Archive for November, 2009
The Flip-fold
November 16th, 2009
The flip-fold is a ridiculous single-use item and I’d probably never actually want one in my house, but still, pretty slick.
The Nine Nations
November 16th, 2009
Written in 1981, Joel Garreau’s The Nine Nations of North America breaks the continent down into its most culturally relevant components. I like maps.
- New England
- An expanded version including not only Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut (although omitting the Connecticut suburbs of New York City), but also the Canadian Atlantic provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Capital: Boston.
- The Foundry
- The by-then-declining industrial areas of the northeastern United States and Great Lakes region stretching from New York City to Milwaukee, and including Chicago and Philadelphia as well as industrial Southern Ontario centering on Toronto. Capital: Detroit.
- Dixie
- The former Confederate States of America (today the southeastern United States) centered on Atlanta, and including most of eastern Texas. Garreau’s “Dixie” also includes Kentucky (which had both Federal and Confederate governments); southern portions of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana; and the “Little Dixie” region of southeastern Oklahoma. Finally, the region also includes most of Florida, as far south as the cities of Fort Myers and Naples. Capital: Atlanta.
- The Breadbasket
- Most of the Great Plains states and part of the Prairie provinces: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas, almost all of Oklahoma, most of western Missouri, western Wisconsin, eastern Colorado, the eastern edge of New Mexico, parts of Illinois and Indiana, and North Texas. Also included are some of Northern Ontario and southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Capital: Kansas City.
- The Islands
- The South Florida metropolitan area, the Everglades and Florida Keys, the Caribbean, and parts of Venezuela. Capital: Miami.
- Mexamerica
- The southern and Central Valley portions of California as well as southern Arizona, the portion of Texas bordering on the Rio Grande, most of New Mexico and all of Mexico, centered on either Los Angeles or Mexico City (depending on whom you ask), which are significantly Spanish-speaking. Garreau’s original book did not place all of Mexico within Mexamerica, but only Northern Mexico and the Baja California peninsula. Capital: Los Angeles.
- Ecotopia
- The Pacific Northwest coast west of the Cascade Range, stretching from Alaska down through coastal British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon and into California just north of Santa Barbara. Capital: San Francisco.
- The Empty Quarter
- Most of Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Colorado from Denver west, as well as the eastern portions of Oregon, California, Washington, all of Alberta and Northern Canada (including what is now Nunavut), northern Arizona, parts of New Mexico (mainly the area controlled by the Navajo Nation), and British Columbia east of the Coast Ranges. Capital: Denver.
- Quebec
- The primarily French-speaking province of Canada, which held referenda on secession in 1980 and 1995, the latter of which the “separatists” lost narrowly. Capital: Quebec City.
Rock Climbing…
November 15th, 2009
… is a thing that I got to do today. And I’ll be doing it again in the future, let me tell you.
Google Wave Invites!
November 13th, 2009
Way back in June when I first mentioned Google Wave, I signed up for the waiting list. It’s now five months later, but I’ve just gotten an invitation to the preview! Google’s given me a few invites to pass out – let me know if you’d like one!
Site Redesign
November 13th, 2009
I’ve been playing with WordPress themes quite a bit recently, and in the process this site got a much-needed redesign. Hopefully you’ll like it!
The End of the World: a FAQ
November 10th, 2009
NASA has provided a Frequently Asked Questions page re: “The world will end in 2012.”
Conclusion: The world will probably continue existing.
The Star Wars Holiday Special
November 6th, 2009
I just noticed that the Star Wars Holiday Special* is on Google Video. Watch at your peril:
* featuring Bea Arthur, Jefferson Starship, and Chewbacca’s son, Lumpy.
Let’s Talk About Dolphins
November 4th, 2009
Yeah, yeah, we all know dolphins are smart, but seriously, they’re smart:
At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.
Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.
It gets better. Read the rest of the article.