Category: General

Sustainable Approaches to Reducing Food Waste in India

Posted on by in General, India Food Waste, Research

About a year ago I spent a month in India working on an MIT research project focused on food waste with a classmate and close friend, Paul Artiuch. Throughout that month, we blogged extensively about what we learned both on the MIT Public Service Center website and on this site. Here’s a summary of what we wrote: 1. Battling Food Waste in India 2. More on Azadpur Mandi 3. India’s Cold Storage Capacity 4. A Look at India’s Agricultural Supply Chains 5. The Punjab Potato Party 6. India’s Grain Storage Problem 7. India’s Lack of Food Processing 8. Smaller Markets in Rajasthan 9. Four Problems with India’s Food Supply Systems 10. Pune: A (Nearly) Waste-Free City Since we returned, we’ve

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Comment on the “Milk Cliff”

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Adam Sigel, in response to an earlier post: Turns out that Tommy from Snatch was somewhat right when he told us to drink less milk. “Big Dairy” has conditioned us to equate milk with calcium, but it’s not the only source, nor is it necessarily the best one. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/calcium-full-story/index.html As a lactard that switched to soy milk earlier this year, I wouldn’t be directly impacted by the milk cliff, but it’s generally never a good thing when we revert to laws that pre-date integration in schools.

1933 Beer Brewing Diagram and Subway Maps

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Completely unrelated, other than that they’re both interesting, and both from 1933. A 1933 beer brewing diagram from popular science: And a some maps of the London Underground. In 1932 the map still attempted to show turns along the subway lines. By 1933, the design that dominates most subway maps today was born. 1932 with turns: 1933 without turns: And a 2012 London Underground map for comparison: And Boston, why not:    

Lightroom 5 Preset: Vintage Rajasthan

Posted on by in General, Lightroom 5 Presets, Photography

Here’s my third free Lightroom 5 Preset, Vintage Rajasthan. My first two are here and here. I developed this one when editing a photo I took outside a temple in Udaipur, India. I was there working on an MIT research project, and got the shot on my way to a market in the early afternoon. The preset adjusts the color balance to add a vintage photo effect, and works well on shots that are vibrant with lots of colors. The original photo was bright and overwhelming, which to me was distracting, taking attention away from the the facial expressions. Here’s the photo with the preset: Here’s a second example: And one final: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Vintage Rajasthan To

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When are MIT Students Asleep?

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Via Joost Bonsen, my former MIT Media Lab instructor, here’s an interesting tool that charts a histogram of MIT student sleep patterns. You can filter by course and degree level. Undergrad engineering majors stay up late. Oddly, architecture and planning students seem to get the least sleep. Management students stay up late, but also sleep in — fitting. Click to picture to play with the tool:

Southie’s Australian Meat Pies

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South Boston is an amazing place. If you weren’t already convinced, maybe you didn’t know that the West Side is home to KO Pies, an Australian meat pie store. What’s an Australian meat pie? I didn’t know myself until the other day. It’s a pie crust stuffed with beef, lamb, Irish stew, or sausage. Sometimes they come filled with cheese, and you eat them smothered in ketchup. I don’t even like ketchup all that much, but in the context of meat pies, it’s great. Any homesick Australians might want to check out the store – they also sell Berocca, Vegemite, and other strange Australian obsessions. Here’s a typical meat meat pie spread, along with instructions from KO on how to eat

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