On the calculus of memory (or lack thereof)
New Castle lies on the seacoast of New Hampshire, a three hour drive from my home in Vermont. Along the way the road weaves through Vermont’s Green Mountains and New Hampshire’s Boreal forest, and most every turn reveals another postcard-perfect view of...Read more“Sprinkling the Internet on a bad business model does not magically make it a good business model. It merely means that the people who are pursuing a bad business model are hoping you are credulous enough to believe that being electronic is space-age zoomy and awesome and there is no possible way this brilliant business plan could ever fail. Or even worse, that they believe that being electronic means all these things, which means they are credulous. Which is not a very good thing to have as the basis of one’s business model.”
— John Scalzi
You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
Albert Freakin' Einstein
Just for Clicks: The Caffeine Click Test
First a disclaimer: I’m not of the “I drink coffee for a caffeine high” camp. There’s two reasons for that. The first being that, as I have a long history of drinking cup after cup (after cup) all day long, I guess I have something in the way...Great Moments in Coffee Blogging History!
Seven years ago today the fine folks at Blogger (You remember them? Swallowed by Google?) recognized Bloggle [the Coffee Odyssey] as a Blog of Note. Oh sure… you can smile your isn’t that nice smile now, but it was a Big Deal in 2001. It was like…...Writing and Reading Notes
I have no idea how Matt at Enter the Octopuss compiles his daily masses of links — but I’m glad that he does! The new Tor Dot Com site — it’s a blog, and a new home for original fiction — has lots of promise. Like many publishers,...
Coffee, Climate Change and Canaries
What’s the impact of global climate change on coffee? I’ve had conversations with a number of coffee farmers — particularly folks in South and Central America — about what they’re experiencing on their farms. The stories they tell are of...Coffee Notes from All Over
Nick Cho makes his debut this week as the Coffee Nazi — or something like that. From the glossy web pages of U.S. News’ Money & Business section, to the frenzied spaces of Boing Boing and MetaFilter, Cho’s Murky Coffee was grabbing headlines as...A Brief Program Note
Let me paint you a picture… As I sit here in my favorite club chair, I am wearing a day-glow yellow motorcycle helmet on my head. This is because: a) I am extremely concerned about an impending hard drive crash. b) I am taking this whole Internet privacy issue...
Science, Magic and Starbucks
So this weekend I’m catching up on a collection of blog essays — continuations and corollaries on the never-ending debate of what constitutes science and magic in the world of, er… speculative fiction1 — when what to my wondering eyes should...Coffee Notes from All Over
Super-size me? Not any more. Doug Zell and the gang at Intelligentsia Coffee are ‘just saying no’ to Big Gulp portions of brewed coffee, as they discontinue their 20-oz. serving size. Is it about the bottom line? Doug says no, it’s not that at...
Can Howie Get His Groove Back?
If you’re a Wall Street analyst, you might note that year over year, Starbucks’ valuation has slipped about 40%. If you’re one of several thousand Starbucks employees you may soon find a pink slip in your pay envelope, as the company moves to close...
Everything Old is New Again
In which I take one for the team. Ya know… for the the environment. Back in the 80s (remember the 80s?) I used to scoot around town on a Honda Elite 250. Why? Well… ’cause it was easy on the pocketbook and got me where I wanted to go. Fast forward 20...I Can’t Hear You!
It reads like an episode of The Office. Turns out, it’s your government at work. From the New York Times: “The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be...
Happy Birthday, Bro
Lo those many (many!) years ago, Donald Neil was loosed on the world. (I can’t be certain that’s his coffee cup,...
Is Cream a Coffee Pollutant?
There are millions who wouldn’t think of coffee without abundant cream and sugar. (Hello, New England!) And there are a precious, precocious few who would consider condiments of *any* sort anathema to the coffee experience. For them, the NYTimes offers this...
Congrats to the World Barista Champion!
Congratulations to Stephen Morrissey, who’s taken top honors at the WBC in Copenhagen! The news is all kinds of awesome… couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. ‘Course, it’s nothing but great news, too, for Square Mile Coffee, the much...