fedward, tumbling

So Long, Opera News

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:06:11 -0400

Here’s the entirety of the email I sent to the Opera News circulation department, in light of today’s news:

In light of today’s news and the loss of the magazine’s independent editorial voice, please cancel my subscription. I will also alert my mom (who pays for my subscription every year as a gift) that I would not like her to continue doing so.

I started to add “please refer any questions to Mr. Gelb,” but it seemed a bit much. I’ve never had a reason for a haughty cancellation before and didn’t want to overreach.

The frequent fliers who flew too much - latimes.com

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:15:43 -0400

The frequent fliers who flew too much - latimes.com:

Both men bought tickets that gave them unlimited first-class travel for life on American Airlines. It was almost like owning a fleet of private jets.

Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees. Flight crews memorized their names and favorite meals.

This is just like the McSweeney’s Lifetime Subscription. Only involving a lot more money.

blackandwtf: 1953 Seattle, Washington. Members of the Seattle...

Tue, 01 May 2012 20:03:51 -0400

blackandwtf:

1953

Seattle, Washington. Members of the Seattle Tubing Society in full float.

(via Burt Glinn and dreams like that)

I aspire to this.

tbridge: This is the best invention in the HISTORY OF...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:20:08 -0400

tbridge:

This is the best invention in the HISTORY OF THINGS.

C’mon now. Pizza Cone? Make this happen, DC. Food truck that stuff.

This may have been from K! Pizzacone … which apparently closed within eight months of opening. But maybe somebody else has run with the idea now.

Also, this just made me think of THE JERK.

daveholmes: I can’t wait for the ensemble romantic-comedy...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:54:52 -0400

daveholmes:

I can’t wait for the ensemble romantic-comedy adaptation of “I Like Book For Women.”

… featuring Héctor Elizondo as the manager of an independent book store.

Discovery Comes to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a set on...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:14:18 -0400

Discovery Comes to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a set on Flickr.

And here’s the whole set.

Discovery 31 on Flickr.Blanketing my social medias, as it were....

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:11:54 -0400

Discovery 31 on Flickr.

Blanketing my social medias, as it were. But then I’m really pleased with this photo.

Via Flickr:
Space Shuttle Discovery is delivered to the National Air and Space Museum and sits nose to nose with Enterprise before being towed into the building.

newwavetimewarp: Split Enz’s “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” came...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:51:59 -0400

newwavetimewarp:

Split Enz’s “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” came out April 10, 1982. Here’s the original promo video.

Round the Horn, if you dare! Also, I still have the clap reflex.

Blast From the Past: Reblog Contest

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:03:00 -0400

americastestkitchen:

It’s our last Blast From the Past Cookbook Giveaway, and to survive the reappearance of chilly weather, we’re talking about comfort food today. Want to know more (and get a recipe)? Then read on.

We’re giving away cookbooks! Your mission: Reblog this post with an answer to the question below for a chance to win a copy of this beautiful cookbook.

What is your go-to comfort food?

I love beef pot pie and chicken pot pie. I mean, I really love them. Delicious stew wrapped in a flakey pie crust — it has been my favorite comfort food since I was very little.—Veronica

To get the recipe for Cheese Frenchees (pictured above), and contest details, click “read more.”

Read More

You left out the garnish of bread and butter pickle slices! Whenever I visited my dad’s office as a kid, lunch at King’s was a HUGE treat. One of these and a milkshake, EVERY TIME.

I might have to wipe the dust off the deep fryer and put it back in service.

archiemcphee: Every once in a while something comes along...

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:09:23 -0400

archiemcphee:

Every once in a while something comes along that’s so singularly awesome no amount of description will do it justice and you just need to trust us and our dedication to finding awesomeness to share with you. We love those moments and this is one of them.

What you have waiting for you here is video of the Japanese dance group Wrecking Crew Orchestra performing a very cleverly choreographed dance routine in the dark whilst wearing Tron-inspired, programmed electroluminescent light suits designed by iLuminate. Oh yes, and they’re dancing to the awesome sounds of Daft Punk, Justice With Pase Rock, Crookers, David Guetta, and Flux Pavilion, which sweetens the deal even more. Every time you think Japan has produced all the awesomeness it can muster they raise the bar even higher. Enjoy!

