Tertiarymatt

All I wanted as a kid was to eat the baking chocolate but it was a trick

— by Kate Beaton (x)

so much love for credited postings! xoxo

Two weeks ago I popped into my neighborhood liquor store. I’m fortunate to have a very good store right in my neighborhood, though my bank account would probably disagree. As I walked into the store, I noticed a familiar face greeting customers – Heaven Hill Master Distiller, Craig Beam. Craig and his father, Parker (namesake of this particular bourbon I’m reviewing) are two of the nicest guys in the whiskey industry. It was great chatting with Craig, hearing what’s going on at Heaven Hill, but most importantly learning that his father was doing well in spite of his battle with ALS.

Each year, Parker Beam and Heaven Hill select a special expression of whiskey to release under the Parker’s Heritage Collection label. This year’s release is a 10 year old single barrel from high up in Rickhouse EE – one of Parker’s favorite spots to select barrels. On top of that, the 2013 PHC release is titled the “Promise of Hope” bourbon as a result of a partnership between Heaven Hill and the ALS Association’s “ALS Promise Fund”. For every bottle sold, Heaven Hill is donating $20.00 to promote awareness of the disease, as well as to help raise funds for research and patient care. Kudos to Parker, Heaven Hill, and the ALS Association for coming together for such a great cause.

Parker’s Heritage Collection Bourbon (2013), Single Barrel, 48% abv (96 Proof), $80/bottle
Color: Medium Amber/Copper
Nose: Perfectly balanced nose with fruit and spice and some earthy undertones. Caramel apple, hints of maple sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon, elegant oak, dried corn, and a touch of of damp rock and flint.
Palate: A very concentrated entry on the palate of hard caramel candy nuanced with spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, chili, and white pepper). Dried golden fruits (apple, apricot) round out the complex and layered delivery.
Finish: Caramel and warmth from the wood spices linger long.
Overall: Those looking for some sort of statement whiskey, some sort of novelty (finishes, old old barrels, etc), are going to miss what this whiskey is all about – a simple and supremely balanced bourbon. Much like the man himself, the 2013 Parker’s is razor sharp in spots but always composed – almost elegant. This is delicious 10 year old single barrel bourbon bottled at a near perfect proof. In fact, if Heaven Hill is listening, I’d like to see the Evan Williams Single Barrel pushing closer to this proof point. Very well done!
Sour Mash Manifesto Rating: 9.4 (Superb)

Following yesterday's popular discussion on Americans and trucks, we got to wondering: Whatever happened to Via Motors? To refresh your memory, back in January we brought you the story of an American company taking fresh-off-the-assembly-line trucks from Detroit and turning them into E-REVs (Extended Range Electric Vehicles): Powerful yet environmentally-friendly 100-m.p.g. beasts of burden. The company estimated delivery of the first models by mid-2013, but that vague date period has decidedly come and gone.

We looked into it mostly afraid to find they'd gone belly-up, but were pleased to find they're alive and well, and still leaping hurdles on their way to production. Vehicles have to be crash-tested to meet American safety regulations, and even though the trucks Via aims to produce are existing models that have already been crash-tested by their original manufacturer (General Motors), re-rigging them with electric motors requires a whole new crash test. So last month they smashed up a bunch of their cargo van models—and passed with flying colors. "The engineering work done to integrate the VIA's electric technology has been exceptional and the vehicles have exceeded our expectations in all tests that were performed," says Alan Perriton, president of VIA Motors. "We are now moving on to complete certification and begin mass production."

To that end, just weeks ago Via brought their factory online in Mexico, near the GM factory that cranks out Silverados, one of the vehicles Via hacks up. Here's a look at the facility:

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For those of you with access to a full shop—I'm looking at you, ID students—if I gave you a half-dollar coin and asked you to turn it into a wearable ring, which tools would you turn to? The drill press and bench grinder are probably the first to come to mind. That's why it's all the more amazing that this unnamed craftsperson did the same using little more than a hammer and a handheld drill (old-school style at that, corded and with keyed chuck) with a variety of attachments, some store-bought, some seriously jury-rigged.

The safety-minded among you will cringe—this man has no regard for his fingers, and while he never damages them on camera, it does look like the "Don't Do—" part of an industrial safety training video. Yet you can't help but be impressed by the results, and by the sheer range of uses this guy gets out of his drill.

