So much going on this weekend in the way of festivals and food events. Looks yummy and fun.
Today, Darcy and I are going to bike down to the first-ever NW Cider Summit, which looks amazing. 10 samples of cider from local producers. There’s also Freemont LoveFest, which has lots of music and other fun things.
Sunday looks like there will be tons of food events to keep everyone busy.
Reviews and pictures to come!
1) Zing: The Governator lands a jab at ex-Governor Palin on Twitter.
2) Do Evil!: Apparently, this is the slogan of Zynga, the company that makes the ever-popular Farmville application. A damning SF Weekly feature article about the company reports that they create online gambling addicts from lower class people. Also, an interesting comparison between Farmville users and real farmers.
3) Another Zing: This one from an unlikely source: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
4) Next Generation in Printing: Introducing 3D printing.
5) Cats Gone Wild: 100 cats are unleashed into a London Ikea store.
6) Most Expensive Musicial: Later this year, “Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark” will open on Broadway at a cost of $60 million.
7) Awkward: A Chinese diplomat offers a drunken toast. Awkward moments ensue.
1) I Know Books Are Becoming Rarer… but: A copy of the original work of John Audubon’s Birds of North America may fetch as much as $8.8 million at auction. Only 119 copies of the book exist (in the first edition) and 108 of them are in museums or private collections.
2) And You Thought Ashton Was Extreme: Take famous Iraqis and accuse them of being terrorists. There’s Punk’d in Iraq.
3) Supersize That Coffee: Owing to customer complaints about a “cluttered” menu, Starbucks has removed the tall (small) coffee options from its drive-through menu. That leaves just 16 and 20 ounce drink options.
4) I Agree With Sarah Palin: Yep, you read that right. It looks like most conservatives, including the ex-Alaska Governor oppose a rally that would burn Korans. Finally.
5) Technology Updates: Google Instant is instant in almost all cases. Unless you want to search for sexy things. It is, however, faster than the past version of Google Search. Also, check out this interesting list of how your favorite companies like Twitter, Apple and Yahoo got their names.
6) Sexy Carrot Commercials: Baby carrots want to become the next hot snack food. Here’s how they’re going to do it.
7) Not Kid Friendly: Restaurant bans screaming kids.
I promise to return with a few more collected memories from Italy shortly. In the meantime…
1) Money does grow on trees: An amateur experiment involves 100 $1 bills tied to a tree. See what people do.
2) Crazy Pastor: One Florida pastor, Terry Jones, has gained lots of attention for his “Burn a Koran” day. The New York Times blog examines the whole story.
3) Under Pressure for a Baseball Player: Shin-Soo Choo, who plays for the Korean national team, has a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He must lead his team to victory in November’s Asian Games or come back and serve in the army for two years.
4) See Mom, Don’t Worry…About That: NPR has an interesting list about the top five worries parents have and the top five worries they actually should have when it comes to the safety of their children.
5) Tweet to Safety: A Japanese reporter held hostage in Afghanistan was able to trick his captors into letting him tweet. Both messages appeared on his Twitter feed and, coincidentally, he was released the next day.
6) Outer Space: One astronaut’s best shots taken from outer space.
7) Bieber-mania: This is a scary statistic.
This week has produced a wealth of interesting stories that focused on social media.
1) The Power of Twitter: I still run across many people who are unconvinced by the power of Twitter. They don’t see how it could positively affect people on the web. The Discovery Channel Hostage Crisis story should change that. Real-time updates allowed for the drama to unfold (complete with pictures).
2) Celebrity, Unplugged: This week marked the one year anniversary of Kanye West stealing the spotlight from Taylor Swift. In a strange, and often rambling set of tweets, Kanye finally apologized for his behavior and responded to many of the criticisms he’s heard for most of his career. Worth the read.
3) Puppy-Throwing Girl Caught: Earlier this week, a horrifying video (DISTURBING IMAGES) emerged of a young girl throwing puppies into a river. Thankfully, the police have caught her and a woman saved five of the six puppies seen in the video. Police credit the video with allowing them to catch the girl.
Not Intent on Arriving 