Tuesdays

Tuesdays are always one of my longer days during the week, inevitably filled with meeting after meeting. Do you have one of those days every week? If so, look into buying the Ostrich. Tempting right?

The 1927 Mississippi River Flood Mapped

Found this impressive map of the 1927 Mississippi River flood online tonight over at the NASA blog, Elegant Figures. The map is available from the National Archives. For those of you from Lafayette, be sure to go to the high res version here and check out how close it was to Lafayette. Interesting.

via @gravelbar

Vintage Mississippi River

I spent a little bit of the evening doing a little searching for vintage Mississippi River material because of the interest it seemed to spark in this forum over the last day or so. The basic gist in most materials that you dig into is that while times and technology have changed, the perception and cold hard facts don't change. Not rocket science for sure, but still interesting to root through some history and see some older depictions that are so relevant this week.

Here are a few interesting items that I stumbled on while poking around and doing some reading. Click on each of the images below to see higher resolution versions.

The following image is from an 1882 Harper's cartoon.

In it, King Neptune releases his ruthless force through the deluge of the Mississippi River, engulfing tiny villages along its unrestrained path. In the background, the female personification of the South seeks the protection of Columbia (representing the federal government).

Strange, when I look at Neptune, he definitely looks like he is at the mercy of the force he has unleashed. Very apropos, but not mentioned in the formal explanation of the cartoon. Am I reading too much into it?

The following cartoon is called Old Man River, and I found it on the History of Geology. This cartoon is from 1927 and was published in a paper called the Ledger. That's Herbert Hoover in the background proposing higher levees.

Less cartoon-ish but interesting nonetheless is this image below from Popular Science Monthly, dated June of 1928 (you just have to love Google books sometimes). This is a map of the Mississippi River that exaggerates the height of the Mississippi in comparison to the surrounding land.

The article goes on to describe the theory as to why this is the case...and how it is this height which is the systemic problem causing continual flooding.

Finally, in a true piece of randomness, as I paged through this same 1928 publication, I stumbled across the article below. Now I am not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination but I could swear that this might be the hint of microwave dinners galore. Pretty neat.

P'TA Mon and Thug Law

We had dinner last night at someone's house (a fundraiser for a local charity) and there were a couple of people there who work in the forensic lab in the area. They told me about P'TA Mon's YouTube video and his criminal defense practice based out of Baton Rouge. Had to share it.

Cooking with your Kenmore

Still in the process of cleaning up post remodel and came across this retro user guide for the old stove that came with the house when we first bought it. Pretty awesome.

Taxi Yoga

"If you're driving in pain, you're going to be a nasty person."

My wife keeps pushing me to try yoga out and I'm sure that I'll give in some day. In the meantime, I guess I'll give her a little ammunition by posting this interesting article in the NYT on how NY city taxi drivers are starting to take yoga in order to manage road rage. Check it out.

And of course, the official Taxi Yoga website....

It's not space we need...it's balance.

Not sure where I stumbled upon this ad for National Geographic's upcoming focus on global population and the need for balance but I think the video is well done. It shifts focus about 1 minute and 50 seconds in with the conclusion that space is not the issue, balance (and I would use the term sustainability) is. Makes me think about subscribing...

King(s)

I've started to read Peter King's MMQB the last couple of weeks (yes I am late to the party) and have found it pretty amusing at times as well as simply allowing me to hold my own in conversations with my wife, who is a serious football fan. Well, she is a fan of any sport actually...and has an impressive array of stats about most players in the NFL, EPL, international soccer, you name it.

Back to King: In addition to a slew of interesting sports information, King's random reflections on various topics can be even more interesting than the latest tripping scandal in the NFL or the rantings of a team that doesn't know how to win with class. This particular reflection was an interesting one to me and I find the quote from Kennedy inspirational.

And I'll leave you with this last thing. Last week, I wrote about the Tucson shootings peripherally, and asked, in a naïve way I suppose, for people to stop yelling at each other in the media and in society. And I came across this nugget. Thursday will be the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's inauguration. In his speech that day, he asked the countries America was in conflict with -- the Soviet Union and Cuba, without mentioning them by name -- to be able to start over in discussing how to control the arms race.

"Let us begin anew,'' he said, "remember on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.''

