Linkdump

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #167.

Here's an interesting image of a bunch of ad characters on the march.

Want to know what kind of gas mileage you are getting? Try this tip from Get Rich Slowly, which is to join Fuelly and track your fuel-ups and mileage on-line. You can also compare your mileage with other folks who own the same type of car. Since you folks helped me get my car, it seem only fair to share my profile and Cody's Info with you.

Timeline of Internet Memes. I joined the net in 1991, and recognize a lot of these.

The virtue of Imagination, and what it means in today's world. Doctor Who fans will like this one. Yes, it's long, but it's good.

Cheap cellphones making big money and big change in poor countries.

Senseless acts of vandalism make me sad.

Amazon.com is dumping paying associates in gift certificates. This means I'll need to find another way to get Hikaru No Go. False alarm. Doesn't apply to associates.

Owning the last mile, the way the future needs to run if we want the internet to continue to be a useful tool for everyone.

Why have them make engine noises? Why not horse clopping? Or make 'em sound like you have playing cards stuck in the spokes of a bicycle. The possibilities for noise pollution are endless.

Comparing party games to FISA and data overload. You can draw conclusions based on preconceived notions given enough data.

Wow, the DHS hates the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution.

What's really sick about this drug war story is that this happens daily. The only reason it made CNN is because the victim this time was a white mayor.

PigPug for the in-laws.

Fuel Cost Zen

Fuel Cost Zen

Fuel Cost Zen

Fuel Cost Zen

Math

The other day hubby-Eric mentioned that he needed some bonus math questions for his classes. I suggested a real life math problem that might affect his students in the near future: figuring out how much they spend in fuel on a car trip. We gave them the choice of a few cars, using the mileage given at Fuel Economy.gov, and the choice of a few destinations. We also gave them the current price of gasoline in the Seattle area (it was $4.17 the day we wrote the problems). The problems apparently went over ok.

Today I figured out that Eric's car (which he hasn't been driving because he's been walking to work) gets a low of 19 miles per gallon. My car gets 22 miles per gallon. Then I popped open the Gmaps Pedometer and started working out the mileage of common destinations.

At the current prices ($4.28 a gallon), it costs me about $4 to drive to work and back. It's about $1.50 for a visit to the comic shop. It's around $3.50 to go to the pool and then get home. It's almost exactly 22 miles to my parents' house, one way. Visiting them costs over 8 and a half bucks. Is it any wonder that Eric and I have pretty much stopped driving unless we have to, and combine trips whenever possible?

We can't afford a new car (we can't even afford a Wii, much less a car!) but here's a handy chart showing the best and worst fuel efficient cars. I'm actually pretty happy with my Cavalier... for a 1997 car it just isn't bad at all (and, frankly, the fact that some of my blog readers helped me buy it makes it more valuable to me as well).

But this is the kind of math we're all going to be doing more of in the near future. Prices are going up for everything, since it now costs much more to transport stuff from one area to another. Some of us just aren't going to travel much anymore (not that I ever did anyway). So, can you do the math?

Er, Is it Thursday Now?

The Whiteout movie arrives in September. I'm looking forward to it, but I probably won't be able to afford to see it in theater.

Bob Rozakis' Elseworld DC Universe. Instead of Batman and Superman taking off, Green Lantern and Flash were the top two heroes.

Tom Beland points to a great tribute to Rory Root.

If you are tempted to sign up with Tokyopop, read this first! Seriously, do you really want to sign away all rights to your work just to get published?

I really would like Neil Gaiman to write Doctor Who. Really.

Duff does it again with a really cool Star Trek cake.

I only watched about half of the video, but technogreek shows off amazing street art.

Is it more efficient to leave your car idling? In a word: NO.

Airline safety brochures have gotten very detailed.

Twins separated at birth are accidentally reunited, and all three women involved sue the hospital that mixed them up.

Kenya Ranger Blogger tries to save wildlife.

Wednesday? It's Wednesday?

Sleeping Chick. Scroll down to read the whole story.

This is really cool. That's all I have to say about it.

The Biggest Drawing in the World and five reasons it's certainly a fake.

Using a passenger's luggage for a drug test is really dumb. And it's a bit of catch-22 for the passenger. Yeah, they are going to report it, when they might end up in prison if some official decides to not believe them? (Note: the passenger called the police as soon as he found the package, and everything ended happily... whew!)

I really want to go visit the Wing Luke Museum again, now that they've reopened. It sound fantastic.

Guns From Space! Well, ok, maybe not really.

What this woman did wasn't safe, but dang, I have to admire her!

Adding injury to insult, local gas stations deliver water instead of gas. I was a bit annoyed by the local TV news coverage, which went on and on about customers being "cheated" by the stations. Uh, no, it was an accident. And if anyone was cheated, it was the stations.

Biofuel alone is not behind the rising cost of corn. In fact, it's only a tiny portion of the costs.