Monday, December 7, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 7 December 2009

Crossroads and TARP
This is a fascinating story from Reuters UK about Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City, a destination that is only slightly less deserted than the Area of Exclusion around Chernobyl, and how, because of the Fed bailout, it is now owned by U.S. taxpayers. We used to hang out at this mall when we were in high school; my how things change.

Earth With Rings
A very cool YouTube video showing what present-day Earth would look like from various cities and well-known locales if our planet had a set of rings like Saturn.

10 Brands That Will Disappear in 2010
With the folding or retiring of so many companies and brands in this recession, it’s only reasonable to think that we’ll see even more well-known brands go away. I’m not sure I agree with every item on this list, but a few of them – most notably Blockbuster – are already in the process of going under.

Star Wars Facebook Statuses
The third one down proves once and for all why you should be very careful about making sure the people you work with are unable to see your status. Privacy settings, people!

Monday, November 23, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 23 November 2009

Best TV of the ’00s
The Onion’s AV Club does a rundown of the best television of the decade. While I’m of the opinion that this decade has had some of the best television in history, and while I wholeheartedly agree with the inclusion of such personal favorites as Veronica Mars, Firefly, and Futurama, not to mention such obvious choices as 30 Rock and The West Wing, there are some notable omissions. Buffy (arguably more of a ’90s show than ’00s) but no Angel? No Wonderfalls? No Malcolm in the Middle? Oh, well; TV geeks will disagree, after all.

A Creek Runs Under It
"But the creek isn’t all above ground; five blocks of it run under Lewistown. When the town was constructed, part of it was built over the creek, inspiring a unique thrill ride that has become a rite of passage: floating through the town, underneath Main Street, in the pitch black."

Beer In A Box
YEAAAHHH! USA! USA! USA! USA! I think that with the advent of Beer In A Box, our country has completed some kind of transformation, from one type of society into another, wholly unrecognizable one, but the specifics of our new world are too terrifying to postulate.

New Cookie Baking Method
I am SO doing this for my Christmas party. That means it’s time to go get my waffle iron from the shop. Stupid waffle iron’s been in the shop forever.

Monday, November 9, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 9 November 2009

The Bitter Tears of Johnny Cash
"In July 1972, musician Johnny Cash sat opposite President Richard Nixon in the White House’s Blue Room. As a horde of media huddled a few feet away, the country music superstar had come to discuss prison reform with the self-anointed leader of America’s "silent majority." "Johnny, would you be willing to play a few songs for us," Nixon asked Cash. "I like Merle Haggard’s ‘Okie From Muskogee’ and Guy Drake’s ‘Welfare Cadillac.’" The architect of the GOP’s Southern strategy was asking for two famous expressions of white working-class resentment.
"I don’t know those songs," replied Cash, "but I got a few of my own I can play for you.""

Steak House – Or Gay Bar?
Being a gay guy from Oklahoma I’m no stranger to the double entendre required when naming establishments of … let’s say of a certain sort. I am speaking, of course, of steak houses, which are on occasion so homoerotically named that one might confuse them with homosexual gathering establishments. See how well you do!

Ever Dream This Man?
It seems that this site is either viral marketing or a giant hoax, but even so, it entirely creeps me out and makes me wish I’d come up with the idea. The horror story, the screenplay, they practically write themselves.

Buildings … OF THE FUTURE!
A cool story and poll at HuffPo that talks about some plans for buildings that are currently being discussed. I’m a particularly big fan of the "dragonfly" in NYC and the submerged hotel in a filled-in rock quarry in China, but I seriously doubt we’ll ever see any of these.

Monday, October 19, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 19 October 2009 (NERD EDITION)

NERD EDITION

32 Extrasolar Planets
I think the hunt for extrasolar planets is one of the coolest things going on in science right now. While I don’t expect it to yield contact with an alien civilization, I do think it’s fascinating to see the huge variety of star systems that are out there and to speculate on what they might be like.

Flexible OLED
A video of a new screen being developed by Samsung that brings the idea of digital paper into the real world. Pretty soon we’ll be folding these things up in our back pockets; I’m looking forward to this development, but I know I’m going to be constantly losing my foldy-uppy-phone-Kindle-digital-inky-thingy. QUICK! We need a kicky name for this bad boy that we can patent!

Not That Asteroid But This Other One
Because a huge part of me is still six years old, I am super bummed that we don’t have dinosaurs walking around. One scientists is claiming that, nope, that one crater in Mexico that we thought was the impact site but this other one in the Indian Ocean is the place where it all started going pear-shaped for Barney and Friends. Either way – bummer.

Moleskinerie
And because I am a huge nerd about stationery, enjoy Moleskinerie, an entire blog dedicated to everyone’s favorite pocket-sized notebook.

Monday, October 12, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 12 October 2009

The Retrovore’s Dilemma
A wonderful story from Mother Jones about the minefield that can be seed-swapping among city gardeners, who apparently now like to call themselves "urban farmers." I mostly love how he refers to his lettuce like it’s a pet. Still, a wonderful read for anyone contemplating growing their own food.

