Last Thursday, Julia participated in her first barista competition – the Thursday Night Latte Art Throwdown at Durham’s Cocoa Cinnamon, where she works as a barista. Great event – lots of creative energy in the room! Also very interesting to see some the Triangle’s masters of latte art in action. Painting with milk in coffee […]

We got about a foot of snow on Jan 18 and Patou loved it! She romped through the white fluffy stuff for hours with true puppy exuberance.     The snow was deep for her, yet she plowed through it tirelessly.             Patou had her first visit at the veterinarian, […]

Happy Leap Day! And congratulations to Ennio Morricone for finally winning his first competitive Academy Award for his score for Quentin Tarantino’s film The Hateful Eight (2015). Morricone’s almost 60-year career in music included over 500 film scores, 5 previous Oscar nominations: Days of Heaven (1979), The Mission (1986),  The Untouchables (1987), Bugsy (1991) and Malèna […]

This is Blackjack, our black miniature Holland Lop. He’s not really the Easter Bunny, but over Easter weekend, he did enjoy his first outdoor run of the year. I built a small fence around his rabbit hutch and when we’re on the deck or in the back yard, the little guy gets to stretch his […]

Fascinating video footage of our sun. On July 19, 2012, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory’s AIA instrument captured these images of an eruption on the sun’s surface over the course of 22 hours. Faszinierende Aufnahmen einer Sonneneruption vom 19. July 2012. Über 22 Stunden hat NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory’s AIA instrument diese Aufnahmen im Ultravioletbereich des […]

Richard Barrett – Darmstadtium – Acoustic Guitar (2012) Hoping to warm up a frigid Friday morning with some virtuoso acoustic jazz guitar. Enjoy, and stay warm.

I’d like you to meet Henry … Henry is from Arizona and he moved in with us on Dec. 29. So he has lived with us for three weeks now. He is starting to settle in very nicely and he and our Russian Blue Koklo are getting more and more comfortable with each other. Henry […]

First installment of “trivia that blows my mind” … yeah, Groucho Marx and Alice Cooper were buddies. Look at them having breakfast … Here is what Alice said recently about his friendship with Groucho: Well Groucho Marx – I grew up on Groucho Marx. The Marx Brothers, every time they were on, I would sit […]

Is mayonnaise an instrument?? Oh barnacles …

Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner on his amazing skydive yesterday. Here is a very excellent 1:350 scale re-enactment: Kitties below the fold!

Cute!

Yesterday I went on a bit  about how I think how cool Durham is. Little did I know that Durham is in fact Apple-cool. World-series level. Two fine Durham business establishments make a cameo appearance in the World-series Apple ad for the new jesus-phone. The ad features a new voice assistant called Siri and the […]

… on a historical vote for equality and human rights. Regardless of their gender, consenting adults will be able to get married in the state of New York. New York is draped in rainbows this weekend!  

Amazing – the Dallas Mavericks are NBA Champs! Dirk Nowitzki now ranks among the greatest basketball players of all time! I’m not a Dallas fan; I don’t even follow the NBA much. Heck – I live in March Madness land. But I do like Dirk’s down-to-earth style and he SO deserves this triumph. Take this […]

Photo by Zack Wheeler Lunch today at Dain’s Place on 9th St. in Durham. I had a “Defibrilator” – a 1/2 pund burger with bacon, sweet chili, cheddar cheese, cole slaw … and topped with a hot dog … except I had mine with goat sausage. :)

Leaving work this afternoon, I encountered this beauty in the parking lot; a 1956 or 57 Porsche 356 Speedster (early Type A). I think this is one of the prettiest cars ever built. Yes it was essentially a souped-up beetle. But as such it combined the efficiency and simplicity of the early beetles with the […]

If you have ever traveled or lived in a tropical country, you can appreciate the value of a fridge there – especially in rural areas with no access to the electrical grid. There is nothing quite like getting a cold drink from the only refrigerator within miles on a scorching hot day. However, beyond cold […]

The Beluga Skysails, a container ship powered in part by a 500sqm towing kite, has “set sail” from the German North Sea port Bremerhaven across the Atlantic. This is reportedly the first commercial trip of a Skysail powered ship. Spiegel Online has a video (in German). As I have said previously, this is a brilliant […]

Durham is supposedly number 8 of the best places to live in the US: Yay, Durham – the birthplace of … uh … [CTRL]+[ALT]+[Delete]!??

Jean-Sylvanus Olympio, the founder and CEO of the consulting firm Consultencia, won a prestigious French entrepreneurship award earlier this month in Paris. The chief geek himself, Bill Gates, handed the Master de la Création 2007 award to Olympio at the Salon des Entrepreneurs conference in front of 6000 people. Video of the ceremony (via Togocity) […]