Cost of Smarts

The best paragraph I read today comes from the NY Times.
"Research on animal intelligence also makes me wonder what experiments animals would perform on humans if they had the chance. Every cat with an owner, for instance, is running a small-scale study in operant conditioning. I believe that if animals ran the labs, they would test us to determine the limits of our patience, our faithfulness, our memory for terrain. They would try to decide what intelligence in humans is really for, not merely how much of it there is. Above all, they would hope to study a fundamental question: Are humans actually aware of the world they live in? So far the results are inconclusive."
Read on here.

Shoes Sans Socks

Quite a textile/textual presentation, I thought.
graph per sartorialist

Why Are Chinese Restaurants so Ubiquitous?

Before heading to our location last night, we stopped to speak to the owner of a local Chinese restaurant for some reservations.
Upon leaving the place I got to thinking about Chinese restaurants and the fact that there are so many of them. Everywhere I travel in the US and Canada I see a good number of Chinese restaurants. What makes them so ubiquitous?
Marginal Revolution featured a post today on this very question:
"Why did Chinese immigrants to America start so many restaurants? Because Chinese cuisine is glorious, right? Well, no. Chinese immigrants started a lot of laundries, too, and there is nothing wonderful about Chinese ways of washing clothes. As Jennifer Lee explains in this excellent talk, the first Chinese immigrants were laborers. They were taking jobs away from American men, and this caused problems. Restaurants and laundries were much safer immigrant jobs because cooking and cleaning were women’s work."
text per marginal revolution

BlackBerry Maker Location

Via creative classroom:


"Despite the BlackBerry's growing global popularity, the company plans to keep its research operations near its Waterloo, Ont., headquarters and close to the Ontario universities that offer a deep pool of young developer talent."

San Francisco, Cookware Style

Amazing!
Via boingboing, "Beijing-based artist Zhan Wang sculpted the San Francisco cityscape out of pots, pans, graters, and other kitchenware. The piece is part of a new exhibition of Wang's work at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum running until May 25."