DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The A9 team at Amazon.com launched a new extension to their search engine, just in time for ETECH. Jeff Bezos announced it during this morning’s “High-Order Bits” presentations.

By default, A9.com’s search results contain three columns: web results, image results, and a button column that gives one-click access to other types of results, such as Movies and Books. These buttons provide functionality similar to the text links at the top of both Google’s and Yahoo’s results pages, which offer access to images, USENET, news, Yahoo’s directory, Froogal, etc.

A9 allows users to customize their search-result columns. Users can personalize their results pages to show the types of documents they’re most likely to be searching for. This is a cool thing, and will soon be a feature of every major search engine.

But the really cool announcement of the day is that developers can create their own A9 search columns. This allows what Bezos called “domain experts” to syndicate “vertical search” results. For example, I could build an A9 search-results column for debris.com, if in fact I’d written enough about a particular topic that merited a syndicated search feed to a major search engine.

There are already dozens of custom syndicated vertical-search result “columns” available, including the NYTimes, Flickr, PubMed, NASA, etc. I predict the number will grow very quickly, as site owners realize the value of putting their content in front of the eyeballs of A9 users.

In a sense, A9’s OpenSearch technology is like Apple’s Sherlock, which is a search technology that accepts plug-ins to provide vertical search results via syndication. Two key differences are that OpenSearch is built on open standards like RSS, and A9 is a website (available to 100% of web users) whereas Sherlock is a proprietary software product (available to ~5% of computer users).

See also Cory Doctorow’s notes: Bezos on vertical search and A9

The Bush Administration’s assault on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge continues. You can do one small thing to help save it: sign the Citizens’ RollCall to voice your dissent.

ANWR “talking points” from John Kerry:

• The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 19 million acres comprise one of the last places on earth where an intact expanse of arctic and sub arctic lands remains protected.
• Drilling in the Arctic Refuge can’t make even a small dent in meeting America’s energy needs. U.S. Geological Survey scientists estimate that there is very likely only enough oil to supply America’s needs for six months. And oil companies admit that, even that, won’t be available for at least 10 years.
• An irreplaceable natural treasure, the Arctic Refuge is home to caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves, golden eagles, snow geese and more. Millions of other birds use the Arctic Refuge to nest and as a critical staging area on their migratory journeys.
• Of course, the Arctic Refuge supports more than wildlife. For a thousand generations, the Gwich’in people of Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada have depended on it and lived in harmony with it. To them, the Arctic Coastal Plain is sacred ground.

See also my previous entries about ANWR.

The special conference rate is $195/night plus 10% tax. This doesn’t include internet access in the room ($11/day). Movies cost extra ($13 apiece). The two bottles of water on the counter have price tags on them ($4 each). They gave me a key to the mini-bar when I checked in, with the message that thinking about opening it would be billed to the room at $3 per incident.

I was happy to see a placard in the bothroom requesting that visitors conserve water. But the sign didn’t indicate which of the two shower heads would do that for me.

To be fair, I should point out the positive aspects of the room: the alarm clock and plumbing and light fixtures work. I can’t hear the neighbors. The maids don’t knock on the door at 6:00 AM. The windows open (even on the 12th floor). But I still feel like I’m getting ripped off.

So, I rented out the room’s second bed to three poor backpackers from Europe. I’m only charging them $150/night.

No, not $150 apiece! What kind of guy do you think I am?

I think I know now why they call the restaurant “Millennium:” that’s how long it takes to follow their recipes.

On Saturday I made a page from the Artful Vegan cookbook. The actual 47-word title for the dish isn’t handy; something like “Black Quinoa Cakes with Calypso Bean Confit, Squash Curry, Braised Collard Greens, and Mango-Habanero Sauce”. It’s a single entree with five separate sub-recipes (nearly all of which call for onions).

Save yourself the time of shopping for black quinoa. You could buy regular yellow quinoa and color each individual grain with a black Sharpie in less time than you’ll spend not finding a source for black quinoa, which as far as I can tell has to be mail-ordered from Peru.

The recipe contains a few other buried challenges, like smoking onions. I own no smoker. I had to settle for grilling the onions, and adding a half-teaspoon of liquid smoke extract to the pot when nobody was looking.

I realized that having five separate procedures to follow is about one unit of recipe complexity more than I can comfortable handle. Three things at a time, I can manage, but with four or five I need to start considering serving separate courses. I think the quinoa cake would have been nice a la carte, maybe with a side of organic ketchup, for example.

Anyway, the result, when it finally hit the table, was impressive: a layer of black beans with smoked onions, topped with braised collard greens sauteed with more onions, topped with a yellow quinoa cake (which contains onions), topped with Indian squash curry that’s mostly onions, topped with habanero-mango sauce and toasted pistachios and cilantro.

The recipe claims to serve six. You have to remember that this is “California cuisine,” which I usually translate for out-of-state visitors as “Big plate, small food.” Four of us polished the full recipe and half a loaf of spelt sourdough besides.