In the Urban Design Center in Kashiwa, Japan is a small cafe with a rather unorthodox service method. You arrive, place your order and pay for it and are then served whatever the person just ahead of you in line bought and paid for. The person behind you will get what you ordered.

While I don’t predict a long term stay for this eatery it does reveal something about the patrons. Is the man in the business suit generous with his order when he knows his meal is dependent on the teenagers in the corner? Would you order big to surprise the next person in line or would you order the cheapest item offered and hope to win the lunch lotto?

Source: Link

Imagine yourself twenty years ago imagining where you’d be today. Did you have any idea that you’d be standing here?

New quotes have been added to the random quotes box over on the right. I’ve included them here for those keeping score at home.

“Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.”
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

This guy built his own Segway for what he says was about half the cost. My favorite line from his description:

There is no redundancy or backup system. It is not even robustly made. Loose wires literally dangle out the bottom. In the fairly likely event of the software crashing, a wire coming loose, a component failing, or the batteries running low, the wheels will stop and the entire kinetic energy of the system will be used to accelerate my head toward the ground.

From the comments of a story on the woman charged with videotaping four minutes of the Twilight movie:

She was charged with a felony. By the government. And arrested.

Unregulated markets are not good either. But this is not a case of that. This is a case of poor regulation.

Furthermore, a free market is a theoretical thought experiment implying equal ability and knowledge among participants and no force or fraud. It is a thought experiment alone and an unregulated market would immediately devolve away from it. They are, in fact, entirely mutually exclusive.

In short, learn more.

Link

Heather sent me this bad boy.

Freaking brilliant.

I’ve added some new quotes to the quotes database. Since they only appear randomly here they are for those who care.

“When you’re young you believe a well placed riot can change the world. When you get to be my age you just want to riot off your lawn. – Craig Fergeson

Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad. – George Bernard Shaw

Never knock on death’s door. Ring the doorbell and run away. Death really hates that. – Dr. Mike Stratford in Doctor, Doctor

The Tennessee State Legislature voted this week to make milk the official state beverage of Tennessee.

Really? Milk?

Now I have nothing against milk (it makes my cereal even tastier after all) but I really don’t see how milk is supposed to represent Tennessee.  I suppose the law makers are trying their hands at some relatively benign social engineering but I for one would like to see an official state product truly represent the people of the state.

So, to that end, in no particular order, I give you my five picks, each of them better than milk, for the Official State Drink of Tennessee:

• Coke (which is defined as any carbonated beverage regardless of flavor, brand or copyright.)
• Moonshine
• Jack Daniels
• Sweet Tea
• Mt. Dew

While we’re at it I have some other gripes about my beloved home state’s ‘official’  bric-a-brac.  In most circles Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State, a reference to the disproportionate number of volunteers Tennessee sent to the War of 1812. Up until WWI we were more commonly known as the Hog and Hominy State, a title I suggest we return to.

We have a lot of official state songs and interestingly, none of them are the Tennessee Wig Walk which is totally unacceptable.