Visit Whudat, Geekologie or Colossal to view another shorter, but still quite dazzling, performance by the Wrecking Crew Orchestra in a commercial for Experia, as well as a fantastic still from that performance (which we were sorely tempted to post here, but we wanted to make sure you saw the performance first).

Now please excuse us while we watch this video again.

Inspired by Tom: Top row is pinned by the camera and music apps,...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:25:22 -0400

Inspired by Tom:

Top row is pinned by the camera and music apps, and the middle two icons are for dealing with output from the camera.

Second row is sort of a utility row. I only recently started using Evernote and keep forgetting I have it, so it’s mostly there as a reminder I’m still figuring out if it’s for me or not.

Third row: social media apps I actually use, plus Settings (which used to be pinned to the bottom right corner until the most recent reorganization). The Flickr app is terrible, but Flickr is where all my photos live, so I still use it (mostly for digging out photos to show people; I usually upload using other tools). I use the Settings app ALL THE TIME thanks to flaky wifi networks and my stubborn insistence on trying to use the AT&T 3G network in the Metro.

Bottom row: the labels are pretty self-explanatory. For some reason I still have three weather apps (built-in, Weather Channel, and Weatherbug). I don’t use Pandora, TED, or Ustream much, but I haven’t needed their folder slots yet.

Dock: pretty straightforward.

I believe if you don’t have every icon slot filled on the home screen you’re not maximizing the benefit of it. I have one other screen, all folders except for new apps I’m auditioning and the empty Newsstand.

(via ART DIRECTION: INSTRUMENTS FROM INSIDE on the Behance...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 09:46:26 -0500

(via ART DIRECTION: INSTRUMENTS FROM INSIDE on the Behance Network)

"What Miner and Google gambled on, and it seems bizarre in retrospect, was that the carriers and the..."

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:19:53 -0500

“What Miner and Google gambled on, and it seems bizarre in retrospect, was that the carriers and the manufacturers would be good at customizing and improving the user experience of the base operating system. At the time, that gamble would have made some sense; if you went to the carriers and manufacturers in 2007 and asked what they wanted, they probably would have described exactly what Android had become by 2009. Unfortunately, while Android itself is a huge achievement and a popular piece of software, the customized interfaces added by manufacturers are, for the most part, horrible. They are poorly designed, they slow down development, they prevent quick software updates, and they lead to countless annoying divergences in the platform that are difficult for app developers to test against. These things are Android’s biggest weaknesses.”

- Nothing in Android makes sense except in the light of its original vision by Dustin Curtis

This is one of those things that’s hard to explain to the idiots who comment on message boards.

"Apple sold a record 5.2 million Macs in the quarter ending in December, up 26% from the same quarter..."

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:41:00 -0500

“Apple sold a record 5.2 million Macs in the quarter ending in December, up 26% from the same quarter in 2010. But Macs represented 5.4% of global PC shipments in the fourth quarter, according to IDC, up from 4.5% during the same period in 2010. It has been a relatively small contributor to the company’s record financial performance. As the company’s revenue jumped 73% in the quarter ending in December, the percentage of its revenue from Macs fell from 20.3% to 14.2%.”

- Apple to Bring iPhone, iPad Features to Mac - WSJ.com

This is some weirdly negative writing. Apple has both increased its share of global PC shipments (a trend which has been going on for a while now) and shipped a record number of Macs, so what’s that “but” doing in the second sentence?

And the reason the increased shipment of Macs has decreased in percentage of overall revenue isn’t because the market is shrinking (“small contributor”, “percentage … fell”), it’s because Apple’s revenue is growing because of the strength of its iOS-based devices.

If a company’s product shipments in one category increase in both raw numbers and percentage of market, but the company’s shipments in another category dwarf them, it doesn’t mean the products in the first category are doing badly.

babesofnpr: Ninety percent of the submissions B.O.N.P.R....

