http://jasonian.org Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:44:53 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Road trips. Call me when I can drive to Disneyland from San Francisco with nothing more than 10 minutes to top off. Current and planned pure electric cars get maybe 200-250 miles on a charge, and take upwards of three hours to fully charge. Even super-powered chargers you might find at ... http://jasonian.org/my-life/why-pure-electric-cars-arent-ready-for-the-real-world/ Malbec is a newly discovered grape, for me. It's only in the last year or so that I've learned about it, and it's rapidly becoming one of my favorites. It's become a popular wine in Argentina, and is growing in popularity in California. In the 2008 Zolo, it's a medium-bodied ... http://jasonian.org/my-life/tonights-wine-2008-zolo-gaucho-select-malbec/ I'm not a big fan of Chardonnay, finding them generally bland and soft (aka "buttery"). This 2007 Mietz Cellars Chardonnay, however, is a more acidic style, which I find much more interesting, yet it remains an easy drink, making it perfect for an evening sitting on the couch with a ... http://jasonian.org/my-life/tonights-wine-2007-mietz-cellars-chardonnay/ A couple of days ago I dreamt I was sentenced to six months in jail, for an unknown offense. Beyond the strangeness of dreaming I'd been sent to jail, what was particularly strange was the amount of freedom the inmates seemed to have. Several times, I left the jail to go home ... http://jasonian.org/my-life/jailed-for-six-months/ A beer tour, hosted by Sam Adams Brewery, in Germany, the birthplace of beer? How badly do I want to do this? Pretty damn badly. At $2979 per person though, it's not happening. At least not this year. http://jasonian.org/clips/tour-germany-with-sam-adams-beer-company/ Amazing editing combining two vampires, using various tv and movie clips. (And if you've never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you really ought to grab it from Netflix or something. It's from Joss Whedon, the fellow behind Dr. Horrible (and Dollhouse). I keep meaning to buy the complete boxed set.) http://jasonian.org/clips/buffy-meets-twilight/ This classic cartoon has every Tex Avery trope in the book: from sledgehammers to corny jokes to wolf whistles—the latter two literally. It's great fun. It ends with Imogene Lynn singing, a treat in itself. (Here she is singing "Big Boy"; she has a gorgeous voice.) http://jasonian.org/clips/swing-shift-cinderella-video/ A quick note on my new posting style: These short "Clips" are things I read or watched, and found interesting enough to share with you. It's kinda like sending you a "hey, check this out!" email or iChat message. If the headline or description intrigues you, click on the headline to ... http://jasonian.org/my-life/the-new-site/ On a recent walk, the evening sky had some amazing red tinting. I took a few shots with my iPhone camera; these aren't very good shots, alas. http://jasonian.org/clips/red-sky-at-night/ Yuja Wang's fingers fly over the keyboard. Amazing dexterity. http://jasonian.org/clips/piano-version-of-flight-of-the-bumble-bee-video/ Great idea, with suggestions for day trips (four or five suggested tasting rooms in a region), and profiles of dozens of wineries. The search engine and GPS-tagged maps are very useful. They are, of course, working on an iPhone app. It will use the new "MapKit" feature in iPhone OS 3.0 ... http://jasonian.org/clips/plan-wine-tasting-trips/ Awesome animation with Post-It notes. The soundtrack is the same one Mac OS X 10.5 uses on first boot (Röyksopp's Eple ). http://jasonian.org/clips/deadline-post-it-stop-motion/ LGBT couples working for the Federal government are now discriminated against less: [M]y Administration has identified a number of areas in which greater equality can be achieved under existing law by extending to the same-sex partners of Federal employees many of the same benefits already available to the spouses of heterosexual ... http://jasonian.org/clips/president-obama-extends-more-benefits-to-federally-employed-same-sex-couples/ I hate being wrong. Well, I don't mind being wrong, if I'm legitimately wrong. It's a learning opportunity. So more accurately, I hate being told I'm wrong when I'm not. It happened today, while I was killing time on Facebook. (Why was I killing time on Facebook? A very good question I have ... http://jasonian.org/my-life/wrong-answer-my-rear-bumper/ Teller (of Penn and) talks about how illusion is all about fooling the brain, including a fake window in his hallway. You didn't see the illusion because you weren't expecting one. You assumed I wasn't fucking with your head and that this hallway is actually a normal hallway. Those assumptions work ... http://jasonian.org/clips/magic-and-the-brain-teller-reveals-the-neuroscience-of-illusion/ As a technology demo of the future of computing (rather than the future of gaming), it's fascinating. Along with the "Milo" demo video, it's like a more advanced version of Apple's Knowledge Navigator vision of human-computer interaction. We'll see if it's any closer to reality than that 20-year old concept. ... http://jasonian.org/clips/microsofts-project-natal-milo/ Another option from foodie friends for quality beef. http://jasonian.org/clips/morris-grassfed-beef/ If, after reading about the Contents of Fast Food, you feel grinding your own burgers is better, some foodie friends have told me this is a great way to get high-quality meats. The downside for me is I've never liked the taste of grass-fed beef, but that's a matter of ... http://jasonian.org/clips/grass-fed-beef-from-paicines-ranch/ Interesting research into the contents of various burgers ("Approximately half of their weight is made up of water"). Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any useful conclusions (like maybe "higher quality meat is better") or whether fast food burgers are unique in their composition. Scientifically investigated, no actionable conclusions. The Annals of ... http://jasonian.org/clips/contents-of-fast-food-hamburgers/ I particularly like "Never Mind". http://jasonian.org/clips/nytimescom-spoofs-iphone-apps/ Or "Why Crunches Don't Work": As it turns out, the exercises synonymous with strong, attractive abs may not be the best way to train your core—and may be doing damage to your back. You have to watch what you eat: If you want to burn your fat mass, make sure you have a ... http://jasonian.org/clips/stop-doing-sit-ups/ t.s. eliot decides against publishing George Orwell's Animal Farm: And after all, your pigs are far more intelligent than the other animals, and therefore the best qualified to run the farm—in fact, there couldn't have been an Animal Farm at all without them: so that what was needed (some might argue), ... http://jasonian.org/clips/more-public-spirited-pigs/ It's not just AT&T offering subsidized netbooks. Also $199 for the computer, and 250 MB of data for $40/month, or 5GB for $60/month. Overages are $102/GB and $51/GB, respectively (AT&T's 5GB overage rate is ten times more expensive). http://jasonian.org/clips/verizon-offers-subsidized-netbooks/ Sounds like a more-than-decent phone: The Pre, which goes on sale Saturday, is an elegant, joyous, multitouch smartphone; it’s the iPhone remixed. I'd consider it if I wasn't wedded to my iPhone. http://jasonian.org/clips/david-pogue-likes-the-palm-pre/ Lou Romano, a development and production artist at Disney/Pixar, talks about his early work on "Up". I'm always fascinated by seeing early art and how it influences the final product. And I loved this: A challenge in film is conveying how something feels, not how it exists in reality. Research ... http://jasonian.org/clips/the-art-of-up/