South Coast Plaza has an iPod Vending Machine

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Okay, so I don't get out much, but last night I was at South Coast Plaza and stumbled across this iPod vending machine. I had heard that such things existed before, but I didn't think I would run into one unless I was in an alley in Japan. It turns out that there is one in Macy's.

It is iPod branded, but has Sony and other other company products in it also. There is one screen in the upper left with marketing videos running in a loop and a touch screen on the right for picking your gadget.

There was clearly a security concern as there was a special video camera watching it and it was in the middle of a Macy's, not in an alley in Japan.

So now, if it is too much trouble to get your iPod from the Apple Store 50 feet away, you can use the vending machine instead.

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To be cool in Amherst

Upon returning from Amherst I have uncovered the new alpha-cool:

1. Apparently being an ex-lesbian is very trendy right now as I met 3 during the weekend.

2. All the cool kids are drinking kombucha. It's nasty and I have no idea what they mean when they say it "detoxifies" your body. (I don't care what wikipedia says you are putting nasty into your body)

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" I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption."

"I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption." - Max Lucado

I have heard of some pretty spontaneous adoptions, but the point is still interesting to consider.

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I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so

Son: Mom, how can I become Asian?

Mom: You can't

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The Cucumber falls before the might of shotgun sequencing

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Thank goodness! At last the cucumber genome has been sequenced. Now the wonders of the pickle are but a hop skip and a jump away from science.

PLoS ONE: An Integrated Genetic and Cytogenetic Map of the Cucumber Genome

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The Grass is always Greener : Tanning Cream vs. Skin Whitening Cream

Blue

Red


Clarins Delicious Self-Tanning Cream

Skin Lightening Gel

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Life after Life after Death

From:My Thoughts on Easter Preaching and Study Help | TheResurgence

"After surveying several other ancient pagan writers and philosophers Wright concludes: “Nobody in the pagan world of Jesus’ day and thereafter actually claimed that somebody had been truly dead and had then come to be truly, and bodily, alive once more.” [10] Death, in ancient paganism, was a one-way street. According to Wright, “the road to the underworld ran only one way. Throughout the ancient world, from its ‘bible’ of Homer and Plato, through its practices (funerals, memorial feasts), its stories (plays, novels, legends), its symbols (graves, amulets, grave-goods) and its grand theories, we can trace a good deal of variety about the road to Hades, and about what one might find upon arrival. As with all one-way streets, there is bound to be someone who attempts to drive in the opposite direction. One hears of a Protesilaus, an Alcestis or a Nero redivivus, once or twice in a thousand years. But the road was well policed. Would-be traffic violators (Sisyphus, Eurydice and the like) were turned back or punished. And even they occurred in what everybody knew to be myth.” [11] Wright notes: “We cannot stress too strongly that from Homer onwards the language of ‘resurrection’ was not used to denote ‘life after death’ in general, or any of the phenomena supposed to occur within such a life. The great majority of the ancients believed in life after death; many of them developed… complex and fascinating beliefs about it and practices in relation to it; but, other than within Judaism and Christianity, they did not believe in resurrection.” [12] "

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Don's Doppleganger

Somewhere on the Internet this person is singing songs and trying to be exactly like me. Since I am clearly just as musically talented, I am, naturally, outraged.

This person looks just like Don
You wish
Yes
Mostly
Kinda
Not really
No
You wish
  
pollcode.com free polls

Thanks Trent!

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Driscoll on the fall of Christian America

The Mars Hill Blog | Blog Archive サ Pastor Mark Driscoll takes on Christian America for Fox News

I do not find the report [of the fall of Christian America] surprising or discouraging. With the social benefits of professing to be a Christian no longer in place and the social stigma of not professing to be a Christian now lifted, those who were [nominally] part of Christian America are simply no longer pretending to be part of Christian America. Since those who professed faith but did not practice faith were confusing to account for, this is actually a good thing. Now, it is more likely that if someone is a Christian or non-Christian, he or she will state so plainly.

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Video of Lightning Hitting the Seattle Space Needle

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On the cost of espresso

I was fooling around with our espresso machine today. We named it "Roba" our robot espresso machine. The goal in fooling with the machine was to reduce the auto-off to something shorter than 2 hours in order to save the planet. I figured I could wait 3 minutes to have a latte if it meant that I would be able to avoid a climate-change-induced civil war when I'm 80. What I discovered however was a statistics panel. The statistics panel informed me that we have made 5173 lattes/espresso drinks since we received the machine from our good friends as a going away gift from Seattle.

On a previous occasion, I calculated our cost per drink at something like $.50 (milk, beans water -didn't include electricity) so those drinks have cost us $2586.50 over the life of the machine. Starbucks however would have cost us $18,105 at $3.50 a drink!!

Roba, the robot barista, has saved us $15,519. Let's hear it for technology!

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*Now* doesn't a super robot coffee machine seem like a good idea? Recall: http://lilzet.org/post/78995694

Posted by: Sam at May 17, 2009 12:04 AM