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Meet Siats (pronounced SEE-otts) Meekerorum, the first giant mega-predator to be discovered in North America — specifically in the Utah desert — in over 60 years. In this Untamed Science video, we hear from Dr. Lindsay Zanno, Director of the Paleontology & Geology Research Laboratory at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, who explains how this 30 foot long, 4-ton, carnivorous creature flourished in the tens of millions of years before T-Rex ruled.

Untamed Science has visited Dr. Zanno before: Paleontology 101, a must-watch for anyone who loves dinosaurs.

via Scientific American.

Since 1866, when John Boultbee Brooks first wielded his iron awl and cobbler's hammer to stretch leather over a bike saddle, his company has been known for its craftsmanship, durability, and quirky British insistence on doing things differently. Cyclists are fiercely attached to the brand. Thus, when Brooks England turned to IDEO to design its first new bike saddle in decades, it was essential that the design pay respect to the company's heritage.

The result is the Cambium C17, a saddle that offers the same durability as traditional Brooks leather saddles but with instant comfort and weather protection. It took them nearly seven years to source the materials and perfect the process for creating a more comfortable saddle. Project Lead Thomas Overthun sheds some light on IDEO's approach to the challenge.

Disruptive innovation is at the core of Brooks' heritage. There were no comfortable saddles before Brooks invented their now-classic, but then-revolutionary and high-tech leather saddle. Brooks took a simple hammock construction concept and combined it with natural, high-quality materials that promoted comfort but were also durable enough to last a lifetime.

The company also had a history of being slightly quirky and doing things differently, so we wanted to revive that spirit and make it relevant to an emerging group of users. Unfortunately, a lot of heritage brands have a tendency to stagnate a bit because they work hard to preserve a product's original attributes. Taking risks is how other heritage brands have taken a step forward, grown and innovated—a good example is Burberry evolving from the original trench coat design. Doing something different is risky, but it's also what makes a project exciting.

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Last week, Levi Strauss & Company announced their Wellthread initiative, "A sustainable design and production process that benefits consumers, apparel workers and the environment." Now we just have to figure out what the heck that process consists of—the press release [PDF] is filled with corpo-speak like this:

By embedding the creative constraints of sustainability into the design process from the start, the company has unlocked innovation and business value in the form of a more efficient and flexible production process. "The design mind is still delighted by these creative challenges that are put to it. But if we put these guardrails on the activity, it actually has tremendous unlock in terms of business potential," says Paul Dillinger, Senior Director of Design at Dockers Brand.

By digging through the announcement's catchphrases, this is what we think Wellthread consists of, on the design front:

Design for Durability. "Turning past experience into future promise, a journey into the Levi Strauss & Co. archives uncovered the key points of stress that demanded reinforcement—from buttonholes to pockets." That's all the detail provided on that matter, but we assume it means they'll design garments with more stitching in those areas.

Anticipating the Rise of Clothing Recycling. This part is a little more clear: Although clothing recycling isn't currently anywhere near as large an industry as plastic and metals recycling are, Levi's is betting it will be in the future, and is incorporating "an innovative new long-staple yarn designed to hold up through the recycling process without sacrificing the strength of the cloth." Presumably their designers have been educated on how to incorporate this new material into the design of new garments.

Modifying Consumer Behavior Through Design. Garments with the Wellthread stamp will apparently have laundry instructions specifying cold water, and the garments themselves will have "added touches such as locker loops on khakis and overlapped fabric at the shoulder seam of t-shirts to encourage hang drying," these things intended to make individual consumers use less energy. We're not sure those things will be enough to change consumer behavior on their own; there will likely be some education and marketing required to drive this point home.

The manufacturing changes of Wellthread are a little easier to understand:

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It was during the mid-90s that Christian Blyt designed a piece of plywood to do the impossible: Bend it into a sinusoidal formation, creating a beautiful panel of corrugated wood without any fracturing. This was for his master's thesis in Finland at Alvar Aalto University. Fast-forward 15+ years, and the product has become a full-fledged company. Launched in 2011, Corelam is now used for furniture, panels, doors, sound-proofing, and other things yet to be invented.

We've written about wood movement and warping before, framing it more as a problem to be fixed instead of a brilliant idea to be captured. So how did Blyt figure out how to bend wood so perfectly into such a thin panel (only 2.4 mm thick)?

