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I'm unwinding from the end of a glorious day, going through photos, and getting ready to hop the plane to Chicago. Today, we wound up on an expedition to the old Sutro Baths; while I'd seen the baths from a distance on a previous visit, this was the first time I'd gotten up close. There's a cave you can enter, so that the sound of the surf fills your mind; a glorious series of views; a wonderful moment. Then, off to sushi for dinner: a Lucullan feast that cost about half of what I'd be expecting. Home; packing; soon, the airport. What will Chicago be like?

( A brief, potentially spoilery comment pertaining to the oeuvre of George Lucas. )

( Also- the quest for In n' Out was ultimately successful. )

Speaking of the Sutro Baths...

A map of the Sutro Bath ruins, with the buildings' original forms superimposed. (Details on the map's creation here.)

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Via whumpdotcom: An account of the creation of the first digital camera.

In December of 1975, after a year of piecing together a bunch of new technology in a back lab at the Elmgrove Plant in Rochester, we were ready to try it...

It had a lens that we took from a used parts bin from the Super 8 movie camera production line downstairs from our little lab on the second floor in Bldg 4...

It was a camera that didn’t use any film to capture still images - a camera that would capture images using a CCD imager and digitize the captured scene and store the digital info on a standard cassette. It took 23 seconds to record the digitized image to the cassette.

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I'm in Chicago; next stop, Millenium Park. I've already located the Thorne Rooms, the Biograph Theater, and a good-sounding piano bar; this'll be interesting...

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Random: I need to find my upload cable, that I may share this with you: about two blocks from where I'm staying is a huge statue... of a giant veiny eyeball. I wonder about the discussions that took place before this was installed: did the artist contemplate Icarus, reaching for the sun? Hercules, fighting the Hydra? Dick Cheney's heart, coming back from the land beyond time? The moment in which the Cosmic Muffin created us all? Or did he just say, "Fuck it- they pinky swore that I could put in anything I damned well felt like- and I feel like creating a giant veiny eyeball! Rejoice, children of Chicago!"