Open Letter to IKEA

Dear IKEA,
I understand you enjoy having a strange naming convention.  And while Barnslig is a cute name for a rattle, and Slitbar is a reasonable (although somewhat creepy) name for a knife, Barometer already means something.  You see, this

is a barometer.  So is this

and this

And these:

are also all barometers.
However, this

is called a Lamp, not a Barometer.

I expect you will update your product line name in light of this letter.
Sincerely,
A Nut.

P.S. Love your Billy bookcases

Screaming in the Rain

A month and a half ago my windshield wipers broke. After much delay I finally opened up the cover over the wiper assembly, during which time I was twice stuck in heavy rain with my head out the window to see. I discovered that one of the arms inside the mechanism had broken, so I removed the whole wiper assembly and order the parts I needed. Then my mothers vans breaks broke, so my mother had my car. I was looking forward to being able to fix my car while my car was nowhere near me, however she got home an hour before the part came in. All the same I now once again have windshield wipers, which is very nice considering the weather we have been having.

This is where the windshield wiper assembly is supposed to be.

This is the wiper assembly, the two black posts with nuts on them are where the wiper arms connect.

This of course is the underside of the wiper assembly. The replacement arm is in place, you can see how rotational power from the electric motor is converted into reciprocating motion for the wiper arms (the posts are in the bottom right and in the top left).

The assembly has been re-installed, I figure I don't need to post a picture with the plastic cover and wiper arms re-installed as I am sure you know what that looks like.

The Mapparium

The Mapparium is a fantastic globe which you can climb inside of. The great thing is that from the center everything is in the perfect scale, there is no distortion like there is when viewing a regular globe which projects a convex sphere onto your retina. In this case a degree on your retina, is a degree for the earth, no matter where you look!

Its also interesting as a work of art and history. The map it was based on was from 1934 and they haven't changed it since its opening.

Here is a crazy wide angle photo which super-distorts it but somehow manages to fit the whole room in the picture.

This is the street outside my apartment at night.

More icicles

It seems that Jonathan/Yoni decided that the statute of limitations on winter pictures has not yet expired, so I though I'd share some more crazy icicle pictures:

For the record, we have since had our gutters cleaned...

Boston, Fort Strong and Long Island

It turns out that Fort strong and long island are not open to the public.

Lets say that I acquired these images by means other than visiting myself.

Fort strong is a civil-war era fort protecting the Boston Harbor.

Stalagtites can actually grow quite long in just 100 years.

Even more mixed messages

I saw this on a bus in Manhattan.  Not sure why the German is there.  Perhaps they decided on the Nothahn buses?

How Time Flys

It has been a while since last I posted. This post is late because I just got home and decided to post before passing out. A couple of weeks ago me and some friends went to a airplane museum in southern jersey. It is the Air Victory Museum you may recall that we have visited in the past as can be seen here. This trip however there where a few changes, for one thing I have not cut my hair since the last visit, and for all intents and purposes I have also not trimmed my beard. Have fun.

This is of course me standing in the cockpit of a F-14 Tomcat.

This is from a little more than year ago.

And this is from now.

Once again from a year ago.

And this of course is from now. Kunal looks exactly the same, he even is wearing the same hat.

Boston T Party

Last sunday I organized a party on the Boston T (thats like the subway for Boston). I haven't had a chance to blog about it but there is actually a website for the event, check it out BostonTParty.org

It got a bit of press from the boston globe blog and Ike and I actually did a radio interview with the NPR station WBUR. I don't think know if you can still get a sound clip but the link to the show is here.

It was fun, about 50 people showed up for it.

My friend Fanny made this great logo - which based on the "charlie card" which is like a metro card for Boston.

Kilroy was here

Confused?  Click here.