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For those visuals out there, Mr Jones Watches has a timepiece that not-so-subtly reminds you to make those most of your day. Every hour when the minute and second hands line up on the brand's Ambassador watch, the face's background image lines up to form a multi-colored skull. The idea in whole is a little eerie, but on the bright side it only takes a quick glance to get a general idea of what time it is.

Click the jump for a look at the painting that inspired the skull design and a video showing the watch in action:

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From far away, 'Moon,' a project by Ai Weiwei and Olafur Eliasson, looks just like you'd expect it to—round and pale with a few craters here and there. Zoom in and you'll quickly find that the craters are individual pieces of art and words working together to create a moon-like landscape from a distance. As in the previously-seen "Epic Exquisite Corpse," the interactive project is an exercise in what we'll call 'crowdsketching.' The experience begins with a word from the artists:

"Turn nothing into something—make a drawing, make a mark. Connect with others through this space of imagination. Look at other people's drawings and share them with the world. Be part of the growing community to celebrate how creative expression transcends external borders and internal constraints. We are in this world together.

Ideas, wind, and air no one can stop."

A semi-zoomed look at 'Moon'

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It went live on Friday, and quite deservedly went viral over the weekend: "Limitless," a brilliantly-shot-and-edited video from filmmaker Selina Miles, decides to have some fun with a warehouse in Brisbane that's on the demolition list. Street artists Sofles, Fintan Magee, Treas and Quench were given what appears to be an unlimited amount of Ironlak paint and set loose on the structure's interior. Despite the painters' talents this could easily have been boring, but under Miles' expert shooting, directing and editing techniques, it's pretty riveting:

You can see more of Adelaide-based Miles' work here.

And for us non-Aussies that have never heard of Ironlak, it's an Australian company started in '02 that produces spraypaint, graphic markers and even nozzles for "writers," i.e. graffiti artists. I'm digging their package design.

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Louis Perlman examines budget alternatives of peated whisky to help fight prince increases.

PDF

Good morning!  Another day, another comic. Just click through!  This one is about Edward, the Black Prince!  It is in celebration of heading to Leeds this weekend for Thought Bubble, which I am very excited for!  There is a big ol’ statue of him there.  Becky Cloonan and I are fans.  She’ll be there too!  A lot of great people will be, possibly even… YOU?

And at the bottom of the comic, you’ll notice a link to the new shirts in the store, which I am just going to keep on reminding you about.  Get ‘em while they’re hot.

At Swords’ Point: Humor As Weapon:

beatonna:

Inspiring!  I’ve seen so, so many of those old cartoons where the joke is a woman as a stupid secretary, shrill wife, terrible driver, etc. I cannot imagine being a lady cartoonist going against those entrenched norms in a profession dominated by men, thank you Comics Journal for the profile on this thoughtful lady and her work!

This is an article I blogged way back in the beginning of this tumblr when I had not many followers.  I think Betty Swords deserves a second go with a bigger audience.  I have much respect for my predecessors.  

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad could be here, right now.

Good advice from Faye? That is clearly her evil twin.

Above, watch molten gold transform into gold leaf as it is beaten into thinner and thinner pieces while cold. This clip is from PBS’ six-part miniseries The Ring of Truth: An Inquiry Into How We Know What We Know - Atoms (1987). 

"It was the craftsmen who mastered the remarkable properties that go with specific materials. They were the first to journey towards the atom. The goldsmiths slowly refined their craft to take advantage of what gold alone could do…”

MIT astrophysicist and Institute Professor Philip Morrison narrated the series, which he co-wrote with his wife, noted art and science educator Phylis Morrison. Philip Morrison also narrated and wrote the script for Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten, a must-watch video for all ages.

via Emily Lakdawalla.

This post is not about the day to day operations of The Old Reader or anything of that nature.  It’s about how our team came to get involved with RSS and how we see the future of this application and technology that we value so highly.

