It's worth clicking through to read all 50. For example:
"26. Girls and boys now perform equally on standardized high school mathematics tests across North America, ending a gender gap that lasted for decades." - Tessa MacDuff
“Jessica is marveling at how upscale the Hong Kong airport is. Spent 15 min looking for somewhere to buy bottled water amidst Gucci, Burberry and a caviar bar.”
Light Rail FAIL. If more actually people rode it, would that reduce the BTU per passenger mile or would it remain constant? - Jess Lee
He mentions 2 reasons why public transit projects don't help the environment. First because its BTUs/mile are not less than taking a car, and second, oc, "Unfortuantely, since transit is only 1% of total USA transportation energy use, it doesn't matter a great deal how green it is. Making it twice as good, or twice as bad, would not significantly alter the energy total." But even though transit projects don't help, it still helps incrementally every time you yourself take transit. - j1m
Jess, more people riding light rail would improve the BTU/pm because they spend those BTUs whether people ride or not. - Gabe
I don't think he means bicyclist on that chart, but rather motorcyclist. I think thte 75mpg number is very very low for a bicyclist. - Alex Scoble
Interesting that he puts 9 passengers for "city bus". I took the bus to/from work every day in Seattle for 4+ years and there was never less than 30-40 people on a bus during commute time. - Rochelle
Yeah this is frustrating because in SF it's an electric bus system, with a few exceptions (certain routes like Geary)- also, impact of the form of fuel is ignored, it's simply "efficiency" which may or may not be the goal. Also, as others point out, the ratio as an index is flawed because popularity determines the efficiency. A bedroom community metro area like SJ is the *worst* example, compared to SF where high density makes PT a popular and efficient option. - anna
shoudl retitle to be "is PT efficient" vs. "green" - anna
anna, I didn't think of that, either. Seattle has several routes (I'd guess maybe 50%?) that run on electric wires rather than gas. There are also several routes that are hybrids and a few that use vegetable oil as fuel. - Rochelle
Also I think a lot of civic govt.s build so "they will come" vs. "makes btu sense," which I'm a fan of. Get people out of car, etc. increases the popularity and thus the BTU. So BTU is a goal, not a reality, for many centers, ESP San Jose (which again, is probably the worst city to use since it's sprawl central) - anna
Alex: He really does mean bicycles. Even though a bicycle requires very few BTUs to ride, the fuel isn't processed very efficiently unless you're eating food out of your own garden. Generally food requires fuel to plant, fertilize, harvest, transport, and cook. - Gabe
His basic point is that average transit ridership in the US is low -- I don't think he's being unfair by using actual ridership numbers. (Breaking out the VTA light rail system is just making a point.) I do wish it was graded by carbon rather than BTU's, though. But I definitely do see a lot of big empty buses trundling about, and they do have to be burning fuel. - ⓞnor
@Rochelle, that's because you riding a bus to work during rush hour. You'd see different numbers if you rode the early buses, late buses, many counter-commute buses - j1m
@anna, one of Brad's central points is that popularity determines efficiency. But you're stuck with whatever level of popularity you can achieve, and you have to run a lot of non-full trains to get passengers to view your system as reliable and convenient. And it doesn't help that gov'ts are building transit so "they will come," because, well, they've built them, and this is how many people came. - j1m
Also, iiuc, the average person living in the US lives somewhere with density about equal to that in San Jose, so the San Jose example is typical in that sense. One strategy, employed in many rural places, is just to give up and not have much transit. - j1m
Public transit may encourage denser building, perhaps reducing carbon consumption both by reducing trip lengths and by improving building utilization. Also, it's probably easier to tackle carbon emissions of mass transit systems than most individual cars. But I'm happy to look forward to the low carbon robotic cars. That will be awesome. - Larry Greenfield
@Larry, yeah, the insight about working hard to make your actual transit vehicles efficient seems like the key insight, and yeah, going electric seems like the first way to do that. The public transit fleet is, after all, a small group of vehicles owned by a small set of entities, so it should be easy to optimize (he he) - j1m
