conlaw writes to share that according to Discovery.com scientists have found a way to extract energy from rain. A new technique could utilize piezoelectric principles of a special kind of plastic to generate power from falling water in rainstorms or even commercial air conditioners. "The method relies on a plastic called PVDF (for polyvinylidene difluoride), which is used in a range of products from pipes, films, and wire insulators to high-end paints for metal. PVDF has the unusual property of piezoelectricity, which means it can produce a charge when it's mechanically deformed."
The US space shuttle Atlantis and its seven member crew, including astronauts from France and Germany, are on a course to dock with the orbiting International Space Station Saturday after... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:41 am
An anonymous reader writes "After trying to charge $167,488 for their collection of county tax maps (in TIF format), West Virginia was forced by a judge to hand them over for a $20 'reproduction costs' fee. Now a county tax assessor has filed a lawsuit trying to block the tax maps from being put online, claiming copyright infringement and financial damages since fewer people are coming to her to buy paper copies at $8 per page."
Telecommunication equipment titan Alcatel - Lucent sees global economic woes causing it uncertainty in 2008 after the newly merged company survived a choppy 2007, reporting a fourth-quarter loss Friday... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:31 am
Finance chiefs of the Group of Seven rich nations called Saturday for investment in developing countries to help them fight climate change and worked on plans for a World Bank-style fund. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:06 am
By Andrew Edwards Members of a mountain nonprofit are trying to pull together organizations from throughout the country to help rebuild communities scorched by the October wildfires in the San Bernardino Mountains. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Bruce Henderson, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Feb. 9--With the Carolinas deadlocked on how to share the Catawba River, a two-state river commission turned Friday to more experienced hands from a western state. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Feb. 9--A year ago, the fight over wind power in North Carolina was centered on the high-country ridges of Ashe County. A rematch this year looks to be taking place on the opposite end of the state, in coastal Carteret County. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) ["China Loses One-Tenth of Forest Resources To Snow Havoc" - Xinhua headline] BEIJING, Feb. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Steve Vantreese, The Paducah Sun, Ky. Feb. 9--Going back three decades or so, foxes had a pretty sweet deal around here. Two species, red fox and gray fox, were the only wild canine predators present. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Megan Bagdonas Residents of a run-down trailer park in Harbor City received notices from the owner this week warning that the 90-space lot is to be shut down within 15 months because of safety code violations. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Kevin Smith ROSEMEAD - Southern California Edison is about to make a big splash. On Friday, the utility announced that it has gained approval from state regulators to create a 150-acre, two-mile-long kelp forest off the coast of San Clemente. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Matt Weiser, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Feb. 9--State wildlife officials have recommended denying endangered species status for the mountain-dwelling American pika, a rabbit relative that is the first animal proposed for protection under California law because of climate change. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Kristin S. Agostoni Environmental leaders are looking cautiously at plans to turn ocean water into potential drinking water at a test site in Redondo Beach, even as the West Basin Municipal Water District pledges to minimize the effects on sea life. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Allan Turner, Houston Chronicle Feb. 9--Celebrating the phoenix-like recovery of the brown pelican, brought to near-extinction 40 years ago by potent insecticides, U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Thomasi McDonald, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Feb. 9--RALEIGH -- Police say a United Parcel Service worker has admitted stealing UPS packages and trying to sell them on the Web site Craigslist. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Enrique Fernandez, The Miami Herald Feb. 9--Tomatito, who electrified the Knight Concert Hall on Friday night as part of the Arsht Center's Flamenco Festival, is one of Spain's greatest guitarists -- in the same league as Paco de Lucia, Vicente Amigo and Nino Josele. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Steven Rosenberg Google will be at this weekend's Southern California Linux Expo, but talk about the search giant's effort to keep Microsoft from buying Yahoo won't be on the tip of everyone's tongue. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Bruce Siceloff, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Feb. 9--PIKEVILLE -- Wendi Johnson, a Department of Transportation engineer, warned department officials in 2003 and 2004 that the 5.2 inches of asphalt they planned to use on Interstate 795 would be too thin -- and too weak. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
Here is a summary of the week's Web Tech action on ReadWriteWeb. For those of you reading this via our website, note that you can subscribe to the Weekly Wrapups, either via the special RSS feed or... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 10:41 am
mooseman93 wrote to point out Forbes is suggesting that if you haven't purchased an iPhone yet, you may want to wait just a little bit longer. Supposedly the next generation of iPhone will offer some substantial upgrades, including 3G capabilities. "To be sure, a 3G iPhone likely won't pop up over the next several weeks. The Unofficial Apple Weblog reported this week that Apple is hiring a television production firm in preparation for a high-profile late February announcement. That event, however, will likely detail the widely anticipated release of a software developer's kit for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. But the wait can't drag on much longer. AT&T is building out its high-speed wireless network as quickly as it can, announcing Wednesday that it will expand its 3G wireless broadband service to more than 80 additional cities by the end of the year for a total of roughly 350 markets."
