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A Colorful Diet

My friend Johanna recently spent a week eating by color. For seven days, her food intake was dictated by the traditional optical spectrum. (Her experiment is first described here; this is the post-week recap.) Living and digesting by ROYGBIV meant a lot of bluish-purple food, which is unfortunate and sugary. Here's her Blue (Friday) diary: "BLUE: the absolute worst. I had blueberries all day. And Gatorade. Dinner was this gross blue ice cream I saw at Baskin Robbins. This was so, so gross. Most people... READ ON

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Tuesday Turnip

It's time for another whimsical Tuesday Turnip search wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting factoids "turn-up." Today I typed in "the error was corrected by," unearthing the following: Otto Lilienthal of Germany was a brilliant contributor to the conquest of the air and made nearly 2,000 successful glider flights since 1891 in sixteen seperate [sic] glider types. 1Lilienthal's book of aerodynamic data published in 1889 "Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst... READ ON

5 Questions: Wild Thing

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What is a nerd, anyway?

Ira Glass raised this question recently; or, perhaps, not so much raised it as lamented the way in which people retroactively confer "nerd" status upon themselves. As in, "I was such a big nerd in high school." His basic argument was: no you weren't, or: prove it. He surmised that most people filter their actual popularity, if not their seeded positions on Homecoming Court, through a sentimental lens of nerddom. "Nerds" experience pain, certainly, but just because one experienced pain in adolescence,... READ ON

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How Are ZIP Codes Assigned?

I have often wondered how ZIP codes were laid out across the US -- what's the logic behind my Portland, Oregon address having a ZIP starting in 9, while New York addresses start with 1? Well, the web has tons of resources to help you figure out ZIP codes. First is Ben Fry's zipdecode, an interactive web site that lets you type in a ZIP code and watch the map narrow down as it searches for that code. (Try it -- it's neat and educational.) You can also use this interactive map to see the logic in the... READ ON

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Life Before Air Conditioning

How in the world did people deal with the heat of August without air conditioning? Lots of ways, both time-tested and... READ ON

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It could happen to you: caffeine shock

As if in response to my recent post about the caffeination of almost everything imaginable, from water to bars of soap and beyond, last week a British girl went into shock and nearly killed herself by slamming 7 double espressos in just a few short hours. She worked in a coffee shop and, like an alcoholic bartender, was making herself drinks along with those for her customers. According to the BBC: "She developed a fever and began struggling to breathe after being sent home by her father. 'I was... READ ON

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Office Rat-A-Tat: Dangerous Jobs

A couple weeks back I posted on one terribly humiliating job I had back in college and asked you to comment on your worst job ever. Thanks for all the wonderful remarks"¦ I definitely feel humbled now (read: glad I'm not the only loser out there). Today, I'm looking at jobs again: the country's most dangerous jobs. According to a recent article in Forbes: "For the second straight year, fishing and related activities topped the fatality list, with 142 deaths per 100,000... READ ON

5 Questions: Baby, You Can Drive My Car

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What's the Oldest Thing You Own?

My friend Lyza recently posed a great question which I'm now stealing: what's the oldest thing you own? Looking around my apartment, it's hard to find anything older than the 90's -- and most of the objects I use every day were made in the last few years. I have a chair and a "chairside stereo" from the 60's that I use as an end table. I have some art prints that may date from before 1950, but it's a little hard to tell. Quite likely, the oldest thing in my apartment is the apartment itself -- it... READ ON