It’s like one of those friction-operated flashlights, where you have to squeeze to get light. Except for the fact that the light is television, and that instead of squeezing, you have to walk. It’s a prototype pair of shoes that bestows upon the wearer one minute of TV time for every 100 steps taken.
(New Scientist: “Smart shoes decide on television time,” by Will Knight [May 18, 2005])
https://www.swordbilled.com/ah-tv-only-four-more-miles/
Intel ranks cities for the availability of wireless internet access, listing the top 100. Here are the top 10:
(via PLANETizen)
https://www.swordbilled.com/most-unwired-cities/
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 refreshing was how on-target Diamond remained throughout the entire book; often, in anthropology/sociology/(etc.-ology) books that veer into or are targeted at pop culture, the author makes numerous departures from the main idea to relate entertaining or otherwise informative anecdotes that do not correspond directly to the thrust of the work. This makes the books fun to read (and imparts fun facts on the reader) but has the unfortunate side-effect of diminishing the strength of the author’s thesis. Diamond rarely veers, and somehow makes sure that all his anecdotes are highly germane to the GGS canon. For this reason, despite its length, Guns, Germs, and Steel is actually fairly straightforward and simple to understand.
https://www.swordbilled.com/guns-germs-and-steel/
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 in the collection. Which is to say that it’s quite good, but not brilliant. Good stuff. What’s to say? A fun, quirky mix of realism and fantasy, elements of the absurd and the totally expected mixed together expertly.
https://www.swordbilled.com/girl-in-the-flammable-skirt/
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 tentative, and not officially ‘approved’
(via Research Buzz)
https://www.swordbilled.com/oedilficious/
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 25 cities (of which the bottom half aren’t so impressive, but still in theory rank above other cities).
https://www.swordbilled.com/most-sustainable-cities/
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)
https://www.swordbilled.com/birds-of-america-c-1840/
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 dozens spectators, the winning piglets got a trophy for their efforts — and a trough of mashed carrots.
My only question is: how was the audience of the world’s first game of pig-ball so small? Dozens?
(BoGlo/AP: ” ‘Pig-ball’ soccer match staged in Russia.” [June 5, 2005])
https://www.swordbilled.com/pigs-at-play/
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 and terrain, view perspective, distance measuring, and more).
Or, if the earth isn’t enough for you, explore space in 3-D with NASA’s Planet Quest. View the solar system and beyond, with all sorts of nifty tricks at your fingertips.
https://www.swordbilled.com/the-world-unveiled/
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 nation’s food supply.
US Ag. Secretary Mike Johanns sez:
In reality, we know it proves virtually nothing. By analogy, a security system that prevents one robber from looting a museum is working to perfection. Which would be the case if only one attempt was made to rob the museum, but not if multiple attempts were made by multiple robbers. Could it be working to perfection? Sure. Could it be working to abomination? Sure.
The fact of Johanns making claim of the US Mad Cow net’s working to perfection does nothing but make me suspicious, not of ill-will so much as of incompetence.
Stay tuned.
(AP: “Feds: Safeguards Working Amid Mad Cow Case,” by Libby Quaid [June 25, 2005])
https://www.swordbilled.com/fact-v-fiction/