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speaking pigeon


- bill 12-07-2007 8:05 pm [link] [2 comments]

When Ray Bengen learned that he was going to start work at the New York Times new Eighth Avenue office tower back in July as a software engineering consultant he thought, "Great. It's just up the street from where I live. I can ride my bike to work."

There was just one problem. While the Times and developer Forest City Ratner were promoting their new Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper as a "technologically advanced and environmentally sensitive" exemplar of green construction, a lack of bike parking and policies hostile towards cyclists were discouraging employees from commuting to work by the city's most environmentally-friendly mode of urban transport.

"I couldn't believe they built such a supposedly 'green' building without a bike room," Bengen said. "This isn't exactly the best neighborhood to leave a bike outside all day."

For a few weeks a friendly security guard allowed Bengen to bring his "cheap old Giant" bicycle into the building through a freight elevator. Then one day in September the guard said that he wasn't allowed to do that anymore.

- bill 12-07-2007 7:14 pm [link] [add a comment]

Economist is good for pointing a good death, this guy while interesting isn't missed by me
- Skinny 12-06-2007 5:30 pm [
link] [add a comment]

google maps does terrain
- mark 12-04-2007 9:36 pm [link] [add a comment]

Last summer, even as he talked about facing jail time, Jim Stevenson couldn’t stop looking for birds. “There’s a couple yellow-crowned night herons,” he said, pointing out his living-room window. “They roost in that chinaberry tree.” He rested his eyes on the blue-gray birds. “Anyway, the cops pulled me over and searched my van and found the gun, and —”


Stevenson is a bearish, ruddy-faced 54-year-old former science teacher who is known as the ornithological guru of Galveston, Tex. Ten years ago, he moved to this Gulf Coast barrier island because of its abundant shorebirds. Enormous flocks of American avocets, willets, sanderlings, dowitchers and plovers feed in the shallow, fertile estuary of Galveston Bay. Stevenson built his house amid a clump of trees so he could always be watching birds; he lives in a bird blind. Birds are his obsession and his profession. He is the director of the Galveston Ornithological Society and publisher of the quarterly newspaper Gulls n Herons. For money, he leads bird-watching tours.

- bill 12-02-2007 5:38 pm [link] [4 comments]

evel dead
- dave 12-01-2007 11:44 pm [link] [1 ref] [3 comments]

Some video camera geekitude follows




- mark 12-01-2007 4:30 am [link] [10 comments]

Eastern bloc retro futurist art (mostly magazine covers) from the 1930's through the 1970's
- jim 11-27-2007 6:05 pm [link] [1 comment]

An 18-foot minke whale ran aground on a sandbar in the Amazon jungle some 1,000 miles from the ocean, Brazilian media reported Friday.

- jim 11-19-2007 2:22 am [link] [1 ref] [1 comment]

Can an operating microwave oven interfere with a wireless signal?
- jimlouis 11-16-2007 8:07 pm [link] [4 comments]

A - Z in pictures


- bill 11-16-2007 7:35 pm [link] [26 comments]

brooklyn 2012. this is the first i've actually seen any visuals of the plans. skyscrapers will make brooklyn a vibrant community? this sucks.
- linda 11-16-2007 4:26 am [link] [1 comment]

NICE
- Skinny 11-14-2007 5:43 pm [
link] [3 refs] [1 comment]

hi from my new q. omg this is tedious. i hope i get faster at typing. kthxbai
- mark 11-14-2007 9:07 am [link] [2 comments]

trivia question. what is the oldest continously published magazine in america?
- dave 11-08-2007 12:37 am [link] [6 comments]

NPR announces a new music site:

Today, NPR and twelve (12) public radio partners are launching NPR Music, a free, multi-genre Web site that presents the best of public radio music. We have also launched a new Flash-based media player across NPR.org.
The site is here.
- jim 11-07-2007 4:56 pm [link] [add a comment]

We are pleased to announce that WFMU's live streams are finally available on the iPhone. iPhone listeners can point their browsers at iphone.wfmu.org and listen to our live mp3 streams at either 128k or 32k and also choose from a selection of our archived content and podcasts.

Based on our initial testing it will come as no surprise that tuning in over Wifi will get you the best results however we've also had reports of listeners with strong EDGE reception tuning in at 128k without issue. Since the Quicktime player in the iPhone has somewhat poor buffering compared with thick client-side players like Winamp and iTunes, we recommend listening to the 32k stream while connected over EDGE.

For the time being we are only offering a small subset of our archived content and podcasts on the iPhone but will be adding more content as time goes by.
- bill 11-06-2007 6:36 pm [link] [add a comment]

toilet flushing cat - its a compulsion


- bill 11-04-2007 2:55 pm [link] [add a comment]

there was a point in the mid to late 60's that you had to have a peanuts sweatshirt. it was a major pop clothes item at my school in miami. i forgot which character i had but eventually i cut off the arms so that it would be sleeveless and or sported inside out with the worn nappy fleece on the outside.

You're a Complicated Man, Charlie Brown
At its peak, over 350 million people around the world read "Peanuts" every day. Its creator, Charles Schulz, led a much darker life than anyone realized, and he put his troubles into the funny pages every day. Kurt talks with biographer David Michaelis about how America’s most beloved comic strip made "depressed" a household word.

- bill 11-03-2007 6:58 pm [link] [add a comment]

For modular furniture fans, I've been buying stuff from Per Madsen (a local supplier) since the 80's (starting with shelving for vinyl sound recording disks). I just took delivery on some file cabinets. Key factors for me: sturdy, wood, & wheels!
- mark 11-03-2007 3:06 am [link] [3 comments]

halloween moon
- bill 10-31-2007 12:39 pm [link] [1 comment]

you win


- bill 10-30-2007 1:39 am [link] [add a comment]

Don't taze me bro!

But that's not my penis!
- mark 10-29-2007 2:07 am [link] [1 ref] [add a comment]

brug


- bill 10-28-2007 11:46 pm [link] [1 ref] [add a comment]

parino show closes next saturday, plan to go today
- Skinny 10-24-2007 5:03 pm [link] [1 ref] [add a comment]