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In the past few years, the USDA has started paying more attention to farmers markets. They now conduct a yearly survey asking all market managers in the country to stand up and be counted:
It’s safe to say that farmers markets are booming. They have more than doubled in the past decade (151% growth), and show strong growth every year:
For reference, there were 36,569 supermarkets in the U.S. in 2011.
For your morning zen.
The Thompson brothers hydroplane their way from Jacksonville, Florida to the Outer Banks to score an all day tube fest. Enjoy!
Song: Lana Del Rey – Blue Jeans
Video: Thomas Brothers Productions
This Wednesday, the last of the movie nights at the California Surf Museum ends with “an inside look at Korduroy.TV”. Doors open at 6:15pm and the show starts at 7pm.
More details via Surfline:
The California Surf Museum is proud to highlight surf film-making in its non-traditional approach. Our final Big Wednesday film night will feature two 20 minute segments of the latest and greatest Korduroy.TV clips, Q&A with the filmmakers and staff, and interesting props and cameras from the Korduroy crew. Learn about their recent Kick-starter campaign, their company ethos, and how they are pushing surf content in a new direction.
With the advent of iPhones, cheap HD cameras, and the GoPro, a whole legion of film-makers have entered the scene. Combine their work with the long-established tradition of independent film-making in the surf world and you have a new golden age of the surf film.
Korduroy.TV is at the epicenter of this movement and growing fast. This should be the highlight of the Big Wednesday screening series.
Tickets are still available for $10 and enjoy the beautiful museum too!
An Inside Look at Korduroy.TV
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Doors open, 6:15PM – Show at 7PM
CA Surf Museum – 312 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water’s surface (sea level), and thus is not an island. – Wikipedia
They are also centers of marine life, as you can see in the photos below. From the article, Mountains in the Sea, by National Geographic.
Hundreds of thousands of seamounts rise from Earth’s ocean floor. Life has been explored on barely 300.
They are gushing with life. (photo: Brian Skerry)
Right now wind is leading the renewable energy surge and records for the largest turbines are being set. Just how big is the largest one? Siemens is creating a single blade that is 225 feet long, basically as wide as a 747 airplane.
The manufacturing process is incredible, from Wired UK:
Siemens manufactures the mammoth B75 blades in one, smooth, streamlined piece — with no joints — using its IntegralBlade process. The technique — which requires glass fibre-reinforced epoxy resin and balsa wood to be cast in a mould — renders the blades steadfast and less likely to develop faults while being beaten with 181 tonnes of air energy every second, when wind speeds are ten metres per second (30 mph). The huge strain it is put under means no blade can leave the factory without being carefully inspected for even minor cracks.
The size of these things is almost unimaginable, like trying to picture three 747′s spinning around a massive pole. They will also have to shoot up into the sky several hundred meters.
According to Siemens, when fully constructed this mammoth would generate 6-megwatt’s, while another group is looking into 20-megawatt versions!
Here is a post from John Gruber about creative success. For publishers or anyone with a deep interest in something, “obsession times voice is a pretty good stab at a simple formula for doing it right.”
Obsession x Voice
A better definition from Merlin Mann:
“Topic times voice. Or, if you’re a little bit more of a maverick, obsession times voice. So what does that mean? I think all of the best nonfiction that has ever been made comes from the result of someone who can’t stop thinking about a certain topic — a very specific aspect of a certain topic in some cases. And second, they got really good at figuring out what they had to say about it.”
I think that gets us into the Malcom Gladwell 10,000 hours of practice territory. You know the claim that real expertise in any topic takes 10,000 hours or anywhere from 5-10 years.
By my own arithmetic, I figure to be about halfway, 5,000 hours, into blogging. Give or take a few hundred. There is still a lot for me to learn and, indeed, every few weeks I learn something new that completely blows me away. Usually, a lesson that hits me like a punch in the stomach, but after each recovery I emerge better than ever.
A cycle that many of my creative readers will completely understand. Still, it’s good to hear other successful creatives come back and explain to us that “obsession x voice” is the equation for future success.
Not only do electric cars threaten all those gas stations on every corner, but also the auto-mechanics and car parts stores:
Mechanic worries that electric-car brakes will ruin his business
Joe Ferrer says that brakes are easily 35 to 40 percent of his total business. Replacing rotors, calipers, and pads keeps his shop humming.
But on hybrids, brake jobs aren’t needed every 15,000 miles as they are on conventional cars–more like 45,000 miles, he says.
Those regenerative braking systems reduce the impact when braking and extend the life of the brake pads.
Of course, this isn’t the only thing that will change, Jiffy Lube will also be hurt. Electric vehicles (EV’s) get rid of nearly all the liquid lube in cars, so that means no more oil changes.
