April 2007

It’s been bad news for domesticated species this month. First we had the news about melamine tainted pet food. Next we had news that honeybees are disappearing, possibly because of cellular phone signals. But now there’s a bold suggestion from the Safe Pet Food blog that links these two stories, speculating that melamine might be…

Chris Jordan’s photography is stunning, subtle and clear…and absolutely mind bending. In his most current exhibit, Running the Numbers, he uses crystal clear images manipulated in such a way as to tell startling stories about otherwise meaningless statistics. For instance, what does it mean that 426,000 cell phones are retired every day? Jordan shows us…

Brandon Wirtz (the Greatest Living American) pointed me to this Xbox experiment. Armed with a power inverter, laptop, Samsung monitor and Xbox, he found that he could take advantage of Google’s Mountain View wifi stauration and play Xbox live in the back seat of a 2007 Jeep JKL. I would think that if you had…

This is getting pretty silly, but Brandon Wirtz is neck and neck with Stephen Colbert in the race to be the Greatest Living American.

I don’t know if I’d call him the Greatest Living American, I think that title deserves to be split 50/50 between Ben and Jerry. But if he isn’t the greatest living american, or even very nearly the greatest living american (because possibly someone else is the greatest living american) Stephen Colbert is certainly the pluckiest.…

Perhaps it’s because cell phone technology seems too good to be true. You can’t go more than three months without hearing a news report about how cell phones are a peril to our lives. First came the notion that cell phones cause brain cancer…a notion that has been declared inconclusive by science. Then there’s the…

Zeke Barlow of the Ventura County Star writes about a battle over funding between environmentalists and off-road vehicle users. The nub is like this: the Sierra Club wants more money set aside for hiking trails. CORVA wants the money used to keep Hungry Valley and other such parks open. Representative Darrell Steinberg wants to increase…

Google just released “My Maps,” a Google Maps feature that lets you mark and annotate routes and save them as public maps. As an example of My Map’s potential, check out this oral history map of Route 66. (via World Hum) There’s clearly some social bookmarking potential here, for sharing maps and sharing local histories.…