Hello everybody. I have brought my nuts for everybody to enjoy. They’re oddly shaped, but salty and satisfying. Don’t be shy, there’s more than enough for everyone to get their hands on.

That’s not crude, that’s generous. A 27oz. container of cashews will cost me $10.00-$12.00. Anyway, the cashew caught my interest this morning. From whence did it come? Were its travels arduous? Who were its parents? How has it come to be?

From the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy all-knowing Wikipedia, we read:

The cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is a tree in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The plant is native to northeastern Brazil. Its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju, which in turn derives from the indigenous Tupi name, acajú. It is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew “nuts” and cashew apples.

Ann’s House of Nuts® may very well import theirs from India, which has the largest Kaju farms in the world. What interests me most if the variety of uses of the tree (especially those of a medicinal quality), as well as the parts of the fruit we do not see. The cashew apple is apparently used as a raw fruit in places where they grow, but because the skin is so fragile, it is not feasible to ship it. I had originally looked up the nut to see how it looked on the tree. I had imagined thousands of crooked, walnut-like shells dangling from a tree. The truth is even more bizarre! The cashew apple is actually a false-fruit, psuedofruit, that develops between the peduncle and the drupe. Unless you’re a botanist, there are a couple of new words for you. The cashew nut we all know actually dangles off the end of the pseudofruit, presumably until a creature eats the psuedofruit and drops the seed to ground where it can germinate. What’s even more bizarre is that the seed is actually encased within a shell containing urushiol. That’s the stuff that makes you break out in an itchy rash on poison ivy! Who in the world decided it was worthwhile to pick apart this shell to eat the small, fleshy nut inside? Why wouldn’t they have just stopped at the cashew apple and been done with it? Just another example of how one man’s pain is another man’s pleasure.

Dear Cashew Nut Harvester,
Though your spreading rash and insistent itch must be a grave burden to bear, the world appreciates the labor in your continued efforts. Like your father, and your father’s father, you pick at your nuts endlessly only to endure the torturing discomfort of its rash. I, for one, do not take these measures for granted and recognize the pain and suffering you must endure. From your hands you render great swollen nut sacks and feed salivating mouths everywhere. Thank you.

Related posts:

1. DiY PC: Antec Nine Hundred (Case)
2. A Comment on the Weather
3. A Surreal Morning

Related posts:

1. Dragon*Con 2006: Day 2
2. Birthday Cheers. Skål!
3. Dragon*Con 2007 :: Wrap-Up

I had specific requirements for said support. I wanted to know the PSI and flow (in gallons per minute) of my water source. The technician performed his job while I was at work, and when I arrived home I found the small note explaining the details of his work:

120 p.s.i., flows looks good.

What the hell does the “looks good” mean? I did call and ask. I got a distinctly unsatisfactory answer. So I took matters into my own hands.

A quick run to Home Depot supplied me with everything I thought I might run into. I had dug up a portion of the yard near the meter to assess the situation. One such item was the curb key needed to shut off the city’s water supply to the house. I had previously performed this action with an adjustable wrench. I think I ruined something in my arm. The first action was to remove the pressure reducing valve (PRV). That proved somewhat difficult because of the tight space to work in. My perseverance paid off and I was able to remove it quickly. I then cleaned out the mesh on the input side of the valve and screwed it back into the line. This proved completely ineffective. The next thing to do was to replace the PRV altogether. Having purchased an appropriate unit at Home Depot for less than $30, I was ready to finish the job. I put the new PRV in place and tightened everything down.

When the water was turned back on and pressure restored to the house, I waited to be sure that no leaks were present from my new handy work. I tell you what! No leaks (one slight leak was corrected from the previous equipment), and the water flow was amazing. The pressure was actually lower than I had previously set the PRV to (40psi from 100psi), but the flow was at least 400% better. I had previously measured it at the kitchen faucet at almost ½ a gallon per minute. Now it’s up to the regulated rate of 2 gallons per minute. I was so elated! I went and bought the craziest shower head I could find to celebrate my newfound water pressure. Of course, now I’m at odds with the pressing drought. It’s a grandiose victory nonetheless.

The Fix-It summary:
The problem signature was that water pressure was adequate upon build-up, but fell to 0 psi after seconds of use. The resultant flow was down to around a ½ gallon per minute, which is well below normal. The PRV is there to reduce the pressure of incoming water from a water source – usually the city water source. It is a simple device resembling a spring-shock from a car on the inside. There’s a valve at the end of this shock that controls the flow of water. I’m not really sure how it’s able to control the pressure the way it does, but apparently it is within the realms hydraulic physics. I can tell you, however, that when the PRV goes bad, it fails to control pressure dynamically. So when pressure is good, but flow is not, then it may very well be a problem with the PRV. Check the mesh screen at the intake, and replace the unit if that doesn’t clear up the problem.

