January 2010
10 posts
3 tags
Big Ship, Bigger Problems
Photo by ussouthcom
This is the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship sent to Haiti as part of the US military’s “Operation Unified Response.” The Comfort is a massive ship (just 100 feet shorter than an aircraft carrier) whose 1,000 person crew includes a 550-person strong medical team. It is a fully capable hospital offering 12 operating rooms and 80 intensive care beds.
Comfort’s size, however,...
2 tags
What's Wrong With This Picture?
Photo by mikkohypponen on TwitPic
This is a completely, utterly, normal and unexciting ATM dipper. If you’re a regular ATM user, you’ve probably seen hundreds of these. What could be so special about this one?
This one is a thief.
That’s right, this ATM has been fitted with an ATM card skimmer that clones your card data. Once it has the goods, the data is transferred (via a cell phone that’s...
2 tags
Low-car Cities
After perusing Wikipedia’s “List of U.S. cities with most households without a car,” Jarrett Walker, a public transit consultant, attempts to reach some conclusions about why certain cities make the list. Surprisingly (at least to me), a city’s presence on the list is not purely a product of available public transportation (though it is an obvious factor).
If I then look across the whole list...
2 tags
Game Time
Sunday, the NFL is bringing us some great playoff match-ups. On paper, neither game looks like a blowout and there are some genuinely likable teams and players involved (well, except for that evil team from Minnesota). Under normal circumstances, I’d be stocking my snack cabinet for an epic day of couch potato-ing. Instead, I’m going to be schlepping into Manhattan for my first “Settlers of Catan”...
2 tags
"The Sports Guy"
In his most recent ESPN column, Bill Simmons writes that even though Lebron James is already the best player in the NBA, he hasn’t yet reached his full potential. Though I’m only a casual NBA fan, I can’t help but get excited when I read something like this:
In the first quarter Saturday night, LeBron picked off an errant pass and took off the other way. Standing near midcourt, Eric Gordon...
2 tags
Espresso, Intelligentsia
Dpt4d has crafted a wonderful look at the process of pulling espresso with 2008 US Barista Champion, Kyle Glanville. With the exception of the coffee, the video is done in black and white — an effect which causes the espresso to look incredibly appetizing. Consider yourself warned: if you watch this piece, you’re definitely going to want a shot for yourself.
Espresso, Intelligentsia at Vimeo
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1 tag
I'm Pro Pants
Improv Everywhere organized their first “No Pants Subway Ride” (yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like) in 2002. That ride included just seven participants (all male), but they had so much fun they did it again the following year — and again every year since. Participation has grown exponentially with each ride. This year’s ride included over 5,000 people in 44 cities all over the world (including...
2 tags
Weather Predictions Likely to Come True
Illustrator Christoph Niemann put together a series of personal weather predictions for 2010. He’s not a meteorologist, but I’d wager on his forecast being more accurate than Al Roker’s.
April 23: Sudden climate change from nagging about the cold to whining about the heat.
The whole series is worth a look.
(via The Morning News)
1 tag
Nuclear Mozzarella
New York magazine has a nice one-page feature on the return of dollar slice pizza in New York City. One thing really jumped out at me:
The materials used in an average pizza slice cost around 30 cents.
As someone who has sampled slices at some of the city’s “lower-end” pizza joints, I don’t doubt that many of them are spending so little per slice. The grease that oozes from cheap pizza...
1 tag
Slump Buster
I have let 44 days expire without writing a post and I can offer up a host of excuses of why I was too busy to make it happen (strep throat, the holidays, a 2 week travel stint, paid work, etc.). However, I’d be lying to you (and myself) if I said that busy-ness was why I hadn’t written a post in all this time.
Starting a blog costs almost nothing. There are countless free and easy services which...