Invisible Bookshelf

This bookshelf appears to suspend a stack of books in mid-air against a wall, without any support.

Mounts to almost any wall with included hardware in minutes.

Metal powder-coated with silver finish.

Set of 3 —Small: $25.49; Large: $45.

Both here.

Loafing — Raymond Carver

'Plein Air*' — Joonas Virtanen

The New York-based designer and creative director's online weather report not only gives you the temperature, humidity, "feels like," and visibility for major cities around the world 24/7/365, but it also lets you use your location for a more precise look.

"It's good news week."

"

"What's the weather like today?"

Doh!

*

'The Listeners'

This excellent four-part 2024 BBC series now on Starz features the nonpareil Rebecca Hall as a young teacher in England who begins hearing a low-pitched hum inaudible to those around her.

It gradually takes over her life and leads her down a rabbit hole of uncertainty and confusion and ultimately to personal catastrophe.

Each of the four episodes is under 45 minutes long so if you're a binge watcher like me, you can take in the entire series in one go.

Hall is among a handful of actors whose presence makes a show or movie worth watching.

Others: Kristin Stewart, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Daniel Day-Lewis, Michael Caine.

Buckminster Fuller explains Einstein's theory of relativity in a telegram to Isamu Noguchi

In 1936 Noguchi, inspired like Fuller by Einstein's theory of relativity, worked on his first major public sculpture in Mexico.

It was a seventy-two-foot-long wall, part of which would be a figure of an Indian boy observing Einstein's equation for energy.

Noguchi forgot the exact equation and wired to Fuller for help.

Fuller sent back a telegram (above) explaining E=mc².

Yeah, I figured you'd want to me do that — here's the plain text.

Einstein's formula determination individual specifics relativity reads quote energy equals mass times the speed of light squared unquote speed of light identical speed all radiation cosmic gamma x ultra violet infra red rays etcetera one hundred eighty six thousand miles per second which squared is top or perfect speed giving science a finite value for basic factor in motion universe stop speed of radiant energy being directional outward all directions expanding wave surface diametric polar speed away from self is twice speed in one direction and speed of volume increase is square of speed in one direction approximately thirty five billion volumetric miles per second stop formula is written quote letter e followed closely by equation mark followed by letter m followed by letter c followed closely by elevated small figure two symbol of squaring unquote only variable in formula is specific mass speed is a unit of rate which is an integrated ratio of both time and space and no greater rate of speed than that provided by its cause which is pure energy latent or radiant is attainable stop the formula therefore provides a unit and a rate of perfection to which the relative imperfection of inefficiency of energy release in radiant or confined direction of all temporal space phenomena may be compared by actual calculation stop significance stop specific quality of animates is control willful or otherwise of rate and direction energy release and application not only of self mechanism but of from self machine divided mechanisms and relativity of all animates and inanimates is potential of establishment through einstein formula

bucky

Brick Hanger

I've been looking at these in catalogs for years but only yesterday did I realize that many people have brick interior walls and so might find them of use.

My outside walls are almost entirely brick but hanging things from them doesn't appeal to me.

From websites:

Hang almost anything on brick, without drilling or hammering

Spring-steel brick hangers snap easily onto a brick wall to support up to 25 lbs.

No anchors to hang, no holes to drill, no damage to brick or mortar.

When you redecorate, just unclip it and use it elsewhere!




































Use outdoors (rust-resistant) to hang climbing vines, or for stringing lights.

Use indoors over a brick fireplace to hang picture frames, wreaths, or clocks.

Teeth grip standard brick 2-1/4" to 2-3/8" tall.

1/8" minimum mortar recess needed.

-----------------------

Brown alloy steel.

Set of 12: $12.99.

BeyondTheMedspeak: In the MRI machine, not all metals are created equal[ly dangerous]

A New York Times science Q&A by the nonpareil C. Claiborne Ray gave a clear, succinct explanation of something many non-radiologist doctors don't know.

Here's the piece.

Magnetic Metals

Q. I have a titanium screw in my skull for a bone-anchored hearing aid. Does this mean I cannot have an M.R.I.? What elements make something attractive to a magnet?

