Tailgates Up

If you drive a truck, leave your tailgate UP for better gas mileage.

Artisinal Cereal

Go to Me & Goji to make your own cereal. Looks really nutritious and yummy, if a little pricey.

Slate/WaPo Site for Interactive Graphics

Nice site/blog where they list the cool new graphics or data stores that they have developed. Some are whimsical, but many are very well done and encompass large sets of data.

Stop, Hippy Time!

Timeline of major events of the 60's and 70's. Because that's the only time that really matters.

Curses

Hornswaggle

Codswallup

Codswaddle

Barnacles

Blazes

Lick-spittle

Scalawag

Criminy

Tarnation

Seeds

A great interface for a collection of articles from 2009 by Seed Magazine.

The Easy Star All Stars

The Easy Star All Stars morph into the bands that they cover. Except that the reggae part, of course.

Beatles (2009): Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Dub Band

Radiohead (2007): Radiodread

Pink Floyd (2006): Dub Side of the Moon

Mountain Goats Discography

Here

This is not ironic

Jesus holding the constitution.

Economic Stress Index Visualization

This is a great visualization from the AP about economic stressors. Breaks it down geographically, over time, and for multple metrics. They go the extra step of including biographies, so that you can see "beyond the numbers."

The Baseball Chart

Ben Fry's chart built in Processing about baseball salaries versus the performance of the team.

Listen to your inner voice

The worst book review ever.

Interview with Maria

An interview with Maria Bamford, after the release of her new album, Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome.

Books on Presentations

Advanced Presentation by Design by Andrew Abela

Presentation Zen Design by Garr Reynolds (website)

Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte (blog)

And finally, a review of these books by Peter Stoyko.

h/t ES and MK

Indexed

A site that forces you to be creative in condensing your message onto a single index card.

1870 Census

MK:

I ran across the 1870 US Census and thought a number of people may find it interesting in terms of data/information visualization. Not all of the plates are great but from a historical perspective it's pretty fascinating.

Dude

Playright Adam Bertocci wrote a parody of The Big Lebowski as if by Shakespeare and calls it The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski.

BioFail II

An object lesson on the hubris of mankind and their notions that they can control nature.

Econ Books on the Great Recession

From Joseph Stiglitz, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. He discusses the book and the governments under-reaction to the Recession on Huffington Post.

From Yves Smith, ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism. Discussed in this review on FDL.

I plan to read Stiglitz for sure. No shortage of books on the topic, either.

Stand-Up Economist

Yoram Bauman does stand-up comedy about economics...and is pretty funny.

Cyanide and Happiness

Profits!

A comic strip that is actually funny. Going on the list.

Mini Provolone Popovers

I look for any excuse to use the mini muffin tin...these popovers just might become a favorite.

Recipe:

1 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/3 cup finely chopped provolone

2 tablespoons grated parmesan

1 1/2 tablespoons chopped chives

Equipment: a 24-cup mini-muffin pan

Whisk together milk, eggs, flour, 1 tablespoon butter, salt, and pepper until smooth, then stir in cheeses and chives. Chill 1 hour to allow batter to rest.

Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in upper third.

Butter muffin pan with remaining tablespoon butter, then heat in oven until butter sizzles, about 2 minutes.

Gently stir batter, then divide among muffin cups (they will be about two-thirds full). Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Cooks' note:

Batter can be made 1 day ahead and chilled.

Electric Vehicles

I am very excited about the prospect for electric vehicles. The nice thing about electricity is that it can be produced from a variety of local sources. For example, you could have a windmill on your farm, or a solar panel on your roof. This makes them adaptable to local power production, saving on power transportation costs.

They can also rely on the current power grid which is at least partially developed for power distribution for cars. Electricity is nearly everywhere, even at current gas stations. All that is needed is a plug and a payment mechanism to make it work.

For these reasons, electric cars represent, I think, one key to a paradigm shift in thinking about energy.

Socially, electric cars have a wimpy image, which is ironic given how much torque an electric motor delivers. Many of the electric car designs are made small to conserve energy because the battery technology is not there yet to hold a relatively large amount of electricity. Electric vehicles are powerful enough to run locomotives and they power some very fast and powerful cars like the Tesla Roadster.

Dave McCandless Interview

A nice article/interview with Dave McCandless, InfoGraphic Maestro...

Cajun Pot Pies

Delicious shrimp and andouille pot pies. Yum.

I usually get my andouille at the Soulard Farmer's Market. If you have a better place to get it, please leave it in the comments.

Belligerent is as belligerent does

Senator McCain might be reminded that he gets belligerent at times, too.