Larry, I don't see how public transit would encourage denser building. I do see how constrained space (like NY & SF) encourages denser building, which makes public transit efficient. - Gabe
The problem with mass transit is that if you don't run it frequently enough, you won't get ridership. In Europe, they do run it frequently enough, and ridership is pretty amazing (plus, they're smart enough to run fewer cars during non-peak hours). At that point, you have people giving up car ownership because mass-transit is reliable, and Templeton's "You're going to own a car anyway" argument fails. A good way to get there is through a carbon tax so that the environmental impact of driving solo is felt. - Piaw Na
I took this photo in Causeway Bay at 10pm. All the stores are open, there are insane crowds of people shopping, and a group of school kids started a breakdancing battle in the middle of the street. - Jess Lee
@Jess, It's surreal to see, but at this point, your expectations will probably be too high. :) In any case, he was around where Russell St and Matheson St meet, near Exit A from CWB MTR. I'll send you a pic. - Chris Prince
yes，its ez!but,u know,when america got more and more sleepy from now,asia didn't... - kelvin
Sogo in cwb-fresh sushi from japan. Half price after 9 pm. A daily trip for us when stationed there. - Andrew Leyden
lawl. what's after lil john when we don't even say anything? does the person you're asking get to to talk then, starting from short sentences to epic essays? - Mohomed=genieyclo
"I spent most of my time occupying various administration buildings... smoking a lot of thai stick... breaking into the ROTC... and bowling. To tell you the truth I don't remember most of it." - Philip Tomlinson
sadly, the one weekend messing around with perl is one of the reasons why I now spend so much of my time at work rewriting stupid scripts that morons that spent a weekend messing around with perl wrote. They're almost as bad as windows 'sysadmins`.... - matthew john ernisse
For me the right hand bar would be one semester of typing. - Ken Sheppardson
Weirdly enough, being in the YMCA Youth Legislature gave me the most prep - something no one who knew me would have predicted at the time. - Jennifer Dittrich
I rather enjoyed my college education, but I'm still in the field I studied for. It's not too late for me to abandon MIS/CS for greener pastures though! - Daniel J. Pritchett
Time to refocus on apprenticing with basic education included. - Chris W
For me it was goofing off in the computer labs in college. - Bwana
What I've gotten the most out of is being an assistant tutor/teacher (for the people the year below, and sometimes for classes I was actually taking at the time). You can learn a lot by hanging around in computer labs helping people. :) - Daniel Bruce
holy crap - you are scandinavian??? I thought you were from jersey.... - Elad
I wonder how they gather the data and how they define "X speakers". According to them, only a third of Daly City and only half of Cupertino and San Jose are English speakers. http://www.townabout.com/top-c... - Simon
Neat site! @Simon: I live in Cupertino and can attest to the fact that it's filled with lots of Asian people who don't speak English. But 50% seems off. - Jess Lee
Which funnily enough are also the ones with the "most unshaven female armpits" - Jim Yiapanis
oh, check it out - Wasilla (Palin's hometown where she was mayor) is the city in Alaska with the fewest college grads... http://www.townabout.com/Alask... - Elad
"The scientists used state-of-the-art technology to dissect a mouse brain, photographed it sliver section by section, then reassembled it in a computer database that would allow easy access. But it was the speed at which the project was accomplished and what they did with it afterwards that changed the game. They released it to the public. Over the internet. Free. When we first put the mouse-brain atlas online free, it was met by the research world with suspicion. People wondered what the catch was. Scientific research has long been a solitary endeavour—one researcher, one microscope. Findings are protected so that discovery credit can be clearly defined and awarded... ... Today we have many scientists using the atlas for their research into Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorders, Down’s syndrome, Parkinson’s, fragile x mental retardation and epilepsy. The atlas is also giving scientists insight into alcoholism, obesity, sleep, hearing and memory." - Michael Nielsen
“Net non-neutrality means 'magic carpool lanes' for content. Edge caching means living closer to where you work. The 'magic lane' harms everyone else. The shorter commute frees the roads up for everyone.”
