Firefox 4.0 Beta 10 has AWFUL font rendering!

Wow. Just took FF beta 10 for a test-drive, and I have got to say, the font rendering is awful. Look at a screenshot of Chrome vs. Firefox:




This may not look like a big deal in such a small sample, but trust me, after browsing for a few minutes, the eye strain was unbearable.

At this rate, I'm pretty sure that IE9 will regain market share after FF4 is released.

Comparison of dietary fats and oils

Source: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn620-1.gif

If they were countries...

... from The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/node/17910000?story_id=17910000

The efficiency of mass transit may surprise you...

Here is an interesting string of blogs that I picked up regarding the relative efficiency of various means of transportation:

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2008/08/update-on-my-li.html

- Discusses San Jose Light Rail versus automobile, and others, very clean graphics

http://www.templetons.com/brad/transit-myth.html

- Illustrates that light rail in the United States is terribly underutilized and thus very inefficient

I was very surprised to see how much cars have improved, efficiency-wise. In the last 30 years, cars have become 30% more efficient!

Electric vehicles are the clear winner, however. Check out this graph from Coyote Blog:

Even more interesting is that my bicycle is less efficient than an electric scooter. I wonder if this is due to regenerative braking? Maybe this is a mistake.

BLM Land Color Key

Everyone who camps a lot probably already knows this, but I had a hard time hunting down the information online.

Yellow - Bureau of Land Management (BLM),

Darker yellow-orange - Wilderness Study Areas within BLM lands

Purple - National Park Service

Green - National Forest

Dark Green - National Forest Wilderness Areas

Blue - state lands

Pink - Bankhead-Jones Land Use Land

Private lands are untinted.

Backscatter X-Ray Systems Could Pose Health Risk

Here's an article too important not to share. Last time I was at LAX, I submitted to one of these scans, lacking this rather important information.

I'll always get to the airport a little early and opt for the pat-down now.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/pilots-boycott-naked-airport-scanners-over-health-fears/story-e6frfq80-1225947834443

Here's the chewy, tasty part from a health perspective:

“While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high,” Dr Agard said.

"Ionizing radiation such as the X-rays used in these scanners have the potential to induce chromosome damage, and that can lead to cancer."

David Brenner, the head of Columbia University’s Centre for Radiological Research, says the concentration on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the body – means the radiation dose is actually 20 times higher than the official estimate.

The researcher was consulted to write guidelines for the security scanners in 2002 but said he would not have signed the report had he known the devices were going to be used so widely.

Please make the privacy machines go away.

Silk Hazelnut Creamer Review

Product Review: Silk Hazelnut Creamer

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Silk Hazelnut Creamer tastes and smells like acrylic paint.