Last weekend, Dawn and I took a drive to West Sacramento to visit the IKEA store. Dawn has taken up scrapbooking and needed a work surface for her new hobby, and we thought “something Swedish” might work. Besides, we’d never visited the store and thought it might be a fun outing.

For those unfamiliar with IKEA, it’s an international chain of giant, blue and yellow “big box” stores specializing in the sale of Swedish assemble-it-yourself furniture and accessories. The West Sacramento store occupies 265,000 square feet on 20 acres just off I-80, and presents 50 different room settings, four model homes, a supervised children’s play area and a 250-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries or salmon plates, as well as American dishes. One can easily spend a day just touring the store!

It’s a unique, well thought out concept, the scale of which neither of us had previously experienced. We grabbed our cart and soon learned that, to reach almost anything in the store, one is encouraged to follow the arrows on the floor which also serve to keep traffic moving in a logical and controlled, albeit slow, manner. I call it shuffling along, Dawn calls it shopping. Either way, it’s effective — considering the number of people sharing our experience, everyone and everything seemed to move smoothly.

Once we’d located the office furniture section and made our selection, a friendly and knowledgeable sales person prepared our “shopping list” and pointed us in the right direction to retrieve our items which were boxed and stored in numbered aisles and bins. A few things, it turned out, we were expected to grab and cart ourselves, while the larger, heavier boxed pieces would be waiting for us in “Will Call” after checkout.

Following the floor arrows once more, we shuffled made our way through checkout and on to “Will Call.” While Dawn waited for the larger boxes to be carted, I retrieved the Range Rover and, by the time I’d backed into the loading area, Dawn had everything ready for me to load. Another five minutes and we were on our merry way, none the worse for wear.

I have to admit, considering the voluminous quantity of merchandise, the sheer number of shoppers and the bulkiness of their orders, IKEA has the industrial engineering and customer service facets of the operation worked out well. We were duly impressed. Admittedly, shuffling  meandering following arrows this kind of shopping isn’t something we’re used to, but considering the scale of things, IKEA runs like a finely tuned watch.

Once home and unloaded, Dawn began assembling the file cabinet while I worked on the table (the cabinet, it turned out, was by far the more tedious job!) I’m always amazed at the things Dawn tackles and I’ve yet to see anything she can’t handle. It took some time, but everything went together properly thanks to solid engineering and easy to follow pictorial directions.

And in the end? Well, Dawn has a hobby work surface in our spare bedroom, and we earned our IKEA  shopping wings!

For many youngsters, lessons have a tendency to feel long, interminably boring and difficult to sit still through. Not, however, if you’re a cheetah cub in Africa undergoing a masterclass in hunting from your very impressive mother.

This extraordinary photograph and the series that accompanies it were taken in Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve by environmental photographer Andy Rouse. The images show a female cheetah demonstrating to her young the first rules of survival in the wild - how to hunt and kill. For the cubs, this is the most important lesson they will learn from their mother. Their survival depends on being able to hunt for food and avoid predators.

In this stunning series of images, Rouse captures the entire cycle, except whatever follows the young gazelle’s last attempt to escape. A part of us hopes for its successful getaway, yet we understand this vital part of nature and marvel at its brutal perfection.

Andy Rouse is a professional wildlife photographer based in the U.K. His professional credits include hosting the Discovery Channel’s Wildlife Photographer TV series, and the publication of six books.

The Lexus LF-A Roadster concept, unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show, is a stunner! Mid-front mounted 500 hp V10, speed adaptive rear wing and a carbon fiber and aluminum body add up to a top speed over 200 mph. Photos

Regular contributer Michael D is in the market for a flat screen TV and has been doing the requisite due diligence. In the process, he came across an article in c/net about Sony’s OLED technology, shown earlier this month in Las Vegas at CES, and graciously passed it on for IM readers’ perusal.

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) promises better picture quality, smaller size (the XEL-1 measures just 3mm thick!) and more efficient operation. Sony claims a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, indicating amazingly deep black levels. Since OLED can turn the light emitted from the diodes on and off quickly, Sony also claims rapid response times for “smooth, natural reproduction of fast-moving content.”

