This program was supposed to improve my security

Sriracha changed color

My coworker Evan wrote Sriracha and asked why our latest bottles have been orange rather than red.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Customer Service <customerservice@huyfong.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 11:08 AM
Subject: Re: Sriracha has changed color
To: Evan <evan@>


Dear Evan,

Thank you for your interest in our products! We strive to produce the best sauces using quality ingredients in every bottle.

We value the opinions of our customers, and appreciate your comments. We would like to note that because we use fresh chili peppers in all of our sauces, there will occasionally be variations on our final products. Because of the unusually cool weather last harvest season, not all the fields of the chili pepper crop completely ripened or turned red. As you have seen, some of our products this year contain chili that was in the process of maturing into red chili. The color of the chili progresses from green, to dark purple or chocolate, then to red upon maturity. Therefore, these 'dark' specks that are seen in the Sambal Oelek and Chili Garlic are actually green chili pepper that has not ripen and are not 'spoiled' chili. With the Sriracha, this mixture of these colors has resulted in a brown/orange colored sauce. To avoid a shortage of product, as experienced in the past, we had to accept the bi-color chili last year. Therefore, it has been a challenge this year to produce a uniform product.
The taste of the products should still remain unchanged. Unfortunately, because our products are natural, there can be many variables that can change the product’s color, as well as the heat or spiciness of the sauces.

Again, thank you for your comments. If you have any further questions or comments please do not hesitate to e-mail us.

Sincerely,

Customer Service

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 6:02 PM, Evan <evan@> wrote:

Hi,

Why has my favorite sauce chained color? Sriracha used to be bright red and now it's orange. Why?

Can't find a red bottle anywhere in NYC...

Thanks

-Evan

Vespanomics is wrong...

Vespa has a graphic on their Vespanomics page. Unfortunately, lots of the math is wrong so the graphic is totally misleading.

Here's the same graphic, but with the math corrected. If you want to combine two vehicles to increase gas mileage, you can't just average the mileage of the two vehicles...

My Online Privacy Concerns

I'm finally worried about privacy on the internet--normally, I go on and on about products that are made in China, the poor performance of traffic lights or the silliness of speed limits. I've spent the last two hours trying to carve out a little privacy online and I am now almost sure that I am going to fail. Today I learned of a project called Panopticlick (check it out. It is one click and inspired this entire post), which can probably tell who you are, even though you might not have cookies enabled, and even though you might have your browser set to "Private Browsing Mode, and even if you're using a proxy (If you want to see some other things about you, and you use Google, log in, click here, and have a look around).

A little over 200 years ago, an English philosopher named Jeremy Bentham came up with an idea for a prison called a Panopticon (Wikipedia) It is a bank of prison cells wrapped around in a circle with a slit-windowed guard tower in the center. The guard(s) in the tower can watch any of the prisoners, and so each prisoner does not know whether or not he is being monitored. After a while, the guards don't even need to be in the tower all the time--the prisoners police themselves.

Mercedes SLS Superbowl Ad - flashing headlights

I watched Mercedes' new Superbowl advertisement that features Puff Daddy and there's a shot where the 2011 Mercedes cars all turn on their headlights. The SLS lights flash one by one, and it's a pretty cool effect. I wonder if they are trying to ape the behavior of the SLS F1 Safety car and its flashing lights (On the production SLS, it looks like the parking lights come on before the headlights, then the left parking light turns, then the right light turns off).

Blast from the past-

I saw this a long time ago and just thought of it. Try looking at your keyboard when you're done.

Weird cars in New York

Can you spot what's weird about these cars I saw in NYC this week? Hint: the VW has no snow on it--also, apologies for the shoddy camera-phone picture quality.

More snowy motorcycles

I've been having a ball riding around in the snow this week--an article I wrote about it appeared on Hell For Leather (subscription) and Jalopnik. Thanks to Wes for publishing it.

Riding a motorcycle in the snow

I was elated to see snow on the ground this morning and rode to work in the snowiest conditions yet. Michelin's Gazelle is not a good for snow; the carcass is far too stiff to take advantage of low pressures and its tread pattern is hopelessly conservative for the winter. I reckon some trials tires would be much better, but can't bear the thought of taking the Gazelles off; I popped 2 tubes getting the rear one on.

Jalopnik stole my electricity

The case of the missing electrons has been cracked. Mike Spinelli and Ray Wert (both of Jalopnik fame) had rented the very same Volt that's in the previous post, drained it's battery, and dropped it off back at Hertz just before my dad and I picked it up.

Here's a picture Jalopnik took of the navigation screen displaying trip info:

Photo from Jalopnik.com

And here's a picture I took, hours later:

Note the 29.9 miles travelled by battery in each, and the decrease in miles per gallon as the batteries ran out and the engine came into play.

The Jalopnik article was called "New York Isn't Ready for Electric Cars," but since Hertz didn't bother to charge the Volt before renting it again, I'm not sure they are either!

Hertz Chevy Volt Rental: Potential for Disaster

Is the Chevy Volt a hybrid? Nope--but it is the exact powertrain configuration I dreamed of during my previous all-electric Hertz rentals. The Volt is an electric car with a small gas generator that keeps the car moving if the battery runs out. A car like this can get away with a light-weight battery pack because its range of 40 miles covers, say, 80% of trips, and on longer trips the gas motor kicks in (a Nissan Leaf has to have a huge heavy battery for a 100 mile range). You also aren't married to the idea of charging a dead battery if you have to head out. Awesome, right?

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Studies by Transportation Alternatives have shown that 15%-45% of drivers in Manhattan are trolling for parking, and observation suggests that a lot of those drivers pass up spots that they could fit in—just because they lack parallel parking skills.

