bookofjoe

'More is Different' — Philip W. Anderson

This wonderful paper by Anderson, winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics, appeared in the August 4, 1972 issue of Science.

Yes — it will hurt your head.

But it is worth the effort.

50 years after its initial appearance, it hasn't lost a bit of its power.

Canada Before European Contact: Aboriginal First Nations Map

Back story here.

Mapmaker Aaron Carapella's website is here.

His YouTube video is here.

Maps start at $59.

[via William Gibson]

Lester's Fixins Food Sodas — They're what's for breakfast!

From websites:

Prepare your taste buds, your stomach, and your mind before you chug down one of these Lester's Fixins Food Sodas.

These weird gourmet sodas go beyond boring old cola — they taste exactly like you're drinking carbonated bacon, buffalo wings, sweet corn, pumpkin pie, ranch dressing, or peanut butter and jelly.

$4.99 a bottle or go big with a 6-pack featuring one of each flavor: $26.99.

Stone Chair

Byung Hoon Choi's wonderful bentwood chairs

counterbalanced with stones.

unconditionally

Cassette Player + Bluetooth Speaker Combo

Details here.

 

 

 

 

Scheduled to begin shipping June 15, 2023.

HK$1,180.

Prediction: this will sell out in a Hong Kong minute.

Fair warning.

[via swissmiss]

Elizabeth Taylor, 23, during the filming of 'Giant' in 1955

The film, directed by George Stevens, was shot in Marfa, Texas.

Yes, that Marfa.

Photo by Richard C. Miller.

Time travel: What Shakespeare really sounded like 400 years ago

Linguists reconstruct a 400-year-old accent with remarkable results.

Apple Corer

Just the thing for the person

who seemingly has

every kitchen gadget

in the world.

$11.29.

Ancient Earth Time Machine

Fair warning: there goes the day.

McCheapest

From Kottke:

A map of the differing costs of a McDonald's Big Mac across the U.S.

The cheapest Big Mac can be found in Oklahoma ($3.49) while the most expensive is in western Massachusetts ($8.09).

How much does your Big Mac cost?

Find out here.

Grip Coasters

Good idea.

From websites:

Brightly colored 3"-diameter Grip Coasters serve as both coasters and drink markers.

They protect surfaces from condensation that forms on cans, bottles, stemware bases, and straight-sided glasses.

The six bold colors will help identify whose drink is whose at your next get-together.

They're smartly designed to fit most cans, bottles, stemware bases, and straight-sided glasses.

Dishwasher-safe silicone.

Set of 6: $2.98.

....................................................

Note added 10:37 am Monday, June 5, 2023:

Looks like these coasters suffered a "tragedy of the commons" event once I posted them and promptly sold out.

No worries: if you've really got a bee in your bonnet you can get a set here for $11.99.

u snooz u looze

Paragraphica: AI-powered camera — without a lens

Wrote Kottke: "Paragraphica is an AI-powered camera without a lens. It uses your location data and data from various APIs (weather, time of day, nearby places) to construct a text prompt that's used to generate an image."

Free, the way we like it.

Fair warning: there goes the weekend.

[via Luke]

It's remarkable so few packages get lost in transit

Consider the tracking history of some cables I ordered this past Wednesday (above and below).

So far my parcel has been in eight UPS locations on its journey from Kalamazoo, Michigan as of 7:06 am today, en route to delivery this coming Monday.

Amazing.

POPit Jar Opener

Rain Noe took a deep dive on this device for an article in Core77; excerpts below.

Compact Jar Opener Doesn't Rely on Grip, Force or Leverage

Here's a good example of outside-of-the-box design thinking from British company Pro4UK.

Conventional jar openers are designed to increase grip and leverage, forcing reluctant lids open with brute strength.

Pro4UK reckons this is the wrong way to solve the problem.

"The reason why jars are so difficult to open," they write, "is due to the vacuum inside causing a pressure difference between the inside and outside of the jar. This difference in pressure creates a downward force on the lid, making it difficult to remove."

Their invention, POPit, "removes the problem rather than trying to overpower it."

It consists of two pieces of plastic, a top and a bottom.

Inside is a spring.

A needle is embedded in the center of the top.

When the top is rotated to the "unlock" position indicated by an icon,

you press it downwards.

The needle then extends from the bottom.

By placing it atop a jar and puncturing the lid,

pressure inside and outside the jar is equalized as the vacuum is broken.

Subsequently opening the jar is nearly effortless.

I don't imagine the diminutive pinhole in the lid would be a problem; it looks too small for bugs to get into, or for fluids to come rushing out of if knocked over.

I suppose one issue might be if you've got a strongly fragrant foodstuff (i.e. kimchi), you'd probably worry about the smell permeating the 'fridge.

But I'm guessing this would work fine for 99% of people.

£11.95.

On the fence?

Watch

the video.