The XEL-1 is supposedly 40 percent more efficient than traditional LCD panels in terms of power consumption, and unlike other LCDs, its manufacturing process doesn’t require the use of harmful mercury.

It’s the same concept utilized in Apple’s new MacBook Air introduced earlier this week at San Francisco’s Macworld which uses LEDs to backlight the notebook computer’s screen, provide “instant on” when the lid is opened, and uses no mercury in its manufacture. Clearly a sign of greener things to come.

Although Sony already introduced its 11-inch OLED HDTV in Japan, the company’s big splash announcement at the 2008 CES is that the model, dubbed XEL-1, is now available in the U.S. for the cool price of $2,500. While the relatively tiny, exorbitantly expensive HDTV itself won’t attract many buyers, it represents an important milestone by shepherding in the latest flat-panel TV technology, which may eventually replace plasma and traditional LCD.

Have you ever found yourself in a social situation where you encounter people you’ve met and need to quickly recall their names but draw a complete blank? Sure you have and, if you’re like most of us, it can be downright embarrassing.

For some of us, the encounter may place acquaintances in unfamiliar surroundings; we know them from somewhere, but can’t make the association. Others of us psych ourselves out in social situations, fulfilling a self-imposed prophesy that we’ll forget everyone’s name. Why does this happen? Most likely, it’s because we simply fail to properly commit names to memory when we’re first introduced.

There are myriad techniques to help us remember names and you’ll find many of them in articles on the Internet and in countless other publications on the subject. But most are centered around some variation of these five simple (easy for me to say!) steps:

• Pay attention when you’re introduced to someone. A few minutes after you meet the person, say his or her name to yourself again. Use their name in conversation. If you’ve forgotten it, talk to the person again and ask for their name.

• Write down the new name three times while picturing the person’s face; do this as soon as possible after meeting someone.

• Ask how to spell a difficult name or glance at the spelling on the person’s business card if it’s offered. If you know the spelling of a name and can picture it in your mind, you’ll remember it better.

• Connect a name to a common word you’ll remember. For example, the name “Salazar” could sound like “salamander,” “bazaar” or “sell a jar.”

• Make a connection to the person’s hobby or employment. “Bill the pill” might help you remember the name of your pharmacist, for example.

Follow these steps and I’ll bet you’ll see improvement in name recollection. Work diligently at implementing them and, with practice, you can become one of those people you know that always seems to know everyone’s name. Make it a priority for 2008. You’ll surprise even yourself!

This Randall Munroe cartoon may ring the bell of self-recognition in some of you. But now you know the secret, and it no longer has to.

Click on the linked image and move your mouse across the face to choose backgrounds…

James Koehnline is a Seattle, Washington based freelance illustrator/designer specializing in book and magazine cover art and text illustration, as well as posters, t-shirts, mousepads, postcards, notecards, bookmarks, signage and advertising art. You can see more of his work on his home site.

At the nexus of MacWorld and the Detoit Auto Show is the iPhone dock for the Land Rover LRX concept car. When docked, the iPhone would upload your music, seat settings, steering wheel settings, and all the information for the car’s “transfigurable displays,” even provide a secure “start” button. The dock (iPhone or otherwise) could be offered as a “premium pack” in near-term cars…

Via engadget

Sarah Lai Stirland penned an article for Wired Magazine with an interesting take on Romney’s win in Michigan. It’s worth a read…

If there’s any consensus in the blogosphere on what Mitt Romney’s win in Michigan means for the 2008 election, it’s this: That he should have run his campaign the way he did in Michigan from the start.

The former governor of Massachusetts beat Republican senator John McCain of Arizona with 39 percent of the vote. McCain had 30 percent and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee came in with 16 percent.

“With hindsight, I think there was a better way for Romney to position himself: as a conservative and supremely knowledgeable expert on the economy, as George Bush’s heir as a vigorous defender of the U.S. in the war against Islamic terrorism, and as a person who is himself a social conservative — just take one look at his family portrait — but who doesn’t talk much about those issues except in the context of the constitutional philosophy which will guide his appointment of judges,” wrote John Hinderaker, a lawyer and founder of the conservative blog Power Line. “I think if he had followed this route, he would have been truer to himself and more credible to voters.”

