Information Junk

Bike To Work

2008-05-14T20:45:00.001-07:00

Bike-to-Work Day is an annual event held across the United States that promotes the bicycle as an option for commuting to work.

Unplug The Drug

2008-05-14T18:39:00.001-07:00

It's one of the most powerful and disorienting and disturbing feelings I've ever known and perhaps the very best reason I can think of that I now watch very little mainstream TV, much less sitcoms, much less those howlingly soul-deadening laugh-tracked things featuring Kelsey Grammar or Charlie Sheen or maybe that enormous guy from "Everybody Loves Raymond," shows that make your soul curdle like fresh soy milk in the sun. It's also the sole reason I've trained myself to instantly mute all TV commercials when they appear and turn my gaze from their grisly carnage lest their death lasers of hyperbranded idiocy penetrate my flesh and make me impotent and encephalitic and Republican.

From a nice piece by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford.

California

2008-05-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

Nice collection of travel posters at this Los Angeles Public Library online exhibit.

[via nagonthelake]

Giro d'Italia

2008-05-12T22:02:00.001-07:00

Another nice photo from the Giro d'Italia pro cycling race. This one from yesterday's Stage 3 from Catania to Milazzo in Sicily.

Information

2008-05-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

More information than you can shake a stick at via the United Nations' new UNdata database.

National Libraries of Europe

2008-05-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

The National Library of Finland, from an exhibit of the National Libraries of Europe.

Giro d'Italia

2008-05-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

The peloton leaves the Sicilian town of Cefalù during today's Stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia pro cycling race.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T10:24:00.001-07:00

Riding The Rails

2008-05-09T15:29:00.001-07:00

From Mike "The Polaroid Kidd" Brodie's gallery of photos entitled Boys & Girls of Modern Day Railways.

Reformulated Cheese!

2008-05-09T07:29:00.001-07:00

The operator of Chuck E. Cheese’s noted in its earnings call a week ago that the average price paid per pound of cheese was up 50 cents from the year before, but that the company partially offset it with higher menu prices, as well as a newly developed, “reformulated and enhanced” cheese product they tested in several locations that lets them use less cheese on certain pizzas.

Mmm...reformulated and enhanced cheese pizza!

Found Treasure

2008-05-08T07:02:00.000-07:00

It looked like a small charcoal briquette, floating on San Francisco Bay, but it was just a little bit too square to be a charcoal briquette. Twelve-year-old Joe Carter, who was boating with his father Sunday off Crissy Field, figured he might as well reach over the side of their dinghy and pick it up. It wasn't a charcoal briquette after all, Joe realized, because charcoal briquettes do not have hinges on them.

It was a jewelry box.

"What if there's a diamond ring inside?" Joe remembers wondering to himself. So he opened the small black box. And inside was something round and golden, with a sparkling stone on it. "It's a real diamond ring," Joe said. "With a real diamond." Joe took the ring out of the box and inspected a small tag, which was still attached to it. "Romance Princess. One-quarter carat. Diamond Wedding Ring. $499," the tag said.

Vote for Me?

2008-05-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

She viewed the state as essentially and inevitably a tool of control and domination. As a result, Goldman believed that voting was useless at best and dangerous at worst. Voting, she wrote, provided an illusion of participation while masking the true structures of decision-making.

Truth in graffiti. Also, Emma Goldman.

[via nagonthelake]

Vote For Me!

2008-05-07T07:51:00.001-07:00

Art Plus Incorporated prints political campaign signs custom designed to your individual specifications. Quality workmanship and materials, quick turnaround time. Sign stands available as well.

Smile!

2008-05-06T18:38:00.001-07:00

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do," she told the Las Vegas newspaper. "I don't know why he's divorcing me. All I'm trying to do is keep it together." She also complained: "He won't talk to me. I can't get ahold of him."

AP: Nevada governor wants his mansion back and his wife out.

Sharks

2008-05-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

International Shark Attack File - maps and all sorts of statistics and analysis of shark attacks around the world.

The Future

2008-05-04T18:48:00.001-07:00

Each year since 1985, the editors of THE FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. Over the years, Outlook has spotlighted the emergence of such epochal developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War.

The Top 10 Forecasts for 2008 and Beyond.

Energy

2008-05-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

Because he seems like a pretty decent guy, I've grown to quite like the spokesbug for the Department of Energy's kid's website.

Tour de Romandie

2008-05-03T12:48:00.001-07:00

From the Tour de Romandie pro cycling race taking place in Switzerland this week.

Bingo

2008-05-02T18:37:00.001-07:00

Bingo as we know it today is a form of lottery and is a direct descendant of Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia.When Italy was united in 1530, the Italian National Lottery Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia was organized, and has been held, almost without pause, at weekly intervals to this date.

The origins of bingo.

May Day

2008-05-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

Today is May Day.

Crazy English

2008-04-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

“One-sixth of the world’s population speaks Chinese. Why are we studying English?” he asked. He turned and gestured to a row of foreign teachers seated behind him and said, “Because we pity them for not being able to speak Chinese!” The crowd roared.

Good article in a recent New Yorker on the scramble in China to learn a English before the Olympics.

Mars

2008-04-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Long before the space race and space shuttle, a brilliant, wealthy, charming Boston Brahmin named Percival Lowell popularized the idea that we are not alone in the universe. As the next US spacecraft prepares to descend upon the Red Planet, it's an idea worth revisiting.

Sabadabada

2008-04-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Sabadabada - A website devoted to Brazilian records of the 1960's and 1970's. Includes a neat collection of album cover art.

San Francisco's Japantown

2008-04-29T07:45:00.001-07:00

A potentially useful interactive map of San Francisco's Japantown.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège

2008-04-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

From today's Liège-Bastogne-Liège pro bicycling race held in ~~France~~ Belgium.