Atlantis closed in on the international space station on Saturday, bringing a new $2 billion lab that European scientists can't wait to see installed. The space shuttle was due to pull Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 9:05 am
By Andrew Liszewski If you’re going to make a pedal car based on the Ferrari FXX you have to go all out, and it looks like Berg Toys has done just that. While the FXX Exclusive model pictured above... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:15 am
A vicar is turning to technology to spread the word of God by podcast. Reverend Keith Kimber has recorded six sermons to download over Lent in a bid to reach more... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:01 am
Astronauts on Atlantis spent their first full day in orbit checking their ship for any launch damage as they steered closer to the international space station. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:01 am
An electricity-generating knee brace that can power mobile phones and medical devices has been developed by scientists. Wearing the invention, a brisk walk can... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:01 am
Three pilots were among more than 100 people who reported sightings of UFOs in the UK last year. The Ministry of Defence took details of 135 events in which strange,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:01 am
By Devlin, Vince RONAN - The 64-slice computerized tomography (CT) scanner at St. Luke Hospital started saving lives before a doctor ever put a patient through it. The radiology staff at St. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Rutberg, Sidney Deborah Monosson, Daughter of ABL Industry Legend, Takes over Helm of CFA With an Eye to Best Serving the Membership BY SIDNEY RUTBERG It's been a good year for Debbie Monosson. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
After a long weekend of battling crowds at the malls, the last thing most people want to do is go back to the stores after work to do more shopping. To make it easier, retailers kicked off the official start to the online holiday shopping season with lots of come-ons. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
A trial using GPS-equipped mobile units provides a picture of freeway speeds. Now -- how to get the information to motorists. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
For modest fees, services match sellers who are looking to dump their cars with buyers who may not like their dealership's terms. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Dell Inc. has stopped selling many computers with processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on its website, although it will continue selling some through retailers. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
The most serious of the reported problems occurred in cerebral palsy patients treated with a botulinum-based drug. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Studies find that about half as many nursing infants get HIV from their mothers when antiretrovirals are administered to mom or baby for several months after delivery. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
The crew of space shuttle Atlantis on their first day in orbit Friday trained a camera on the spaceship's thermal shield to search for any damage from a loose piece of insulation that broke Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 6:31 am
(TrendHunter.com) Six people have quietly launched Yahoo Live. This experiment comes from the Google competitor, but with a very small team of testers, will they be able to correctly evaluate if... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 6:31 am
A new startup, Credentica, hopes to offer the ability for you to perform secure transactions using the smallest amount of personal information possible. Their goal is to both protect privacy and enhance security, which they hope will be a mutually inclusive process. "The technique employs secure multi-party computation, a branch of cryptography that can calculate meaningful answers about secret information by knowing only some non-revealing clues about that secret. The underlying theory was demonstrated in 1982 by Andrew Yao in the so-called Millionaire's Problem [...] U-Prove employs an ID token, a special kind of digital certificate that allows for minimal selective disclosure. The tokens can store all kinds of information, but users can disclose only the minimum amount of data required in any given transaction. They leave no unwanted data trails and permit both anonymity and pseudonymity."
(TrendHunter.com) The climate change is already starting to influence architecture and building design. In order to adapt to rising sea levels and the fact that 20% of the country is already below... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 6:21 am
To understand Pacific Biosciences approach to sequencing or reading genomes, think of the windowed door of a microwave oven. The doors contain a metal mesh with holes too small to let microwaves escape,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:36 am
The school accepts money from tobacco giant Philip Morris in its three-year study of nicotine addiction. Teenagers and monkeys are part of the research. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:31 am
We loooooove our digital camera, don’t get us wrong. But all the myriad settings, buttons, menus and whatnot can be a bit much sometimes. That’s why we appreciate the concept of the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:30 am
By LUKE R. MITCHELL South Charleston Council agreed to begin updating the city's traffic signal system. Council members authorized Mayor Frank Mullens to enter into an agreement with the state Division of Transportation to install a computerized traffic signal system. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
By JUSTIN WILLIAMS A $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo is Microsoft's latest attempt to keep itself relevant in the new Internet economy and puts to bed any speculation on whether it is scared of Google's success. It is terrified. The 1990s were good to Microsoft. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday for country star Kenny Chesney's June 14 concert at Heinz Field. Fellow country artists Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes, Gary Allan and Luke Bryan will join Chesney for the Pittsburgh stop of the "Poets and Pirates Tour 2008." Tickets are $69-$96. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Kelley Blue Book ( href="http://www.kbb.com">http://www.kbb.com ), the leading provider of new- and used-vehicle information,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
Although we’re sure there’s an audience for this item, we secretly think this is a case of technology actually taking the fun out of something. It’s the JumpSnap Wireless Jump Rope,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 5:00 am
Add To Your Site: Yesterday we hit you with our MacBook Air unboxing video , giving you a look at the SSD version of the notebook. Today, we bring... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 4:49 am
We were very excited to see that theres a gaming magazine dedicated to females—but we admit to having some reservations. Currently available in the UK, we feel Nintendo s “Girl Gamer”... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 4:45 am
What “Simpsons” fan doesnt love the loathsome, evil—and hysterically funny—Mr. Burns? But its another thing to actually have him watch over you 24/7 in the form of a webcam,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 4:30 am
Only a hardcore gamer knows the unique sense of accomplishment felt after reaching “100% completion” on a video game. But when you brag about it, you’re likely to get the response... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 4:15 am
You might have seen this shaded gray squares illusion before. Squares A and B are the same shade of gray. (It was created by Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision Science at MIT.
Here's a similar illusion with colored squares. The "blue" tiles on the top face of the left cube are the same color as the "yellow" tiles in the top of the right cube.
Don't take my word for it. Use an image editing program with a eyedropper to see for yourself. I used Photoshop's eyedropper tool to take 5x5 samples and found that both the "yellow" and the "blue" tiles are C:50 M:40 Y:40 K:5.
Take a look at the brown tile in the center of the top face and the yellow tile in the center of the side facing slightly to the left. They're the same color.
New Scientist is reporting that BP Piscium, an unusual star recently under scrutiny from astronomers, may have swallowed a nearby companion and spewed out a planet-forming dust cloud as a result. The team has also identified a similar scenario with another star which they hope will offer more answers.
The most serious of the reported problems occurred in cerebral palsy patients treated with a botulinum-based drug. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 3:34 am
The brown pelican, once on the brink of extinction, has become so abundant that it should be removed from the list of endangered species, U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Feb 2008 | 3:14 am
eldavojohn writes "It's a common string you see at the start of an HTML document, a URI declaring the type of document, but that is often processed causing undue traffic to W3C's site. There's a somewhat humorous post today from W3.org that seems to be a cry for sanity and asking developers and people to stop building systems that automatically query this information. From their post, 'In particular, software does not usually need to fetch these resources, and certainly does not need to fetch the same one over and over! Yet we receive a surprisingly large number of requests for such resources: up to 130 million requests per day, with periods of sustained bandwidth usage of 350Mbps, for resources that haven't changed in years. The vast majority of these requests are from systems that are processing various types of markup (HTML, XML, XSLT, SVG) and in the process doing something like validating against a DTD or schema. Handling all these requests costs us considerably: servers, bandwidth and human time spent analyzing traffic patterns and devising methods to limit or block excessive new request patterns. We would much rather use these assets elsewhere, for example improving the software and services needed by W3C and the Web Community.' Stop the insanity!"