New York magazine columnist and former Wired magazine writer John Heilemann says that Romney “probably” should have always run as “the politician he once was,” but that it was probably his pandering to the economically depressed Michigan voters that helped push him to victory. … Continue reading

It seems clear that the Republican nomination is still pretty much up for grabs. Democrats are pushing for a liberal in sheep’s clothing. This is getting interesting.

“We are all of us resigned to death: it’s life we aren’t resigned to,” novelist Graham Greene once wrote. A growing number of Americans of all ages are embracing that idea by renewing a resolve to live life to its fullest. “Life Lists” - lists of things we want to do or see before we take that final step - have become increasingly popular. Dawn and I have such a list and try to check a few things or places off each year.

This month’s issue of Smithsonian magazine features an article on the subject that includes photos of 28 places its editors believe everyone should include on their own “lists.” And here’s the bottom line: Whether you visit only a couple of these destinations or all 28, your life will be enriched by the experience.

In recent years there has been growing competition between the world’s major cities as to who can lay claim to the title of best New Year’s Eve fireworks extravaganza, and 2008 was no exception. Travelburner has assembled the best displays they could find captured on video. Turn your speakers up, grab a drink and watch as these major cities quite literally blow up our taxes!

Upon first viewing one of Jackson Pollock’s paintings, many speculate that they, given sufficient canvas and paint, could easily produce similar works. Well, here’s your chance. Using your mouse, drag and click your way to artistic fame. It’s fun, and who knows? You might discover a latent artistic talent.

Oh, and the masterpiece above? Me. In about 30 seconds.

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time today - wasted time - clearing out crap comments. Spam and other just plain crap, probably from little kids who love to create effing messes on other people’s sites!

I had to suspend comments entirely while I went through all the garbage and weeded it out. If you tried to get in some legitimate comments today, I apologize. You know who to thank. If I inadvertently dumped your legitimate comments (I’m sure I did), sorry. Again, you know who to thank.

I’ve re-opened comments and filtered the effing pranksters. I’m hoping things will run smoothly now. If not, I’ll have to activate screening or close down comments indefinitely.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I really am.

In a word…

Dubbed “The World’s Thinnest Notebook,” the MacBook Air fills a gap between the existing MacBook and MacBook Pro, but introduces a new way of looking at how a laptop fits your mobile lifestyle.

First, the thing is thin: .76 to .16 inches thick, back to front, with a magnetic latch. It sports a full size backlit keyboard, a full size 13.3” LED backlit widescreen, built in iSight camera, a large trackpad that recognizes several new multi-touch gestures (owing to the iPhone’s touchscreen technology), 1.8” hard drives, (80 GB standard, 64 GB SSD optional), 2 gig of memory, 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors (but in a 60% smaller package!) - a complete Mac on a board the size of a pencil, an amazing feat of engineering.

On one side, Apple’s magsafe power connector. On the other side, a door for one USB port, a micro DVI and a headphone jack. 802.11n networking, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. Weighs 3 pounds with claimed battery life of 5 hours!

Built to be a wireless machine, the Air has no internal optical drive (a $99 accessory optical Superdrive is offered for those who feel they need one.) Instead, a new feature — “remote disc” - shows you Macs or PCs in your vicinity, allowing you to choose one of those machines and “borrow” it’s optical drive. It appears on your desktop just like a local optical drive and works the same way.

Ships in two weeks @ $1799. Watch the new ad and take a guided tour to check out how it looks and works.

There were, of course, more announcements in Steve’s keynote address. I’ll try to touch on them over the lunch hour or this afternoon.

Canadian artist Jeff de Boer maintains a studio in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where he creates four distinct bodies of work: armor for cats and mice, armor for executives, exoforms, and space objects including rocket lamps. The image above shows one example of cat armor. See more of his work on his website.

These incredible looking tree houses, called “Free Spirit Spheres,” are designed by Tom Chudleigh and represent an eco-friendly living quarters created to unobtrusively co-exist with its forest environment. Continue reading…