Ploafmaster General

The BBC is running a story on their site about a bakery at the Mount Everest base camp. The whole operation is run using a special portable oven, and includes some clearly non-local foods like banana bread and apple pie. What cool, though, is that the profits are reportedly going towards a trust fund for local villagers to help deal with the dangers that come with global warming.
(picture via Flickr user Emma Sjönell)

Peter Hossli writes about architect Annabelle Selldorf's current project: a Chelsea apartment building in Manhattan with a car elevator so residents can park beside their apartments - regardless which level!

I think this is a fantastic solution to a problem so common in large cities, and while this incarnation will find itself attached to a super-luxurious residential space I think it's a concept worth further developing in urban areas.
(via swissmiss)

I seriously almost peed myself laughing at this. I actually drooled on my keyboard, and the afterlaugh^TM is so strong that I'm convulsing in my chair.

Just try watching this without a simultaneous laugh and WTF? moment:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8NOxoZ3rZc&hl=en&w=580&h=485]

4:04 PM. Day Not Found

from Phil on Twitter.

As is often the case, it was my wife who suggested going to Buzz and Ned's barbecue when we headed out for lunch with her mom yesterday.

When I placed my order, I decided I'd try a Boylan's Creme Soda - something I'd never had before. In fact, I failed to recall any time when I'd had a Boylan's soda. When it came to specialty root bears I tended to reach for Stewart's first (they were all over the place in Jersey when I was a kid) or a Root 66, and a variety of creme sodas always seemed hard to come by in Virginia. So try I did.

And you should, too.

Boylan actually uses real cane sugar and pure vanilla extract in the creme soda, so it was smooth, the right kind of sweet, and delicious. It turns out they produce a completely natural version of several of their sodas, the creme included (with Bourbon vanilla, chocolate, and coffee extracts). I hope to find some of these this week.
(image via Flickr user Kawika Takara)

My dinner was better than yours. Why? Because I made my lasagna tonight, that's why.

I'm getting a lot better at reducing my sauce to the right consistency, and applying just the right amount of salt. I'm also starting to perfect the distribution of the cheese mixture (I piped it on using a cut zip-top bag - there's no better way, man) and the overall texture and thickness of the finished and assembled product.

I was happy to share the meal with the folks in our Bible study, but I'm happier that we have leftovers :-)

Most folks who take pictures beyond casual point-and-shoot party pictures know that depth of field refers to the range within which objects are in focus when viewed through a camera's lens. A larger depth of field means more of what's within the frame is in focus, and the opposite is true for a small depth of field. Folks who are familiar with manual photography (film or digital) understand that you can adjust this depth of field by adjusting the aperture of the lens. You open the aperture to narrow the depth of field, and you reduce the aperture to increase the depth of field.

What most folks outside of professionals may not understand, though, is that the depth of field is also affected by the distance from the subject, or magnification. So while I might expect opening my lens up to f1.4 to give me that glorious depth of field sought by so many amateurs like myself, I have to make sure I'm also close to my subject.

The above photograph, from Flickr user Adam Holte, demonstrates this principal nicely. While his aperture was set to f13 (which many would expect to produce a medium depth of field), he was very close to the subject - either by walking up to it or zooming in really tight - so the depth of field is still quite narrow.

Just some food for thought, and maybe even a good reason to start using that depth-of-field preview button on your SLR :-)

It's Friday, and so far I'm not in a huge thinking mood, so I hope you find this awesome McSweeney's goody as humorous as I did.

Ladies and gentlemen, the (IM)AGNA CARTA.

...the distinction between "great marketing accomplishment" and "consumer fraud" can be quite thin...

from Going Private: The Five Circles of Hell

A centralized monitoring system for the District of Columbia's closed-circuit camera network? Join the club with New York and Chicago. Awesome.

And by "awesome" I mean "terrifying."

What you see above is a relief carving of a triceratops into the side of fossilized dinosaur poop! Now I don't know if the coprolite comes from the dinosaur carved on the side...but does it matter?

This same site, tellmewhereonearth.com, sells jewelry made from moose and deer poop! Somehow I don't think that'd pass muster as a gift for a significant other...

As if Google Maps wasn't already useful enough, they've decided to integrate Street View with their driving directions:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgJSXrkwshg&hl=en&w=580&h=485]
(via Ze Frank)

The North Richmond News reports that Richmond's government is considering a change to the intersection of Laburnum and Hermitage. While said crossing is currently managed by traffic lights, officials are looking at changing the traffic pattern to a two lane circle similar to the Lee Circle at Allen and Monument.

Part of me thinks this is useful - after all, this could actually lead to fewer accidents and a better flow of traffic - but part of me is pissed off. I don't care what benefits traffic circles may bring because driving through them annoys the crap out of me :-)

Watching today's new episode of Good Eats, I noticed a reference to Texas' "Safe Cupcake Amendment." Yes, it's real, and yes, there's stupidity on both sides of the "issue."

Ahem.

