Bike sharing that creates energy – and pays you to ride? | csmonitor.com

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/07/16/bike-sharing-that-creates-energy-%e2%80%93-and-pays-you-to-ride/

chocolate that doesn't melt and is low in calories

chocolate that doesn't melt and is low in calories

"Callebaut, whose annual output of over 1.1 million tons of cocoa and chocolate products makes it the world's largest producer of chocolate, has developed a type of chocolate with completely new properties. According to the company's head developer, Hans Vriens, the chocolate has up to 90 percent fewer calories than regular chocolate.

"What's more, high temperatures can't touch it -- unless, by chance, they soar higher than 55 degrees Celsius (131 degrees Fahrenheit)"

Can this possibly taste good?

IRI Marketing Data Set: one year anniversary.

A year ago, Information Resources, Inc. released a large set of data on consumer packaged goods in the United States for academic research use. This is described in an earlier post:

http://mikekr.blogspot.com/search/label/IRI%20Academic%20Data%20Set

More information about ordering this data set is here:
http://us.infores.com/academic
The best description of the data set is in the Marketing Science paper (July-Aug 2009) available on that site by Bronnenberg, Kruger and Mela.

One year report:

1. We've shipped 89 data sets to approximately 160 individual researchers. This has included many universities outside the U.S.

2. There are at least two publications in press which use this data set. There were at least two presentations at the Marketing Science conference that used the data set. It's good to see it getting used.

3. We've released a 6th year of data, extending the set.

I admit that at times coordinating this has been a real pain, although it has also provided amusement. And one grateful graduate student sent me a silk tie from Thailand!

Sign of a bad economy

This sign is in a neighbor's yard. There's a woman named Lisa  living across the street from this house, but my wife says this can't be her.

 

There's a story here, but I don't know it.

Frazz getting more obscure

I love Jef Mallett's comic, "Frazz". I even have a Frazz biking jersey, which he kindly did for the Michigan Mountain Biking Association.

But it's hard to get this joke without knowing a lot of other info.

You have to know Sport-Ute is an Sport-Utility-Vehicle (SUV) This is not a common reference.
You have to know Stephen Pastis is a cartoonist, a lawyer, and is fond of referring to other strips in his strip, Pearls Before Swine. Pastis's references are usually a combined homage / insult, so he deserves this one right back.
But that's a lot to know in order to get the joke.

Oscar Mayer, R.I.P.

Oscar Mayer, former head of the meat company bearing the family name, has died.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2009/07/oscar-mayer-is-dead.html

NOTE: The picture, from the LA Times story, actually shows the funeral of George Molchan, who died in 2005 after portraying Oscar Mayer's spokesman, Little Oscar, for more than three decades.

Oscar Mayer's meats were as good as anybody else's standard quality, but their advertising was terrific. We once got our kids out of bed to drag them to a nearby restaurant, where the Weinermobile was parked in the lot.

When I was at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI last month I made sure I had my picture taken next to the Weinermobile -- and took pictures of my co-workers as well.

A small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.

A small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.

That's the first thing that came to mind when I saw this set of stairs in Evanston.

Anything happen while I was gone?

I've been away for 5 days. No cell phone, no TV, no internet. Went for three 8 mile hikes, went on two bike rides (20, 25 miles). Played Settlers of Catan.

Did anything happen while I was gone? Serena Williams beat her sister Venus to win Wimbledon mens. Roger Federer won Wimbledon mens. Sarah Palin resigned.

What was that last one? I have to think about that for a while.

Are all the Republican governors going to quit, one by one?