Instructables: DIY Free Motion Cycling Rollers.
One of the best things you can do for your riding is to train on rollers. All the other riders in your pack will thank you.
CNN: Topeka ‘renames’ itself ‘Google, Kansas’.
“This isn’t the first time Topeka has switched its name to mark a cultural trend. In 1998, former mayor Joan Wagnon temporarily changed the name of the city to ”ToPikachu, Kansas,” in reference to the Pikachu anime character, from the show and game called “Pokemon,” which was popular at the time, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.” Who says the Midwest doesn’t have an eye for the latest trends?
SF Gate: Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy.
“David Ibnale had no idea how tough it would be to give away umbrellas on Market Street the other day. He figured that he and his free umbrellas were going to change the world. The world had other ideas.”
Lightly Buzzed: James Cameron Discusses Na’vi Boobs.
So now you know. As if you weren’t already going to Hell with your shoes on backwards for enjoying the film.
Offered without comment.
Spiegel.DE: Death in the Atlantic: The Last Four Minutes of Air France Flight 447.
“Without a speed reading, the computer more or less throws in the towel, which doesn’t make things easier for the pilots. It would be easier for pilots if they could simply switch the computer off in critical situations, as is possible on Boeing planes.” I remain unconvinced about fly-by-wire. Give me mechanical backup. Ice has always been a scourge, and just goes to show that fancy engineering still hasn’t made man ‘master of nature’. There remain times to keep your butt parked on the firmament.
Project Gutenberg …
Wired: U.S. Team Hopes to Bring Steam Car Record Home.
LA Times: ‘Avenue Q’ puppet too busty for Colorado Springs.
“Lucy, one of the puppet stars of the risque Broadway show ‘Avenue Q,’ won’t get the same exposure in the conservative bastion of Colorado Springs, Colo., where her ample — if also pink and fuzzy — endowment has proved too much for a billboard company.” Colorado Springs, as I’ve mentioned before, has become a bizarre place.
IEEE Spectrum: Toyota Says It Is No Longer Sure Of All The Causes of Runaway Cars.
Lessons of Failure: Five Pervasive Myths About Older Software Developers.
“Keep your teams a vibrant mix of age and experience–where diversity exists, learning can take place. But if you’re the person looking to hire someone, don’t write off the dude with the gray hair sitting across from you. Let go of your age prejudice and see if they can impress you.” Amen, brother.
Motionworks: How to avoid the perils of perfectionism.
Time to look in the mirror. Still, if you’re in this business and you’re not a bit of a perfectionist, you’d never have portfolio pieces.
Metro.co.UK: ‘Cat casserole’ TV chef Beppe Bigazzi banned after La Prova Del Cuoco show.
“I can assure you, it’s a delicacy – now I am going to get lots of letters.” Siamese brown rice casserole, Easy Himalayan casserole, Layered Abyssinian bake ... just teasing. I doubt many people have a clean stream behind their digs.
Washington Post: Toyota investigating Corolla steering problems.
“Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it’s looking into complaints of power steering problems with its popular compact car and is considering a recall as one option.” As you know, I own one. It needs a steering damper, or the ratios jigged. Fine at low speed, but too sensitive at high.
Telegraph.UK: Be lucky - it’s an easy skill to learn.
“My research revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. I wondered whether these four principles could be used to increase the amount of good luck that people encounter in their lives.” Sounds very fine, but in the interest of full disclosure, he’s pitching a book. Still, I’m going to try some of this.
Slate: Should we be worried that our cars are controlled by software?
“In some versions of the 2010 Prius, the code that runs the braking system is buggy. It sometimes lags before applying full stopping power. To fix the error, the dealer simply downloads and installs a new version of the software—pretty much the same routine you’d go through to fix a security flaw in Microsoft Windows.” Driving-by-wire. We used to tease each other after high school, hands greasy from manifolds and carburetors, saying “can you imagine a day when you just have to change a chip to get higher performance?”
BoingBoing: Flashlight transforms into submachine gun.
I laughed at the commenter, “Not to put too fine a point on it, but you Americans are a bunch of mental cases.” I think, to be more accurate, it converts into a Glock pistol, not a ‘submachine gun.’ Still, this has me thinking. We really need a toilet plunger that converts to a short stabbing sword. A vacuum cleaner that converts into a home bazooka. An inkjet printer that converts into a teargas delivery system. A septic system that is triggerable to deliver napalm to the septic field. A screensaver that emits light and patterns to induce seizures. Houseplants that become nunchaku. Oh, the fun you can have ...
NY Times: Listening In on a Pay Phone in Queens.
“In the age of the iPhone and the BlackBerry, in a city where cellphones are cheaper and more plentiful than toasters, the pay phone outside Fast & Fresh is outdated, outnumbered, outperformed. Yet this grimy phone — in a silvery booth that Superman would have skipped over, for it is doorless and not fully enclosed — survives and, in its own nickel-and-dime way, thrives.” Via Cameron Marlow’s Twitter.
NY Times: Trouble in Space Station Construction.
Trouble in Space Station Construction. This is what they get for not buying their modules at Ikea.
My Modern Metropolis: Classical Street Art by Zilda.
NPR: Caffeine And Alcohol Just Make A Wide-Awake Drunk.
Ouch. “College-aged bar patrons who mix alcohol and caffeine — think Red Bull and vodka — are more likely to leave the joints drunker than their pals who drink alcohol alone. And here’s the scarier part: the caffeinated boozers are four times more likely to want to drive home.”
TheCoolist: Porsche revs up 911 hybrid.
“It’ll be fast, and it’ll be green. High-performance automaker Porsche plans to unveil a hybrid version of its 911 GT3 R race car at the Geneva Motor Show in March — and then enter it in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring race this May.” And it’ll be so heavy as to be uncompetitive with non-hybrids, one presumes.
Dumb Little Man: How to Finally Overcome Shyness.
“There is a thing called ‘flooding therapy’ where you get suddenly and massively exposed to the thing you’re scared of in order to get cured – I’m skeptical. Maybe it will work in some cases and if carefully managed, but I suspect that it will usually do more harm than good. So take things slowly, just not too slowly!” After having helped people learn to use a teleprompter over the years, I verify your recommendation is not so dumb, little man.
ENR: Contractor Takes the Keys To World’s First ‘Hybrid’ Dozer.
Y’know, I hadn’t thought about hybrid construction equipment.
Washington Post, Parker: Men, The original shovel-ready project.
“But if one should ever stop pondering the malaise of modern woman long enough to consider what men might want, the answer is obvious to any except, perhaps, the U.S. Congress. Give a man a job, and he’ll clear a path to your door.” Give me a shovel instead of a computer, I have to admit I’ll find satisfaction and happiness.
