I have Muji’s 3 cup cooker but have sometimes wanted more capacity. Sometimes also find the rice comes out a little mushier than I’d like. But love the aesthetic of Muji. Wondering if this one might be improved.
(Resubmitting as plain text as mods said links aren't allowed.)
As we've all heard, developer MCB announced two leases at the old Century 21 site last week: Burlington, plus a grocery chain they deliberately would not name, scheduled to open in 2028. There are many signs that point to Trader Joe's. I'm not an expert, just a guy who likes grocery shopping. None of this is insider info.
Two details to focus on:
The size alone strongly points to TJ's. Trader Joe's VP of marketing said on their own podcast that they usually want 12,500–15,000 sq ft. The Long Island City one is about 17,000 sq ft, and Cobble Hill/Court St is 14,000. (To be fair, TJ also has larger stores in NYC, like Essex Crossing at 30k sq ft).
Another signal: TJs typically does not announce new store openings when leases are first signed. Other stores do. The developer not mentioning the grocer by name suggests TJs. (Yes, TJ has an upcoming stores list, but it doesn't usually post stores there until the opening is imminent.)
Let's look at other possible candidates.
Still not 100% conclusive, but when you add in the thread in Bay Ridge Talk where Kayla Santosuosso says "people are going to be very happy" about the grocer, it's pointing strongly to TJ. Maybe Whole Foods... but I'd be pretty surprised if it wasn't TJ.
I think I've figured this out.
Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my original post. I believe the dots were caused by contaminated fixer.
It was initially difficult to accept the fixer hypothesis because the dots were concentrated inside the frame, which suggested something happening in camera. But there was no good explanation for how the camera (Ricoh GR1s) could be causing the dots, or why they appeared in a cycle.
What pointed me back to the dev process: Studying the cycle revealed that dots peaked every 4–6.5 frames (or every 15–25cm along the strip), with the cycle growing longer toward one end. If you take that spacing as a circumference, you get a radius of ~2.5–4cm — which matches a Paterson reel's working radius. Nothing inside the camera is dimensionally capable of a 15–25cm cycle. So whatever was happening, it was happening in the tank.
Why only inside the frames: u/T-Ugs provided the insight that silver coming out of solution needs nucleation sites, and silver deposits onto existing silver far more readily than onto bare film base. Reviewing the images carefully, I realized the dots weren't random — they were concentrated in the parts of the image that received more light (more developed silver). The darkest parts of the image, where the negative is thin and closest to bare base, had almost no dots.
Why the cycle: u/Shutterfly77 suggested my agitation method. I'd been doing simple inversions, consistently in the same orientation. If particulate was settling in the tank and getting tossed the same way every time, it would concentrate at a fixed angular position, which a spiral crosses once per revolution.
The fixer itself: I found tiny black bits at the bottom of my storage bottle — silver precipitated out of solution. The working solution had also gone visibly brown at only ~6 rolls, and the concentrate smells strongly of sulfur. The concentrate was a free hand-me-down of unknown age, so I suspect it was already degrading before I mixed it.
Going forward: replacing the fixer entirely (fresh concentrate, clean bottle), storing it in clear glass so I can monitor its condition, straining it when returning it to the bottle, and switching to a twisting agitation motion rather than consistent inversions.
Thanks again to everyone who helped. This was literally keeping me up at night.
New to film developing. Developed 4 rolls of Tri-X in Rodinal 1:50 today. First two rolls came out basically clean. Last two rolls have small spots on many frames.
The pattern is periodic: the spots peak every 4-5 frames, and frames in between are nearly clean.
Not dust, I can't blow the spots off. They look black on the negative (second pic). Hard to see with the naked eye.
My workflow:
Relevant(?): I reused the same tank and reels from the morning's session. Rinsed thoroughly, air dried about 3 hours before reloading. They were not completely dry.
I've been reusing the same fixer solution; the problem rolls were the 5th and 6th rolls that this fixer was used on.
The fact that it happens every 4-5 frames makes me think it's reel related..
Anyway, would love to figure out what happened.
That said, I do think it looks kind of cool.
EDIT: I went through one of the problem rolls and recorded the number of dots in each frame below. Frame 1 was on the innermost ring of the reel, frame 36 was on the outermost ring.
Newbie here. As title says, I have 1 quart (~946mL) of CS41 developer that I made using the Cinestill kit. I want to develop 120, but the Paterson tank wants 1000mL of dev to cover two reels.
Can I dilute with water to get to 1000mL and adjust developing time? Or should I get a second Cs41 kit and mix a little more? I live in a small apartment so would prefer to be able to store my working solution in a 1L bottle. Appreciate any advice.
On the right is a 1957 Smith-Corona Skyriter in a rare baby blue color and even rarer 12cpi Bodoni typeface. This was a UK export version (£ key, and "U" at the end of the serial number), made in Belgium.
On the left, a garden-variety 1959 3Y Skyriter, US-made with a 10cpi pica typeface. Mechanically, the machines are virtually identical. The 1959 has a long return lever.
Without the case, the 1957 Skyriter weighs 7 lbs, 11 oz. (~3.5kg). The 1959 weighs 7 lbs, 13 oz. (~3.6kg).
Smith-Corona Skyriters are underrated machines. One of the quietest ultraportables ever made, with a smooth and light typing action. Maybe not as refined as high-end European machines; you only get a single ribbon color, carriage shift, and no silent return. But they have a tank-like sensibility to them—they're very forgiving and easy to work on.
Favorite hidden Skyriter feature: you can slide the entire body out of the shell after undoing two screws.