What is going to happen to all that land currently used for gas stations, Jiffy Lubes, and mechanics shops?
The best way to learn about Passbook is to see it in action, the video below auto-starts at 1:32:55 (except on mobile devices):
In my personal quest to shrink my wallet, maybe even get rid of it, I love this feature. No more loyalty cards and gift cards, just my phone.
More on this new app from Apple:
I know you will laugh when you see the 16, 18, and 20 foot surfboards. So big in the water with no fin and guys riding them like pros.
Have you seen a wooden surfboard in the water yet? If not, you will soon as these earth-friendly boards grow in popularity.
The famous shaper, Tom Wegener, gave a talk about his designs for the ancient Hawaiian board, the Alaia (pronounced: ah-LIE-ah):
According to Wegener, this historical Hawaiian surfcraft – which appears to be little more than a flat piece of wood in the shape of an ironing board – may not only be the most enviro friendly surfboard available today, it might be part of one of surfing’s next big leaps in modern board design.
It is also a much-needed design, since the foam boards of today are nearly as toxic as you can make something. The recent movie, ‘Manufacturing Stoke’, discusses this strange development, as well as a detailed post I wrote on Green Surfboards.
The next step is finding the right type of wood that can match the ultra-high performance of the industrial-era poly/resin/chemical boards used by professional surfers today.
Phil Joske introduced him (Tom) to a sustainable board building material called Paulownia wood. With a much greater strength-to-weight ratio than balsa, an easy-to-work-with nature, and an imperviousness to saltwater, Tom used this unique wood and his innovative longboard designs to help revolutionize the genre of hollow wood surfboards.
Many in the industry are taking note of these designs, there is a certain beauty to a glossy wooden board. Especially, knowing that it is handcrafted and great for the environment.
Learn more at Patagonia’s – Wood is Good series (featuring videos, interviews, and lots of links to surf films and designers).
I always thought that forests were huge and covered large swaths of the planet…guess not. Makes sense then why climatologists say each one is so important.
Pulled from a fascinating interactive – Changing Forests – from the N.Y. Times.
A fun article from the N.Y. Times, asking should men wear shorts?
“No, no. I’m a grown-up.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by many style arbiters: men of a certain age and distinction, the thinking goes, cannot wear shorts and be taken seriously. This applies not only to the workplace, but also in social settings.
I find myself battling this essential summer question, to go shorts or not?
Making the article a delightful read, especially when it get’s serious by bringing in the fashion industry. It appears that “dress shorts” are surging in popularity.
They are “worn with summer blazers and gingham shirts” or “a suit jacket with a great pair of brogues or a desert boot.”
Then, going back into pre-Victorian style, saying that men used to wear Capri’s (breeches) that showed off the calf muscle, “it was part of a code of masculine beauty to have a perfect leg.”
Thankfully, that is gone but two things that haven’t, and the fashion world considers nasty, are long shorts (anything below the knee) and socks.
An amazing collection fo sci-fi books on the web:
Free Science Fiction Classics on the Web: Huxley, Orwell, Asimov, Gaiman & Beyond
Today we’re bringing you a roundup of some of the great Science Fiction, Fantasy and Dystopian classics available on the web. And what better way to get started than with Aldous Huxley reading a dramatized recording of his 1932 novel, Brave New World. The reading aired on the CBS Radio Workshop in 1956. You can listen to Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
By my count there are over 30 stories in all forms – audiobooks, movie, e-text, and even a few live readings from the author.
Does this sound like an Indiana Jones adventure or what!
Two archaeologists deep in the jungles of Guatemala are searching the lost empire of El Zotz, an ancient Maya city-state. First, they discover Diablo’s Pyramid, a 45-foot tall royal palace that is 1600 years old.
Then, they spot another building but it’s buried deep in the jungle. Two years later they have it uncovered (ok, that is not-so adventurous but realistic archaeological work), and find beyond the overgrowth some devilish faces, from the National Geographic article:
The sides of the temple are decorated with 5-foot-tall stucco masks showing the face of the sun god changing as he traverses the sky over the course of a day.
One mask is sharklike, likely a reference to the sun rising from the Caribbean in the east, Houston said.
The noonday sun is depicted as an ancient being with crossed eyes who drank blood, and a final series of masks resemble the local jaguars, which awake from their jungle slumbers at dusk.
Screenshots:
Imagine making your way through the jungle to find this entrance…
To find this guy staring down at you!
The Mayans sure were fascinated with power, death, and the sun.
CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low
In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.
Isn’t that great news?
I think we need some uplifting climate change news with all the “doom and gloom” stories out there. Let’s keep it going.
The United States has cut its CO2 output more than any other country in recent years, with our output dropping since 2007. We are now close to 1990 levels and may be able to fit in with the Kyoto Protocols.
