The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Environmental Visualization Laboratory publishes this world map showing snow and ice cover daily.
NOAA global snow & ice cover map, updated daily.
Dan Beuttner for the New York Times Magazine writes about a particularly healthy lifestyle on an isolated Greek island:
Pointing across the Aegean toward the neighboring island of Samos, he said: “Just 15 kilometers over there is a completely different world. There they are much more developed. There are high-rises and resorts and homes worth a million euros. In Samos, they care about money. Here, we don’t. For the many religious and cultural holidays, people pool their money and buy food and wine. If there is money left over, they give it to the poor. It’s not a ‘me’ place. It’s an ‘us’ place.”
The island is named after Icarus, the mythical flier whose foolish ambition led to an early demise. The inhabitants of Ikaria appear to have taken the lesson to heart.
Midttrafik “The Bus” TV commercial from Denmark:
http://www.mondaynote.com/2012/09/02/apple-never-invented-anything/
For thirty years, the industry had tried to create a tablet, and it had tried too hard. The devices kept clotting, one after the other. Alan Kay’s Dynabook, Go, Eo, GridPad, various Microsoft-powered Tablet PCs, even Apple’s Newton in the early nineties….they didn’t congeal, nothing took.
The more effortless the results seem to be, the increased likelihood that those responsible put uniquely competent effort into the achievement.
If the Letter from Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook’s SEC IPO registration is a true representation of how Facebook functions, and they are able to maintain the Hacker Ethic he espouses after going public, FB will be a worthwhile long-term financial investment.
In the late 1980s I read about the original definition of hacking in Steven Levy’s fascinating telling of the computer industry foundation story, Hackers – Heroes of the Computer Revolution. The 25th anniversary edition includes a 2010 interview with Zuckerberg.
A triathlete turns down a $9,000 raffle prize in favor of a $134 steel bicycle.
“The most powerful bike in the world is not one that weighs 16 pounds, made of carbon and is ridden by professional athletes; it’s a 55 pound steel bike in the hands of a Zambian student fighting for her education.”
The misfit. The rebel. The troublemaker. The round peg in the square hole.
The one who saw things differently. He wasn’t fond of rules. And he had no respect for the status quo. You can quote him, disagree with him, glorify or vilify him.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore him. Because he changed things. He invented. He imagined. He healed. He explored. He created. He inspired. He pushed the human race forward.
Maybe he had to be crazy.
How else can you stare at a circuit board and see a work of art? Or say no to a thousand great ideas so you can say yes to the one? Or gaze at a box full of parts and imagine a bicycle for the mind?
(apologies to Craig Tanimoto)
Russell Shorter in the New York Times about the benefits of prioritizing bicycles:
But while many Americans see their cars as an extension of their individual freedom, to some of us owning a car is a burden, and in a city a double burden. I find the recrafting of the city in order to lessen — or eliminate — the need for cars to be not just grudgingly acceptable, but, yes, an expansion of my individual freedom.
Love them bubble graphs:
My first custom app project was an executive information management console for pharmaceutical wholesaler SUN-S in Sendai, Japan, circa 1987, plotting their market position over time vs competitors using revenue for size of bubble, market share for x axis and growth rate for y axis.
Excellent introduction to cycling in Tokyo by CNN’s Christopher Johnson:
Two wheels better than four in Tokyo | CNNGo.com.
As many of the photos illustrating the article suggest, cycling downtown on the weekends is marvelous.
If only the sento would start catering to cyclists who just need a quick shower.
