It’s Saturday at lunchtime, and by now you know what that means: time to clear out the links for the week. This has been a busy week, so a lot of links have accumulated. I was so busy this week I didn’t get a chance to even look for themes, so here goes.
First, we have a few articles that all seem to relate to women in some way:
- Rabbit Relevance. When I grew up, boys often learned about girls through the pages of Playboy magazine. More importantly, this is also where we learned about what it was to be sophisticated, read great fiction and articles, wonderful interviews, and great cartoons. Today’s easy availability of porn makes the girly side of Playboy less relevant. What’s a magazine to do? Refocus on the sophistication. Art. Culture. Great fiction. The girls will also move from being enhanced beauty to natural women (or at least as Playboy comes to natural women — alas, I’m sure they won’t cover all sizes). I applaud this new approach, and hope it succeeds. If anything, perhaps it can reinforce the notion that women don’t need to artificially change their bodies to be beautiful.
- Rosie Riveting. With the closure of the C-17 plant in Long Beach, lots of people will be losing their jobs. One of them will be one of the original “Rosie the Riveters”, who at age 93 is still working on the line. Nice human interest story.
- Where You Sit. It seems that, on planes and trains and buses, everyone prefers to sit next to women. Even women. So what do the women think about it? Read the article.
Next we have two articles related to food and expiration dates:
- Throw It Away. When does food go bad? It seems a lot of people don’t know, and so they trust the date on the can or carton. Problem is, that date isn’t (a) hard and fast, and (b) indicating when the food goes bad. Often, that date indicates when the food might start to deteriorate in peak flavor, and is typically just a guess. As a result, 40% of the food that people throw away is still good.
- But Then Again… So what do do with the expired food. A former president of Trader Joes has one idea: serve it to people.
Lastly, we have some random articles and stuff that caught my eye:
- Cyber-This. It’s the “in” word – Cyber. I no longer work in Computer Security, or even Information Assurance … it is now Cyber-Security. In fact, with the government, it is Cyber-this and Cyber-that, as we defend Cyber-Space. But where did the word come from? Here’s the bizarre evolution of the word “cyber”.
- Plutonium Problems. This week, we’ve all been talking about Voyager leaving the Solar System. It was powered by Plutonium-238, which made its long trip possible. This may not be possible in the future, as NASA is running out of Plutonium 238. This could end deep-space exploration.
- Back Pain. When your back hurts, where does the pain come from. If you said your back, you might be… wrong. It now looks like chronic back pain starts in the brain.
- What Is The Singular of Broccoli? As we talked about “cyber” before, a bit more on words. Here are 11 words that only have a plural form (no matter what Alan Sherman sings).
- Valley Stuff. A few valley items of now. First, the San Fernando Valley Relics museum is about to open. You can visit its webpage here. Secondly, there is now a flea market in North Hollywood. Thirdly (and sadly), it looks like Cliffs Books in Pasadena may be nearing the end of its life 🙁 . It is having a final liquidation sale.
And Lastly… please don’t forget about the Bitter Lemons LemonHeadMeter Kickstarter. It needs your support.