Earlier this week, YouTube pulled the plug on funnyman and media artist Santeri Ojala, whose hilarious and popular "shredding" videos poke fun at the world's greatest guitar players. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are the videos YouTube refuses to host.
Be gentle on your fingers, and try the Wacker BH24 for all your cement-drilling needs. The 57-pound demo machine purports to reduce shudder to the operator's body, while hammering through some of the hardest surfaces.
Be gentle on your fingers, and try the Wacker BH24 for all your cement-drilling needs. The 57-pound demo machine purports to reduce shudder to the operator's body, while hammering through some of the hardest surfaces.
Real estate agents Mark Forytarz and Paul Castran of Castran Gilbert in Victoria Australia have filed a defamation lawsuit against Google. The two agents said that they asked Google to remove allegedly defaming links to articles about them, but that Google did not take any action.
The plaintiffs claim the articles suggest Mr Forytarz bullied an intellectually disabled man into selling his home in order to claim a commission of at least $200,000.
It is claimed the article paints Mr Forytarz as unscrupulous and unethical and he suffered distress embarrassment and humiliation as a result.
They also claim another article alleges Mr Castran used dummy bidders to inflate the prices of the properties he sold.
An anonymous reader writes "Local search engine company, Zvents, has released an open source distributed data storage system based on Google's released design specs. 'The new software, Hypertable, is designed to scale to 1000 nodes, all commodity PCs [...] The Google database design on which Hypertable is based, Bigtable, attracted a lot of developer buzz and a "Best Paper" award from the USENIX Association for "Bigtable: A Distributed Storage System for Structured Data" a 2006 publication from nine Google researchers including Fay Chang, Jeffrey Dean, and Sanjay Ghemawat. Google's Bigtable uses the company's in-house Google File System for storage.'"
• A Swiss man "is serving a four-year jail term after three poppy seeds from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow airport were found on his clothes."
• A 43-year-old Englishman who had a cigarette stuck to his shoe was sentenced was sentenced to four years in prison for possession of 0.003g of cannabis, which I would imagine is a microscopic amount.
• Customs officers held a woman for eight weeks before she was able to convince authorities that her codeine pills were prescribed by her doctor for back pain.
According to BBC article:
"If they find any amount - no matter how minute - it will be enough to attract a mandatory four-year prison sentence.
"What many travellers may not realise is that they can be deemed to be in possession of such banned substances if they can be detected in their urine or bloodstream, or even in tiny, trace amounts on their person."
As news of undersea cable cuts and conspiracy theories abound, there's an easy way to verify if internet access has indeed been severed anywhere in the world. Just use a simple network tool called traceroute. Learn how it's done on the Wired How-To Wiki.
This is possibly the most disturbing thing I've seen on the Interweb. I'm sorry for inflicting this upon all of you. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: The mushroom in this video looks like Amanita muscaria, which are very poisonous! Don't ever try this at home, people. Picking and eating random wild mushrooms MIGHT KILL YOU. After a rigorous session of super-sleuthing, I was able to find out more about this guy. It seems that he is a performance artist from Japan that goes by the name of 'wotaken.' Here's his home page: http://katura.is.land.to/index.html.
The Wall Street Journal and Information Week reported this morning that EU regulators have announced a third investigation into Microsoft's conduct on the desktop. This latest action demonstrates that while the EU has settled the case against Microsoft that ran for almost a decade, it remains as suspicious as ever regarding the software vendor's conduct, notwithstanding Microsoft's less combative stance in recent years. The news can be found in a story reported by Charles Forelle bylined in Brussells this morning. According to the Journal, the investigation will focus on whether Microsoft 'violated antitrust laws during a struggle last year to ratify its Office software file format as an international standard.' The article also says that the regulators are 'stepping up scrutiny of the issue.'
The Asian Law Caucus and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed a joint lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over access to public records on the questioning and searches of travelers at U.S. borders.