If you can stand the loung-o-rific snooze tune playing in the background, check out this short video clip depicting the manufacture of plastic bottles from a mixture of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), recycled plastic, and plant sugars:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqoPivZ2vuI&hl=en&w=580&h=485]

I researched this a little further and discovered that NatureWorks, the company which produces this plastic, is a joint venture between Cargill and Japan's Teijin Limited. With Cargill's involvement, I bet you can guess where those natural plant sugars come from...

Well just in case you can't, NatureWorks fills in the gap on the home page telling us that corn is used. Okay, so maybe it's not just corn - they say it comes from renewable sources "such as corn," but all their PR-speak FAQs refer to corn. I'm fascinated by the possibility of plastic manufacture from renewable sources, but knowing Cargill's impact on our farms and food culture, I can't help wondering what adverse affects this product would have if it took hold in the packaging industry.

This is almost seven minutes, but it's like fuel injection for your soul. Plus, the little kid waving his head around like a maniac is totally awesome.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE&hl=en&w=580&h=485]

I'm not a huge video game player, but there are some series of games which I adore. Mario Kart is one of them, so today I purchased the latest title for the Wii.

This game is AWESOME.

The steering seems reasonably sensitive out of the box, the tracks are excellent (especially Wario's Gold Mine), and the addition of motorcycles seems like a brilliant idea (it feels like way different steering dynamics to me). I was sure to purchase an extra wheel so Valerie and I can play the same way together, and I'm really jazzed about racing some of my friends who live elsewhere. This game has the potential to be another huge hit for Nintendo.

I'm a huge fan of 30 Rock - Tina Fey's razor sharp writing and comedy timing keep me entertained for thirty minutes every Thursday night. So I was okay with the idea of going on a date with my wife which included a viewing of Baby Mama, which opened last night. Until I watched it.

To be fair, the parts that were funny were EXTREMELY funny, and Steve Martin's character was one of the funniest parts he's played in years. But the rest of the movie was absolutely ridiculous. Cliche jokes, over-predictable situations, and stereotypical characters plagued the feature throughout, and I couldn't help feeling like the lead actors were stifled by an underwritten script. But the script wasn't written by Fey - it was written by Michael McCullers. McCullers has such stellar writing credits as the last two Austin Powers movies and Undercover Brother. w00t!

Two out of five, man, because this movie didn't even meet the lukewarm expectations I barely had.

Dave comes through again with another stellar recommendation. Rui Palha's black and white photography is impossibly good from start to finish. His ability to capture a sense of isolation or transition is impeccable. It's hard to choose a favorite, but if I had to, I'm sure I could come up with a short list.

Our current model of space shuttle has ben in service almost 7 months longer than I've been alive. Don' you think it's time for some alternatives?

Dinner tonight was magical. I went by the butcher shop for a special trip because I knew they'd have freshly made hot dogs.

Let me repeat that. FRESHLY MADE HOT DOGS.

The Belmont Butchery makes their own links from (I believe) beef shoulder, presumably garlic, salt, some fat, and whatever other seasonings they choose. They handle the stuffing and smoking, and I was delighted to see them trussed up with string when I arrived. They're a quarter-pound each, so I grabbed two for dinner.

I decided that I'd try my hand at deep frying, so there was a reprise of my potato chips - only this time cooked in peanut oil. MUCH better. They cooked considerably faster, were more evenly crispy, and delightfully browned. I toasted up some nice rolls while the hot dogs cooked up...

I felt as if I'd never eaten a real hot dog until tonight.

I'm finding that I'm consistently delighted (but not surprised) by the extreme difference in quality and flavor between what I'm buying from the butcher and what I've previously eaten in its industrial format. The snap of the casing, the juiciness, the texture, the taste! You can't begin at one without the others. I'd have a hard time getting these for a cookout (they're not cheap), but I think my every-two-or-three months hot dog habit is about to change to once-a-month.

I washed down this perfect warm weather meal with some lemonade, and now I wish I had some gelato to cap off my evening's meal :-)

It must be Nostalgia Day here at the 'General, because I can't help but run in to little blasts from my past. BEHOLD, Garbage Pail Kids:



This came from Flickr user Mauricio Montoya, who has an entire set dedicated to the fabulously disgusting trading cards.

Oh childhood, where did you go?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br9K8qnD5E0&hl=en&w=580&h=485]

Last year I received a notice from a collection agency regarding unpaid personal property taxes on my old 1991 Toyota Camry. It was about $25, I think, including the interest for paying late. The problem is, I'd traded in the car in 2004 when I purchased my Jetta. I basically had to contact the dealership and have them send me a copy of the sales information from their records so I could fax it to the city as proof that I really had sold it. Phew...that was settled.

Until this year.

I received THREE tax bills this year - one each for Valerie's and my Jetta, and one for a 1991 Toyota Camry. That I still didn't own.

Today I called the city offices and pressed "3" for the Department of Finance or whatever. When I told the customer service gal that I had a problem with my personal property tax, I was informed that that department was currently unavailable because of high demand. That is, the very group with which I had a problem during tax season wasn't taking calls during tax season since IT WAS BUSY BECAUSE OF TAX SEASON!

So I left a freaking message. I may be too generous in assuming they keep records of what people paid in years past, but if they did, they should be able to see that I clearly paid only for two Volkswagens, and didn't do a thing about a Toyota. We'll see.