As a long time user of RSS and Google Reader, I’ve long appreciated the benefits of the technology.  Like many people, my use of Google Reader faded a bit as social media platforms took hold.  But, I’d always go back to Google Reader when I wanted to cut through the noise of social networks and focus on things I’m really passionate about.  Google Reader wasn’t my “second screen” application where I’d go to take a break from work.  It filled a much more essential need for me by providing these three features:

1.  Unread items are kept in a queue.  I don’t miss things.  No algorithm chooses what to show me or not show me.

2.  It’s an archive of blogs that I value and posts that I’ve read.

3.  I can follow whatever I want from anywhere on the web.  It embodies the open web.

For my professional career in web research and development, I can’t really live without these features.  I can follow twitter feeds or like Facebook pages, but I’m certain to miss important content from people who I highly value.  I need those items queued, archived, and I need to be able to subscribe to anybody on the entire open web.  I can’t be limited to those authors who choose to enter into private social networks and I don’t want to have to constantly check my accounts for updates.

So this leads me to how we got involved in The Old Reader.  When Google Reader shut it’s doors, my business partner Jim did some research and tried several services and suggested I’d like The Old Reader the best.  So we both moved on over.  I read some articles trying to understand why Google Reader would shut down and one really stuck with me.  It hypothesized that Google had been following the lead of companies like Facebook and Twitter by turning their backs on the open web and trying to build their own private/closed social networks.  It’s frankly hard to argue against this theory.

However, we see this trend of migrating from the open web to private networks as cyclical.  How long will it be before your Facebook stream is so full of promoted content, bizarre algorithmic decisions, and tracking cookie based shopping cart reminders that you won’t be getting any valuable information?  For as little as $60, a business can promote a page to Facebook users.  It won’t be long before your news feed is worthless.  So we jumped at the opportunity to get involved with developing and managing The Old Reader.  We believe in it.

As we’ve been looking to grow our engineering team at Levee Labs and The Old Reader we’ve met with a number of bright young people that are surprisingly unaware of RSS.  They say “I recognize the RSS icon, but haven’t really ever used it.”  Is it possible that there is a lost generation of internet users that are completely unfamiliar with RSS?  Are they unfamiliar with the idea of the open web too?  We believe that’s the case and we’ve been working hard to come up with ideas that’ll expose that generation to RSS, The Old Reader, and the open web.  It’s what made the internet great to begin with and it’s coming back.

Thanks for using The Old Reader!

trendgraphy:

Winter Is Coming by Zach Graham

I won’t lie, this gets me right in my red and white Canuck heart

Some things:

Legendary Showdown (almost done! I’ll shut up soon! Some people still haven’t seen it!)

48 hours left to get in on pre-ordering Legendary Showdown via Kickstarter and getting in on the KS exclusive goodies. (Dr. McNinja written pamphlets, challenge coins, bonus cards like those above, sketch cards hand drawn by ME)

The folks at Killer Robot Games have also made a gameplay video that may entice you!

I’ve designed some new merchandise over at TopatoCo! The first is an image of my dog somehow taking control of a battle mech.

The second thing is a mug my wife Carly and I designed together to express certain feelings we may have about a certain meme.

Longshot  Saves the Marvel Universe#2 came out today! You can get it at your local comic shop, or local digital comics reader thing.

It’s probably one of the more enjoyable things I’ve written! Click this-a way for a preview.

Finally, if you’re in New York, I’ve got some comedy appearances coming up! Check my website for dates.

-Christopher

 

Newsareedoo! is a post from: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad could be here, right now.

A quick note: Rudy Rucker, one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement, put himself on the literary map with the Prize-Winning Ware Tetralogy. In the spirit of openness, Rucker has long made the Tetralogy freely available online. Now comes his latest work, The Big Aha, which you can read online in an illustrated format at right this very moment. Released just days ago, the novel (also available in ebook and paperback formats) was funded by 331 backers through a Kickstarter campaign launched earlier this year. For more free sci-fi, please see our rich 2012 post: Free Science Fiction Classics on the Web: Huxley, Orwell, Asimov, Gaiman & Beyond.

via BoingBoing

Related Content:

Revisit Futuria Fantasia: The Science Fiction Fanzine Ray Bradbury Published as a Teenager

Isaac Asimov Recalls the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1937-1950)

Free Philip K. Dick: Download 13 Great Science Fiction Stories

500 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook

The Big Aha, the Latest Novel by Cyberpunk Writer Rudy Rucker, is Now Out and Free Online is a post from: Open Culture. You can follow Open Culture on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and by Email.

