A good week for this geek
Apple’s Macworld announcements left me awe-struck and out about $300. Those kids on One Infinite Loop are on fire!
Comcast upgraded my cable box to a dual-tuner HD PVR for free (meanwhile Tivo’s product “launch” continues to infuriate).
Cassini’s hitchhiker finally showed that it could do cool things too. Hello, Earth II! (Note to ESA: a photo of Saturn setting in the night sky of Titan would have been a real treat. Next time?)
Hi, I’m John Tolva!
Mission Elapsed Time: 20:00:21:06:42:40
Recently this blog (and my Flickr account) turned 20 years old, forever in Internet years. I went back through it all, retracing digital footprints made on what feels like a different planet. Here are some highlights.
The Terror Tourist
A roughly monthly exploration of places in horror fiction — real or imagined, geographical or psychological — culled from The Heavy Leather Horror Show.
Subscribe to the podcast or the email newsletter or just read through the archives posted here.
The Ampcamper
How I hauled myself, two teens, an 80 lb dog, and a whole load of crap 4000+ miles across six states in twenty days using an electric vehicle. And survived to tell the tale.
Latest Photos
Marginalia
Stuff I’ve found interesting from around the web lately.
A Mystery in the Shape of a Book
On a gravel road outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming, I stood before a Little Free Library painted the colors of the Pride flag.
‘Everyone thought it would cause gridlock’: the highway that Seoul turned into a stream
On a crisp December morning, office workers and tourists stroll along a tree-lined stream in central Seoul, pausing on stepping stones that cross its flowing waters.
Gulf ofSomething
Take the power of MapQuest with you wherever you go. Download our mobile apps for turn-by-turn navigation, live traffic updates, and more.
The Surprising Theory That Explains Modern American Life
Why don’t you move?
The Great Resegregation
The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the civil-rights movement. Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (Noa) using AI narration. Listen to more stories on the Noa app.
Steal My Tesla
Don't waste any more time trying to sell your Tesla. We'll take it from here... Having difficulty selling your Tesla without all the hassle and negativity? Maybe its time to consider other options.
A Memorandum from the Newly Established Department of Grammar Efficiency
The federal Government is eliminating inefficient grammar. NO ONE understands how to properly use an em-dash or semicolon. Therefore, those types of punctuation are now ELIMINATED to protect hard-working American Citizens from further confusion. YOUR WELCOME.
What does Maga-land look like? Let me show you America’s unbeautiful suburban sprawl
In 1941 Dorothy Thompson, an American journalist who reported from Germany in the lead-up to the second world war, wrote an essay for Harper’s about the personality types most likely to be attracted to Nazism, headlined “Who Goes Nazi?” “Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what
Bad at Goodbyes
On today’s show we learn about the Casey’s Larkspur, a critically endangered perennial herb native to the Kyrenia Mountains in northern Cyprus, an island in the east of the Mediterranean sea. Please find us on the web at Bad at Goodbyes and on instagram.
Yes, Paris has its own bicycle hearse and so does the United Kingdom
In the burgeoning bicycle city of Paris, France, those looking for a more gentle, environmentally friendly funeral service now have the option of a hearse powered by a cargo bike.