Easier to plan, anyway. No more fumbling with the giant paper map your local biking organization publishes; Google has unleashed biking directions! Now you really have no excuse for avoiding biking to work / school / wherever you spend your days.
I expected some hiccups as I played around with it, but I couldn’t find any. The directions route me to the best (safest) route, whether I want to go downtown or ride the trails out past the suburbs.
In fact, I’ve been finding trails I didn’t even know existed! Apparently it’s possible to ride from Milwaukee to both Madison (85 mi) and Chicago (94 mi) almost entirely on dedicated bike/pedestrian trails.
Even my tiny hometown, with its one lonely (albeit very long) trail is included.
Right now it seems it’s not possible to use street view along with the biking information, but hopefully that will be rolled out in the future as well.
You can thank Rails to Trails for all this. And maybe while you’re checking out their site, you might want to throw a donation their way. A worthy organization with which my dad has been involved for several years, they’re the ones that are responsible for that one long trail in my hometown.
Happy trails!
[via 8,000 other blogs]
Need a new pair of specs, but can’t afford the arm and leg they cost? You may want to check out Warby Parker. Their stylish glasses are just $95.
Don’t let the affordability fool you, though – these are top of the line specs. The frames are made of durable, flexible cellulose acetate (processed wood pulp treated with various acids). Lenses are polycarbonate, which is thinner and lighter than plastic or glass, has great impact resistance, and offers 100% UV protection. Anti-reflective coating comes standard, as well.
Of course, it’s tough to buy something like eyeglasses over the internet. Fit and shape are crucial – especially if you have a child-size head like a, erm… friend of mine.
Luckily, they’ve thought of that. Just upload a picture of yourself, and their facial recognition software will automatically size the glasses to fit your face. If you can manage to narrow it down to five selections, order them up for a home try-on.
That’s right, a home try-on: 5 frames, 7 days, 100% Free (including the return shipping). In fact, just about everything is free. Despite the fact that the glasses are made just for you, if you don’t like them when you get them, you can send them back for a full refund.
And, for everything that you get for free, someone in need gets more. For every pair of glasses they sell, they donate one through Restoring Vision.
Need even more convincing? They also offer a monocle.
How the H do they do all this? They’re changing the game. By taking out the middle man, they have more control and eliminate all the markups.
So go get yourself a pair. Get one for every day of the week. After all, it is for charity.
[via Uncrate]
It’s a conundrum: you visit a website regularly and want the purveyor to make some money, but you hate the annoying ads. They make noise, they enlarge themselves and get in the way of your reading, and just generally make themselves a nuisance.
Enter, DoGood.
Now you can block those annoying ads without preventing them from reaping the financial benefits. The DoGooder plugin replaces those ads with environmental, philanthropic and health and wellness related ideas. They also donate half of their profits to charity and non-profit organizations.
As if that’s not enough, they’ve also been nominated for a SXSW Web award for Technical Achievement (up against another favorite of mine, SeatGeek!).
Go rid yourself of those terrible ads, post haste. (Unless you’re running linux, or browsing with opera or chrome – then you’ll just have to wait.)
[via Download Squad]
My dreams may soon come true. Back when I was a young’un in college, I used to wish I could teleport, rather than walk the cold, blustery mile to French class at 8 am. Someday, I may be telling my descendents about this, as they complain about how slow their teleporter is. Kids these days, I swear…
Now, I don’t understand quantum mechanics. And apparently, even if you think you understand it, you don’t (according to Richard Feynman). But it doesn’t take a genius to understand that teleportation is pretty freaking cool. Even the U.S. Air Force is looking into it.
Apparently, it’s been possible to teleport information for nearly two decads. But now a Japanese scientist has figured out how to teleport energy, as well.
Simple!
Sure, they’re talking about energy. But surely it can’t be too long before humans can teleport as well, right? Or, as this guy points out, the robots we send into space in place of humans.
[via Inhabitat | experiment image via LiveScience]
I am obsessive about phantom loads (you know, the electrical devices that suck power even when they’re not on?). I wake up in the middle of the night and unplug my phone charger. And my girlfriend’s. I use power strips for everything. I’m perhaps bordering on having certifiable issues.
So I have been looking for something that would ease my mind about these phantom loads. And yesterday, it came to me via Unplggd. (insert heavenly music here)
Oh, it is so beautiful. I would have settled for an ugly one, but this just rocks my world. Each module has one outlet on the rear, allowing you to plug in your device and wrap any excess cord around it.
When one of the devices enters standby mode, the surface starts to light up, showing you that it’s wasting power. After 3 minutes, if you don’t turn it off, the device, known as the EDF Energy Saving Adapter, will.
Sadly, this beauty is not available yet. And if/when it does become available, I’m not sure if it will be available in the States and work with our electrical system. So, I guess until then I’ll just have to keep dreaming.
Or, in this case, stop dreaming and keep waking up to unplug my chargers.
[images via Gilles Belley]
This is a pretty interesting infographic. Every year, the world uses over 1 cubic mile of oil (1.18 cubic miles, according to data from Nation Master and my calculations). That sounds like a lot, but it’s a bit difficult to picture. If you were to put all that oil in a giant cube and place it next to the Eiffel Tower (maybe you’re with Cobra Command?), this is what it would look like:
Back to the infographic: It would take a heck of a lot of alternative energy to replace that oil. The image suggests how many units of each alternate energy source would need to be built each year for 50 years to match the energy capacity of oil.
It’s not 100% accurate, but it definitely makes you think.
[via Inhabitat]