(hot in a 16oz, rubbish…)

Just about to leave leave beautiful San Francisco to head up to chilly but ever exciting New York. It’s always a pleasure to bring a little of Savile Row to the United States. Thankfully, business is brisk and there’s no let up on how people enjoy wearing beautiful hand made suits. It’s interesting, as of course we try to find the direction in which people are going with their cloth choices. What we’ve found you may find quite surprising. Especially with my more established clients there’s a large trend for two complete opposites in cloth types.

Namely, very traditional heavier weight fabrics such as 13oz and up to 15/16 oz. I say established clients, because they’ve got to know our clothes and they realise that our soft, unstructured make allows for a very light and comfortable garment. The pay off of course is that you can take advantage of cloth’s that are heavier which drape well and are extremely durable to wear.

Then the other popular choice are the lightweight Fresco fabrics which literally feel as if your wearing fresh air. coming in at 8/9 oz. They’re a bit of an acquired taste as although light, they’re quite firm to the touch. But as usual there’s a trade off as they’re extremely light and cool to wear but they don’t crease. Hurrah, a light cloth that’s managed to avoid the easily creased curse

However, business may not be brisk because of either of these great types of cloth. They may just like seeing us

Young Tom Ritson as you can imagine is having a fantastic time out here. Also, a little celebration is in order this weekend as it’s exactly 30 years since I started in this trade.

Good job I like it.

Life is okay, for when life is pretty okay, considering the alternatives.

A shirt based on the comic On Infinite Loops

For those of you that don’t follow us on Twitter, we’d like to pass along the news that our development team at Levee Labs is hiring.  Let us know if you or anybody you know might be interested!

Rails Engineer - https://weworkremotely.com/jobs/30

Web Designer - https://weworkremotely.com/jobs/32

benito-cereno:

St. Guinefort

Speaking of dogs:

In the 13th century in France, a dog named Guinefort was venerated as a saint. Locals would travel to his grave, where they claimed miracles would occur, especially over infants.

The legend went as follows:

A certain knight left his infant son in the care of his greyhound Guinefort while he went hunting. When he returned, he found the child’s cot overturned, the dog and room smeared with blood, and the child nowhere to be found. Enraged that his previously loyal hound had eaten his only child, the knight drew his sword and slew Guinefort on the spot. Immediately thereafter, the knight’s wife turned the cot back over, only to find the child laughing and unharmed, and the bloody corpse of a viper lying next to him.

The knight repented of having killed such a loyal friend and lowered the dog’s body into a well, which he filled in with rocks and converted into a shrine. When the people heard the story, they called the dog a martyr and venerated him as a saint who performed healing miracles, particularly among young children.

(This tale is very similar to the story of the Welsh hound Gelert, except with a wolf instead of a snake, and the added detail that the dog’s owner—Llewellyn the Great—was forever haunted by the dying yelp of the dog and never smiled again.)

Guinefort was never recognized as an official saint, and the church tried to suppress his cult. In fact, the inquisitor Stephen of Bourbon was SO MAD at the idea that someone would say a dog could be a saint, he made it clear that the cult of Guinefort was IN FACT a secret devil-worshiping operation and all babies that were allegedly healed by a dog’s ghost were actually eaten by Satan. He had the shrine destroyed and the body and relics of Guinefort burned for heresy.

To reiterate: under church law, it is impossible for a dog to be a saint; one can, however, be a heretic.

Despite the efforts of killjoys like Stephen of Bourbon, the cult of Guinefort lasted for centuries, well into the 1930s.

As far as I know, there have been no other dog saints. Except for Saint Christopher, of course, who we all know was half dog.

come to the library where learning is fun

Hello again, kiddos.  Been a while, hasn't it?

I have been quite busy PhDing, and in particular working on an NSF grant.
Exciting times. I do have several blog posts I want to write, on the illusion of linearity in human systems, and other things.

Today, however, I created my ORCID account.
ORCID--no doubt intended to be read as "orchid", but seen by my brain as ORC ID--is a system for providing researchers with unique identifiers. Thus, if you are like me, and have an unbelievable common name (there are at least five researchers in the US and Canada with a name almost identical to mine, some of whom even work in similar fields), you can make sure that when someone is talking about your work, they mean YOUR work, and not someone who happens to have the same name.

The site also has a profile page for those who have ORCIDs where they will host a list of your works, and eventually things like grants, patents, and institutional affiliations.

My ORCID is below:
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8199-3328

doge.txt (by l2CRE4M)