King's Twitter feed is pretty interesting as well sometimes. Voluminous all the time. Today it made me laugh to see the tweets come in that criticized his characterization of the "men in suits" who are negotiating the lockout in the NFL. I would say the argument was closed and won with this statement that he made but I am sure the banter will continue.

USWLeeann: Insulting. Women are probably brokering deal in back corner
SI_Peter_King: There's a slight chance I know more about this than you.

I would be remiss to not mention the whole reason I get to make a long textual blog post on a Monday morning. If you are looking for inspirational quotes to guide you along the way, these words will never fail.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Speed and Concussions

Been watching a lot of football these past few weeks - the American kind that is - so these two news articles caught my attention. Oddly enough, both come from design related blogs that I read and not sport sources.

New helmets to fight concussions? And they look kinda bad ass as well. Although, if you weighed 200+ lbs and were coming after me you could be wearing pajamas and I would think you looked pretty bad ass.

Now Oregon on the other hand, looked pretty awesome in their latest uniforms. Turns out there was a lot of design technology behind them to help accentuate the speed of the team.

Send me to prison...in Denmark

Check out the winning design for the new state prison in Denmark on the island of Falster. Currently contemplating crimes that will get me a free vacation....

Mapping America

The NY Times has a really cool data visualization project that is built off of Census Bureau sample data available from 2005-2009. You can zoom in on your census tract and see statistics related to:

• Race And Ethnicity
• Income
• Housing and Families
• Education

For each of these categories there are additional ways to view the data. For example, in the Housing and Families bracket, you can view your tract from the following perspectives: Median Home Value, Change in Median Home Value, Mortgages Consuming 30% of Income, and Same Sex Couples. Curious about your neighbors? Definitely an interesting way to kill a little bit of time.

Fashion Forward or Fashion Faux Pas?

BOB friend Xularite waxes poetic on the merits of the Man Purse. Check it out by clicking here.

Advertising for Air

Check out this billboard that is on the border between US and Canada near Vancouver, BC - sponsored by the federal government, it advertises clean air. I never knew I would consider a billboard a tourist site but I would put this on my list for any trip to this area.

via Co.Design

Visualized NFL Data

If I was into fantasy football I would think this was cool. Well...actually...this is cool either way.

via FlowingData

Crab and Banana Vending Machine

Another reason to potentially be interested in traveling to Japan...vending machines with live crabs and bananas.

JapanProbe dot com
Uploaded by pubjapaned.

Not sure what you do with the crab after you buy it. If you know Japanese and they happen to solve this mystery in the video, let me know. Maybe they just eat them raw.

Next Up: Robotic Germs Capable of Deception

This attempt at a world record is sad on so many levels that I do not even know where to start. If you go to the next Philadelphia Union game this Thursday, you can have a chance to set a new world record for ""the most people sanitizing their hands at once!"

Yes, the end of civilization as we know it is just around the corner. Super germs and robots capable of deception are about to take over.

Mani the Parakeet vs Paul the Octopus

The soccer teams have taken a back seat and I'm officially cheering for Mani, the psychic parakeet to win the World Cup tomorrow. That's right, Paul the octopus has competition and this bird is picking Netherlands to win it all. Hup Holland Hup!

Used...and not Cheap

So I was researching a book this past weekend related to warm-up exercises for soccer teams and found something that I thought was pretty funny. You might think warm-ups are easy: jog and stretch. However, there is an overwhelming amount of research related to dynamic stretching, which focuses on muscle groups and movement related to a soccer game vs. static stretching which is what everyone, including me thinks of when you think about stretching (i.e. reach down and touch your toes).

Anyway, I am working on learning more about dynamic movement and stretching and found this book: Warm Ups for Soccer: A Dynamic Approach. Looks good and is exactly what I am looking for.


Out of curiosity I researched the used book prices on Amazon. Click this link and scroll down. Someone has it listed for $999. Hey, I guess if you are silly enough to buy it for $1,000 rather than get a $14 copy...power to you.

Crawfish Robbery

Bet you don't have these in your town. $3,000 is a lot of mud bugs.

Missing Paris

If you find yourself missing Paris, check out this 26 Gigapixel photo of the city. This is damn cool. via Kottke