A. You can still have magnetic resonance imaging with a titanium implant.

In fact, titanium is used for many medical implants because it does not interfere with CT scans and M.R.I.s the way steel implants can, implant manufacturers say.

Titanium may obscure specific areas of an image, but it is not affected by even strong magnetic fields.

Not all metallic elements are attracted to magnets, and most orthopedic implants are made of nonmagnetic alloys.

The four strongly magnetic elements are iron, nickel, cobalt, and gadolinium.

The strength of magnetic attraction depends on the way moving electrons are aligned in the atoms of a substance, sometimes forming minuscule internal magnets.

In some substances, the tiny magnetic fields cancel one another out or are always randomly oriented.

In materials attracted to magnets, the internal magnets within the material line up with the magnetic field of the magnet.

That gives the material a magnetic field, and it is then pulled toward the magnet.

The fields vary with temperature, becoming stronger as it grows colder and disappearing at high enough temperatures.

In the four ferromagnetic elements, the internal magnetic fields can stay aligned even at room temperature.

-------------------------

Some disasters in the MRI suite involve anesthesiology equipment such as ferromagnetic steel cylinders containing compressed gas (the dark object in the photo below)

which become bomb-like projectiles once the MRI machine is turned on.

Kim Basinger Postage Stamps — Collect 'em all!

Not The Onion — this is for realz.

Issued by Turkmenistan in 1999, there are nine different stamps, each labeled with a value of 50.00 M and featuring the actress in one of her movie roles.

The sheet of nine in mint condition cost $6.58 when issued.

You can get a set for $2 (+ $5.67 shipping from the UK) here.

Sleep as a Quantum Phenomenon

Reading Amy X. Wang's recent New York Times story about the latest sleep enhancing technology, this sentence caught my attention: "Some 42 per cent of Americans use a wearable fitness tracker — like an Apple Watch or Oura Ring — that alerts them to how they've been sleeping."

Once you decide to measure your sleep quality and quantity, you automatically alter it from what it would have been: the very act of paying attention to numbers in the sleep space changes them.

I know this firsthand because even though I was convinced from the get-go that such "quantified self" measures are useless at best, I gave them a go for a few nights by wearing my Apple Watch and then checking the results in the morning on my phone.

What a crock.

Screen after screen of graphs and charts and tables and numbers comparing this to that, all of it not worth the pixels bringing me the data.

Quantum theory tells us it is impossible to measure both the momentum and position of a particle simultaneously: once you quantify one, the other variable is unknowable.

So with sleep: once you measure markers of aspects of sleep (time/stage/depth/movement etc.), the results incorporate the fact you decided to measure them, altering your prospective slumber.

As for wearing a watch in bed so as to know what time it is if you should happen to wake up earlier than you wanted to: bad idea.

Once you see what time it is, you're dismayed because you know it's not enough sleep.

On the other wrist/hand, if you have no watch to tell you the time, it could be any time — that means there are a zillion different paths back into slumber, each starting at a different time.

Should you choose not to know, that allows for any one of those myriad world-lines to carry you off to dreamland.

Thus, you're much more likely to get back to sleep if you've adopted this no-watch strategy.

Up top: a terrific 2002 film.

Ultimate Historical Maps — David Rumsey

                                                          [1917 map of Berlin]

Wrote Kevin Kelly:

...............................

Imagine having access to all the ancient maps of the world, and being able to explore them with AI, including searching the words etched in the maps, or concepts about the maps — for instance "give me all the maps showing the routes of Roman aqueducts."

All this and more are available online for free [the way we like it] at the David Rumsey Map Collection. 

For 25 years Rumsey has been scanning over 140,000 maps of all kinds from his insane collection from around the world. 

He then innovates ways to share them.

When you find a map you particularly like, you can tap a button and have it printed out on a large scale and mailed to you for a reasonable fee. 

This is an international treasure.

EVERLASTING BLÖRT FTW!

Years before boj's August 2004 inception there was EVERLASTING BLÖRT.

