(She hasn't been able to play with other children much since the pandemic began, so she's really looking forward to the end of the pandemic!)
My son, Kevin, bought a hydrogen fuel cell electric Toyota Mirai, recently. He absolutely loves it. As a bonus, he found out that the one of the best hydrogen stations around is right around the corner from his house.
Here's what it looks like to get gas at a hydrogen station:
The food industry faces an uncertain future. Restaurants and prepared-food companies, food manufacturers, farmers and producers that survived the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 are heading into a new world. Some of the competition has been removed, new players are entering the market and both tastes and consumer habits have changed. Take a look at our recipe for how food manufacturers can boost their internet of things (IoT) security in the midst of all those changes.
One problem with Twitter is the existence of a blue-check aristocracy. Now Twitter plans to further separate users into paid and not paid social media classes. What the company really needs is a verification system that democratizes Twitter.
Plus, the Russian smartphone customizing company Caviar is releasing a custom Huawei Mate 40 Pro and an iPhone 12 Limited Edition smartphone to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. Workers of the world, unite behind this $25,000 gadget!
The clothing company Le Je is selling pants that look like a glitch in the Matrix.
Rolls-Royce has come out with a car that is more than just a car — it's also a picnic basket.
And DARPA, the US military research arm that brought us GPS, the graphical interface and the internet, is finally funding something useful — a sarcasm detector!
Read all about it in the latest edition of Mike's List!
Health care data security has always been a concern. But in the last year, health care and digital safety have become even more urgent topics in government, business and in the public at large. The reason is the sudden and enormous rise in attacks, both in number and impact. Where are those health care cyberattacks coming from? And, how can cybersecurity teams protect health care data? Here's what you need to know.
Any discussion about how technology is changing entertainment should include 5G. The new wireless networking standard could completely transform the entertainment landscape—and with it media and entertainment cyber security.
And it's no mystery why: 5G can offer radically faster download speeds, vastly reduced latency, much higher network capacity and other benefits that could fuel an explosion in new applications, platforms, devices and possibilities for entertainment.
Don't even THINK about missing this super special episode of This Week in Tech!! Leo Laporte hosts guests Iain Thomson, Jason Howell and me in the first post-pandemic show where we're all in studio for the first time since the pandemic began. (The gathering for the show followed both CDC advisories and also California state law; there was no studio audience.)
In this fantastic episode, we drink some of the world's finest mezcal as we solve the problems of Google's new talking AI (LaMDA), Google's problem with AI bias, DeepMind, Project Starline, Android 12, the future of Wear OS, the end of Tizen, Google's new RSS reader, new Google Workspace updates, Google's quantum computer plans, one Googler in government, Bill Gates' divorce, Andy Weir (interviewed by Leo on Triangulation), the abortion of Microsoft Windows 10x, the assisted suicide of Windows Explorer, Microsoft Teams, Snap's sucking up to Apple, Tim Cook's testimony in the Epic v. Apple case, MacOS takes one for the team in that trial, Apple's lossless music update, Amazon's response, the Citizen crime app's new rent-a-cop service, Jeff Bezos' space program, Twitter verification, raising the dead with AR, the Bitcoin plunge, Netflix's gaming plans and so much more!!
Go here to watch the show!
Go here to subscribe to TWiT shows!
Go here to join Club TWiT!
WE’LL DO IT LIVE!!!
Mezcal is a distilled beverage made from cooked and fermented agave juice. But that definition barely scratches the surface of this incredibly complex spirit.
Most people outside Mexico are more familiar with tequila, which is in fact one kind of mezcal. All tequila is made from agave tequilana Weber, or Weber blue agave and cooked in steam ovens, usually in the state of Jalisco.
Mezcal, on the other hand, can be made from any of roughly 50 species of agave, and each brings a different taste to the final product.
Most people outside Mexico are more familiar with tequila, which is in fact one kind of mezcal. All tequila is made from agave tequilana Weber, or Weber blue agave and cooked in steam ovens, usually in the state of Jalisco.
Mezcal, on the other hand, can be made from any of roughly 50 species of agave, and each brings a different taste to the final product.
Here's everything you need to know about the magical world of mezcal.
The restrictions enforced to stem the spread of the pandemic accelerated several trends, including the mass migration to flexible, remote work and hybrid work environments. Where and how we work are changing—and so are our communication styles in the workplace.
As businesses continue to navigate the new frontier of remote work, new communication pathways in the workplace are coming into focus. And with these new ways of communicating comes an imperative for new management and technology solutions to help employees work together.
So amazing.
And I will be clinging to her for the rest of my life, obviously.
In its endless, glorious variety.
Modern industrial food is literally killing us.
In the United States, 42.5% of the adult population suffers from obesity. Nearly three-quarters (73.6%) is overweight. Six out of the top seven leading causes of death are diet-related.
Our food is ruining our lives, and then ending our lives early. But why?
The catastrophic decline in food quality began more than 200 years ago with breathtaking improvement.
The Industrial Revolution, which would transform the lives of billions, was really a series of smaller, mutually reinforcing revolutions: The industrial energy revolution, the industrial transportation revolution, the industrial chemicals revolution, and so on. One of these was the industrial food revolution.