Related posts:

1. Curtains for Bonny
2. 9 Years of Pain End Well
3. Montezuma’s Revenge

Microsoft Labs: Photosynth Preview

Just in case you were too amazed to properly put together what you just saw, here’s my summary. SeaDragon developed an imaging solution (algorithm, I suppose) that regards bit depth and pixel count as only contextually relative. To an extent, your computer does this today. It’s just not as efficient as what SeaDragon was able to do. If your computer is asked to display 100 images in a grid and your computer’s monitor is capable of displaying 786,432 pixels (1024×768), then the SeaDragon algorithms resize the images to 7,800 pixels each (100×78) – don’t argue, just follow the logic of my simple example. Graphics programs such as Photoshop do this with a choice as to how you would like to interpolate the images (Lanczos, B-spline, Triangle/tent, nearest neighbor). I haven’t heard what math is used to do it in SeaDragon’s technology, but it must be something fast (not necessarily accurate). The implementation allows you to seamlessly zoom in and out of an entire image collection without delay. Microsoft demonstrated the technology as a new way to media market. The example involved showing a newspaper with vector text on it and images flowed – just as you would expect. However, the interesting bit was where they zoomed into an area of the paper to bring a micro-fiche like add to the foreground with distinct detail in the images and text (of course). It really merges the world of raster and vector imaging solutions. So here’s where Microsoft steps in and, correct me if my timing is off, bridges the technology with some Microsoft magic to create an imaging technique with spatial recognition. The example you see at the Photosynth link is a collection of Flickr photos of a specific cathedral. They’ve spatially mapped all the pictures into a model of the cathedral. This combined 2D/3D world now allows you to move around within the 3D structure while using a variety of images to give you the detail. As you move the mouse around, it highlights spatially plotted images that were recognized to fit. Now that you know what’s going on, go back and try it again!

Related posts:

1. Innovating the Search Engine
2. A Chat with Microsoft
3. Microsoft Forces IE Dominance

Related posts:

1. A Comment on the Weather
2. Spring is Nigh!
3. Winter is Here!

Related posts:

1. Dan Zanes Concert
2. atlantastrifest05
3. The Asian Cultural Experience

Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Chicken, Lecithin, Monocalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Linoleic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Mixed Tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (source of B2), Beta Carotene, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, D-Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Dried Papaya, Vitamin B12 Supplement

Amy took a picture of me the other day in the lake and I think it’s a perfect picture to use as a comparison later. I don’t anticipate this picture changing much seeing as my metabolism seems to annihilate anything I put in my pie hole. My last diet change was an “eat everything you can” for 8 weeks. I gained a whopping 4 pounds. On the positive side of that (for me), I kept it.

Related posts:

1. Soylent Green is People, This is Not
2. Kibbles Wrap-Up
3. Nobel Peace, Only Weirder

A praying mantis (A.K.A. alien vessel from Neptune) was seen skewering a hummingbird by a young boy. This is not unheard of, though rarely photographed. Not only was this photographed, but it was done so with high-resolution equipment such is the norm in today’s backyards. Apparently, the mantis slashed out at the hummingbird as it flew near a flower – a favorite, I’m guessing. The mantis then stuck a spined foreleg through the hummingbirds chest (seemingly a very unlikely idea by anything but a human) and held it suspended whilst it tore into the bird’s abdomen and feasted on its warm, supple flesh. When full, it simply jerked its arm free of the cavity and discarded the remains of its victim. My fear and respect for the mantis is confirmed…

Related posts:

1. Praying Mantis
2. The Honda Experience
3. Earth’s Oldest Maw Discovered

Related posts:

1. The Asian Cultural Experience
2. Google’s Master Plan
3. Master Chief

They had a large kid’s arena in the center where young and old children could just play. Balthazar actually climbed all the way to the top of a Titanic slide. The irony there astounding, but not appropriate to talk about in this context. We were agasp at how deftly he climbed the really steep incline. I’m sure you’ve all seen these before. He’s just two! Without thinking anything about it, he hopped down to his butt and scooted off the edge of the slide to zip down two stories of historical catastrophe into two elated parents. The suddenly realized contradiction of fear and excitement in his face was enough to make our day. He did so well with the endeavor, but I think he may have soiled himself on that slide down. Needless to say, he did not wish to do it again.

About twenty seconds after that, I began spontaneously nose-bleeding into the grass in the kid’s arena. This is always a bit uncomfortable for me, because it usually happens in a public place where others are likely shielding their children and talking of drugees at the park. I’m not a drugee, I just have blood-prone nostrils. Forgive me, but I bled long and thick into the Porta-Potty’s blue bowl. It was disgusting for me, but I’ll bet it’ll be worse to the next person to use that bowl. Once I had managed to staunch the flow of blood long enough to stuff a wad of tissues into my nose, I made my way across the field of horrified on-lookers to a creek where I could bathe as an animal does. By this time, I had nicely stained hands. The creek did the job and I was back on my way in no time. With this, we called it a day and pushed off. By 12:00pm, we were home and ready to relax. Amy slept, I laid on the couch, and Balthazar played with his train set. Although an empty Saturday by anyone else’s view, we were satisfied with the results.

Related posts:

1. Good Morning, Sunday
2. Break Camp
3. A Surreal Morning