Two videos about octopuses that I saw on National Geographic's website today impressed me. They are both borderline weekend comedy type videos but they are interesting enough that I wanted to share here:
Shark vs. Octopus
Coconut-carrying Octopus: (no sound, but you can read about it here)
Tech Thursday: Apple vs. Adobe
Bill Amend, the cartoonist of Foxtrot, likes to throw in the occasional nerd humor. He succinctly captures what's going through the heads of millions of iPhone and iPad fans who are wondering why can't Adobe and Apple simply get on the same page, figure out how to get the most common/successful video format on to the future of mobile/handheld computing? Everyone is happy and Adobe and Apple make an extra eleventy bazillion dollars.
Steve Jobs recently explained why the iPhone and iPad don't allow Flash and for the first time, It kind of made sense.
Wet Wednesday: Downtown Brown by The Lost Coast Brewery
I'm sneaking this in without confirmation from our more knowledgeable beer drinkers here at FIWK, but since I hadn't seen a Beer Wednesday post, I thought I'd toss my hat into the ring. I'm keeping this short cause, as I've said before, my taste buds aren't the most powerful in the world. I picked up a 6-pack of The Lost Coast's Downtown Brown, and really enjoyed it - the one word that comes to mind immediately is 'smooth'. I'm this close to bumping it above out benchmark brown (Newcastle) - your thoughts?
This week in sports: It's not their fault they're overpaid over there.
Whomever the St. Louis Rams draft at #1 tonight, he will either be the highest paid player on the Rams or second or third behind Chris Long and Jason Smith, the second overall picks from the two previous drafts. Will Sam Bradford's Heisman and cast separate him from the others? What about Ndamukong Suh's vertical or Gerald McCoy's 40 time? And they show Eric Berry carrying the ball so much, he can probably play running back AND safety. Wouldn't a two way player warrant the #1 pick?
Tech Thursday: Our Sun
I initially had wanted to speak to the iPhone 4.0 "slip-up" from earlier this week, but feel that it has been discussed ad nauseam, so I'll just sneak it into this post about the crazy new telescope NASA has built to study the Sun and its effects on Earth and the near-Earth atmosphere. Yesterday, NASA released its first video of the Sun in action: a short 10-second clip of a recent Solar Prominence - pretty neat stuff, if you ask me (which, I'm afraid, you are by reading this post).
Olivia Munn - She's Awesome
Olivia Munn, she of G4's Attack of the Show! fame is pretty freackin' awesome. 'Why?, you ask. Well, outside of being Hollywood's sexiest geek, she's in Date Night, and will be appear Iron Man 2 - how could you go wrong with that resume? Oh, and then there's this:
This week in sports: The Padres don't totally suck
$ / W
The Padres and the Pirates have a 2010 team salary of $38M and $35M, respectively, well below the $52M payroll of the Oakland Athletics, the team with the third lowest payroll. 12 games into the season, the the Padres are 6-6, the Pirates are 7-5 and the A's are 9-5.
The top three payrolls are the Yankees at $206M, the Red Sox at $163M and the Cubs at $147M. They have 9, 4, and 5 wins respectively. In fact, when you look at the cost per win ($/W) of every team in baseball, the Pirates, Padres and A's are the first three teams and Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs are in the bottom 7 teams.
Whats does all this mean? That Billy Beane still rules with Moneyball and that the Padres and Pirates are following suit?
Business Week: The World's Most Expensive Stuff
I thoroughly enjoyed this Business Week slideshow titled The World's Most Expensive Stuff 2010. It includes cigars with the name Black Dragon that cost $1,150 each, gold-plated bicycles that cost $114k, and a gold- and diamond-coated iPhone that cost $3 million, my personal favorite.
Tech Thursday: Microsoft's Project Natal
In an ode to our ongoing 3D discussion, this week's Tech Thursday surrounds Microsoft's very awesome Project Natal. Gizmodo (with the help of Business Wire), announced today that the revolutionary technology behind Project Natal's sensor-capabilities was built/produced by a small Israeli company named PrimeSense, which I find awesome (go little guys!). If you guys aren't aware of Project Natal, I suggest perusing their YouTube channel - if this works as it's expected, the world of gaming will be changed forever. Combine a functional Project Natal with a 3DHD TV that doesn't need glasses, and we may end up never leaving home!
