humid but I’m glad I did because otherwise I...
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Perigee
This weekend the moon was full and in perigee and therefore appeared bigger and brighter than usual, a so-called supermoon. Perigee is the point at which the earth is closest to some object that orbits...
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Fun-sized statistics that melt in your mouth
I’m told that there are treatments available for those of us who are compelled like to count and sort our candy by color before eating it. I can stop any time I want, of course, but today’s fun-sized...
View ArticleMarketing New Years Resolutions: Don’t Be So Sure
This one’s really for everybody, not just marketers, but I think that marketers are in an unusually good position to make good on it, if we choose to. I resolve to acknowledge uncertainty, and to...
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Don’t Fear the Pies of March, it’s Pi Day Again
I’ve been calling the ascendancy of pie over cupcakes for years, and whether you’re with me on that or not, you’ll have to grant pie its moment in the limelight today, pi day. In the US reckoning of...
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Over-Squeezing Leads to Bitterness
While reading blogs to avoid some odious task find ways to make my life better, I discovered this potentially life-changing bit of life hackery: Stop Trying to Squeeze Out All the Lime Juice....
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