New York Trip -- the Rockefeller Center mindfulness exercise

Two weeks ago, I spent over 2 hours on top of Rockefeller Center, noticing every detail I could.  I found I did not get bored at all.  The amount of information that can be seen from up there is just incredible.  For example, well into my stay up there, I noticed the patterns made by the window blinds on a nearby office building -- some leaseholders had employees that liked to shut out the outside world much more than others.  I watched the city transform completely from late afternoon to night. 




Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building are the two major places you can get a super-high-up view of New York.  While the Empire State Building is higher, Rockefeller Center has one advantage -- you can see the Empire State Building from it!

Back in the 1880s, when they put up the Eiffel Tower is Paris, it was actually a very controversial structure.  Many considered it an eyesore, a giant modern-industrial steel monstrosity.  It was once said that the only place in town that you could escape seeing it was when you were standing on it. 
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SpaceX gets a rocket into orbit

There are a lot of internet startups... there are a good number of hardware and biotech startups... there are even a lot of alternative energy startups these days. 

However, the domain of space is usually left to enormous companies and governments.  Single missions cost anywhere between hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. 

The closest thing I have to a religion involves celebrating intelligence and wanting it to spread across the universe, and our current situation of having all known intelligence stuck on a single planet that could get toasted by an asteroid or by the stupidity of a few people in power is unsettling.  As a result, I'm very interested in making access to space cheap.

To that end, a small number of well-off individuals have been starting companies that try to apply modern technology to make the process of getting into space much simpler, cheaper, and more reliable.  I was thrilled to hear today that SpaceX, one of those startups, finally got a rocket into orbit. 

This isn't the internet.  This IS rocket science.

Flavor tripping experiment results

Last weekend I had about 10 people over to try out the flavor tripping tablets that remap your taste buds so that sour things taste sweet, alcohol tastes milder, and bitter things taste weird. 

We tried at least 40 different foods and drinks.  I had the guests rate each edible item based on how much of a change there was from before to after taking the tablet.  It was really well organized but still lots of fun.



Here are the results:

( results )

I'm doing another flavor tripping event this Saturday night.  Please let me know if you'd like to come but have not already done so via Evite.

If you're coming this week, here's what I'd love you to bring:
- As many different kinds of vinegar as possible.
- Unusual sour fruit.
- Coffee. 
Please comment if you can bring any of these items.