“Attention to detail, like most facets of truly good design, can’t be (and never is) added later. It’s an entire development philosophy, methodology, and culture.”
Tradition /
One of the things that makes the Holidays feel official are Springerle cookies. They’re a traditional German cookie with pretty simple ingredients and a wooden board is used to imprint the dough. What makes them different is anise oil, which gives them a light liquorish flavor. This year I wanted to learn to bake these and keep the family tradition alive. Polly help a lot with the explaining, preparation and kneading of the dough, but I was able to finish with the imprinting, cutting and baking.
There’s a learning curve to getting the dough to the right consistancy, not getting it stuck to the rolling pin, adding enough flour to the boards to they don’t stick too… but pulling them out of the oven and getting to eat a few this morning, well worth the effort.
I like the idea that my mom, grandmother and maybe great-grandmother all have made these cookies around this time of year and that I can keep this going.
And with these (made 3 dozen), the Holidays can begin!
From Wikipedia’s entry on Springerle:
The name springerle means “little jumper” or “little knight”. Their origin can be traced back to at least the 14th century in southeastern Germany and surrounding areas.
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“It’s not rocket science. When you pile 2-3 feet of extremely heavy, dense snow on top of the pre-existing, light, fluffy, cold snow, you are going to get avalanches, especially when you pile it on extremely quickly like we did overnight. Enough said.”
http://utahavalanchecenter.org/advisory/slc on 12/20/2010/
Espresso, Intelligentsia
Great storytelling and instruction for a cup of espresso.
Connected /
Instead I found a way to simulate the effect I wanted. I defined weights for each pair of cities as a function of the Euclidean distance between them and the number of friends between them. Then I plotted lines between the pairs by weight, so that pairs of cities with the most friendships between them were drawn on top of the others. I used a color ramp from black to blue to white, with each line’s color depending on its weight. I also transformed some of the lines to wrap around the image, rather than spanning more than halfway around the world.
Really cool data visualization of some of the data that Facebook has representing users, who they’re connected to and where everyone is located.
Faceglobe Posted by Matthew Battles
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"What is more beautiful, a burning candle or a lightbulb?
The answer is always the burning candles.”
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“… idea that revealing the passions and pursuits of one person can result in the progress of many.
Our premise is simple: we illuminate those who move us in order to move you. We champion the idea that sharing sources of creativity in turn kindles it.
”
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Fun theory: Paying motorists to slow down
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Push or Pull?
frosty /
Fun to find these details before work.
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“More is not always better. In fact, more is almost never better.”
...what can be replaced... /
Ephemeralization, a really neat concept by a guy name Richard Buckminister Fuller, not the C-60 molecule above, but the idea that there will arise the ability to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing." That nothing could be thought of now as software.
The iPhone and the iPad have effectively drilled a hole that will allow ephemeralization to flow into a lot of new areas. No one who has studied the history of technology would want to underestimate the power of that force.
From Tablets by Paul Graham
In the above article, the case is made that what makes the iPhone, iPad, Android successful is that new things can now be replaced by software that is pocketable. That is, physical things (like GPS units) can be replaced by software on a phone that is GPS-enabled.
But I think it will surprise people how many things are going to get replaced.
Now would not be a good time to be making a living in an industry with products or services that can be replaced as such. And, conversely, opportunities abound to replace old ways and old gizmos with a new, pocketable, ways.
After owning an iPhone for the better part of a year, it is amazing how much one thing can do. Read books, get directions, email, text, surf the internet, play games, work, read pdf’s, display 3d renderings of orthopedic implants, oh, and make phone calls. I think this is just the beginning, and articles like this confirm that there is brilliantly designed things waiting to happen.
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From the packlite blog:
HD video of footage and images taken on a day ascent of the Croz/ Slovenian on the Grandes Jorasses north face. Climbers: Jonathan Griffith and William Sim. Shot and edited by Jonathan Griffith
Going fast and light, in alpine style. Check how they make a bivy and generally go with less equipment.
Impressive route. Inspiring stuff.
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“The danger was rated “moderate” that day and we didn’t see any signs of instabilities on the way up, including stomping a few cornices. But, there was some obvious wind transport going on (see scoured slope to the right) and some fat wind-loaded pillows that didn’t respond to ski cutting. That center to right-side line looks pretty tasty, but I’d avoid it, especially for a first run.”
Frosted. /
Cold, even inside the front glass door.
Happy Thanksgiving! /
Polly’s holiday schedule means that some years I need to find something to do for the day. The snow pack this year provided a good day skiing.
Just as the bomb is going off
iPhone was nice for music and grabbing these shots.
The blizzard arrives /
The NOAA forecasters were right. The Blizzard hit SLC just before 5 and by the time Polly got home from working at the Alta Ski Clinic at 6 it was in full force. I feel bad for anyone still out on the roads. It was interesting to be able to watch this cross the state via the radar, inevitably moving eastward. The snow and cold weather should make for good skiing and maybe ice climbing in a few days.
Happy frozen Thanksgiving!
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“Rule 461. In battle, all cover is temporary. Keep moving.”
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Went for a solo mini adventure this morning that was mostly post-holing. Fun to get the tools and crampons out, if only for 20 feet… The winds are absolutely howling up there today, so tromping around was probably a better idea than trying to ski.
The above view is kinda foreshortened…
Worth the stomping and posting
Hello friends!
Above the ‘Bird
And one really cool wind sculpted ice smear:
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STRONG SOUTH WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AHEAD OF THIS SYSTEM DURING THE DAY SATURDAY WITH WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 50 MPH
and
HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED IN ALL MOUNTAIN AREAS FROM THIS SERIES OF STORMS.
The weather brought clouds and a great sunset and sunrise:
