Just got a $2 bill in change. Haven’t seen one “in the wild” in years.
Category: Life
Glass Bow
The other day I was walking past a construction site in the Irvine Spectrum area, and noticed a rainbow-like ring appearing in the road. I immediately thought of this mystery photo on APOD and its (rather technical) explanation. Naturally, I had to take a picture myself.
It basically is a rainbow, except formed by reflections in tiny glass beads (used for sandblasting) instead of raindrops. The physicist who posted his (much better) photo to APOD had a better camera handy. And a linear polarizer. (Don’t you always carry one of those?)
Sadly, I only had my phone.
Enviro Oddities
Top 10 Odd Environmental Ideas (Time via @ThisIsTrue). Some are disturbing, but I like the staple-free stapler.
Reach for the Sky
Spotted in Old Town San Diego.
Link Archive
I used to keep a sidebar linkblog here, but I’ve long since stopped. These days I’m more likely to post an interesting link to Twitter, or just save it up for a later post. I figured the WordPress 2.8 upgrade was as good a time as any to clean out the old plugin.
Still, I hate removing things from the web, so here’s an archive of 2½ years’ worth of linkblogging from 2005-2007. Continue reading
Strange Signs of San Diego (Gaslamp Edition)
Seriously, doesn’t this chair look like it was made of the material they were trying to find a use for in the first episode of Better Off Ted…and turned into a chair so irritating that it increased worker productivity because people couldn’t get comfortable? (You can see it in the middle of this 10-minute preview.)
It was the chair in our hotel room (the converted bank office with the impressive lobby). Fortunately it wasn’t nearly as scratchy as Viridian Dynamics’ “Focus Master.” (Incidentally: more Better off Ted episodes are starting up in a couple of weeks for the summer!)
Some graffiti on plywood in the Gaslamp District area:
And then there was this “You Are Under Surveillance” sign. Something about the combination of the sign, the stairway, and all the posters on the walls just looked interesting.
Pandemic Question
Why didn’t WHO declare A(H1N1) flu to be a phase 6 pandemic several weeks ago when it first met the published criteria?