The Style Rookie

A wise-beyond-her-years Tavi Gavinson, interviewed in February 2014 on Marketplace.

Daruma Doll

Daruma Dolls and their origins:

The Daruma doll (達磨 daruma?), also known as a Dharma doll, is a hollow, round, Japanese traditional doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism. 

The current popular symbolism associated with Daruma as a good luck charm in part originated with the Daruma-dera (Temple of Daruma) in the city of Takasaki (Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo). Josef Kyburz, author of "Omocha": Things to Play (Or Not to Play) with, explained that the founder of Daruma-Dera would draw New Year’s charms depicting Bodhidharma. The parishioners would keep these charms to "bring happiness and prosperity and ward off accidents and misfortune".[3] 

It is believed that the Daruma figurine then originated from this region when the ninth priest, Togaku, found a solution to handle the constant requests of the parishioners for new charms. The charms were always given with an effectiveness of one year, so the people required new ones every year. He solved this by entrusting them with the making of their own Daruma charms near the beginning of the Meiwa period (1764–72). The temple made wooden block molds for the people to use. The peasants then used these molds to make three-dimensional papier-mâché charms.[4]

“Who said “north” was up?

"Upside-down" world map

A specialty map published by Oxford Cartographers. The first panel, in the lower-left, reads:

“Who said “north” was up?
The world, like a ball, has no top.
We can look at it from any point of view.
Top is a matter of habit, convention, and emphasis. The map (1st picture, top) teaches us to question our assumptions.”

Available (note: I have no knowledge or experience with this vendor; caveat emptor).

Green Camel Company, Japan

Cute: http://www.greencamel.co.jp/property/property03_05.html

Dawn found these San-X plush cute:

Cactus

Yummy Lemon

Cecily Strong's Go-To Wine

Cecily Strong, in Glamour magazine:

DO pop a bottle of vino—you’ve earned it, sister.My first job after college was selling wine at Greenblatt’s Deli-Restaurant & Fine Wine Shop in Los Angeles. I was 22 and broke and had to wear a humiliating blue apron, but I left knowing which Bordeaux blends I liked most (those from the Saint-Emilion and Pomerol region, if you ever want to bribe me). A great bottle of wine—and, trust me, you can find one for 10 bucks—can make any night feel extra special. (Sorry if you don’t drink. This suggestion sucks for you. I’d bet you can research up on another staple of the good life, like steak or cheese or something.)

Sam's Market, Sacramento

I occasionally purchase an egg salad sandwich on a toasted soft roll for $5--one of the best lunch deals in town.

Sam's Market uses Raymond's Sweet French Bread.

Rotten Robbie

Here in the Bay Area, a company called Rotten Robbie sells gasoline:

The “Rotten Robbie” moniker was a fun (and inexpensive) way to have a name customers would remember and associate with the company’s competitive fuel prices and well run stores.  Rotten Robbie seemed to work, so we continue to be Rotten Robbie today, and hopefully well into tomorrow.

Fluency Illusion

Benedict Carey writes:

Psychologists have studied learning long enough to have an answer, and typically it’s not a lack of effort (or of some elusive test-taking gene). The problem is that we have misjudged the depth of what we know. We are duped by a misperception of “fluency,” believing that because facts or formulas or arguments are easy to remember right now, they will remain that way tomorrow or the next day. This fluency illusion is so strong that, once we feel we have some topic or assignment down, we assume that further study won’t strengthen our memory of the material. We move on, forgetting that we forget. 

Often our study “aids” simply create fluency illusions — including, yes, highlighting — as do chapter outlines provided by a teacher or a textbook. Such fluency misperceptions are automatic; they form subconsciously and render us extremely poor judges of what we need to restudy or practice again. “We know that if you study something twice, in spaced sessions, it’s harder to process the material the second time, and so people think it’s counterproductive,” Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College, said. “But the opposite is true: You learn more, even though it feels harder. Fluency is playing a trick on judgment.”

Unicode, UTF-8, Ken Thompson

Ken Thompson, boss:

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/utf-8-history.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs#Unicode
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode#Unicode_Transformation_Format_and_Universal_Character_Set

Also, the Internet has confirmed I am not the only one who thinks Dennis Ritchie looks like Adam Savage. ; o )

Note: Unicode originated a bit differently and does not mean the same thing as UTF-8.

