bookofjoe

Helpful Hints from joeeze: How to position your sideview mirrors

Wrote Verlyn Klinkenborg in his March 2, 2010 Editorial Notebook feature in the New York Times, "My dad taught me how to adjust the sideview mirrors on a car. In their reflection, I learned, I should be able to see the edge of the vehicle I’m driving — as though vertigo might set in if I couldn’t locate a mechanical version of myself in the mirror. But this is exactly the setting that creates a blind spot on both sides. There’s a better way (http://bit.ly/cY2dtl). I’ve been using this new setting on the freeways of Los Angeles, and I realize now that I’ve been driving with my mirrors improperly adjusted for more than 40 years."

"I’m sure my dad didn’t want me to have blind spots. He simply passed along the blind spots he’d inherited. Now I’m having to learn to trust what the mirrors show instead of what they don’t."

INCONVENIENCE CAUSED IS REGRETTED

[via hektik.org]

What is it?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Sweet shoes by Belma Arnautović

The Sarajevo-based designer, inspired by

candy and cakes and all things sweet,

created the Lolice line

of concept shoes.

[via Dezeen, Mundochica and No puedo creer]

How to make it big in Hollywood

Stephen Pastis's "Pearls Before Swine."

I'm reminded of one of my favorite jokes, from Johnny Carson way back in the day, to wit:

Carson: "What do you get if you combine a penguin and a William Morris agent?"

Ed McMahon: "I don't know, what?"

Carson: "A penguin who doesn't return your phone calls."

Well, I thought it was funny then and I still do.

Corn Griller

Four at once, what's not to like?

$29.95.

[via Bem Legaus!]

SpeakLike.com

From the March 6, 2010 Economist Technology Quarterly supplement: "SpeakLike, which launched in late 2009, has a pool of 3,000 translators and can supply a translation of a given text within hours for 5-15 cents a word, depending on turnaround time."

But wait, it gets better: "SpeakLike will even translate Twitter posts and send them to a parallel account within minutes for 25 cents a pop."

They've just unveiled their iPhone Photo Translator app [above and below] which for now at least is free, the way we like it.

Don't dally.

Fair warning.

Meltdown Chair — by Tom Price

"This chair is created by heating and pressing a seat-shaped former into a ball of polypropylene rope. The rope begins to liquify as it comes into contact with the heated former and, as it cools, it sets in the shape of a seat, creating a contrast in form and texture to the remaining rope."

"No additional material has been added to make the seat — it is all made from melted rope."

Apply within.