July 2008
65 posts
The Large Hadron Collider Rap Video?
Marine Traffic Google Mashup
MarineTraffic.com have produced a Google Map showing real-time information about ship movements throughout the world.
The system is based on AIS (Automatic Identification System). The International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all vessels over 299GT to carry an AIS transponder on board, which transmits data on position, speed and course, among some other static information, such as the...
“Mourning Dianarevisits the remarkable series of public events that occurred...”
– Mourning Diana nation, culture and the performance of grief
“Mrs. Hamrock made the observation that in her opinion it didn’t look like...”
– Abbott & Hast Publications - Marilyn Monroe’s Funeral
The inside dish from Marilyn Monroe’s mortician.
“Vital questions remain unanswered because current methods for studying the...”
– The Berkeley Science Review: Articles: Watching the Watershed
“The oppressive boot heel of socialism and wimpy cars! Men surely didn’t lay...”
– Greentech Media | The Looming Oil Crisis … From 50 Years Ago
Former CNET greentech reporter Michael Kanellos is too good at writing and too funny in writing to be an analyst. Dude needs to get back into the pure writing game.
“I can’t remember the last job I got using a standard resume. It’s...”
– Twitter / J. Adam Moore
Wow. That’s funny.
“Text messaging and walking at the same time, it turns out, can be hazardous to...”
– LiveScience.com Blogs » Blog Archive » The Perils of Text Messaging While Walking
I am seriously guilty of looking at my phone while walking. I probably read 50 news items this way, bumbling down 3rd street going in to work. My problem isn’t that I actually hit stuff, it’s...
“Additionally, Facebook has announced a fresh $10 million that they will infuse...”
– Facebook Announces Great Apps Program and FBFund Winners
My favorite app — Zimride Carpool App — gets FBFunding!
“There used to be a queer character on the Seattle ‘front that we used to...”
– [The Chief Mate]
Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG reminded me of this incredible story with his post on Shanghai tunnels.
“The green-colored submarine, carrying what was believed to be cocaine, was about...”
– Mexico captures submarine loaded with drugs | Oddly Enough | Reuters
Drug carrying submarines are one of my favorite topics.
“Natasha Mitchell: He even got to a point where he drank beer and smoked....”
– Apes, legal personhood and the plight of Nim Chimpsky - Boing Boing
“Dwayne Spradlin, president and chief executive of InnoCentive, said in an...”
– If You Have a Problem, Use Innocentive to Ask Everyone - NYTimes.com
“- Talk with some other Chinese professionals, whose business involves sending...”
– James Fallows (July 19, 2008) - Everything changes tomorrow (China)
It’s amazing the lengths that the Chinese government is willing to go to silencing people, when it’d be much easier to just drown them out with better entertainment.
“Speakers designed like rocks.”
– Rockustics Pavorocci - Wired Summer Test 2008
“Fast forward to the 1970’s when the Mission Planning Council, the Mission...”
– Juri Commons | San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council
“In the case of BPA, the market for hard-plastic baby and sport bottles collapsed...”
– How Wal-Mart Became the New FDA
Hilarious Snippet of Twitter Stream
muloka @herbisorbis The herbs I mentioned, and fresh wormwood, can generate greater clarity and recall + here's another book http: //is.gd/X7b
about 2 hours ago from twhirl in reply to herbisorbis
muloka @ryazwinski cool, so they've got an iPhone app... that i didn't know.
about 2 hours ago from twhirl in reply to ryazwinski
muloka @herbisorbis Ever read books on Tibetan Dream Yoga http: //is.gd/X5X ? or used dream herbs such as silene capensis or myrica gale?
about 2 hours ago from twhirl in reply to herbisorbis
“If you open a citizen reporter account, you will be able to enjoy full control...”
– OhmyNews International
I’m going to be watching OhmyNews for citizen reportage on the Olympics.
Teddy on Wisdom That's Wrong
me: What do you call hard earned wisdom that is clearly wrong? Like what do we call the knowledge that Jefferson Davis has? It seems unfair to call it wisdom but it's not ignorance. it's something else
teddy: I think it might just be inefficient or ineffective. you know, in the same way that conventional wisdom is more like popular myth.
me: hah. yeah, i hear that. private myth?
teddy: maybe just privatized . . privately held. . . then released like an IPO
me: privatized myth. wow. You need to be on Twitter.
“One such terminal is the Lomita Rail Terminal in Carson, Calif., owned by U.S....”
– http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/sep06/keep.htm
“Dry-cleaning businesses are the latest victims of record oil prices, going out...”
