Stuck behind more trucks on Ridge Pike in Norristown

What is this Maier's bread truck doing making a left turn on Ridge Pike in Norristown into the Strohmann bread factory? Shouldn't there be some sort of separation of bread brands?

I now have to add, "Don't get stuck behind a Maier's bread truck making a left turn on Ridge Pike." to my Rules for Living. Used to be you only had to worry about the Strohmann trucks, but my keen senses and pattern recognition skills picked up on bread truck and bread factory, even if the markings and visual cues were contradictory, in plenty of time to move to the right lane and avoid an incident.

Turns out many bread brands are owned by a huge bread conglomerate, George Weston Bakeries, Inc. (mmm, bread conglomerate). Maier's falls under the Strohmann brand with Dutch Country and D'Italiano. Isn't everything made by just one company now anyway.

tags: Strohmann, Maier's, bread, Norristown, rules for living

Who would you fly into space with?

My favorite space crew would be...

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 94% Moya (Farscape) 69% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 69% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 63% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 56% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 56% SG-1 (Stargate) 50% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 50% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 50% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 44% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 38% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm

The quiz must have a wide definition of spaceships and crews to include two space stations (DS9 and Babylon 5), a ship that only stays on scorched Earth (the Nebuchadnezzar) and the X-files, this last must be because the author liked the series.

My results make sense, whoever would want to fly around for the government? My top scores show a love of freedom and independence. Doesn't anyone ever realize that on Star Trek only the military is flying around in space? Starfleet is the military arm of the Federation, is it not? Nice military industrial complex they have going there on Star Trek. Even the other races seem to be flying primarily military or government backed spaceships. Maybe spaceships are expensive. Only on Deep Space Nine and rarely on the other series did you get a glimpse of a non-military or civilian control of space and space flight, and they were usually criminals.

(via I can't believe its not cleavage honey)

tags: spaceship, science fiction, quiz

Firing by text message heralds the new bleak dystopian future

A company unable to reach an employee for a few days resorted to firing her by text message. The company claimed to be keeping in touch with "youth culture" by doing so. I wonder if a text message meets the legal requirements of written notice? It appears that someone is going to get in trouble for this one.

tags: technology, text messages, gadgets, dystopian

"Floating" magnetic bed cheats a little

This bed is suspended in the air using magnetic fields. It is tethered to the floor with thin steel cables though, which is cheating a little. The designer has yet to add the cushions and pillows to make it comfortable. He claims that:

"Although people with piercings should have no problem sleeping on the bed, Ruijssenaars advises them against entering the magnetic field between the bed and the floor.

They could find their piercing suddenly tugged toward one of the magnets."

Not exactly comforting, and I might avoid working on a laptop on top the the bed. Pacemakers and this bed also might not mix well. The work is inspired by the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

tags: technology, art, gadgets, beds

Siamese Twin Cucumbers

After decrying the cuculoupe abomination, I find my own garden cursed by mutated fruit. Today I picked this Siamese Twin Cucumber, though I think they prefer to be called conjoined twin cucumbers. I am looking for a surgeon or sous chef with the skills to separate them so they can have normal lives.

I suppose this is the type of thing people put up on eBay, but eventually I will just use it in a salad or cucumber soup, or perhaps as a garnish for something to take advantage of its unique cross section.

tags: gardening, cucumber

The newest golf technology fixes all errors.

I golfed for the first time in years this past weekend. I had given up golf because I only hit every other shot well, and that is a very long golf game with far to many strokes. A group of us went golfing just for fun and that seemed reason enough to break my boycott. The expert of the group took one look at my 30 year old golf clubs and said that they would be "hard" to hit.

My clubs are in good condition and were hand me downs from my older brother, but they represent the bronze age of club technology. Since that time, golf technology has passed through the iron age, steel age on onward to carbon fiber composites, titanium and other extremely light metals, as well as new shapes and weighting to improve club effectiveness even further. The next generation of clubs will probably consist of plasma constrained by force fields.

One of our foursome let me try his technologically advanced golf clubs. He had a driver so advanced that it has adjustable weights to tailor the effect on the ball when you hit it. It also has a huge sweet spot. I went from topping the ball and only getting a good (but short) drive every third try or so to beautiful long straight drives with a delightful ping when the club hit the ball. That club was like confession, it covered up all of my golfing sins. After I swallowed my pride and starting borrowing his clubs for the second nine holes I shaved 11 strokes off the second half. It was sad that I had that many strokes to shave but the point is technology fixed my golf game. I actually birdied the 18th hole because I first used the great driver for a perfect drive, a perfect 9 iron to four feet from the pin. I sunk the put with a futuristic putter that forced me to have a correct pendulum like putter swing. I am a convert!

When I started playing tennis again last year I experienced the same effect. The last racket I had was purchased maybe 15 years ago, during the transition between wood and composites and actually was wood with carbon fiber inlay. The racket I got last year was half the price of that one, and half the weight at least. You can even buy clothes tailored to the specific sports activity with sweat wicking fibers that keep you cool during your workout.

What a great comparison and contrast of golf and tennis technology from long ago to today.

tags: golf, technology

Overheard in everywhere else

Since they have "Overheard in New York", and "Overheard in the Office" and even "Overheard at the Beach" they should finally cover it all with "Overheard in everywhere else". Here is my suggested first entry,overheard at a restaurant tonight in Wilmington.

"He's so much happier now that he is off the anti-depressants"

My big (virtual) musical break.

Honest and the Hypocrites continues to climb the charts with their new hit "What I say is not important". Form your music group, name your song and make your own 45 record. It's retro and it's cool!


A questions from the back? A phonograph record, children, is an ancient analog sound storage medium. Musical groups used to record songs on them. Don't laugh, it may be the only form of audio storage durable enough to survive the upcoming apocalypse and still be playable and understandable by the future civilization that rises from the ashes (or water, or ice, or zombies).

(via Coudal Partners)

tags: record, music

Flash Enhanced Abstract Portraiture

Ryan Terry's Portrait Machine will generate your "portrait" for you. The portraits generated are rather abstract. I think the forms in the work capture my innate inquisitiveness, unconventionality and willingness to challenge the status quo as well as my respect for others privacy, my ability to go along with the flow, and talent for accepting things as they are.

(via Exploding Aardvark)

tags: quiz, art

More conversions by license plate

This person may be exhorting us to pray or they may actually be someone who does. Still, I continue to wonder if a license plate is the best place for such a message. Isn't this type of thing best left to each person's private personal convictions?

tags: license plates, proselytize, prayer