Remarkably, it persists!

You could look it up.

I have a special warm place in my psyche and heart for EB because since forever it's featured boj on its homepage blogroll aka "smorgasblort" (above) and from time to time reposts choice items from boj.

I know this because when I look at where my readership comes from EB is always among the top referrers (below).

It's run by one madamjujujive.

You could look it up.

Let Us Now Praise Mark Ruffalo

It's taken me decades of watching him play the same disheveled, goofy, stoner-ish, mildly out-of-it character in countless films to appreciate just how natural he is on screen.

The penny dropped last night while I watched his latest, "Crime 101," in which he plays a burned-out Los Angeles police detective trying to solve a series of seemingly related high-value burglaries all of which have occurred near the 101 freeway.

I'm sure he won't win any awards for his performance, just as he's never won an Academy Award though he's been nominated four times; he's been nominated seven times for a Golden Globe and did win once, in 2021, for "Best Actor" in  "I Know This Much is True."

I must say I was astonished at his great performance opposite Emma Stone in 2023's "Poor Things," in which he played a debauched lawyer as far as is conceivable from his typical roles.

'Love is the mistaken belief that one person is substantially different than another' — George Bernard Shaw

SHOKZ Bluetooth Bone Conduction Headphones Surprised This Apple Fanboi

Last month when I received SHOKZ Bluetooth headphones for my birthday from someone who knows me very well, my first thought was "Why did you bother?"

He knows I'm a card-carrying Apple fanboi since forever: why waste money on something I won't use?

After two weeks looking at them all charged up and ready to go, I decided to take them out for a run before consigning them to my cabinet of non-Apple stuff, which is packed to the top with things that simply didn't make the cut.

Surprise!

Not only did the SHOKZ perform beautifully and without a glitch, they surpassed AirPods Pro 3, my longtime running companion, in several areas:

1. They stay put — unlike AirPods which, once they get wet with sweat, fall out my ears, silencing the music and forcing me to stop running when I'm hot and exhausted and miserable and semi-delirious from sweat pouring into my eyes to reinsert them and restart the music.

2. The stereo separation is better than the AirPods: I can clearly hear the two distinct channels. And the overall sound quality is fine.

3. They continue to play music no matter how much noise I make singing along or grunting or whatever, with no pauses from loud ambient traffic sound, fire engines, sirens, etc., not the case with AirPods which go silent when loud noises occur and then take 10-20 seconds to gradually return to the max volume I keep them at.

4. No more need to have that annoying dangling connecting cable behind my neck that prevents one of my AirPods from falling to the ground: I've lost two (2) AirPods Pro devices that way over the years, after spending hours looking for them and employing Apple's Find My function to no avail.

SHOKZ come in Orange, Silver, Rose Gold, Blue, or Black.

$179.95.

Top 10 Longest Novels Written in English

1. "Mission Earth" — L. Ron Hubbard: 1,200,000 words

2. "Sironia, Texas" — Madison Cooper: 1,100,000 words

3. "Clarissa" — Samuel Richardson: 969,000 words

4. "Poor Fellow My Country" — Xavier Herbert: 850,000 words

5. "Miss MacIntosh, My Darling" — Marguerite Young: 700,000 words

6. "A Suitable Boy" — Vikram Seth: 593,674 words

7. "Atlas Shrugged" — Ayn Rand: 565,223 words

8. "Remembrance Rock" — Carl Sandburg: 532,030 words

9. "Gai-Jin" — James Clavell: 487,700 words

10. "Infinite Jest" — David Foster Wallace: 484,000 words

[via Gregory Cowles writing in the New York Times]

Attitude As It Relates To Job Performance

Long story short: it doesn't.

Those who believe an unhappy person doesn't do as good a job as one delighted with things as they are — I believe they are simply out of touch with the real world.

Many of the excellent performers I know personally in various fields — as disparate as law, gardening, sales, waitressing, medicine, airline pilot, coffee roaster, upscale real estate broker, and business school admissions committee member — are not very thrilled with what they do.

