The Retreat’s new sculpture, A Matter of Balance, decorated for Christmas.
May Alice Holway’s memory live longer than the ash tree.
U kno u want this phone cover.
If you’re an international business traveler, it’s ok to hold your suitcase together with duct tape.
Beer dispenser in Tokyo airport
More awesome than anything.
Solar panels in the mall
In a shop that was mostly devoted to cell phone covers, charging cables, and so on, there was an impressive display of solar panels and power inverters available. This panel, the largest they had on the floor, is about $150 sticker price.
I’m sure that it makes even more sense in a place like the Philippines where the electricity is not as dependable (I noticed that anything with electronics was plugged into a voltage regulator, so even when the power is on it may not be as ‘clean’ as it should be) to put in a system on your own roof.
My experiences posting video on this blog have not been entirely successful up to now. However, I thought that a few seconds of what it was like to be hashing through Makati tonight would be worthwhile, and descriptive of the experience. If you watch it a few times, you will get a sense of what it was like to be running through this crazy mass of people and vehicles.
What’s in a name?
I dunno why the Philippines chooses not to subscribe to the international convention for naming cyclones, but Ruby is Hagupit and vice versa. It’s a compelling case for someone who makes his living convincing people to pay attention to names and is watching the storm from a little bit closer than desirable.
Welcome news, well spoken
I love the Filipino language (which is called Pilipino but is based mostly on Tagalog which is the most widely spoken language apart from English). With English and some basic Spanish you can get the gist of most official communication, at least in writing.
Here, cooperation is followed by orderly evacuation and zero casualties.
It’s important to have a clear advertising message.
Do you think the wives of informatics professionals would agree?
With a typhoon bearing down, the hotel fire alarm test goes from pain-in-the-ass to oddly-reassuring.
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 