A Random Person's Random Musings

For those who have an interest in optical illusions, Akiyoshi's Illusion Page has some, with an explanation of why they "work" (PDF).

From today's New York Times - I originally saw it in the Dead Tree Edition, but it's on nytimes.com, too... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/03/technology/circuits/03chef.htm (requires free login)

HOMARO CANTU'S maki look a lot like the sushi rolls served at other upscale restaurants: pristine, coin-size disks stuffed with lumps of fresh crab and rice and wrapped in shiny nori. They also taste like sushi, deliciously fishy and seaweedy.

But the sushi made by Mr. Cantu, the 28-year-old executive chef at Moto in Chicago, often contains no fish. It is prepared on a Canon i560 inkjet printer rather than a cutting board. He prints images of maki on pieces of edible paper made of soybeans and cornstarch, using organic, food-based inks of his own concoction. He then flavors the back of the paper, which is ordinarily used to put images onto birthday cakes, with powdered soy and seaweed seasonings.

more at the URI...

Reposted so most of you will see it; the way it got posted last time, it won't show up on your Friends page...

For the past couple of weeks, I've been going twice a week to physical therapy for some minor back problems; I managed to do something that my body wasn't designed to do, and it protested a little too long.  That's neither here nor there; the prescription - plus a little bit of 'hey, when the body feels wrong, it's trying to tell you something' consciousness, and I'm OK now.

Part of the PT was ultrasonic massage.  Which involved siting the 'electrodes', placing a warm, moist towel over them, and then putting a gel-pad on top of that.  The gel-pad was fairly dense, and meant that there was noticeable weight on my back.  The whole process was quite pleasant, and I seem to be in good shape now.

But that gel-pad got me thinking: When I'm lying in bed - asleep or not - I'll opt for keeping the temperature lower than normal and adding additional layers of blanket, in preference to keeping the temperature at a comfortable level and using only a light blanket or a topsheet.  A brief bit of chat on #C suggests that other people opt for the extra layers - and their weight - as well.

I'm curious, and would appreciate your thoughts: Why?  Is this some sort of hindbrain response, buried so deep in our history that there's no real hope of figuring out why, or can people put a reason to why they like the extra weight/layers?  Or is it as overwhelmingly popular as I think it is, at all?  If you don't feel this way, I'd like to hear that, as well, and why not.  And feel free to spread the question around; it's a public entry.