bookofjoe

Art Institute of Chicago puts 52,000 High-Res Images Online

Fair warning: 

there

goes

the

day.

[via Kottke]

Experts' Experts: How to store tomatoes

Below, Cook's Illustrated spells it out.

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Lengthening the Life of Tomatoes

We've heard that storing a tomato with its stem end facing down can prolong shelf life.

To test this theory, we placed one batch of tomatoes stem-end up and another stem-end down and stored them at room temperature.

A week later, nearly all the stem-down tomatoes remained in perfect condition, while the stem-up tomatoes had shriveled and started to mold.

Why the difference? We surmised that the scar left on the tomato skin where the stem once grew provides both an escape for moisture and an entry point for mold and bacteria.

Placing a tomato stem-end down blocks air from entering and moisture from exiting the scar.

To confirm this theory, we ran another test, this time comparing tomatoes stored stem-end down with another batch stored stem-end up, but with a piece of tape sealing off their scars. The taped, stem-end up tomatoes survived just as well as the stem-end down batch.

Tomatoes should always be stored at room temperature, never in the fridge.

KelpCam

You've heard of watching paint dry?

Here's the aqautic equivalent, located at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, California, part of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

"Explore an amazing diversity of fish and invertebrates that make their home within the kelp forest, a crucial ocean ecosystem. Our High Definition Kelp Cam lets you take a dive without getting wet. Discover leopard sharks, garibaldi, eels, barracuda, giant sea bass, and more within our two-story, 70,000-gallon tank."

"Tune in during our weekly dive shows: 12:30 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2 p.m. on Saturdays, and 10:30 a.m. on Sundays."

Steve Zissou, call your office.

[via Joe Peach, who knows algae from an algorithm]

Reflective Buttons

"Easy to pin on and easy to see. Stay safe at night by simply pinning these reflectors to your clothes, bag, or bike."

2.2"Ø.

Set of two: $3.

Earth Enveloped in Airglow

[via NASA]

A visit to the world's only sourdough library

It's located in St. Vith, Belgium.

Back story here.

GMT wherever you are

I often see GMT and/or UTC referred to but never have a clue as to what those times are here in Podunkville.

It alway says my time is "UTC-5" or "GMT-5" but what the heck does that mean?

I had my Crack Research Team©® drill down and they brought back this nifty website which shows you your local time next to your GMT.

Free, the way we like it.

Pizza Jumpsuit

From the website:

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• Hoodie

• Zipper front

• Long sleeves

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$39.99.

The oldest figurative painting in the world

The drawing at lower left in the picture above is the oldest known figure made by humans.

It may represent a type of wild cattle, say the scientists who discovered it in a cave in Borneo.

Archaeologist Maxime Aubert and his colleagues say it appears to be a large hoofed mammal with a spear shaft sticking out of its flank.

Another view:

They estimate it was made between 40,000 and 52,000 years ago.

[via the New York Times]

25 of the strangest collections on the web

Res ipsa loquitur.

There's never been a better time than right now to begin your navel fluff collection.

Fair warning: there goes the day.

First 8K Ultra HD Video From Space

Shot on November 2, 2018 aboard the International Space Station by astronauts Alexander Gerst, Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Ricky Arnold, and Drew Feustel.

Now all I need is an 8K TV.

Real soon now — not.

Mirror Bookmark

From the website:

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A reflective bookmark originally designed as a palindrome machine.

The size of a standard bookmark, its polished mirror surface reflects text and generates palindromic phrases while saving your page.

• 6.2" x1.2" x0.02"

• Stainless steel

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$10.

Solar Egg

From Atlas Obscura:

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The northern part of Swedish Lapland is a frigid region with no lack of saunas, but none so unique as the hot room housed within a giant, shiny golden egg surrounded by the icy landscape of the Arctic.

The "Solar Egg" in Kiruna, one of the northernmost towns in Sweden, stands 15 feet tall in the middle of a field of snow, reflecting the white expanse on 69 golden panes of glass.

The egg's interior is a piping hot sauna where residents of Kiruna can bask in the heat, relax, and talk.

Visitors enter the surreal structure via a golden staircase which leads to a small circular sauna that seats eight people.

It's heated by a wood-burning, human heart-shaped stove in the center, which reaches temperatures of 167°F-185°F.

The Solar Egg was created by Swedish artist duo Bigert & Bergström and was donated to the mining town of Kiruna by the Swedish government after massive sinkholes endangered the city in 2004.

Due to overextraction of iron ore by local mining companies, the city began to sink, forcing Kiruna to move to an entirely new location at a cost of over $1 billion.

In response, the Swedish government repaid Kiruna's residents with the unusual egg sauna, which is free of charge for locals.

Kit Kat Mania in Japan

Kit Kat is more than a candy in Japan.

Some would say "cult" is too mild a word.

Tejal Rao, in the Candy Issue of the New York Times magazine, drilled down very deep to bring back everything you might want to know about this great candy.

Fair warning: you'll need to head to 7-Eleven or Wawa or the equivalent after reading this and looking at the fantastic pictures by Spencer Lowell.

And how about the fantastic GIF (top) the Times created to lead its story?

Internet Arcade

"The Internet Arcade is a web-based library of arcade (coin-operated) video games from the 1970s through the 1990s."

But wait — there's more!

Armchair Arcade is a quick guide on how to play on the Internet Arcade.

Finally, J.D. Biersdorfer of the New York Times gives a tutorial entitled "How to find the video games of your youth."

Fair warning: there goes the rest of the year.