– Business, Power and Deals – Executive Suite blog – NYTimes.com
I need to put togehter a list of oil-linked smaller industries. Probably a gold mine of stories in there.
“Convinced that qualified listeners would agree when singing is beautiful,...”
– The Science of Singing
“Classically trained sopranos also make use of a technique called...”
– Why can an opera singer be heard over the much louder orchestra?: Scientific American
“Still, the world’s largest phosphate mine is at Bou Kra, in the Western...”
– New Scientist Environment Blog: Fred’s Footprint: Treasure in the desert
150 kilometer long conveyor belt? The Oil Drum wonders if it’s a terrorist target. Why not make it into a tourist site? Roadtripping college juniors would surely detour through the Western Sahara to see the...
My Spot.Us Campaign on Ethanol Chokepoints Is...
Excellent news! My investigative piece on a particular chokepoint in California’s ethanol, and by extension gasoline, distribution network has received $250 from a small community for donors. Now, I just have to get down to Long Beach, then out to Sacramento. Can’t say I’m too excited about those locations, but it should be fun to be out in the field like that.
“This particular indoor mall had not only endless stores but also rows of...”
– Lives - Mall Together Now - Firoozeh Dumas - NYTimes.com
This has got to be the most brilliant description of the retail physics of the mall environment ever.
How We Buy Gas Makes Us Notice Its Price
I’m as big a fan of breathless gas prices coverage as the next guy, but honestly, they aren’t actually that big of a deal in the scheme of household income. Remember this chart from the New York Times earlier this year? Gas prices are just one smallish factor, even though they provide one of the basics in life.
So, households spent $1500 more on gas this year than last? Big deal?!...
“Bandmates Mike Jagger and Keith Richards and ex-bandmate Rod Stewart are urging...”
– RussiaToday : Entertainment : Stones guitarist in vodka-fuelled romance with teenage Russian
The backside of the curve can be a bummer, but it has its perks.
“I noticed that the manner in which dates are expressed in the ancient Maya Long...”
– my friends call me nikkos: The Long Count
Makes me wonder what date my computer is logged in from. Sci-fi plot here wherein we discover that the first IP address you ever had is the date on which you’ll die. People scouring the world for their first log-in. Is there a Mayan date conversion...
“The director of the body, based in one of New York, Washington or an agreeable...”
– FT.com | Gideon Rachman’s Blog | The G8: How to write about pointless international organisations
Alan Beattie’s ruthless evisceration of G8 reportage is hilarious, but I note that almost any topic that reporters cover regularly could be boilerplated down to something along these lines....
xFruits - Compose your information system →
Seems like a great alternative to Yahoo! Pipes for building custom “me-feeds”
Via » Daniel Bachhuber
“She also shared with us a fascinating project she worked on years ago in...”
– influx’s evening with dawn danby of autodesk :: Influxinsights
Dawn had this awesome description of the line of freight trucks stacked up miles into Canada waiting to cross into the US. The way she put it, it was as if the trucks became a permanent architectural feature. The individual parts...
“The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to grant retroactive amnesty to...”
– Threat Level : Senate Approves Telecom Amnesty, Expands Domestic Spying Powers
I won’t complain about this as long as I can have retroactive immunity any time I do something completely illegal in the interest of supposed counterterrorism.
Bombay Sapphire's Backstory Game
So, if you had some gin to sell, you could take out an ad reinforcing your brand’s sexiness or use by rich people. You know, standard advertising.
Or… You could design a flash game emphasing its backstory, namely the actual locations of its ingredients’ origins. Wait, what? That’s actually what Bombay gin is doing. As spotted on Wired.com:
Check out the BOMBAY SAPPHIRE...
“He’s often vilified as one of the 20th century’s worst tyrants. But it seems...”
– RussiaToday : Was Stalin the greatest Russian ever?
Ah, nostalgia. It’s so much darker in the former Soviet bloc.
WatchBlog Post Diffusion, courtesy of Data Mining
“Eco Systems designs and manufactures an innovative technology that produces...”
– Pedal Power Project: The Solution
“UAE 04 March, 2008 - Critical National Infrastructural Authority (CNIA)...”
– Middle East News : Critical National Infrastructure Authority to Sign 3 billion Dirham DERA Project Agreement with AGT/AIS
This is one of the more interesting stories following energy has dropped onto me. An almost unknown (on the Internet) security corporation wins an $800 million contract...
“So, is greenwashing — “disinformation disseminated by an organization so...”
– GreenBiz.com : How Bad Is Greenwashing, Really?
Joel Makower, godfather figure in green business, comes out against anti anti-greenwashing fervor among reporters and activists.