Life Magazine
"LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine which chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use."

Why Didn’t I Think Of This?
This dude in the UK is now laughing all the way to the bank with his potentially millions of tax-free dollars made off his easy-ass job that he invented.

GIANT GUMMI
Dude, somebody get me one of these to decorate for Halloween with! I’d shove a light up its ass and make it REALLY creepy!

Monday, September 28, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 28 September 2009

Atlas Obscura
I’m now going to check this site before I go ANYWHERE.
"The Atlas Obscura is a collaborative project with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist. If you’re looking for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, phallological museums, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you’ll find them."

Post-Rapture Pet Care
"An atheist in New Hampshire is hiring out pet care services to Christians who believe that there will be a rapture and they will leave behind their pets. He won’t tell Mainstreet whether the business is very successful—he says his clients number "more than one and less than 175," but it’s certainly an interesting way to bring two traditionally opposing groups together under a common (profit-making) cause."

America’s Douchiest Colleges
How much did it please me that Duke was ranked #2 on this list and that the University of Texas was #24? A LOT IT PLEASED ME A LOT.

Masterpiece Comics
The classics of Western literature re-worked as comic books and comic strips. My favorite, of course, is seeing Mary Worth as Lady Macbeth.

Monday, September 14, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 14 September 2009

Old Rock Dudes With Meg Ryan Hair
"Can anybody tell us what is happening here? Why do all aging rockers go for this look?! These are Grown-Ass Men getting their hair styled EXACTLY LIKE MEG RYAN’s while wearing multiple necklaces, chokers, and rings on every finger. And why are HIGHLIGHTS a good idea?! Please stop with the $500 ripped jeans and tank tops. This is the worst look ever."

Odosketch
This site is SO MUCH FUN. It’s got a ton of great tools to help you create really neat little pieces of art online. But my favorite part is flipping through the stuff that other users have done; it’s some really beautiful work.

Invader Rubikubism
"When I first researched making butter, I truly thought the butter would be A) hard to make and B) taste terrible. Both of these hypotheses were incorrect.
This recipe is truly easy and the quality of butter is really unlike any I’ve tasted. All you really need is a stand mixer. A hand mixer will do but won’t be nearly as easy, although many of the posts I read called for shaking cream in a jar to make butter…Yeah. A huh. I kid you not."

Get Rich Slow!
I’ve read this article – no joke – six times. It helped me understand my 401k and the whole idea of saving for retirement. Seriously, whatever age you are, read it.

Monday, August 31, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 31 August 2009

How America Lost The War on Drugs
I’m usually not a fan of Rolling Stone, but on occasion they have some truly ass-kicking reporting. This story, a long read about how abjectly the U.S. failed to combat illegal drugs in any appreciable fashion whatsoever, is a must.

Surface Area Required To Power the World
This map shows how much of the earth’s surface area would be needed in solar panels to power the earth in 2030. Something to think about as we move forward with reorganizing our energy infrastructure.

Invader Rubikubism
"the classic strategy game never ceases to amaze, the rubik’s cube is an 80s game made from colored squares. it’s a fascinating object, as it’s both extremely simple and extremely complex. did you know there are over 43 billion possible permutations for a rubik’s cube? french artist invader uses the rubik’s cube like an artist uses paint."

Katamari Damacy Wedding
I guess I had to assume it would happen, that some nerds would come along and use this decade’s craziest and most innovative video game as a wedding theme. Be sure to click through to the slideshow.

Monday, August 24, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 24 August 2009

Homeless Man Leaves Behind $4 Million
"An article in the online newsletter of a Catholic mission in Phoenix revealed that Walters died two years ago at the age of 76. He left an estate worth about $4 million. Along with the money he left for NPR, Walters also left money for the mission.
But something distinguished Walters from any number of solvent, well-to-do Americans with seven-figure estates: He was homeless. "

NASA: Hurricane Bill Got Close
This photo from NASA’s AQUA satellite shows exactly how close Hurricane Bill got to the East Coast of the United States, and lends some perspective to just how big hurricanes really are.

Samus Aran on Gay Marriage
Those of us who finished Metroid as kids always kind of wondered, and now, in a brave piece for McSweeney’s, the video-game heroine comes out of the closet.

8-Bit Trip
Speaking of childhood, and NES, these guys put together a super-cool and very intricate music video involving thousands and thousands of Legos and images that any child of the 80s will recognize.

Monday, August 17, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader – 17 August 2009

Commuter Dogs
A very sad story about urban dogs that have learned to use the subway to go scavenge for food in the more affluent suburbs before returning home the same way every night.

The Classics Reimagined
Some of the greats of classic literature re-examined as modern graphic novels. My personal favorite is Macbeth re-worked as a Mary Worth plotline.

Sorry To Burst Your Bubble
From The Daily Mail, a series of super-slow motion shots show a soap bubble, the kind you used to blow as a kid and still occasionally get to at weddings, when you pop it. Wonderful photography.

The Leaf
Nissan’s new zero-emissions car could use a better name (or the power to give you a raccoon tail and the ability to fly), but overall I’m glad the car companies are headed this direction.