Remember Fall?

Jimsey Made This!

In lieu of our timbit freezing temperatures, we’re going to roll some filler footage. Hearken back to the worry and glove free days of Fall! Just a short 40-some days ago I took a trip up to Bohemian National Cemetery. Situated on the north side of Chicago, in an area that was previously in the boonies some 100+ years ago, the BNC provides a resting place for many of the early Eastern European immigrants. Apparently a big meanie head catholic priest was denying some of the Bohemians for whatever reason. So some Bohemians got together and started their own non-religious cemetery. Yes, that is my summary of two websites apparently designed by someone with Geopages and FrontPage (Friends of the BNC).

Anyway, I like these older cemeteries for two reasons 1) The lost art of stonecutting, marble cutting or whatever you call it. Gravestones, let alone anything, just aren’t made with this level of skill and care anymore. I like to think of many of these as outdoor musuems or sculpture gardens, which brings me to my second point 2) Many of the older (late 19th Century) cemeteries that I’ve met in my life are intentionally designed as a park like setting. Its a beautiful park that just happens to be full of dead people.

Anyway, here’s the link to the full set. And here’s a few snippets.

More Mapping Fun

Jimsey Made This!

Previously I blogged about the Chicago Police Department’s CLEARmap website. Now I want to give a shout-out to a website that ties in a few more sources.

Today’s topic is EveryBlock. Currently available in 15 US cities (sorry Canada).

While the Chicago PD site incorporated crime and reporting data wonderfully, EveryBlock attempts to pull quite a few more sources together. EveryBlock themselves divides this information primarily into four sections: Civic, News & Blogs, Fun from the Web (Craig’s, Yelp, Flickr, etc.) & Announcements.

Information is gathered and grouped on the usual suspect levels: Address (radius based), Zip or Neighborhood.  If you’ll observe the attached screenshot of the drop down, you’ll see quite a few areas that information can appear in. You can mainly view the information in a day-by-day log, or click “overview” to fetch the latest tidbits for all the categories. Personally this guy with two thumbs prefers the overview.

Mapping Happy Government

(not to be confused with Mappy the crime fighting(?) mouse)

I like maps. I like when governments post maps with key information that they own.  I’m always happy to learn about public entities that are map happy.

Recently, I was happy to learn about the Chicago Police Department’s CLEARmap website. First of all, someone actually took the time to come up with an acronym that worked, Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (the CLEAR), so that scores a few points with me. I suppose it’s better than Sexy Maps Are Really Terrific (SMARTmaps).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some city-folk, craving data on crimes and other incidents in my neighborhood. I’m not out to see how “dangerous” my neighborhood is. I already live here, I already walk the streets the daily and I feel perfectly safe at any hour. However, its perhaps a little different seeing them here, on a map with a semi-physical location instead of in some newspaper’s crime blotter (just where in the heck is the 4600 block of S Bishop anyway?). I say semi-physical, because for as far as I can tell police only report crimes on the block level, instead of the specific address. I’m sure there’s some privacy dealie here going on.

The first map I pulled up was the Crime Incidents Map. This is what I refer to it being a little odd seeing the physical locations. For example, I’m not suddenly going to be afraid to hang out for a bus at W North and N Ashland (upper right).  On a sad note, there’s no prostitutes in my neighborhood. Speaking of crimes, I swear what I’m downloading on Bit Torrent is perfectly legal.

(All Images given smaller thumbnails to preserve the full details when you click to expand)

Too Lazy to Play Real Beer Pong?

Some days, its just too much to get out the old slab of particle board, two saw horses, and a handful of solo cups. For those days, the fine people at JV Games bring you Beer Pong….er Pong Toss. Like all good sissy nannies, certain adults and Attorney Generals are up in arms over a game that evolved from drinking is rated suitable for children 13 and up.

1) Are kids really clamoring to waste their money on a game as simple as throwing a ball in a cup? If so, I’m going to make paper triangle football game.

Pray At the Pump

Let me start by saying that I’m very smug. My daily commute is a 2 minute walk door to door. I use my car out of convenience. Now another Ben Co. member has already abandoned his car and is joining the smug parade. When I read articles about gas prices, I feel even smugger (smugier?)

Now I’m not an economist, but I know supply and demand. Supply is stagnant, and demand is up, up, up.

I’m more evolved than you

If there’s one thing I love, its random studies/theories and how I can pick and choose which ones to believe and lead me in self-justifying my pious life. It helps me get to sleep at night.

Some oldies but goodies include 1) the fact that standing next to a road is worse for you than second hand smoke and 2) copy machines can cause chronic conditions and should carry a warning label.

Well my new favorite one is from Neurophysiologist Katherine Rankin at the University of California, San Francisco.

According to Dr. Rankin, if you [don't] get sarcastic tone[s]… you must have some damage to your parahippocampal gyrus which is located in the right brain. People with dementia, or head injuries in that area, often lose the ability to pick up on sarcasm, and so they don’t respond in a socially appropriate ways.

Presumably, this is a pathology, which in turn suggests that sarcasm is part of human nature and probably an evolutionarily good thing

Okay, it may be a stretch for some of you to believe that I’m more evolved than the rest of you, but sarcasm has developed over years, and more specifically the ability to “get it”. If you don’t get it, you might just stare at me slack-jawed, or want to punch me in the face. Well to that I respond, you don’t have dimentia do you? Does your parahippocampal gyrus hurt?

Cleveland Steamer Set to Sail!

So, me and my Toronto entourage are off for a weekend of fun in sunny Cleveland. Expect a couple of days of silence as we enjoy the hospitality of Jimsey as he squires us around The Metropolis of the Western Reserve.

In light of this, I thought it would nice to pass on a little Cleveland trivia:

1. Cleveland boasts America’s first traffic light. It began on Aug. 5, 1914.
2. Cleveland became the world’s first city to be lighted electrically in 1879.
3. Babe Ruth hit his 500th career home run in Cleveland.
4. Cleveland was the site of the first successful coronary by-pass surgery.
5. Cleveland is named for Moses Cleaveland, a surveyor who settled the town in 1796.\
6. Cleveland was originally called “Cleaveland”, but a newspaper editor changed the spelling so that it would fit in his masthead.
7. One of Cleveland’s twenty sister cities is West Mayo, Ireland.
8. Dorthy Dandridge and Ruby Dee are from Cleveland.
9. Oh, and Paul Newman, too.
10. In 1853, Cleveland had the first U.S. African American newspaper (The Aliened American).
11. The gas mask was invented in Cleveland in 1916.
12. In 1967, Carl Stokes became the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city.
13. Cleveland had the first rapid transit service from the airport to downtown in 1968.
14. Arsenio Hall was born in Cleveland.
15. I know a guy who lives there.

See you at the Cuyahoga!

Toronto Jimfoolery

So, like….I took some pictures of the de facto capital of Canada. This is a follow up to my pictures of People I’m still not sure what to make of the city. Don’t get me wrong, its a good city (sit Ubu sit). I’m having a hard time comparing it to any of the cities I’ve been to. I can say though, with a very high level of confidence that its better than Edmonton.

Well anyway, here’s the link to my flickr photo set, and as usual here’s a few snippets:

From somewhere on Toronto Island

Wispy, like my hair.