Some have to fight every morning to make it in, so unhappy and angry are they with their lot.

Don't give me that "Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow" pap — it's a sound bite to keep you anesthetized.

I got through medical school only by riding a combination of fear, uncertainty and well–concealed rage at the whole process.

I left general practice after two years because I was bored to tears and devastated each night when I got home, a combination of emotional fatigue and (short–term, I hope) brain damage resulting from listening to 30 depressed people a day tell me the somatic manifestations of their misery.

But guess what?

Every single practice I worked at during that two–year run–up to beginning my anesthesiology residency (which I absolutely loved every minute of, by the way) begged me to stay and become full–time.

They loved me.

I'm talking five or so different groups around the greater L.A. area including Kaiser, one in East Los Angeles in the heart of the barrio, one in Beverly Hills and a couple others.

Why?

You can believe what you like but what they all told me is that I was a doctor who really cared about the patients and the patients — most of whom I'd seen only once or twice during my short stint as a fill–in — told them so.

So drop the "why don't you quit if you're so unhappy?" stuff — it's silly and tedious and simply marks you as just another Kool–Aid drinker.

Me, I'd much rather tell it like it is than live in some fantasyland.

I'm with Jerzy Grotowski who memorably remarked, "Daily life involves endless pretexts."

Sign of the Apocalypse: Pringles Hot Dog Buns — VERY Limited Edition

From Delish:

.................................

Pringles Turned Three Fan-Favorite Flavors Into Hot Dog Buns — And Stuffed Them In Its Iconic Cans

There are only two chances to grab the strangest cookout upgrade of summer.

I’ve opened enough cans of Pringles to know exactly what should come out of one. A hot dog bun was never on the list.

And yet, Pringles has decided that chips are no longer enough. The brand announced Monday that they’re releasing a limited run of flavored hot dog buns that borrow their seasoning from three familiar cans: Sour Cream & Onion, BBQ and Honey Mustard.

They’re called Pop Dog Buns, and each one measures 7.5 inches long so it can fit neatly into Pringles’ signature packaging. The buns are potato-based, which gives the brand a solid starting point for working its chip flavors into the bread itself instead of leaving all the heavy lifting to the toppings. Sour Cream & Onion is the richest and tangiest, BBQ has a smoky sweetness, and Honey Mustard gives you that sweet-sharp combination without needing to squeeze anything from a bottle.

You could also pile actual Pringles onto the hot dog for crunch, should the flavored bun somehow feel too restrained for your own personal taste.

Unfortunately, getting your hands on one will require more effort than grabbing a regular package at the grocery store. Pringles is releasing the buns online twice: Wednesday, July 8, and Wednesday, July 15, with both drops beginning at noon ET.

               WAKE UP — THAT'S RIGHT NOW!!!

The buns are included at no additional cost when you buy a $6.97 three-pack containing Sour Cream & Onion, BBQ and Honey Mustard Pringles. Orders will be available through OnceYouPopMarket.com, along with the brand's Instagram and Facebook Shops, while supplies last.

"We wanted to take something everyone knows and completely flip it into an exciting new snackable experience," said Mauricio Jenkins, Salty Snacks Brand & Content Lead, Mars Snacking North America. "Our mission is to continually deliver the unexpected to our fans, which is why we're reimagining ordinary, bland buns and transforming them into an extraordinarily flavorful experience fit for our iconic cans. Trust me, that extra Pringles flavor truly makes these buns pop because... Once You Pop, The Pop Dogs Don't Stop."

A regular bun has never asked this much of me before. But then again, a regular bun has also never arrived in a Pringles can, has it?

If Edvard Munch were a barista...

9 Habits of Highly Annoying Fitness Club Users

As described in a post on Newsweek's website by Tina Peng, they follow.