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:03:11 -0500

babesofnpr:

Ninety percent of the submissions B.O.N.P.R. receives pertain to this guy. There’s too much pressure to think of an awesome caption, so we’ll just leave you with this picture of NPR mega babe and host of This American Life, Ira Glass.

What really makes this for me is the number of people saying it isn’t funny.

Right hand in a trench coat: Science™

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:05:17 -0500

Right hand in a trench coat: Science™:

No. You need a solvent (water) to get the extraction to work well –- there’s more surface contact with a solvent extraction than a dry grind, which is essentially what would happen in a citrus + sugar grind.

If “dry grind” is a specific term I’m unfamiliar with it, but having made oleo-saccharum I can say that the result of muddling the citrus peel and sugar is indeed quite moist. But you also add hot water to dissolve the sugar after an hour, and that presumably would pick up anything water-soluble that didn’t leech into the sugar.

Science™

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:38:36 -0500

tbridge:

dennymayo replied to your post: What would the A-B test look like? I have more limes…

As I read it, the oil won’t go into water/booze without sugar - hence the need for the simple syrup. Simple syrup is less polar than booze, making a better solvent for the oils.

This man should know - he is a Professional Chemist.

So, does that mean we should muddle the citrus with sugar before doing the soaking?

I’m neither Italian nor a professional chemist, but I have read enough on booze to know that mumble-mumble oil sugar mumble (“less polar … yeah. That.”). My empirical results with punch with and without oleo-saccharum do show that there’s something to the practice. In general some things are soluble in water, some are soluble in alcohol, and some aren’t really soluble in either, but the sugar helps (while sugar itself is more soluble in water than in alcohol, which is why you make syrup in the first place).

That said, I just googled and essentially every recipe I found for a ‘cello said to combine the peel (or the zest) with the booze and let it sit for some amount of time (minimum of a couple weeks, in general), and so if nothing else the way you’re doing it is the way countless Italians have done it, and thus certainly Not Wrong.

The A-B test I’d design would probably be something like an A-B-C test, in the end: A) do what you’re doing; B) using the same amount of sugar you’d use, first make an oleo-saccharum, then add the same amount of hot water, stir to dissolve the sugar, let cool, add booze, steep the whole mess for however long; C) make the oleo-saccharum, add the hot water, stir to dissolve sugars, cool, strain, add booze. Or, if you’re feeling truly ambitious, strain out the peels, add a shot of booze to the syrup (to prevent spoilage), then combine the somewhat-spent peels and the booze and steep that mess for however long (storing the syrup in the fridge for as long as that takes).

So, four tests. Are you America’s Test Kitchen?

(via Famous Photogs Pose With Their Most Iconic Images | Raw...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:12:24 -0500

(via Famous Photogs Pose With Their Most Iconic Images | Raw File | Wired.com)

"Joe it’s Jeff and Mandy are they on that they and I need to ask me about. Hey great look at..."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:38:40 -0500

“Joe it’s Jeff and Mandy are they on that they and I need to ask me about. Hey great look at it. He said there’s really nothing we can see what it looks like somebody’s already sealed around the windows and stuff like that. There’s just something you know shop just pull that room and just rebuild our way over to big son would rather not get into. Anyway, I will met you ready to go one that gave you wash today but you’re ready to travel. So just give us a call if there’s any questions. Thank you have good day”

- Oh, Vonage transcriptions of wrong number calls, where would I be without you?

P.S. The audio doesn’t make much more sense than that. Something about an RV.

"[What kind of bar is this?] is precisely the question everyone should ask themselves before figuring..."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:23:00 -0500

“[What kind of bar is this?] is precisely the question everyone should ask themselves before figuring out what they want to drink. Just as a martini order won’t fly in Ireland, Stoli-and-soda isn’t your best bet at a serious-minded cocktail joint. You wouldn’t go to Paris just to eat a Big Mac, right? Similarly, don’t just go for some knee-jerk drink order. Survey the landscape and make a quick plan.”

- Sloshed: How to Order a Proper Drink in Any Bar, Anywhere — Grub Street New York

I disagree with his categorization of a martini or a Manhattan as foolproof, though. Sometimes the bar has rotten vermouth or no bitters at all.

Previously, in this space, my own drink ordering flowchart.