Driving the Nissan Leaf

I was invited to drive one of the Nissan Leafs that Connect by Hertz is planning to start renting from 60th street sometime in February. After being charmed but a little underwhelmed by their slow Smart ED on Tuesday, I was excited to have a go in a car that had been designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle.

The Leaf looks a like a fat Yaris with bubbly headlights-it doesn't make you ache like a Corvette, it doesn't mimic the appealing techno look of the new Prius, and it isn't adorable like the smart.

Connect by Hertz' Smart ED

Last Tuesday, I rented a Smart ED from Connect's 50th street location in Manhattan. I drove the car Westchester County Airport for a Civil Air Patrol meeting. The total distance of the journey was 63 miles, and I started with the battery gauge on 100% but returned it with what you can see in the picture--maybe 1% on the gauge (a representative called me in a panic when it got below about 3%, but everything was okay since I was so close to home). I used the heater on the return journey, because it was freezing, and I there were a few times when I used the full 30kW power to keep up with traffic.

Using the full 30kW

My overwhelming impression of the car is that it is really slow at highway speeds, not unusably slow, but probably the slowest car in the entire Hertz fleet. It struggles to go 58 up hills, and is harshly limited at 65mph. When the car runs into the red zone, it becomes even slower.

Because the car is "throttle by wire", there is no direct connection between the pedal and the motor. The computer decides what is best for you, and accelerates in a very soft way even if you floor it, using a maximum of 20kW. But if you push past a final "click" in the accelerator pedal, it realizes you want to go quickly, and gives you the full 30kW on the gauge, and you make a little more progress. When you are in the red zone, the car goes into limp mode and will use only 15kW even if you push past the "click" in the pedal.

Returned it with 1% charge

It wasn't so quiet as I expected at highway speeds; there is a fair amount of whine from the electric motor, and of course wind noise and tire roar. When crawling around, however, it is ghostly.

When I picked the car up, the lot attendant ran after me and said I needed to come in the little room to get my ticket, and then sheepishly realized that it was a Connect car. Someone else then ran after me to get a copy of my driving license. The car was dirty (understandable considering the recent snowstorm) and had a broken center armrest on one of the two seatbacks, but otherwise the experience was excellent. I really enjoyed driving such a great distance on battery power.

As for range anxiety, I get a thrill from it. I enjoy running my cars right down to empty. If you think of the smart EV as a car with a 3 gallon gas tank, then I think that might really bother some people. But you do have options--in a traffic jam, no energy is used. You can use the parking brake when you're stopped so the rear brake lights don't spill energy, and of course, you can charge it at your destination. Had I charged the car for the 2 hours I was at my Civil Air Patrol meeting, I would easily have been able to make it back with a 25% charge. I guess the best thing to tell people is that the battery gauge is pretty linear, it doesn't suddenly fall quickly once it gets past 20%. Also, I imagine they calibrated the gauge so there is some reserve below zero, although I didn't get to find out.


I am excited that Hertz is renting these electric cars. I find electric cars and their quirks fascinating, and this is my only opportunity to experience them.

Dream bike of the day:

What keeps a train on the track?

Last night was old-bike night. Today it's time to look back at Richard Feynman's enthusiasm for science. I like to watch this series of videos, where he explains these really complicated concepts using everyday thoughts. I'll let him do the talking.

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New York's streets overflow with track bikes, and while there is some tasty stuff out there none of it is complex enough to be really interesting--no freewheels, no suspension, and no wild brakes. This Nuke Proof Reactor is a bike I've never seen in person, but it has those awesome steel Sweet Wings cranks, and a Rock Shox rear shock... in the head tube! Ironically, this is probably one of the more serviceable old forks--I'd rather try to get parts for it than a Manitou I or a Headshok--surely there are tons of rear shocks you could stuff into it.

FromRetrobike

Sometimes, I wonder if the cars that magazines have me dreaming about have nothing to do with the cars I'd dream about on my own.

The richest man in the world

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How to get Zero Cavities!

Today, for the first time in a year-and-a-half, I went to the dentist. He took a full set of x-rays before congratulating me on having no cavities at all. It wasn't a shock; I've been fastidious about my oral hygeine since I learned two importing things. These are they:

1. Flossing stinks - Years ago, my friend Alexis and I happened to be talking about flossing. "Of course I floss," she said, "if you haven't flossed for a while and then you do, it stinks!" I was disgusted and intrigued; I ventured a whiff the next time I flossed. If whatever is in between your teeth actually stinks, then you're probably better off without it. From then on, I was a little sicked out about kissing people who don't floss.

2. Bacteria, not sugar, rots your teeth - I'm not Nick D.D.S., but I do know that it isn't sugar that rots your teeth. It's the acidic byproduct the bacteria in your mouth produce as they feed on sugar--sugar meaning any carbohydrate, including otherwise non-sugary foods like bread or even Grape-Nuts. When you're trying to clean your teeth, don't imagine scrubbing sugar off of them, imagine scrubbing all the food away so bacteria have nothing to eat. You want them to be spotless, bacteria are microscopic and can live on tiny amounts of food.

Then rinse with mouthwash. It starves the bacteria by rinsing out all the minute food particles you dislodged with floss and your toothbrush. Mouthwash also makes your mouth inhospitable to bacteria like S. mutans, which is one of the first bacteria to attack your teeth, and actually has special receptors to bond to them.

Tooth decay is a chronic infectious disease - it isn't just sugar rotting your teeth. Treat it as such, and use your toothbrush, floss, and mouthwash--every morning and night, at least--to make your mouth as inhospitable as possible to bacteria. These procedures are nothing new, I just wanted to shed some light on the mechanics of tooth decay--visualizing it this way (the actual way) helped me be more careful about my oral hygiene.