What is the difference between Noodler’s Legal Lapis Bulletproof (waterproof) ink and Noodler’s Air Corp Blue Black near Bulletproof?

The first image is before boiling:

and after boiling for three minutes

The Legal Lapis ink does not fade at all. These inks were purchased from the good folks at pendemonium.com.

I am a happy fountain pen user. There is something magical about the way the pen flows over the paper and the look of the ink on the page. The other day I dripped some water on the page and the ink underneath vanished. It would be very bad to drop my notebook in a puddle.

I placed an order for a bottle of Noodler’s semi permanent Aircorp Black ink from Pendemonium.

This test compares Lamy Blue Black ink and Noodler’s Aircorp Black ink. The Noodler’s ink is described as semi-permanent. I wrote on the same page with both inks using a Lamy Studio pen. Attempts to smudge both is shown with the finger icons. The Nooder’s ink appeared dry before smudging with a moist finger. The Lamy ink had more time to dry and resisted smudging better.

To test for waterproofness, one drop was put on top of each ink. You can see that the Nooder’s ink bleeds in a different color. Both inks survived a single drop of water reasonably well.

I then boiled both pages for 3 minutes. Here are the results.

Both inks survived, but the Noodler’s ink stands up much better.

There is a new place to share bicycle touring information: www.wheretocycle.com

People on a bicycle tour often share information when the pass along the road. This information can include ideas about places to camp, road and terrain conditions as well as details about the wind and weather.

This same information can now be shared online for the benefit of all cyclists in a location centered manner.

Some of the major features include:

• Add links to your travelogues.
• Rate places you have toured.
• Share photos and comments about places you have cycled and ask questions about those places.
• Quickly review a place you have taken a tour.
• Rate locations and get personalized recommendations using
  collaborative filtering.
• Subscribe to RSS feeds and keep up to date with location specific touring information.

If you have ever taken a bicycle tour, or are considering taking a bicycle tour then be sure to take a look at www.wheretocycle.com.

My toilet paper is covered by 25 different patents. Some of the highlights include:

• Patent: 5,671,897. “Core for core wound paper products having preferred seam construction”
  

  A core for core wound paper products. The core is made by wrapping dual plies in a spiral pattern and adhering the plies together. The edge of one ply overlaps the ply gap of the other ply, preventing a single ply thickness from occurring anywhere on the core. Alternatively, the edge of each ply may overlap the ply gap of that respective ply. In yet another embodiment, the overlap may be formed by a separate ply applied to either ply.

• Patent: 5,328,565. “Tissue paper having large scale, aesthetically discernible patterns”
  

  The present invention is directed to a single lamina tissue paper having visually discernible, large scale patterns made during the drying step of the papermaking process. Particularly, the tissue is made on a blow through drying belt having a pattern of alternating knuckles and deflection conduits. This pattern produces a like pattern of regions in the paper having alternating values of crepe frequencies, opacities and elevations. The differences in these values produces a visually discernible pattern.

• Patent: 6,149,769 “Soft tissue having temporary wet strength”
  

  Disclosed is a soft, low density paper product made using papermaking fibers and a cationic temporary wet strength resin. Such paper products have a density less than about 0.6 grams per cubic centimeter, a basis weight is between about 10 and about 65 grams per square meter, a dry strength less than about 500 grams per inch (197 grams per centimeter), a ratio of an initial wet strength to the dry strength greater than about 0.15:1, and a ratio of a thirty minute wet strength to the initial wet strength less than about 0.4. Methods for producing such paper products are also disclosed. The paper products may be produced either as homogeneous structures or as multi-layered structures and may be either creped or uncreped.

5,114,771
5,240,562
5,274,930
5,328,565
5,581,906
5,584,126
5,584,128
5,671,897
5,679,222
5,728,268
5,846,380
5,855,738
5,865,396
5,865,950
5,942,085
5,944,954
5,980,691
6,036,139
6,048,938
6,106,670
6,126,784
6,149,769
6,162,329
6,187,138
6,207,734

Adobe has launched a new color utility available free online at kuler.adobe.com. Unlike most other color utilities, those one incorporates a community rating and sharing system. When searching for a color scheme for your next website or other design project, give this utility a try and share your color selection with others.

There is a new piece of software soon to be released over at http://blog.spanningsync.com/ that allows two way synchronization of iCal calendars with google calendars. This seems like an excellent way of allowing easy way to allow collaborative sharing of iCal calendars my means of Google’s collaborative sharing tools. You can view it in action

There have been some recent criticisms of the new Sacha Cohen film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” which suggest that the film is anti-semitic. In particular Slate writer Ron Rosenbaum recent article and Jody Rosen’s article which compares the Borat film with early 20th century Jewish vaudeville acts.

The film opens with Borat in his hometown in Kazakhstan. According to the film credits, and imdb, these scenes were filmed in Romania. I expect that the typical viewer will accept these scenes uncritically as an accurate portrayal of Kazakhstan despite a stereotypical Eastern European feel. These scenes that contain stereotypical depictions of the ‘backwards’ Kazakh lifestyle. Who or what is the subject of ridicule with this opening sequence? Is this the people of Kazakhstan or the moviegoer who accepts such depictions without skepticism? Immediately comes the first layering of satire. Borat, in his capacity as a local correspondent, reports on the local festival: the “running of the jews” in which the female jew lays an egg that is immediately attacked by local children before it has the opportunity to hatch. This scene pokes fun at two things. First at American perceptions about the beliefs of citizens of third world countries and those citizens naive prejudices, and second at perceptions that anti-semiticism is limited in form to such perspicuous displays.

The editing of the film suggests that Sacha Cohen intends to criticize anti-semitism. The sequence that deals with Borat’s anti-semitic views most directly begins with Borat asking some African American youth “How can I dress like you?” and “How can I talk like you?” Of course this is an obvious satire of the co-option of Arican American youth cultural memes. In the next scene Borat enters a hotel with his pants down and speaking in the recently learned colloquial manner. He is immediately rebuke by the hotel owner. Borat seeks shelter at a bed and breakfast. The door is opened by an older couple; the man wearing a yarmulke. Here the viewer is in on a joke on Borat since he is apparently ignorant enough about Jews to not know what the yarmulke signifies. He only discovers the identity of his hosts after asking about a painting hung in the charming home. Borat’s reaction is ridiculous, particularly since the Jewish hosts are depicted most sympathetically of any of the characters in the film.

Borat is a brilliant critique of mainstream American perceptions of the third world which manages to be funny at the same time. One could not easily imagine a serious film about the same subject matter receiving such a large reception. There is a recurring theme throughout the film where Borat expresses obviously prejudices. This prompts two types of responses: either a helpful correction, or agreement of some form. In the first case this indicates that the American in question actually believes that the foreigner Borat holds such strange views. In the attempt to rectify Borat’s views one is often left to wonder if the person who chides Borat actually disagrees with him, or simply feels uncomfortable with having such views openly expressed in any form in front of a camera, even if they hold the view in private. In any case it is surprising that anyone takes Borat’s remarks at face value, in particular given their extremity. This leads the viewer to question the perceptions of the person being interviewed by Borat.

The film leaves the viewer with a particularly poor view of American perceptions about the rest of the world and an even poorer view of the south. Throughout it manages to poke fun at American stereotypes, preoccupations and materialism. While doing so the film is deceptively entertaining.