Sad foot sign, the end is comin’

...o Park, “Happy Foot Sad Foot” or “HaFoSaFo” for short. Kelly detailed, in a 2010 blog post, the many cultural references to the sign including a novel by Jonathan Lethem. A reader pointed to a song by the Eels. Later we found out that David Foster Wallace used the sign in his posthumously published novel, The Pale King. Allow me to digress for a moment to note that the longest half hour of my life was the time I was part of a film crew interviewin...

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Your Open Floor Plan is a Death Trap

...re Service Fatalities in Structure Fires 1977-2009 Rita F. Fahy, Ph.D. June 2010). Let’s take a closer look at some of the unintended consequences of open floor plans and modern materials. Open Floor Plans U.L.’s research proves conclusively that open floor plan interiors create fires that spread faster and are harder for firefighters to control. Another trend in homes is to remove walls to open up the floor plan of the home. As these walls are re...

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Take a Summer Viking Break

...ng or canning. This means it’s the perfect time for a Viking break. Back in 2010 Norweigian oil tycoon Sigurd Aase funded the construction of a brand new badass Viking longship, the Draken Harald Hårfagre. It’s the first Viking longship with its own website and gift store. The ship made it to the U.S., a reminder that Columbus wasn’t the first European to make that particular journey. Please kick back this weekend and take your own Viking break. I...

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Two apps for choosing bike routes: one good, one bad

...anes and paths were. Now, there are apps for that. The Good: Google Maps In 2010, a bike option was added to Google Maps. While not perfect, it works surprisingly well. Combined with a little familiarity with what streets are good and bad to ride on, I now find that I rarely look at the city’s bike maps anymore. Here’s an example: one weekend this month, Kelly needed the car and I had to across town, from the La Brea Expo line station to the new W...

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Return of the Walkman?

...(Sport WM-FS397, to be exact). Here’s an “exploded” view: The BBC, back in 2010, gave a 13 year-old a Walkman to review. Here’s what the kid said: It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassett...

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