Intel ranks cities for the availability of wireless internet access, listing the top 100. Here are the top 10: Seattle-Bellevue-Everett-Tacoma, Wash. San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland, Calif. Austin-San Marcos, Tex. Portland, Oregon – Vancouver, Wash. Toledo, Ohio Atlanta, Ga. Denver, Colo. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. Orange County, Calif. (via PLANETizen)
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond In all likelihood you do not need me to tell you that this is a fascinating and well-written book, so I won’t dwell on the obvious. It’s a book I’ve been encouraged to read on numerous occasions and, having read it, I’m not disappointed. One thing I found […]
Posted by Ben on July 15, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/guns-germs-and-steel/
Girl in the Flammable Skirt
Girl in the Flammable Skirt, by Aimee Bender This is as entertaining a collection of stories as any, and one of them is enough to get you hooked (or ought to be, anyway). The title is catchy—it’s what caught my attention—but is also interesting for the fact that the eponymous story is possibly the weakest […]
Posted by Ben on July 15, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/girl-in-the-flammable-skirt/
OEDILFicious
The OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form) is an attempt to put all definitions into, yes, limerick form. Right now you’re out of luck if you want a limerick-ified definition for, say, bottle, or (heavens!) zebra. But there are 23* definitions for aardvark, so it’s not all bad. * some of which are still […]
Posted by Ben on July 13, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/oedilficious/
Most Sustainable Cities
US city rankings by SustainLane. In addition to having a logical color-coded system, SustainLane has a fairly comprehensive break-down of sustainability issues for each city, with individual rankings for everything from concrete things, like air quality and transportation, to less obvious things, like city innovation and knowledge base. The rankings include info for the top […]
Posted by Ben on July 6, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/most-sustainable-cities/
Birds of America, c. 1840
The 1840, seven-volume edition of John James Audubon’s Birds of America is now avaiable online. Granted, it’s not as useful as modern field guides, but it’s certainly interesting for the historical context (and the illustrations, of course.) (via LII)
Posted by Ben on July 3, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/birds-of-america-c-1840/
Pigs at play
The event, staged as part of an agricultural exhibition on Moscow’s outskirts, is set up like soccer, with two teams of five piglets. Instead of goals, the teams try to move the ball into painted, half-circles located at the pen’s corners. To move things along, the ball is slathered in mashed carrots. Cheered on by […]
Posted by Ben on June 30, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/pigs-at-play/
The World, unveiled
Google unveils Google Earth, previously known as Keyhole, for free. Of course you can upgrade to get additional features, etc. etc., but the free product itself is fairly impressive. Essentially, Google Earth is a program that combines the standard Google Map functions with satellite view and a couple other goodies (like 3-D rendering of buildings […]
Posted by Ben on June 29, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/the-world-unveiled/
Fact v. Fiction
The United States has just had its first official case of home-grown mad cow disease. “Just had” in this case corresponding to seven months ago but, well, you know. While it took seven months from the first suspicion of this lone mad cow to positively identify its condition, at least it wasn’t entered into the […]
Posted by Ben on June 25, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/fact-v-fiction/
Tallest, highest, best
Using a formula that relies mostly on the floor count of a cities skyscrapers, skycrapers.com (AKA Emporis) ranks the cities of the world by the impressiveness of their skylines. Fun, utterly useless and irrelevant (and also debatable) trivia. (Pittsburgh weighs in at #60, Philly at #35, and Boston at #43 [nestled in between Montréal and […]
Posted by Ben on June 23, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/tallest-highest-best/