Sharper Image

Engadget mentions that the Sharper Image is bankrupt.

Sort of sad. I used to love looking around their stores when I was a kid. Of course, in the pre-iPod and pre-hi-fi days, my standards for gadgets were lower. A CD player with glass doors that you waved your hand in front of to open was simply awesome.

Their pathetic slide downmarket was, strangely, sort of a mirror of Radioshack's pathetically failed attempts to move upmarket. The one thing Radioshack was useful for—buying obscure electronics parts (which certainly never necessitated 5 stores in a 5 mile radius, and has been obviated by the internet)—is only a small ghetto in a store now dedicated to selling crappy cell phones, iPod accessories, and remote control cars.

I have to admit, Radioshack did come through recently with a cheap battery charger for Cindy's camera. Props for that...

Wrong

This is very me. Except I don't really bother getting in internet arguments (often). And I really try to avoid arguing about things that I can't prove factually true. But, you know, the hatred of wrong-ness, the like of right-ness... yep...

Win is rolling his eyes.

Art out of context

Great piece in the Washington Post about the importance of context to art: what happens when you take a virtuosic violinist and repackage him as a subway performer? Apparently, not much.

I like to think that art has some sort of inherent meaning outside of its packaging; that good art is good and can be recognized as such even if we are not told that it is good. This study certainly makes a strong claim at refuting that idea. Or maybe it's just that people were too busy to stop and notice...

On the similar subject of objectivity and subjectivity in food, here's a very nice talk on the value of embracing the diversity of tastes.

California Prelude

So one of the reasons I haven't written a new post yet is because next up is the California trip that Cindy and I took, and it's really a two-session project, which is a bit of a psychological barrier.

Anyway, to get things moving, here's a PDF (be warned: it's big, 23.5 MB) of the book of photos I had printed for Cindy as a birthday present. There's some slight narration to go along with it; I'll fill in the blanks in my next post.

Quantum Mario

This is the most brilliant thing I've seen all week, and that must mean something because I'm a scientist.

(A real update is imminent.)