Mulberry Jam

Oh man, WHERE can I get one of these? Normally the Japanese obsession with kawaii (cuteness) isn’t really my thing, but this video gave me a huge belly laugh this morning:

Interesting stuff all around this morning.

The Wall Street Journal has a list of the nations with the highest energy consumption per capita. Would you be able to guess the top ten? I would have guessed only two, myself. And oh by the way, the U.S. is not number one. Or even in the top five, for that matter.
Wall Street Journal Tables on Energy Consumption

And also, Chris Martin of Coldplay gave a charming interview on 60 Minutes last night. I’m going to be so crushed if this band ever gets into the headlines with Oasis-type shenanigans. But that doesn’t seem very likely. Proof that popularity and quality are not mutually exclusive.

Today is our first measurable snowfall of the season. We’ve managed to escape with mere dustings so far this winter, while all around us the rest of the country seems to have had more than their share. My family up in Rochester, NY have had about 80 inches so far, but then they expect that sort of thing up there. Around here I’m far more afraid of other drivers than of the road conditions. We have too many residents with shaky driving skills who grew up in warm places where it never snows. Like Centerville, Virginia.

My friend Jamie has been keeping me updated on all important cat-related news (thanks, Jamie!). Yesterday she posted a link to a story in the Christian Science Monitor about a new business concept in Japan: Cat Cafes. Apparently there are enough cat-loving people working long hours and living in tiny apartments to support a sort of rent-a-cat service. They pay upwards of $8 an hour to go hang out with the kitties who reside at the cafe. Don’t you love it?

Back to work today after being down last week with a very nasty cold.  Sorry for not posting, but I was completely busy blowing my nose for five days.

I was up way too late last night watching a film I haven’t seen for ages. “Bedazzled,” starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. Peter Cook is the Devil, who persuades nebbishy fry cook Stanley Moon (Dudley Moore) to sell him his soul for seven wishes. Of course, none of the wishes turn out the way Stanley intends.  Somehow the Devil always finds a loophole that sucks all the pleasure out of the wish.  For example, Stanley wishes to be desired by women. So the Devil turns him into a pop star with hordes of screaming girl fans. But then the Devil shows up as a newer and even more popular performer who effortlessly takes all the girls’ attention away.

I had seen it years ago on a terrible print but remembered it as clever and funny. Thanks to modern digital TV, the print last night was brilliant and looked brand spanking new. I got sucked it and wound up watching the whole thing, way past my bedtime.

Check it out:

They re-made the film in 2000 with Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil and Brendan Fraser as the poor shlub who is her victim. It was also pretty good. Elizabeth Hurley has such fun being evil, you have to love her.

I talked to my sister last week and she was just getting over her first case of the flu, ever. I don’t know how she survived to the age of (mmmhh) without having it before, especially since she has a five year old daughter, but she managed it somehow. She was shocked by how nasty it is, how you just want to lie on the couch all day and moan. It’s been a few years since my last case, but I remember it with an awful fuzzy vividness.

So this morning I read about a new Google site tracking flu cases with fascination. Google has studied the volume of searches for flu-related terms like “fever” or “flu”. Over five years they tracked it against CDC reported cases of the flu and found that the searches are actually an excellent leading indicator (since CDC reports lag real time by weeks). Now you can go to a new page and get a look at current trends for the US as a whole or for your state or region.  Here’s a graph showing the correlation between searches and flu cases:

Google's Graph Comparing Search Activity to CDC Flu Cases

Kind of cool, I thought. My version of this image is a bit low-res; you can see a better version and get the whole explanation of how it works by going to Google’s explanatory page.