Remaindered Links

Furoshiki
* Bring back (?) the furoshiki. Sure, we all know it’s good for wrapping that big old jeroboam (or at least magnum) of nihonshu, but as the diagram to the right shows, it can also be a fun way to wrap books and just about anything else. Much more ecologically-mindful than wrapping paper for the holidays (since it is perfect for re-gifting!), and much more useful, as anyone who has ever been a Scout can tell you. Pick some up on eBay.

* Blonds are now easier to calculate.

* “Nearly two-thirds of Britons think the fiery Italian sauce Arrabiata is a sex infection, according to a survey on Friday.”

* Zudeo, a front-end video sharing site using Azureus, is now in Beta, aiming at beating YouTube not at its own game, but at higher quality video.

* Cory Doctorow’s books are among the first to be available to test Lirevite, which (as the name implies) is a speed reading program that puts up one word at a time on your Pocket PC. I’ve played with reading this way (though not with this particular product) and it is surprisingly effective.

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3 Comments

  1. ahoving
    Posted 12/4/2006 at 11:42 pm | Permalink

    what’s the difference between furoshiki and fukusa?

  2. alex
    Posted 12/5/2006 at 10:34 am | Permalink

    They are closely related. Fukusa are generally smaller furoshiki, and they are often more intricately decorated, and draped or folded over gifts, rather than knotted. Furoshiki tend to be cheaper, larger, and more practical. While they can be used for gifts, they can also just be used for carrying goods or for storage. For example, lawyers use them to carry documents to court. Modern furoshiki tend to be polyester, or sometimes cotton. Fukusa, traditionally, are silk (chirimen), and are most often used (particularly with linked family crests) for traditional wedding gifts.

  3. Helen
    Posted 12/7/2006 at 3:22 pm | Permalink

    Sigh… makes me so proud of my fellow countrymen. Still, could go some way to explaining why gnocchi’s not a popular dish in the UK… !

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