This is some of the smallest origami you’ll ever see.  This is srz bzns.  He uses a tooth pick to create all the tiny folds.

http://www.visualnews.com/2011/08/18/a-tiny-world-of-nano-origami/

Neverwet.  This ain’t your momma’s waterproof stuff.  It’s super hydrophobic.  You can spray this on clothes, and they won’t get wet or dirty.  Spray it on steel, and it won’t rust.  THIS is the future.  Such a reduction in waste and maintenance!  Thing about how much less bridges would need to be repaired.  Think about how much less water we’d go through with washing our clothes.  So many applications.

This one will be a story, within a story…where’s Christopher Nolan when you need him?

I wanted to make some martini one night, and I didn’t have any vodka.  Deirdre and Jordan were out and planning on coming over later, so I asked them to swing by the state store to pick up some vodka for me.  They wound up at my mom’s house, got distracted and lost track of time, and the wound up staying late enough to miss their chance to stop at the state store on their way home.  They mentioned their predicament to my mom, and she said that she thought she actually had a bottle of vodka that they could have.

The fact that my mom had a bottle of vodka was unusual alone, but as we would find out, this bottle of vodka was no ordinary bottle of vodka.  She went into her bedroom and pulled a tall blue box from her closet.  This box had been in her closet for about 10 years, when it came from my grandfather’s kitchen, where it had been sitting for another 20 or so years.

As the story goes, when my parents were living in Maryland, near Washington, D.C. in the late 70s,  my grandmother had gone down to spend some time with them around Christmas.  While she was down there, they went to the mall, and in one of the stores, my grandmother found a lady’s purse with a wallet in it.  My grandmother took it to the counter, but with her faith in humanity, she decided she did not trust the clerk not to take the cash, so she decided she would take the responsibility to return it to its owner herself.  They went home, looked up the person in the phone book, and the lady on the other end was delighted to know she had her wallet!  The lady gave her address to my grandmother to return it in person.  As they approached the house, they realized this was The USSR Ambassador’s house, and the lady’s wallet was the ambassador’s wife.  In exchange for the good deed, my grandmother was given this box of vodka, straight from the U.S.S.R.

And here it sits; unopen and slowly becoming a part of world history as an product of a country that no longer exists.  I was flabbergasted that my mom would just send this 35 year old bottle of vodka up and expect me just to crack it open and drink it.  This is a unique item!  this is an heirloom!

Barcodes are ugly, but they don’t have to be.  A company called D-barcode makes functional barcodes that are aesthetically pleasing.  Design!

http://www.barcoderevolution.com/gallery/index.php?c=all

The folks at Festo have created a mechanical bird that is as graceful as the real thing. Our technology is not just getting smaller and cheaper, but it’s getting smoother.
Soon, we won’t be able to tell the robots from living creatures.

http://gawker.com/5750105/spray+on-skin-a-demonstration

We have skin in a can now.  some guy gets 2nd degree burns on a Friday, they scrape some stem cells from him, spray them on his wounds, and he’s all healed up with barely any scars by Monday.  It’s like the coolest use of an air spray gun.  Reminds me of an old kids toy with a airbrush station, where you loaded up the paint, pumped it a few times, and airbrushed on some paper.  If you still have one, you can just heal yourself at home!

Yeah, I know, it’s called a “skin gun” – now get your minds out of the gutter.

Today, we’re going to talk about tri-tip.  It’s a popular cut of steak in the Central California area.  It was originally prepared with “Santa Maria Seasoning” (of Santa Maria, Ca), but it’s basically just a great streak to use on grills.  The popular use now is in a tri-tip sandwich covered in barbecue sauce.

Kallie has been talking about it a lot since I’ve met her, but I got to try an authentic sandwich at Firestone Grill in San Luis Obispo, Ca.  It truly was a unique sandwich and definitely worthy of praise.  Something about it was very familiar though, and I’m fairly certain i’ve had *something* similar to it here on the east coast.  I’ve head some other possible names for the cut, like “tip steak”, so maybe it’s just known by something else here, but I haven’t been able to find a restaurant in the area where you can get a tri-tip sandwich.  If you can, let me know!

Do you realize how important brand names are?  Until I see how often I call items by only 1 of the specific products names, as if it were the general term.  I had created a list with friends on what they should actually be called, but some we were stumped because we were just so used to using the proper name.

sometimes, it’s just the first product to market and then others have the uphill battle of getting the market, but sometimes it’s just as simple as having a catchy name.

Here’s a list, leave a comment and I’ll add them to the list.

1. zamboni
2. jell-o
3. oreo cookies
4. walkman
5. chapstick
6. windex
7. band-aid
8. kleenex
9. Powerpoint
10. Saran wrap
11. ziplock
12. Swiffer
13. Playdoh
14. Xerox
15. Drugs (tylenol, aspirin, etc)

There are some crazy foods out there from around the world.  Kallie has introduced me to pluots (apricots and plums cross planted), and I know there are a bunch of stuff on the west coast that I’ve never seen on the east coast.  I had never heard of fennel or leeks before valentine’s day 2010, but now I’ve seen them more and more.  here are 2 crazy vegetables. the romanesco broccoli is pretty crazy looking! it comes from rome and is also known as broccoflower.

another one would be the purple cauliflower. why aren’t these vegetables present at rave parties? these things are nuts! well vegetables, not nuts, but you get the point.

Have you ever heard of the miracle fruit?  It is a plant that produces berries that make sour taste sweet.  The effect lasts for about 30 minutes, and you can eat a lemon and it will taste like lemonade.

Its use was discovered in the 18th century in West Africa.  In the 1970s, there was a push to have it become a food additive, but it ultimately failed.  Many point the fingers at the sugar industry, and even the government, since this would replace the need for artificial sweeteners and sugar in foods and drinks.

You are able to get it in pill form as a dietary supplement, but it’s not labeled a sweetener.  That said, you can get the plants to grow at home and tasting parties are becoming more and more popular.  There’s also a lot of new research going on for the applications to those with diabetes.

read more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_fruit

http://www.instructables.com/id/Growing-Your-Own-Miracle-Fruit/