Saturday Morning Post: A Tasty Stew of News Chum

OK, so I’m nowhere near Benji Franklin or Norm Rockwell. But it is Saturday, and that means it is time to bring out the “mag”… otherwise known as the stew of articles that caught my eye over this busy week:

• Jews in the South. If you get Reform Judaism magazine (as I do), you’ve seen those ads where the community of Dothan AL offers to pay Jews to move there. Ever wonder if it works? Here’s an article from the Forward that looks at the program and its successes… and failures.
• Perhaps the Older Ways are Better. If you’re like me, you dutifully rerecorded your records onto each new medium. I had a large cassette collection, which I rerecorded onto CDs. I’ve also added a large number of purchased CDs. But are CDs the best way to store things? It turns out that not all CDs last the same, and most don’t last anywhere near forever. Good thing I’ve got my music on my hard drive in a format that will never go away – MP3s
• Eating Food Right. Here’s a list of 25 foods that (supposedly) we’ve been eating the wrong way. Some of these I’ve seen before (such as the cupcake sandwich). Others are useful information for my daughter, such as using a waffle iron for pizza or hash browns. Others are cool, such as putting bacon in your cinnamon roles. I like the salad in a jar, m’self.
• Sound in a Bowl. From salad in a jar to sound in a bowl. The Hollywood Bowl, to be precise. Here’s an interesting article on the job of the sound technicians at the Hollywood Bowl. Most people don’t think about the sound designers … and that’s how they would like it.
• Tracking You. Perhaps you’ve heard that Google is tracking every move. Here’s another one: The new Corvette tracks everything that a valet driver does in the car. Now when you hand over your keys, you can know if they are going on a joyride. Let’s add one more to the tracking: DirecTV and Dish are teaming up to send political ads to just your television.
• I Don’t Recall. Speaking about vehicles, the government has released a useful new tool. Enter your VIN, find out if there are any recalls for your car.
• It Adds Up. Ever wonder about those partially used bars of soap from your hotel visits? Think they go to waste? Nope. Hotels recycle them to make new bars of soap for the homeless.
• Unknown Features. Here’s a useful list of the top 14 hidden features in Windows, iOS, and Android. I particularly like Win-X on Windows. I’ll have to explore developer mode on Android (of course, they don’t mention the most useful feature that is non-obvious: how to do cut and paste on Android). Since we’re talking computer stuff, here are 26 favorite fonts you can get for free (such as the Disney font).
• You Go Girl. And lastly, some good news. Women are dominating science and math at Cal State Northridge.

 

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