Reveling in Ranunculus

Ranunculus, with their layered, crepe-like petals that explode in blooms of red, yellow, orange, white and pink, are cheery in the Fall and equally festive in the Spring. The bright beauties spread their rainbow happiness in small pots on tables, as part of larger plant containers and along the front of home borders. They are also a favorite among Spring brides.

Those available during bulb season in October and November are sold as dormant tubers, and grow into the beautiful, tall plants that make excellent cut flowers. These start their lives right here in Southern California in the famous “Flower Fields’ of Carlsbad. When planting these “bulb” varieties, known as Tecolote ranunculus, in flower beds, it’s best to place them in the middle so other plants can conceal their shaggy bases.

Flower Fields of Carlsbad, CA

In England, the common name for Ranunculus is “Buttercup,” apparently because of various legends linking it to dairy cows and butter. There’s also supposed to be a Native American myth associated with the varieties that grow in the Pacific Northwest: Coyote was tossing his eyeballs in the air for fun, and either Eagle or Buzzard swooped by and took them. So Coyote took Ranunculus to use as his new eyes. Hence, the common name in that region, “Coyote Eyes.”

via, my favorite nursery, Roger’s Gardens

 

// Photos – Kanonn, Superfem, Sakura Chihaya+, Hello-Julie

What’s inside the 26 ingredient school lunch burger?

A great piece from NPR. Makes me think twice about those fortified items that have extra protein or vitamins.

What’s Inside The 26-Ingredient School Lunch Burger?

  • Thiamine mononitrate
  • Disodium inosinate
  • Pyridoxine hydrochloride

Why are these hard-to-pronounce ingredients added to everything from a burger served in schools to veggie burgers in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store?

 

 

“We now have 36 school [parent teacher associations] that have signed a resolution that encourages the county to make changes.”

More on this story, including the full article and the report on Morning Edition, Tiny Desk Kitchen.

Monster Bash – awesome 5-second animations

1st place in Greyscale Gorilla’s 5-Second Project contest under the Monster Bash theme.

My animation is a 5 second story about a little vampire that comes to life in paper and gets bashed with a poetic wooden stake – a pencil.

 

 Runners Up

 

 

See them all – Greyscale Gorilla – Monster Bash Winners
 

// Thx to Rob Elliott

Vin Scully – the Dodgers gave spread-out Los Angeles its core

When Vin Scully arrived from Brooklyn with the Dodgers for the 1958 season, he found Los Angeles to be lacking a core.

“When I came to Los Angeles, all I knew was that it was like 450 square miles. There was no ‘there.’ I felt Los Angeles did not have a centerpiece.”

The opening of Dodger Stadium in 1962 changed that.

“In a sense, Dodger Stadium put the ‘there’ in Los Angeles,” Scully said. “I believe the stadium helped to reunite this spacious community that extends from here to there.”

The stadium opened exactly 50 years ago Tuesday, and the Hall of Fame broadcaster shared his thoughts and memories of the ballpark in a recent interview:

The now-extinct dugout seats:

“Now, I was told this was absolutely true: Giants-Dodgers game, late in the game, Giants rallying, crowd going bananas, Willie Mays in the on-deck circle and all that stuff, Willie McCovey going to hit in back of him, and Milton Berle, a comedian, is sitting in a dugout seat.

“Now, Mays is going to come up. And as Mays started to walk up to the plate, Berle hollered, ‘Willie!’ Mays looked over and recognized Berle. Berle said, ‘Come here a minute.’ Willie actually started, instinctively, to come over and realized, ‘What am I, crazy? I’m in the middle of a game!’

“Doris Day used to love those seats. She was a sweet lady. You would see her a lot. Cary Grant, when he was married to Dyan Cannon, they would sit in those dugout seats.”

Construction insight from longtime owner Peter O’Malley:

“Mr. O’Malley pointed out an interesting thing that I never thought of. They were building the stadium and he said, ‘The most expensive seats are the cheapest to install. And the cheapest seats are the most expensive to install.’

“He said, ‘The box seat is the most expensive. It’s right on the ground. The cheapest seat is way the hell up there. Just think of all the steel and concrete and everything else you need to put that seat way up there.’ ”

for many more excerpts form the best announcer in baseball…For Vin Scully, the view from Dodger Stadium never gets old

 

// Photos – KLA4067, Woolenium

Byblos, Lebanon – oldest inhabited city in the world (7,000+ years)

Carbon-dating tests have set the earliest age of settlement at Byblos around 7000 BC, however it was not officially established as a city until sometime around 5000 BC.

Byblos is in Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast about 26 miles north of Beirut. “Byblos” is the Greek name. The first city built by the Phoenicians, Byblos is Greek for “papyrus.” The Bible was named for Byblos as it was known as “the papyrus book.”

