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Quite a weekend… more on it later.
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The NYT is reporting on a new type of digital billboard, using a sort of electronic paper, which can be updated remotely and requires power only to change the image. There’s also a technical whitepaper available (in PDF format) from the company mentioned in the article. If they can lower that technology’s cost and adapt it appropriately, it could take the consumer market by storm. (key words – ‘if’ and ‘could’.)
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A new study finds that urban sprawl contributes to obesity. The study indicates pretty specifically that the design of dense, older, urban neighborhoods promotes walking, biking, or transit, and helps keep the residents somewhat trim.
Um, yeah, I know all about being trim from living in an urban area. I’ve chased my share of busses. In fact, my favorite among the cheeky haiku I’ve composed in my lifetime relates to the inevitable timing phenomenon:
Springtime. I sprint five
blocks in the fresh morning air
and still miss my bus.
And it’s impossible to add any sort of muscle mass when one has to run like that every morning and night, just to get to and from work. I’m only gaining now because I can put my excess calories towards a new gram or two of fast-twitch fibers, instead of towards maintaining slow-twitch fibers built from my daily commute.
That said, I do enjoy living in a cool dense urban nabe. It gives me the option of taking my beloved car, the bus, or the Doc Marten express to wherever I need to go. Plus, I live near a historic Victorian park, which is a great place to cavort and frolic when the mood dictates, and within for-me-easy-for-others-moderate walking distance of some great restaurants and shops and pubs.
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OMFG, I lerve this site. “Straight Eye for the Queer Shows” is maintained by a couple straight-not-narrow guys who review episodes of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”. Recurring themes: *Thom (interior design guy) is a bitch but very talented. *Blair (early culture guy, replaced by Jai) adds nothing to the show. *Ted (food guy) r0x0rz. and *Carson (clothes guy) may turn out to be responsible for the downfall of Western civilization.
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