Beer Wednesday: Paradox Isle of Arran by Brewdog
Local wine and beer shop Wally's recently had in a special brew from Scottish brewing company Brewdog. It was a variation of their Paradox imperial stout, which is typically aged in whisky casks. This version, the Brewdog Paradox Isle of Arran, was aged in whisky casks from Isle of Arran distillery based on a joint partnership between brewery and distillery. The beer was $12 for a 12oz bottle, which ain't cheap.
Music Tuesdays - Loro by Pinback (via Grace Boyle)
Like all good things, Pinback is from San Diego. Grace's comment on this song is "imagine listening to it while driving alone on an empty highway at night." Well, when you put it that way... Yet another good find - thanks Grace!
This week our friend C-Mac also has some music up, and I am really digging the song she chose called Hey You by Pony Pony Run Run. A definite 80s/ early 90s feel.
Car Design: The Whale Shark Mouth
I call this look the Whale Shark Mouth. I believe the photos tell the story. Starting several years ago, I've noticed that this design feature has been appearing in more cars every year.
Tech Thursday: Robotics
Robotics: The science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application.
That's the dictionary definition of robotics. Here's what the real definition should be: The science and technology of simultaneously bringing to market both really cool and useful shit, and really cool, but not-quite-as-useful shit.
That's the dictionary definition of robotics. Here's what the real definition should be: The science and technology of simultaneously bringing to market both really cool and useful shit, and really cool, but not-quite-as-useful shit.
Beer Wednesday: Our benchmarks
These beers are all at least OK and possibly good depending on your tastes and preferences. If you care about any of our other posts regarding beer, such as the Ballast Point - Victory at Sea or the Stone Ruination IPA, then you have surely tried some of these beers as you have explored the spectrum to identify your beer tastes. If you consider yourself a beer drinker, but don't care about those posts and have never tried any of the above beers, then you surely drink weak macro brews whose only purpose is to deliver alcohol from an aluminum can to your blood stream. We'll give these a 10 on the chugability scale and a 1 on the taste scale. It would be an insult to good beer to even consider rating these on any other scale.
As for the beers pictured...a few initial thoughts before opening it up to the floor for multiple opinions. (If there is any defining characteristic here at FIWK, it's multiple opinions.)
This Week in Sports: I'll take the field
In Bill Simmons podcast he told Chad Millman he was betting on Duke because if Duke wins, then he wins money and if Duke loses, then Duke lost. An emotional hedge. I'm making an emotional hedge with the Masters this year. I'm so tired of clicking on a link that says "Tiger Woods on the golf course" and reading about the press conference and his interaction with the gallery. I am so excited about golf this weekend and so frustrated because I know that every announcer will be focusing on every good shot and every bad shot Tiger makes and trying to determine if what happened over the past several months influenced the good/bad shot.
A buddy asked for 3/1 odds that Tiger would win and I jumped on the field. If Tiger doesn't win (which I don't think he will) then I win. If Tiger wins, then everyone wins.
This week in sports: Wooden > Krzyzewski
John Wooden: 10
Mike Krzyzewski: 4
UCLA: 11
Duke: 4
Everyone hates Duke, but everyone knows they are jealous. I abhor Derek Jeter, but if he were on the Padres, he'd be my favorite baseball player. Coach K does things the right way. He recruits players who can handle Duke's rigorous academic requirements. His players graduate. He wins championships. I have a lot of respect for Coach K, even though I hope he loses every year. This is to recognize his achievements and give credit where it is due. Congratulations Blue Devils.
Music Tuesdays - Radar Detector by Darwin Deez
Darwin Deez - Radar Detector from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.
Found this courtesy of Rebecca (aka Beccasaurus) at Drunk Literature, a blog I love to read. Thanks Rebecca!
Tech Thursday: Google v China
I started Tech Thursday with a Google-themed post - even a Google v 'X' post - so it's fitting my 4th post returns to Google (wait...what? why is that fitting?). Google and China have not been getting along lately. We all know this; we also all know it's gotten bad enough that Google has "shut down" it's google.cn servers, and is redirecting all users to google.com.hk. I enjoyed Wired's brief FAQ article today primarily due to it's snarkiness, but it also does a good job of summing up the current state-of-affairs for the issue.
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