Morning Linkage (Aug 12)

Trans­porta­tion

Some peo­ple are lament­ing the loss of pos­si­ble future clas­sic cars to
the cash for clunk­ers pro­gram. The NYT Week in Review pon­ders the
ques­tion and comes up with 4 pos­si­ble clas­sics cur­rently eli­gi­ble for
crush­ing. The 88 Jag maybe. The other three, I rather have a Pacer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/weekinreview/09mayersohn.html?_r=2&hp

OTOH so many of us have fond mem­o­ries of car camp­ing in the old fam­ily
sta­tion wagon. Here’s a peek at a 1957 book on the sub­ject.
http://daddytypes.com/2009/08/09/nomadic_car_furniture_ford_treasury_of_station_wagon_living.php

and a link to the full text of the book from the Inter­net Archive.
http://www.archive.org/details/fordtreasuryofst00reckrich

I had a (mostly non-running) Vespa in col­lege and still think the
lit­tle scoot­ers are the epit­ome of small trans­port design. Here’s a
chance to get one for your­self and match­ing mini for your fav sprog.
Very Pretty™
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/10/everyone-needs-a-vespa-even-the-kiddies/

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Sci­ence

Highly effi­cient LEDs may be get­ting close. Good for flash­lights, bad
for atmos­pheric room light­ing (IMO).
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/new_energyboosting_led_tech_the_breakthrough_weve_been_waiting_for_14272.asp

Ever won­der why your toppy sadist friends have thing for red­heads?
Turns out car­rot tops really are more sen­si­tive.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/10/are-red-headed-peopl.html

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Design

I have a ter­ri­ble time with those lit­tle flash dri­ves. They don’t have
enough bulk to pre­vent them hid­ing in the dark­est recesses of my
purse, and the exposed con­nec­tors either get stepped on and man­gled,
or so full of purse dust that they don’t plug in. If there’s a cover
for the con­nec­tor it gets lost… etc. This may be the solu­tion. Ugly
but nicely func­tional.
http://www.verbatim.com/products/detail.cfm?product_id=54232290–1143-3415-5F762303CCD7756E&cat_id=8263FD89-1143–3415-5F27986110DFB583

Frank Plant is an Amer­i­can Sculp­ture liv­ing in Spain. He builds
pic­tures from heavy gauge wire and small bits of the real world.  His
blog posts show fin­ished works, work in progress, and details of
build­ing sev­eral of his pieces. Every­one who writes about him points
to his big red Kalash­nikov hang­ing over a sofa but I like his smaller
scenes from every­day life things. Par­tic­u­larly Tak­ing in the Laun­dry
and the series Sketches of mun­dane chores like vac­u­um­ing.
http://www.hierroglyphic.blogspot.com/

From Por­tu­gal a white stucco build­ing cov­ered with raised text blocks.
The typog­ra­phy and lay­out is won­der­ful.
http://www.the-refined.com/2009/08/typography-refinado/

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Bonus

This sort of belongs in Sci­ence but it’s here at the end so that I can
jus­tify includ­ing this awe­some  I don’t get teenagers quote.
http://www.newscientist.com/special/ten-mysteries-of-you

“Even our clos­est rel­a­tives, the great apes, move smoothly from their
juve­nile to adult life phases – so why do humans spend an ago­nis­ing
decade skulk­ing around in hoodies?”