{"id":30517,"date":"2018-01-07T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T16:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=30517"},"modified":"2018-01-05T16:46:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T23:46:37","slug":"bullet-trains-in-chinasmarty-piggoing-transparent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/bullet-trains-in-chinasmarty-piggoing-transparent\/","title":{"rendered":"Bullet trains in China\/Smarty Pig\/Going transparent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bullet trains in China<\/strong>
\nJapan has had a network of extremely high-speed bullet trains for 50 years. (The US has zero.) China now has an even more impressive network of high-speed bullet trains that cover great distances and are easy to ride. A popular route is Beijing to Shanghai in 4 hours, going 350 km\/h (217 mph). Another great long trip is Beijing to Guangzhou (near Hong Kong) in 8 hours (averaging 305 km\/h the whole way), which is the longest high speed route in the world, a trip I made with joy recently. Flying is faster and, depending on class, cheaper, but you get an intimate and revealing glimpse of this vast country slicing through at ground level. Booking tickets online is complicated but doable. As always, head to the\u00a0Man in Seat 61<\/a>\u00a0for the best advice on how to do this. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n

Online Piggy Bank<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve been using\u00a0Smarty Pig<\/a>\u00a0for years. It\u2019s a website where you create a savings goal by specifying a date and an amount of money that you want to have saved by that time. Smarty Pig will transfer funds from your bank each month so that you meet your savings goal. I\u2019ve used it for vacations, computers, insurance premiums, and holiday shopping. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n

Going transparent<\/strong>
\nI really enjoyed Dave Eggers\u2019 fictional book\u00a0The Circle<\/a>, but the movie is even better. This is a disturbing forecast of where always-on social media will take us. A place so transparent, it may be too clear. Much like a Black Mirror episode, but more plausible. The villain, deftly played by Tom Hanks, is likeable and relatable. I have said some of the things he says. Set in today\u2019s Silicon Valley with perfect pitch, the story seems inevitable. If you are clicking on your phone more than 3 times a day, you should watch this.\u00a0The Circle<\/a>\u00a0is now streaming on Amazon Prime. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n

Find the right adjectives<\/strong>
\nIn college one of my favorite tools was my\u00a0Describer\u2019s Dictionary<\/a>. The\u00a0Describing Words<\/a>\u00a0website does a decent job of doing the same thing online. It analyzes text from countless fiction and contemporary literary works and pulls out all the words used to describe nouns. Definitely worth bookmarking. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n

Ground Beef Chopper<\/strong>
\nThis\u00a0OXO Good Grips Ground Meat Chopper<\/a>\u00a0($12) quickly breaks up hamburger meat when making tacos or pasta sauce. Just chop away with the three fins until the ground beef is the way you like it. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n

Get fast quotes<\/strong>
\nI take full advantage of the\u00a0Request a Quote option on Yelp<\/a>. Once you type out your request, Yelp gives you the option to submit the same message to similar businesses nearby. I click the max amount available (up to 10), and find that most people start responding right away! \u2014 CD<\/p>\n

Get the Recomendo weekly newsletter<\/a>\u00a0a week early by email.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recomendo: issue no. 76<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2323],"tags":[2324],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30519,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30517\/revisions\/30519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}