Weather or not

The Bay Area was atwitter late last week, because there was a possibility of snow—for the first time in 30 years. I was actually looking forward to it because I knew whatever we got wouldn’t last long, & I enjoyed the prospect of not having to shovel (being in an apartment complex—someone else’s problem) & watching the reactions of the kids who live here.

Alas, it never happened—evidently some areas got a light dusting, but San José wasn’t touched.

Meanwhile, Seattle has been shut down again for the third or fourth time since Thanksgiving, because of snow, which they just can’t seem to figure out.

So much for being the vortex of innovation.

Searching for dinner

God bless those Googling hearts over in Mountain View: the search engine giant has an algorithm that intuits a search entry of “broccolini” might mean you’re looking for recipes & returns a whole mess ’o ways to cook the veg. They call it “recipe view”.

And once you have your initial results, you can sort by ingredients, cooking time or calorie count.

I just don’t even know where to start.

Nuts & oats

A columnist for the NY Times takes McDonald’s version of oatmeal to task for being, well, the McDonald’s version. Which is to say, without any redeeming social or nutritional value.

Okay, fair enough—who would really expect anything under the golden arches to be anything except high-fat/high-calorie? I mean, even the salads chalk up high totals of both—even before you pile on the dressing.

But what I’m wondering is how long will it take before some self-absorbed be-labeled Yuppie with more credulity than grey-matter decides to sue the chain for deceptive advertising.

& lest you wonder what I’m talking about, I refer you to the San Diego “concerned mother” who has sued the company that makes Nutella for exactly that.

Seems that she was shocked—shocked—when her friends informed her that the chocolate-hazelnut spread she’d been feeding her four-year-old daughter daily was “in fact not a 'healthy' 'nutritious' food but instead was the next best thing to a candy bar." (Quote from her complaint.)

Evidently Athena Hohenburg didn’t notice the jar’s nutrition label (mandated on all food products) where it said that each two-tablespoonful serving contains 21 grams of sugar & 200 calories (with 100 calories from fat).

Like many of her class she seems to be literate enough to file suit, but not enough to read a label.

& that’s why I expect to at some point see news of the suit (possibly class-action) against McDonald’s when someone becomes shocked to discover that their oatmeal has more calories than a hamburger.

Commercial break

Here are two examples of the better mousetrap precept. Or, perhaps, the “find the pain points and apply analgesics” precept.

In the UK a graphic designer has created barf bags for the consumer to express his/her opinion of the Royal Wedding. Although the concept is evidently new to many Britons, Lydia Leith has sold out her first batch and is rushing to print more.

And then back on our side of the Pond, a San Francisco company has built a smartphone app that enables drivers to find available metered parking spaces. Right now their coverage is limited to Hollywood, Calif., and Roosevelt Island in NY, and it’s only available on the iPhone, but they have plans for expansion.

Frankly, I think both products are boons to modern society.

The male of the species 2

In the interest of displaying the appearance of impartiality by way of showing both sides of the story, even when one side is pretty lame, & the story’s not much of one to begin with, I refer you to the follow-up the WSJ published to the article I discussed yesterday.

This one is even more replete with generalities & non-facts as the writer defends the 20-something American male. Seems that twelve of them or so have started Internet companies & made it big, so everyone should just get off all their cases.

Whatever.

The male of the species

The story in the WSJ is headlined “Where Have the Good Men Gone?” & claims that “[t]oday, most men in their 20s hang out in a novel sort of limbo, a hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance.”

The writer refers to this as “pre-adulthood”, with the guys characterized as “frat boys, maladroit geeks or grubby slackers”.

I don’t find this particularly odd. What puzzles me is limiting the description to the immediate post-teen years. Seriously—at what point do guys grow out of it?

Jobs for the lads...& cheerleaders

It seems the US doesn’t have a lock on padding governmental payrolls with salaried positions that don’t really add a lot of value to the tax-paying public. The Telegraph reports that Britain’s Coalition government is going after local councils for cutting back on essential services like libraries and education while retaining such employees as “cheerleading development officer”, bouncy castle attendant & “future shape programme manager”.

(I have to say that of those three, the only one I can actually fathom in terms of duties is the bouncy castle attendant. I didn’t even know Britain had cheerleaders. Hmm. Maybe future shape program management involves a Magic 8 Ball? I could do that job!)

Local councils are the infrastructure of the UK’s government—there’s Her Majesty’s Government (Parliament, ministries & some central services like motorways, Metropolitan Police & the NHS) & then there are the borough councils, who are pretty much responsible for everything else. Including a lot of the policies affecting the NHS within their jurisdictions.

Apparently the existence of these, uh, jobs of questionable community value (unless you’re restricting “community” to those persons who hold them) is not news. The Times (London) reported on them two years ago, back when Labour were in power. Evidently Glasgow employs a “street mediator”, who “deals” with kids hanging out on street corners.

(My question is: only one street mediator? In Glasgow? S/he must be busier than a flea-infested hound dog's hind leg.)

Trade unions are of course rearing up on their hind legs to defend the jobs & I’m sure the Tories/Lib-Dems are pounding fists about the waste (but are probably silent about who’s on their own staff doing what jobs). & since the jobs have been around for a long time (in one case—a ceremonial mace-bearer for Newcastle-upon-Tyne—evidently since 1399. According to a Newcastle former Lord Mayor), I’m betting that the story will die down without much being actually, you know, done about it.

So enjoy it while you can.

& if you have any thoughts on what a future-shape program manager or cheerleading development officer might be, please share.

Dustup

Here’s something else to spend some downtime considering: dust. Evidently, according to a report in the NY Times, the world is getting dustier.

Me—I don’t fire a lot of synapses on the subject, although looking at my TV stand I think it’s time to haul out the Pledge. But I have actually wondered what possible good a Swiffer does. In the end, you’re just pushing dust from one area to another, despite their advertising.

& even if it did “attract” dust particles—what happens to them when you clean the Swiffer or replace it?

News of the pedestrian

Evidently there is now an academically-studied phenomenon known as “sidewalk rage”. According to a report in the WSJ, sidewalk rage occurs when pedestrians who are walking slowly or several abreast, or who stop suddenly (to take a photo, consult a map or do something cell-phone-related), provoke the ire of fellow sidewalkers who are traveling at a faster rate.

Naturally, the focus of the story is on NYC, but the implication is that wherever there are pedestrians there’s the potential. Think the mall, or a walking trail or an airport.

I don’t know what to think of it—hard to choose between the rudeness of the self-absorbed morons who can’t be arsed to pay attention to their surroundings & show some consideration to those around them, & the ego-centric jerks who take personal affront at having to share the walkway with people who don’t get the hell out of their way. (I also don't know what to say about the fact that researchers are getting grants to study this whole thing.)

I do know, however, that if you park yourself on the left side of almost every subway escalator I’ve ever been on, you’re going to be mowed down by the people who know that the right side is for standing & the left for climbing up or down.

Truth in advertising

Let’s take a break from the tensions in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Indonesia & AIG: have a squint at this vintage EDS commercial from a Super Bowl long past.

Dunno what the ROI was on this ad, but anyone who’s ever been owned by a cat, & anyone who’s ever worked in a large corporation, will be of mixed minds. Funny, painful & all too true.