Green Energy: The Junk Mail Engine

If I was a venture capitalist, I'd invest in any company that promised to generate electricity from my junk mail. It's the only thing that never stops coming. There should be a law...

Nice weekend of activity

Friday: 9 mile run at Green Lake and dusk walk to Gasworks, Saturday: Yoga, Zum gym workout and 15 mile inline skate, Sunday: hike at Old Robe Trail in the rain and back for a sunny 6 mile run at Green Lake.

Old Robe Trail

Really enjoyed the Old Robe Trail near Granite Falls today. We left sunny-ish Seattle and found rainy skies but the scramble and adventure of this trail (albeit kinda short until you hit a narrow bridge with treacherous consequences) made it kind of fun. Very slippery and steep in sections, not for the faint of heart. The bridge that we stopped at had 20 foot dropoffs into a fast portion of river.

See photos on Flickr.

References on trail: here and here

Last-Ditch Resort: Move Polar Bears to Antarctica?

In April, I offered this idea as an April Fools Joke. I knew it wouldn't be too long before it entered mainstream debate. I didn't expect it to arise this quickly.

Read story at NewsCloud.

Coolest Fountain I've Seen

Fountain
Originally uploaded by reifman

Millennium Park video fountain in Chicago. Very cool.

Three lines of economic disparity

The line for iPhones at the Chicago Apple Store (10 days post launch):

The line for coffee at the Seattle airport Starbucks (prior to closing 600 stores):

The line at the soup kitchen/shelter in Chicago today:

Big Dig's red ink engulfs state - pause for Seattle Viaduct rebuild?

Before Washington State makes a final decision on rebuilding the Viaduct, they may want to read this article:

Now, three years after the official dedication of the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel, the state is reeling under a legacy of debt left by the massive project. In all, the project will cost an additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the total to a staggering $22 billion, according to a Globe review of hundreds of pages of state documents. It will not be paid off until 2038.

Read story at NewsCloud.

CNN: From Janet Jackson's Breast to Afghanistan Pakistan Border in Seconds

One of the joys of being stuck at the airport is having to listen to CNN Headline News. At one point they went from announcing the breaking news of the FCC fine being repealed against CBS for the baring of Janet Jackson's breast to a lead into the rising violence in the Afganistan Pakistan border in the U.S. military's fight against the Taliban. All in a matter of seconds.

United Airlines - more delays and more tyranny

I woke up at 5:30 am to catch my 8 am flight to Chicago today on United. I'd checked in the night before. United's web flight status showed a 2 hour 10 minute delay (now 2 hour and 30 minutes). I called United (my first mistake) to see if I could just show up late ... I was told repeatedly not to because they could give away my seat. They told me to show up on time for the 8 am arrival in case the flight boarded early. I called American Express, the booking agent, they said to follow United's instruction. So, I've been sitting at the airport since 7:30 am. I think I am the stupid one here for listening. I should have just slept in another hour or so and shown up late Any other frequent travelers out there want to offer their advice?

btw - United outsourced its customer support offshore years ago.

How to turn off beacon in Facebook

Here's how to turn off Facebook's Beacon from publishing information about your offsite purchases into your mini-feed. Click Privacy in the upper right -> then click News feed and mini-feed, then click the Actions on External Websites tab, then check "Don't allow any websites to send stories to my profile" and click Save Changes. Alternately, use this link: http://www.facebook.com/privacy/#/privacy/?view=feeds&tab=external.

Lifehacker has info on disabling beacon's offsite tracking via your browser. Works with Firefox. Doesn't work when you're roaming on other computers. Does keep Facebook from ever gathering the data. The above steps do not.