Rotundus.com

That was one question asked in the Globe and Mail piece No wheels for a week: my one-woman war on the car:

The next day went down with a similar lack of drama, until I had to pick up my new printer from Grand & Toy by bike. The fact that both woman and machine made it home in one piece is slightly miraculous. The car-as-carrier theme came up again the next day. It was the weekend, and my boyfriend and I had planned to head out to Home Depot to buy some discounted patio furniture. I love Home Depot the way Holly Golightly loved Tiffany’s, but as per the rules of engagement, I stayed home and helped to select an outdoor dining set via text message. How does Olivia Chow go furniture shopping?

The first question this brought to find was whether the average person really goes furniture shopping on even a semi-regular basis. This reminds me of one of the big obstacles to electric vehicle adoption - limited range - even though the average person probably isn't limited by this over 99% of the time they spend driving. The solution seems to be the same - three options:

1. Rent something. U-Haul claims that "every U-Haul truck placed in a local community helps keep 19 personally owned, large capacity vehicles, such as pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans off the road." Even if that may be an overestimate - they are trying to rent out these vehicles after all - picking up an appropriate-sized vehicle for your typical daily activities and upsizing when necessarily probably isn't a bad idea. Likely cheaper and more fuel-efficient to operate as well.
2. Get it delivered. - often shopping online and getting stuff delivered is cheaper than showing up instore, and pretty much any store selling large items will have some way to get it delivered. If you can make do most of the time with a cheaper, more-efficient vehicle your net expenses might be lower even if you fork out every now and then for a delivery fee. Besides, a lot of stuff might not fit even in a fairly large van or pickup.
3. Live nearby. This is half a joke option - since I know a few people who live within a block or two of a Home Depot or other hardware store - and half a serious one - and half the idea for denser, more walkable communities. This might have side-effects like fresher food with fewer preservatives.

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

"In an age obsessed with practicality, productivity, and efficiency, I frequently worry that we are leaving little room for abstract knowledge and for the kind of curiosity that invites just enough serendipity to allow for the discovery of ideas we didn’t know we were interested in until we are, ideas that we may later transform into new combinations with applications both practical and metaphysical. This concern, it turns out, is hardly new."

Forging of the Mandarin mermaid: How Chinese children are taken away from their families and brutalised into future Olympians

One explanation as to why China seems to be doing quite well at the Olympics...

Excited train guy, New York!

Every once in a while one of these videos seems to pop up on Youtube. Naturally, ever time I have to consider whether or not the guy in question might be Darren.

NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn asks NYU to evict Chick-fil-A

Ah.... "tolerance".

Dieting vs. Exercise for Weight Loss

"It’s long been believed that a hunter-gatherer lifestyle involves considerable physical activity and therefore burns many calories, far more than are incinerated by your average American office worker each day. And it was true, the scientists determined, that the Hadza people in general moved more than many Americans do ... But it was not true that they were burning far more calories. In fact, the scientists calculated, the Hadza’s average metabolic rate, or the number of calories that they were burning over the course of a day, was about the same as the average metabolic rate for Westerners."

Per Peter Thiel:

The why questions always get immediately ideological. I’m Libertarian, I think it’s because the government has outlawed technology. We’re not allowed to develop new drugs with the FDA charging $1.3 billion per new drug. You’re not allowed to fly supersonic jets, because they’re too noisy. You’re not allowed to build nuclear power plants, say nothing of fusion, or thorium, or any of these other new technologies that might really work.

So, I think we’ve basically outlawed everything having to do with the world of stuff, and the only thing you’re allowed to do is in the world of bits. And that’s why we’ve had a lot of progress in computers and finance. Those were the two areas where there was enormous innovation in the last 40 years. It looks like finance is in the process of getting outlawed. So, the only thing left at this point will be computers and if you’re a computer that’s good. And that’s the perspective Google takes.

... I disagree with the premise behind the question that there’s some sort of tradeoff between finance and other areas of innovation. I think it’s easy to be anti-finance at this point in our society, and I think the reality is we have an economy that got very lopsided towards finance, but it’s fundamentally because people weren’t able to do other things.

Per Neal Stephenson:

Innovation can’t happen without accepting the risk that it might fail. The vast and radical innovations of the mid-20th century took place in a world that, in retrospect, looks insanely dangerous and unstable. Possible outcomes that the modern mind identifies as serious risks might not have been taken seriously — supposing they were noticed at all — by people habituated to the Depression, the World Wars, and the Cold War, in times when seat belts, antibiotics, and many vaccines did not exist.

(Via Adam Gurri)

The truly inspiring story of the Chinese rubbish collector who saved and raised THIRTY babies abandoned at the roadside

"Lou Xiaoying, now 88 and suffering from kidney failure, found and raised more than 30 abandoned Chinese babies from the streets of Jinhua, in the eastern Zhejiang province where she managed to make a living by recycling rubbish. She and her late husband Li Zin, who died 17 years ago, kept four of the children and passed the others onto friends and family to start new lives. Her youngest son Zhang Qilin - now aged just seven - was found in a dustbin by Lou when she was 82."

Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail -- for Collecting Rainwater on His Property

"A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater. ... According to Oregon water laws, all water is publicly owned. Therefore, anyone who wants to store any type of water on their property must first obtain a permit from state water managers. ... 'They issued me my permits. I had my permits in hand and they retracted them just arbitrarily, basically.'"

Athletes Switching Nationalities In Spotlight At London Olympics

Given that the athletes on insert-name-of-your-favorite-professional-sports-team-here probably aren't from the region they supposedly represent, I'm not quite sure why people should particularly care here either.

New study shows half of the global warming in the USA is artificial

"The new improved assessment, for the years 1979 to 2008, yields a trend of +0.155C per decade from the high quality sites, a +0.248 C per decade trend for poorly sited locations, and a trend of +0.309 C per decade after NOAA adjusts the data." Basically this is a study dealing with the placement of weather stations, with apparently 90% in practice violating standards for the presence of nearby heat sources. Came out recently alongside more results from Berkeley Earth, a project I've mentioned before.