Chinese GPS enabled public bike update

In August I wrote about the really cool Chinese GPS enabled public bikes MoBike – well since then there have been a few developments.

First, Mobike backpedaled on their super-unique industrial design and made something that looks more familiar like a bike. The bike is lighter made from normal metal tubes instead of what appeared to be solid aluminum in the old design. The wheels are light with normal spokes, and instead of solid rubber tires, they tires have these little air-holes in them to add some bounce.

One particularly cool development is that rather than a hub-mounted generator - they use a solar panel integrated into the new basket.

 For reference, this was the old mobike design.

Moderate Traffic

Google is truly amazing. Their apps give you the ability to moderate traffic in your area and access to traffic settings with the tap of a finger!

Shoshana Ruth Lansey

Our daughter is one year old! I realized I never blogged what I wrote about her name, the way I did for her brothers, so here goes:

Our daughter’s name is Shoshana Ruth Lansey -- we call her Ruth. She is named after Stacy’s Oma (Raizel) Ruth Heidecker and my Grandma (Raizel) Rose Lansey, who both had the Jewish name Raizel, which is Yiddish for “rose” -- Shoshana in Hebrew.

Both of our grandmothers were incredibly strong-willed women, each in their own way. Stacy’s Oma was a woman of strong faith, even in the face of great adversity, and managed to always find the good in people and make new friends at all stages of her life. We hope that our Ruth shares this strength of character and positive outlook. My Grandma truly believed that she -- and all of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren -- could do anything we set our minds to, if only we tried our hardest. We hope that our daughter shares this confidence and work ethic.

The name Shoshana Ruth also has strong historical connotations. The biblical Ruth was also a woman of profound faith. She took action when needed, which ultimately led to rise of King David. We hope that our Ruth will share the biblical Ruth’s immense faith in God and commitment to His people. Additionally, in an allegorical interpretation of Shir Hashirim -- the Song of Songs -- the shoshana is generally understood to represent the Jewish people: “Like a rose amongst the thorns,” God states, “are my nation amongst the others”.

Ruth was born on the 11th of Tevet, the day after (and I recognize this is difficult math) the Tenth of Tevet, a fast day in the Jewish calendar, which commemorates the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem in the times of the First Temple. It is our hope that Shoshana Ruth will contribute towards the coming of a time where the 10th of Tevet will be, in the words of the prophet Zecharia, “לבית־יהודה לששון ולשמחה ולמעדים טובים” -- “occasions for joy and gladness, and happy festivals”, when “Shoshanat Ya’akov tzahala v’sameicha” -- “the rose of Jacob [in context: the Jewish people] rejoice…” once again.

Why are phone-books still a thing?

@hibuUS thanks for delivering 2 more phonebooks! We love relentless companies littering our porch with archaic trash https://t.co/mFY66lqeie pic.twitter.com/cBUQxoHJNj

— Jonathan Lansey (@JLansey) December 29, 2016

Clever Google driving directions

Oh Google ... nice job there avoiding that super-long traffic light there.

Where is Jonathan/Yoni update

I'm back in Boston and the skies look so unbelievably blue to me; and at noon it looks like sunset.

Since I just got back from Thailand.

And back from China.

And Singapore ...

And Japan too... yes Japan

Putting things on top of other things

I love it when people stack things up, and nobody does it better than the people in China.



Even the locals were taking pictures of this it was so incredible.







and an unrelated bonus picture of this truck stacked with cardboard.

Aryeh Cooks: Smoked Chuck

This weekend I decided to smoke some chuck.


I started with about 4.5 pounds (two kilograms) of chuck rubbed with a mixture of fresh course ground black pepper and kosher salt.


Then into the Sous Vide bath at 155 degrees Fahrenheit for 36 hours.


After 36 hours I pulled the meat out, patted it dry, and then gave it another rub of fresh course ground black pepper and kosher salt.


Onto a 300 degree Fahrenheit indirect heat grill.  I have a pan of water under the meat to act as thermal ballast and to try and prevent additional moisture loss (the meat lost half its weight from beginning to end, but now I have a pot full of meat drippings).  On the other side of the grill above the flames I have an aluminum foil boat loaded with apple wood chips.  I added some chips ever 30 minutes for a 3 hour smoke.


Off the heat with a bit of smoke penetration to form a bit of a bark.


Sliced across the grain.


On some homemade baguette with lettuce and tomato.  It is as delicious as it looks and the backyard smelled amazing for the 3 hours I was smoking it.

Do not innovate unnecessarily

For fans of The Tick animated series, who also work in labs, I felt the need to recreate a rather hilarious sign in the background in a scene from The Tick vs. Dinosaur Neil:

My re-creation can be found in printable form here.