From around 1800 to about 1950, all of the major food problems that had plagued mankind for centuries were largely solved by industrialization, at least for people in the minority of countries that industrialized during this period. Famine, food-borne illness, lack of food variety, basic nutritional deficiencies among the poor and other problems were largely eliminated for millions.
Agriculture machinery, chemicals, railroads and trucks, factory assembly lines, refrigeration, pasteurization, homogenization, sterilization and other industrial-revolution innovations drove down the cost of food, and increased nutritional safety and variety. Lower food costs, plus supermarkets and household appliances meant people no longer had to spend most of their time paying for, acquiring or preparing food. Combined with advances in medicine, lives became longer, healthier and better.
And then, roughly in the 1950s, the industrial food revolution started harming human health on a massive scale. Here's what went wrong.
In the United States, 42.5% of the adult population suffers from obesity. Nearly three-quarters (73.6%) is overweight. Six out of the top seven leading causes of death are diet-related.
Our food is ruining our lives, and then ending our lives early. But why?
The catastrophic decline in food quality began more than 200 years ago with breathtaking improvement.
The Industrial Revolution, which would transform the lives of billions, was really a series of smaller, mutually reinforcing revolutions: The industrial energy revolution, the industrial transportation revolution, the industrial chemicals revolution, and so on. One of these was the industrial food revolution.
From around 1800 to about 1950, all of the major food problems that had plagued mankind for centuries were largely solved by industrialization, at least for people in the minority of countries that industrialized during this period. Famine, food-borne illness, lack of food variety, basic nutritional deficiencies among the poor and other problems were largely eliminated for millions.
Agriculture machinery, chemicals, railroads and trucks, factory assembly lines, refrigeration, pasteurization, homogenization, sterilization and other industrial-revolution innovations drove down the cost of food, and increased nutritional safety and variety. Lower food costs, plus supermarkets and household appliances meant people no longer had to spend most of their time paying for, acquiring or preparing food. Combined with advances in medicine, lives became longer, healthier and better.
And then, roughly in the 1950s, the industrial food revolution started harming human health on a massive scale. Here's what went wrong.
This mole, which is called mole chichilo, is the speciality of a tiny town called Tlalixtac de Cabrera where I had this. That thing in the middle is tamal. So good.
This was super delicious, and reminded me of the kind of horchata they make in El Salvador, which is made with roasted morro.
Pound cake with mango on top.
Look! A rainbow! ;)
This restaurant in Oaxaca called Praga has a pretty good menu, but their nachos contain American cheese.
In this edition of Mike's List: They want you to move so bad they'll give you cash, a house or a special visa! Plus: home food printing, 3D-printed vitamins, catching crooks with cookies, and more! Get the newsletter here.
Nick Jaynes, a mutual follow on Twitter, is using the picture I took of my kitchen in Oaxaca as his Zoom background. Love it!!
I bet @MikeElgan didn't believe me when I said I'd make his kitchen my Zoom background. pic.twitter.com/FkLgKwZzII
— Nick Jaynes (@NickJaynes) May 11, 2021
So much fun. I love the climate here.
The wind was high and gusty, with rain and lightning on the horizon, supercharging the atmosphere with electricity.
My daughter-in-law, Nadia, gave my son, Kevin, a Spanish ham for his birthday in March (specifically a jamón serrano).
It's the gift that keeps on giving. He's sicing ham on every social occasion -- including, I learned on Instagram, a Mother's Day picnic.
Considering his final frontier, 90-year-old Star Trek star William Shatner recently decided to boldly go into an Los Angeles studio and turn himself into a ghost.
Shatner spent five days recording a StoryFile, a type of interactive video created by a company also called StoryFile. Portions of the recording, which were captured by 3D cameras, will be “tagged” using StoryFile’s proprietary system. Later, Shatner’s ghost will be beamed to his family members, to fans via the internet, and possibly to museums and entertainment venues. People will be able to ask Shatner’s ghost questions. StoryFile’s system will “play” the answers, creating the illusion that William Shatner lives, even long after he passes on.
Welcome to the new spiritualism.
A hundred years ago, the idle rich of Europe and America indulged a fascination with the great beyond. A quasi-religious movement called Spiritualism, which began in the 1830s and rose in popularity during times of great trauma, such as during the U.S.’s Civil War. The movement peaked in the years between 1918 and the early 1920s, when Spiritualist ideas spilled over into mainstream popular culture.
The rich and famous went nuts for conjuring the dead 100 years ago. And now, they’re at it again.
Shatner spent five days recording a StoryFile, a type of interactive video created by a company also called StoryFile. Portions of the recording, which were captured by 3D cameras, will be “tagged” using StoryFile’s proprietary system. Later, Shatner’s ghost will be beamed to his family members, to fans via the internet, and possibly to museums and entertainment venues. People will be able to ask Shatner’s ghost questions. StoryFile’s system will “play” the answers, creating the illusion that William Shatner lives, even long after he passes on.
Welcome to the new spiritualism.
A hundred years ago, the idle rich of Europe and America indulged a fascination with the great beyond. A quasi-religious movement called Spiritualism, which began in the 1830s and rose in popularity during times of great trauma, such as during the U.S.’s Civil War. The movement peaked in the years between 1918 and the early 1920s, when Spiritualist ideas spilled over into mainstream popular culture.
The rich and famous went nuts for conjuring the dead 100 years ago. And now, they’re at it again.