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)
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/
Walkable goodness
The American Podiatric Medical Association ranks the top 10 walker-friendly (U.S.) cities. And they should know.1 Arlington, VA San Francisco, CA Seattle, WA Portland, OR Boston, MA Washington, D.C. NYC Eugene, OR Jersey City, NJ Denver, CO The list includes links to lots of other info, including stretches for exercise walkers, a true-or-false walking quiz […]
Posted by Ben on May 6, 2005
https://www.swordbilled.com/walkable-goodness/
British Council’s list of favo(u)rite words
1 Mother 2 Passion 3 Smile 4 Love 5 Eternity 6 Fantastic 7 Destiny 8 Freedom 9 Liberty 10 Tranquillity 11 Peace 12 Blossom 13 Sunshine 14 Sweetheart 15 Gorgeous 16 Cherish 17 Enthusiasm 18 Hope 19 Grace 20 Rainbow 21 Blue 22 Sunflower 23 Twinkle 24 Serendipity 25 Bliss 26 Lullaby 27 Sophisticated 28 […]
Posted by Ben on December 9, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/british-councils-list-of-favorite-words/
Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints About “Fahrenheit 9/11”
(from the Late Show with David Letterman, June 29, 2004) 10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing 9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election 8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words 7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the part where I get […]
Posted by Ben on July 16, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/top-10-gw-complaints-on-letterman/
Online Resources for YOU to use, abuse, and confuse
Freedom of Information Act: so you have some idea what the Freedom of Information Act is, maybe, but did you know that you can read some of the things that have been made publicly available online? Oh. You did? Well, for those of you who haven’t, you may want to check out the FOIA’s Electronic […]
Posted by Ben on April 2, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/online-resources-for-you-to-use-abuse-and-confuse/
Quotes in the news
Noam Chomsky, MIT Linguist and Anarchist: “Kerry is sometimes described as ‘Bush-lite’, which is not inaccurate. But despite the limited differences both domestically and internationally, there are differences. In a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes.” (The Guardian, March 20) Mel Gibson, on George Bush: “I am having my doubts, […]
Posted by Ben on March 22, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/quotes-in-the-news/
Gee That’s A Large Beetle I Wonder If It’s Poisonous…
…and many other weird and often irreverently profane band names, found on the The Canonical List of Weird Band Names. Which, yes, restricts the list to actual band names. Skimming the list, I recognized maybe 11 or 12 names, but I’m not too sure whether that’s a particularly good thing. It might be, it might […]
Posted by Ben on March 22, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/gee-thats-a-large-beetle-i-wonder-if-its-poisonous/
O$CAR: It didn’t seem like a bad idea
Okay. So I have a mild curiosity as to the Oscar winners. No major investment—no money riding on any of the nominees (honest!), just a mild, vaguely saprophytic curiosity. (And yes, I realize that saprophytic almost definintely makes no sense whatosever in that context.) Moreover, using the seemingly bottomless pool of numbers over at The […]
Posted by Ben on March 1, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/ocar-it-didnt-seem-like-a-bad-idea/
Fun Golf Facts
Amount of water it would take, per day, to support 4.7 billion people at the UN daily minimum: 2.5 billion gallons Amount of water used, per day, to irrigate the world’s golf courses: 2.5 billion gallons Average amount of pesticides used per acre, per year, on golf courses: 18.0 pounds Average amount of pesticides used, […]
Posted by Ben on February 26, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/fun-golf-facts/