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?”