Simón Wilson Music for Film and Video Gamers

Saw an ad for Mr. Wilson's SoundCloud account in the Jack Baskin School of Engineering.

Good stuff; sharing the love. If you need some music, check him out.

Comic Papyrus

Oh dear...someone went there (via):

Fictional (as far as I know) example font of typeface "Comic Papyrus", a combination of typefaces Comic Sans and Papyrus

Note: wondering about the difference between typeface and font, as I was?

Physics World Top 10 physics announcements of 2014

A listicle from the web site Physics World, outlining, in their determination, the top 10 physics announcements of 2014:

1. Comet landing named Physics World 2014 Breakthrough of the Year
2. Neutrinos spotted from Sun's main nuclear reaction 
3. Laser fusion passes milestone 
4. Data stored in magnetic holograms 
5. Quasar shines a bright light on cosmic web 
6. Lasers ignite 'supernovae' in the lab 
7. Electrons' magnetic interactions isolated at long last 
8. Disorder sharpens optical-fibre images 
9. Physicists sound-out acoustic tractor beam 
10. Quantum data are compressed for the first time

I felt inspired reading about things such as the tractor beam and the laser fusion. Note: UC-Santa Cruz researchers assisted with "Quasar shines a bright light on cosmic web". 

What color is it?

Clever and educational: http://whatcolourisit.scn9a.org/

Reference: web colors

Bring them inside - Grey alien

Laughed out loud when I saw this:

Caption reads: "If you're cold, they're cold; Bring them inside," with picture of Grey alien looking in through window pane

In all seriousness, consider helping out your fellow community members this year.

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing: Chocolate Pumpkin Porter

Dawn tried this beer last night at 99 Bottles in Santa Cruz:

#58: Santa Cruz Mountain Chocolate Pumpkin Porter - 6%  Draft
(Santa Cruz, CA) Brewed with TCHO cacao nibs, 150 lbs. of organic sugar pie pumpkins, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla, this dark and luscious porter is the perfect fall treat.
$5.75/pint 8.75/25 oz. 16.25/pitcher

It turns out Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing tap room lives just a few blocks from our apartment.

Debian Wheezy + Logitech Mini Boombox

A friend recently gifted me a Logitech Mini Boombox (Model F-00003, p/n 880-000243). Logitech introduced this product in the United States market in 2011 at a price point of about $100.

This product supports Bluetooth 2.1 and can play music up to 33 feet away. It supports four Bluetooth profiles:

1. Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
2. Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)
3. Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
4. Headset Profile (HSP)

GNU/LINUX DEBIAN WHEEZY CONFIGURATION

Initially, I successfully paired the device to my IBM Lenovo X201 laptop...no problems. However, the device did not appear under "Sound Settings" tab "Hardware" (that is, GNOME control center - Sound)

After a bunch of web searches and unsuccessful configurations of /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf (note: I eventually reverted it to default and it was fine), it turned out installing pulseaudio-module-bluetooth seemed to allow the device to appear:

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

pacmd load-module module-bluetooth-discover

Note: I may have ran "pulseaudio -k" to restart audio...and the sound comes through with static...some fine-tuning still needs to occur.

UPDATE: to improve audio quality, access control panel "GNOME control center - Sound" (that is, "Sound Settings"), select tab "Hardware," then select device "Mini Boombox", then, under section "Settings for the selected device," select profile "High Fidelity Playback (A2DP)" from the pull-down list. (Via)

UPDATE: after a reboot, ran pulseaudio -k again before I could get it to work

UPDATE, 2015-05-03: Fresh install of Debian Jessie and everything works after installing pulseaudio-module-bluetooth and running pacmd.

UC Santa Cruz - Banana Slug Sighting

Dawn found this one while walking from McHenry Library to the Jack Baskin School of Engineering: a banana slug...on a banana peel. : o )

UC Santa Cruz - Slug mascot for Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS)

The UC Santa Cruz Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) uses the following image for their mascot.

UC Santa Cruz - Hitchhiking at the bus stop

On several occasions, I have noticed UCSC students hitchhiking at bus stops, attempting to more quickly move farther up the hill.

Have only noticed this along Heller Drive, on campus.

Wanderers

A fantastically detailed, atmospherically scored short film:

http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/