Between the fourth and thirteenth centuries, Byblos bounced between Christianity and Muslim rule during the various crusades. From early 1500’s until 1918, Byblos was part of the Ottoman Empire. From 1920 until 1943 Byblos was under French Mandate, and finally in 1943, Lebanon – and Byblos – achieved independence.

Today, Byblos is a progressive city that embraces its cultural history. Tourism is now one of the major industries for this ancient port, and Byblos is re-emerging as a premiere Mediterranean destination.

via Sometimes Interesting

Kids in 3rd grade are 8 years old and 20% have cell phones

Kids in the third grade are, on average, eight years old. Nowadays, 20 percent of third-grade boys and 18 percent of third-grade girls already have a cell phone, according to a 2011 study of 20,766 Massachusetts elementary, middle, and high school students.

By the time the kids reach fifth grade, 39% of the kids have cell phones, and phone saturation is nearly complete by middle school, when more than 83% of the students have a device.

“Adults — digital natives or not — can’t imagine what a childhood mediated by mobile, social technology that didn’t exist 10 years ago is actually like.”

via The Atlantic

// Photo – Parcel Brat

A slow motion video of exploding eggs and smashing glass

A super slow motion video of exploding eggs and smashing glass filmed by the Phantom Flex camera….not your typical tea party.

The frame rate was anywhere between 3,200 to 6,900 frames per second.

The top 10 cities for travel in 2012 – from Lonely Planet

  1. London
  2. Muscat, Oman
  3. Bengaluru (Bangalore), India
  4. Cádiz, Spain
  5. Stockholm, Sweden
  6. Guimarães, Portugal
  7. Santiago, Chile
  8. Hong Kong
  9. Orlando, Florida
  10. Darwin, Australia

A few of the explanations:

Bengaluru – The undisputed Elvis of South Asian megacities, Bengaluru is in a class of its own when it comes to redefining flamboyance. Perpetually drunk on the good life, this South Indian metropolis packs in the best brews, the scrummiest cuisines, and the liveliest arts and music scene, not to mention the hippest population you could hang out with. This year, evenings in the ‘capital of cool’ are poised to get even more intoxicating. And if the maddening traffic has always been your concern, take heart: Bengaluru’s new high-speed Metro network now ensures that your favourite watering hole is easier to reach than ever. There’s only one thing you could say to that: ‘Chill maadi!’

Stockholm – The film release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo might have prompted a new wave of Stieg Larsson fans to look for the grimy side of Stockholm. Unfortunately they’ll have to look quite hard, because Stockholm looks as perfect as it’s ever been. This is as seductive a capital city as can be imagined – cosy yet cosmopolitan, wilfully alternative and effortlessly picturesque. With its trendy design shops and bohemian bars, the island of Södermalm is one of the coolest kids on the block, while the stately parks of Djurgården make it the best island for an evening stroll. Admittedly Stockholm has never been a cheap date. But even if Stockholm leaves you with a lighter wallet, you’ll inevitably still leave it with a heavy heart.

Read more at Lonely Planet

Stockholm

 

// Thx to Shashi Bellamkonda

Why Facebook bought Instagram – from Om Malik and Robert Scoble

Both Om Malik and Robert Scoble make interesting points, Facebook paid double for what many considered Instagram to be worth and Facebook desperately needs help with mobile devices.

From Om Malik:

A few days ago Instagram was rumored to be valued at $500 million. A few months ago it was $300 million. Its last round — just a year ago – valued the company at $100 million.

The rising valuation of the company was reflective of the growing audience it has been garnering, despite being just on the iPhone. It had reached nearly 30 million registered users before it launched an Android app.

So the question is:  Why did Mark Zuckerberg buy Instagram at twice the valuation that professional venture investors were putting on it?

From Zuckerberg’s post on Facebook:

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

My translation: Facebook was scared shitless and knew that for first time in its life it arguably had a competitor that could not only eat its lunch, but also destroy its future prospects. Why? Because Facebook is essentially about photos, and Instagram had found and attacked Facebook’s achilles heel — mobile photo sharing.

 

From Robert Scoble:

Facebook has a problem. After its IPO completes it needs many quarters of strong revenue and profit growth to report to convince investors to stay put and convince new ones to buy the stock.

Zuckerberg is aiming at turning the $80 to $100 billion valuation that will happen at IPO into a $500 billion to $1 trillion company. How will he do that?

Look at mobile.

Today Facebook has NO revenues from mobile. None. That’s amazing, since so many people, hundreds of millions of us, use Facebook on mobile clients.

That will change very quickly after the IPO. Instagram will play a huge role here, plus Facebook gets a very talented mobile development team that has built world-leading mobile apps on iOS and Android (which got a million users in its first day).