Of the fossil fuels, natural gas releases the least amount of air pollution and CO2. It is a homegrown source which improves our energy independence and stability, as well as keeping our money at home.
Coal has gone from producing half our energy to only one-third.
Good news!
** Fracking for natural gas – it is unknown how destructive this new, hugely popular process is.
Just a small slice of the 70-page, London 2012 Olympic Games – Digital Report
Web stats:
- 431 million visits
- 109 million unique visits (on average, each person visited four times)
- 15 million app downloads
- 4.73 billion pageviews (on average 11 page views/visit)
- 4.7 million followers on social networks
Data:
- 1.3 petabytes of data served
- 117 billion object requests
- 46.1 billion ‘page’ (html, xml) views
- App peak – 17,290 pages/second
- Web peak – 104,792 pages/second
Massive galaxy cluster spawns more than 700 stars a year
A newly discovered cluster of galaxies, more than 5 billion light years from Earth…is among the most massive clusters of galaxies in the universe, and produces X-rays at a rate faster than any other known cluster.
It also creates new stars at an “unmatched” pace of more than 700 per year, said Michael McDonald. “This extreme rate of star formation was unexpected,” he said during a NASA news conference Wednesday, noting that the Milky Way forms just one or two stars a year.
In addition to being massive, unique, and the biggest star-nursery in the universe, this area, called Phoenix, also helps theorists with something, the galactic cooling problem.
Phoenix Cluster: a combination of the X-ray, Optical, and Ultraviolet images, left; artists concept of the central galaxy, right. (photo: NASA)
For years scientists have been coming up with explanations for how stars are formed. The earliest being a mass of molecules would collapse in on themselves as fusion begins. The mass would then accumulate until its gravity becomes strong enough to spin, turn into a sphere, and pull on everything around it, collecting planets, asteroids, and other debris into its solar system.
But, this doesn’t take into account thermodynamics, specifically why doesn’t the star expand as it heats up. Indeed, several half-stars were observed in the universe stuck in this state of expansion unable to contract into the ultra-compact ball of a star.
That’s where a new theory comes in, the galactic “cooling flow”.
**There appears to be no name for the theory, all references are to a general theory theory of star formation.
This says the creation of stars is a lot like an explosion, with an initial burst of heat which then dissipates bringing cool air back into the explosion zone. In this case, thermonuclear fusion ignites much of the galaxy and begins sucking into the center lots of mass, including the surrounding galaxies.
As the (star) forms, this plasma initially heats up due to the gravitational energy released from the infall of smaller galaxies.
As the gas cools, it should condense and sink inward, a process known as a “cooling flow.” In the cluster’s center, this cooling flow can lead to very dense cores of gas, termed “cool cores,” which should fuel bursts of star formation in all clusters that go through this process. Most of these predictions had been confirmed with observations – the X-ray glow, the lower temperatures at the cluster centers – but starbursts accompanying this cooling remain rare. – TG Daily
A step forward in our knowledge of star formation, but something tells me we are not there yet.
Move Over Lasers, It’s Maser Time
No, masers are not just a word that we came up with just now. They’ve actually been around since the 1950s, before lasers were invented. The problem is that they’ve always been impractical–that is, until the team of researchers came up with a device that could let masers over take lasers in the coolness race.
They have yet to determine what the maser can do, but like the laser the discoveries only happen when you shoot stuff.
The expectation is that the more precise maser can shoot through clouds (lasers can’t), detect extra-terrestrials, and turn into a surgical tool that can exactly attack a tumor.
From the August cover of Nature magazine:
The maser is the microwave-frequency precursor of the now ubiquitous laser. But it has had little technological impact compared with the laser, in large part because of inconvenience: masers typically require vacuum and/or low-temperature operating conditions.
Some researchers think they’ve solved that problem and have published a paper in Nature magazine, Room-temperature solid-state maser.
The preceding link gives the abstract. For more details read-on at:
Celebrating 40 years of Title IX
It simply reads:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
When it became law on June 23, 1972, Title IX changed the landscape of collegiate athletics.
Its impact over the last 40 years has been profound from coast-to-coast.
Such a great piece of legislation!
The perfect time to celebrate this landmark act after the woman of America so dominated the London 2012 Olympic Games.
My alma mater, UCLA, is writing about the 40 greatest women athletes since Title IX, and the list is quite impressive.
Among the athletes are Florence Griffith-Joyner (Flo-Jo), who according to Wikipedia is “considered the “fastest woman of all time” based on the fact that she still holds the world record for both the 100 metres and 200 metres, both set in 1988 and never seriously challenged.”
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (JJK), from Wikipedia, “ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women’s heptathlon as well as in the women’s long jump. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th century.”
And, 40 more!
