I love vending machines and wish there were more cool vending options in this country. If I were Lost in Translation, I would take a stroll with a pocketful of money and see what I could buy from machines and still have enough money to take a taxi back to the hotel.

T9 is interesting, but more so when you get a glimpse of its guts when it guesses something unexpected. And on an oddly similar note, crappy scrabble draws.

The Treasures of Ancient Egypt, Eternal Egypt, and Eternal Egypt’s only NW stop in Victoria. The bird guides agree, that was a merganser.

Dear Sir, I am struck by the similarity of the book jackets of Holy Fire and Solitaire. Are they, in fact, the same book? I think the public should be told. Unfortunately, all my observations were voiced by someone else first.

So, you remember how we all got told that our olfactory sense works based on the shapes of molecules? Turns out that’s just one theory. Another, with surprisingly strong evidence, is that our olfactory sensors contain tunneling electron spectroscopes. How cool is that?

A quite fascinating overview of Russian Humour, but I wish there were more examples.

Good thing or bad thing, that there is a book on meditation, tai-chi, and other relaxation techniques- for children?

I apologize profusely for implying that only people in more rural zipcodes get crazy-ass paper prayer rugs in the mail. I am, as I often can be, entirely wrong. Also, there is apparently a “miracle cakes” mailing!

It was developed as a fire suppression tool, but surely there would be other uses for such a way cool fluid. Check out its magical evaporation while extinguishing a tealight.

Know how the traffic is, right now!!! Or, listen to the radio.