Gym Sins

Fitness club managers dish about their members' most obnoxious habits

It was perhaps the most extreme case of gym rage — ever. While taking a Manhattan spin class, Christopher Carter became so annoyed by the unrelenting grunts and shouts of a fellow spinner that he tipped the other guy right off his bike and into a wall. The grunter was hospitalized for two weeks after the incident. Carter was acquitted of assault charges. Hopefully, the acquittal won't inspire a rash of altercations, as other exercisers decide that they too have had it with obnoxious gym behavior. Because any gym rat can tell you, grunting isn't the most irritating thing people do in fitness clubs. From making lunch in the sauna to sporting unsavory yoga attire, club managers report that some of their patrons are clueless when it comes to gym etiquette, or general decency. Here are nine of the most outrageous fitness club offenses.

1. The Sauna Stovetop A manager at a New York Sports Club was walking through the women's locker room a few years ago when she smelled cheese. Puzzled, she opened the door to the sauna, where a woman had placed bread and cheese on the hot rocks to make a post-workout grilled cheese sandwich. "Not only was it a health code violation, it was not really respectful to the other people in the sauna," said NYSC PR director Linda Hufcut. "She said, 'I do this all the time.' That was, obviously, the last time she ever did it.'"

2. Nude Fitness? A couple of visitors to a Gold's Gym in Paramus, N.J., decided to get naked and weigh themselves before they started working out. The two men didn't seem daunted by the fact that the scale was outside the locker room. They hung out by the scale, in full view of the other, clothed patrons, until a manager asked them to put some clothes on. They told Mike Epstein, the gym's owner, that they did that sort of thing all the time at their home gym. Perhaps they meant "home gym" as in the one in their basement.

3. Creative Blow-Drying A man in a California Crunch gym decided that the best way to dry out his sweaty shoes was to stick a hair dryer in each of them while he took his after-workout shower. He was shocked when managers asked him to cease and desist. "He said, 'I didn't even realize I shouldn't be doing this'," said Keith Worts, chief operating officer of Crunch, a national fitness chain.

4. Downward Dog? At another Crunch location a man had a habit of taking a yoga class while wearing shorts without underwear. He was more than happy to correct his faux pas as soon as managers made him aware that other members were uncomfortable with the view they were getting.

5. Work Out, Sleep In Some people get a little too relaxed at the gym. Gold's Gym managers have reported finding customers who fell asleep in the tanning facility and didn't wake up until the gym was closed, as well as customers who fell asleep on the bench press in between sets.

6. Killer Karaoke It's common and profoundly annoying: gym goers get carried away listening to their music players. Before they know it they've treated everyone in the room to an off-key rendition of "... Baby One More Time." "I call it karaoke gone bad, because there is no background music and they're singing at the top of their lungs," said Harry Reo, a regional vice president for 24 Hour Fitness.

7. Talking (Too Much of) the Talk Fed up with people gabbing on their cell phones as they used the elliptical, many gyms have banned cell phones around workout equipment and designated areas for patrons to make calls. Still, people forget. "There's nothing worse than running on the treadmill and having someone next to you conducting an extremely loud conversation," said Hufcut, who's seen some people use walkie-talkies while on the treadmill.

8. Sweat Sins It seems basic, but enough people forget to wipe down their equipment after using it that this was one of the four deadly gym sins included on an informational video NYSC taped a few years ago. During the segment a careless gym goer didn't dry off his machine; when he stood up, the entire machine was covered in dripping goo.

9. Scrimmage to Scuffle It's only logical that testosterone can run high at the gym, and sometimes managers need to break up altercations on the basketball court, said Nancy Pattee Francini, co-founder and president of Sports Club/LA. "Those guys, when they're playing basketball, can get into fights," she said. "They're not terrible fights — we're a high-end club."

These are, of course, the worst offenses, not the norm. Obnoxious behavior can usually be curbed with a little etiquette education, say gym owners. "Most of the time it's really an awareness issue with members," said Worts of Crunch. "We have to remind them that they're in a shared public space." Nonetheless, it might not be a bad idea to look over the list and make sure you're not committing any gym sins.

Ergonomic Rolling Pin

"Designed with comfort in mind, this bamboo rolling pin makes dough prep smoother, steadier, and easier on your wrists." 

"Especially helpful for those with limited wrist mobility."

$20.