Filed under the Freedom of Information Act, the suit responds to growing complaints by U.S. citizens and immigrants of excessive or repeated screenings by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
ALC, a San Francisco-based civil rights organization, received more than 20 complaints from Northern California residents last year who said they were grilled about their families, religious practices, volunteer activities, political beliefs, or associations when returning to the United States from travels abroad. In addition, customs agents examined travelers' books, business cards collected from friends and colleagues, handwritten notes, personal photos, laptop computer files, and cell phone directories, and sometimes made copies of this information. When individuals complained, they were told, "This is the border, and you have no rights."
"When the government searches your books, peers into your computer, and demands to know your political views, it sends the message that free expression and privacy disappear at our nation's doorstep," said Shirin Sinnar, staff attorney at ALC. "The fact that so many people face these searches and questioning every time they return to the United States, not knowing why and unable to clear their names, violates basic notions of fairness and due process."
ALC and EFF asked DHS to disclose its policies on questioning travelers on First Amendment-protected activities, photocopying individuals' personal papers, and searching laptop computers and other electronic devices. The agency failed to meet the 20-day time limit that Congress has set for responding to public information requests, prompting the lawsuit.
By stuffing a 14-inch display, beefy specs, and an optical drive into a form factor usually reserved for 13.3-inch models, Fujitsu's S6510 is knocking at MacBook Air's door.
By stuffing a 14-inch display, beefy specs, and an optical drive into a form factor usually reserved for 13.3-inch models, Fujitsu's S6510 is knocking at MacBook Air's door.
My four-year-old daughter's pre-school visited a nursing home. When they got back to class, they teacher asked them to describe what old people look like. Here are their answers.
Q: What do old people look like?
A: Very old. Their stomach is very big. They have a wheelchair. They look like they can't walk.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the College Opportunity and Affordability Act passed through the House today with a vote of 354-58 and the anti-P2P provision is intact. That provision would require universities to filter P2P and to offer legal alternatives. They are claiming now, though, that universities would not lose federal funding if they fail to do this. Of course, an amendment that would have clarified that was withdrawn immediately after it was offered."
A few months after it began hacking its Windows XP operating system to run on the One Laptop Per Child XO children's machine, Microsoft says it is actively field testing the software on the tiny laptops. Whether or not Windows is the best fit for the OLPC's core audience -- children in developing countries -- is debatable.
A few months after it began hacking its Windows XP operating system to run on the One Laptop Per Child XO children's machine, Microsoft says it is actively field testing the software on the tiny laptops. Whether or not Windows is the best fit for the OLPC's core audience -- children in developing countries -- is debatable.
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Intel is being sued over a patent infringement alleged to be in the Core 2 Duo microprocessor design. 'The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) is charging Intel Corporation with patent infringement of a University of Wisconsin-Madison invention that significantly improves the efficiency and speed of computer processing The foundation's complaint identifies the Intel CoreTM 2 Duo microarchitecture as infringing WARF's United States Patent No. 5,781,752, entitled "Table Based Data Speculation Circuit for Parallel Processing Computer." WARF contacted Intel in 2001, and made repeated attempts, including meeting face-to-face with company representatives, to offer legal licensing opportunities for the technology.' The text of the complaint [PDF] is also available via WARF's site."
John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, admits he's blown it with his handling of talented developers in the past. But he's learned from his mistakes and that EA is a better company for it.
When science teacher Michael Arquin started educating students about wind power, he had no idea his curriculum would come to influence thousands of teachers and students nationwide.
According to Barstool Sports, these photos of men with very dark spray tans were taken in New Jersey.
Link (Via Why, That's Delightful!)
Over the last couple of days on Boing Boing Gadgets, we looked at this trailer for a documentary about the Blip Festival, how to run cable like NASA, a litter box that doubles as a planter, my new studio monitors and my ignorance about them, giant LEGO chess pieces, the first issue of Wired, the continuing lack of Nazis in LEGO games, three new Picoo-Z helicopters (including 3-channel models!), antique hand-cranked coffee mills, a modular cell phone that is supposed to live inside all your other gear, Michael Ruhlman's affection for old GE percolators, and a crappy new Zippo lighter.
