Apparently NASA is turning to the American public for new challenge/contest ideas.

I don’t know whether to be impressed that they’re trying to get new perspective.. or scared that they can’t come up with it on their own.

There’s lots and lots of smart people at NASA. I hope it works

Maybe we should consider sending people on one-way trips to Mars because if they’re explorers as earth-bound ones were, presuming a return trip may be too expensive – or even undesirable.

We’ve had lots of experience as humans of sending people on one-way trips. Maybe we could turn Mars into a penal colony like Georgia and Australia once were

More seriously, though – this has been proposed in various contexts before, but if the people signing-up for the program are truly volunteering, then why not?

What is the emphasis on in-person education from specific professors? I’ve been asked for my transcript professionally once – and that’s because my current employer pays more attention to grades than technical aptitude.

I can recall only a small handful of professors I would want to take classes with, and almost none who I actually got one-on-one time with while in school. (I think there was only ever one, Dale Bryant @ HVCC.)

MIT, Berkeley, and myriad other schools are making their lectures available online for free. Hundreds of schools have podcasts of classes and special events.

So, why DO we insist on graduating from “the school” – and not learning what we can and want, when and where we can and are able?

It’s based on various open-source tools, and while we all know Apple likes very much to control the user experience, it seems odd to me they haven’t released at least a source edition for Linux.

If you’re interested in trying it, I found the following off a quick search:

http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-safari-on-ubuntu7.10-with-playonlinux
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_(web_browser)
http://mediakey.dk/~cc/safari-on-linux/
http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2008/11/installing-apples-safari-browser-and.html

What are y’all’s experiences with PlayOnLinux, if any?

Apparently the Blackberry, while trying to be helpful, I’m sure, makes this much harder – if you’re used to another approach.

To rearrange the buttons, you press the button just left of the scroll wheel (I’m sure it has a name, but whatever). Then you navigate to the button you want to move, press Alt, click with the scroll wheel, and then move it to where you want it to be.

Yes, this sounds far simpler than what I’ve done in the past, but because it’s different, it seemed hard

After having read about that, I wonder why more industrial steam stacks don’t utilize something similar: if you’re throwing away the steam, couldn’t you put a VAWT or other energy-capturing device in the tower to collect some chunk of that energy back either to the plant itself, or to the grid?

In Plaza Singapura, the mall next to where I work, they’ve been having different vendors taking-over the concourse area on the first floor every week.

This week it’s one of their anchors, Carrefour (the French hypermart chain). They have all sorts of stuff – most of which you can also get inside the Carrefour store, but of course it’s more fun to browse out in the open.

In the refrigerated container area I saw something I never thought I’d see in my life. They had fruit for sale.

Specifically, they had fruit from Japan for sale. One of them was S$199. That’s about $125 US.

It’s a watermelon.

Yep.

That summer stand-by: the watermelon.

Course, these are square and grown in Japan, and stack nicely.

But really? Two hundred dollars for a watermelon?

Today I stopped at a bar near where I’ve been staying for a snack and a couple beverages.

It took me a couple-few minutes to figure out what was going on, but apparently the legalized prostitution industry in Singapore isn’t limited to the red-light district.

Hopefully I did a good job of fending them off, but I’d prefer to have not been in the scenario to start with

I was raised with a thrifty mindset, but am not afraid to spend money for better quality.

For years I’ve preferred store brand cereals – corn flakes, raisin bran, cocoa puffs, cocoa crispies, rice crispies, and chex are all indistinguishable to me when comparing store brand and name brand. Some I can distinguish and just like the store brand more. Cheerios is the only notable difference – fake cheerios are NOT the same as the ones from General Mills.

Trader Joe’s raisin bran, for example, is cheaper than the name brand, has fewer calories, and (I think) tastes better than those from Post or Kellogg.

I don’t go out of my way to buy organic foods to make a statement. Many times I think they taste worse, or the relative percentage change in quality does not match the price percentage shift. Trader Joe’s raisin bran happens to be organic – but the fact that it tastes good and is inexpensive is more important.

I’ve been bitten several times by trying store brand macaroni and cheese. I picked-up a batch from Lowes Foods recently, and am hoping they’re not hideous like the ones from Winn Dixie were. But if they’re decent, then I have a source for less expensive than Kraft mac and cheese. My favorite is Prince brand, but those aren’t purchaseable in NC – and therefore I tend to stock-up periodically when I go home to NY.

Also, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the high quality of the canned strawberries I can get at my local dollar store. Yes. A dollar store. Most of the food they sell is high enough in sodium to make road ice quiver. But the canned strawberries at my local Dollar Tree near NC55 and NC54 are downright tasty – 90 calories per serving, with only three servings per can. That lines-up with my home-made applesauce for caloric value, and makes a nice shift.

They’re also not those supersized strawberries you find in most produce departments of grocery stores; the ones at Dollar Tree are about 1/2″ in diameter rather than 2″. The smaller size makes for what seems to be a more strawberryish strawberry than the giant ones from the supermarket.

Such experimenting has made me want to do more, and so now when I go shopping I try to compare not merely price or calories – but the taste quality. It leads to a lot of sampling, but being able to shave 10-50% off my grocery bill is a nice [eventual] payoff.

With my combo meal I got an M&S Cola. Right on the front it claims “no artificial colours”. And based on the ingredient list, I’ll go along with agreeing.

However, near the end of the ingredient list is ‘fruit and vegetable concentrate (black carrot and hibiscus)”. I never would have thought of putting either into a Cola, but it doesn’t taste bad. I’ve heard of both being in teas, but never a soda.

Who knew such a variety of sources can be utilized for flavoring?