I like the reaction of the Christians: "It's like a baby playing games," he insisted. "Those people are holding on to a dream that will never come true," he said. I guess he is unaware of the similarities to his beliefs. - Gabe
" "It's really nice to see Americans welcome here since in so many places in the world we're not so welcome these days," he added. " - Clare Dibble
A homeless man on Queen Street, Toronto cuddling his dog, was photographed by Kirsten Starcher (née Kirsten Bole) and is also the subject of another iconic web photo by Liz Corkery. Kirsten Starcher's photo was even posted inadvisedly on Faildogs.com. After Kirsten Starcher's photo was used by the charity Feeding Pets of the Homeless, it was published in Pet Product News. There it was seen by the man's mother who had thought him dead.
Noel Crowley's mother had not heard from him for over two years, since he left for California to find work. He had disappeared without trace and police thought that he was dead. His mother immediately contacted the editor of the magazine and the Feeding Pets of the Homeless charity. She traced the photographer and posted a message on the photo's Flickr page asking if anyone had seen him recently. Through information from the photographer and people who followed her blog and the news stories, the man has been located and reunited with his family. - Cee Bee
via Bookmarklet
beautiful story indeed, but did he really want to be found? - Cindy Gan
If he didn't he could have just disappeared again I suppose. - saeba
Oh my goodness I am both tuched by the story and the love this dog and his owner have for each other. Animals are amazing creatures. So loyal. He doesn't know he is broke nor does he care. He just wants to love him. I can only imagine the joy this man's mother must be feeling to have her son back home. Beautiful story! - Adriana
My guess is that MS has more javascript and CSS files. - Gabe
"Google’s maps are 385% faster than Microsoft’s." - Jess Lee
Hey, I'm a huge fan of Google Maps, but be fair, Jess, and cite the context ;). Er, actually, Scoble, I'm lookin' at you! The full sentence: "In our worst case scenario of 500 pushpins on the map in IE6, GMaps is 385% faster." - Adam Lasnik
i always can't see any vedio on MS'site. - jedorstar
Google Maps is way ahead of Live Maps. But to be fair, the latest version of Live Mail loads faster than GMail for me. But GMail does a lot more than just mail (chat, video and the various Labs addons probably slow it down a bit). - Sanat Gersappa
I think most people underestimate importance of speed. Lag time is a subtle form of cost to the consumer. - Rob Hoeting
I like the Birds Eye view in Live Maps, but OTOH it doesn't have street view - Jemm
Speed is the reason I switched from Firefox to Chrome, I've been able to live w/o my extensions because the browser launches faster and pages render very quickly. More features aren't always a good thing. - Thomas Hunsaker
One thing I really miss, is the Verisign OpenID "Seatbelt" plugin I used for my OpenID @ Verisignlabs.com .. Give me that for Chromium/Chrome and make me happy! - Linus
xero nailed it with his comment on the blog itself: "I think it stems from the old mantra of making it work then letting the technology catch up. Unfortunately that just doesn’t work in the web." - Chris Charabaruk for Hire
As for Bird's Eye view vs Street View... I get Bird's Eye view for my neighbourhood and even somewhat rural areas of my municipality. I've yet to see much for Street View even in Toronto. Perhaps if Google would get its ass moving up here in Canada, I'd <3 them some more, but if I'm trying to positively ID some location, Live Maps does it better for me, and at roughly the same speed (I don't notice any difference). - Chris Charabaruk for Hire
I'm doubtful. Surely they've switched to meth by now like everyone else. - Kelly Norton
Does it really surprise anyone that the company typically known for bloat in their software appears to be letting it slip into their web services? Ok I don't actually know if it's bloat, it could just be a poor scaling architecture, but given the minds at Microsoft bloat probably seems more likely. - Devlin Dunsmore
via twhirl
@Rob: I actually read something a while ago that suggested that Google doesn't see things such as RAM, hard disk space, or number of servers as their most limited resource. Their most limited resource is a user's patience. A very smart and very real concept. - Devlin Dunsmore
via twhirl
I thought speed was just another name for meth. Was I wrong? - Gabe
I don't know...Gmail and GReader have been doing that "Loading" and "oops an error occurred" thing a lot lately. It's really annoying. I think any system has its slow periods from time to time. (I'm waiting for Gmail to load now as I type this...let's see...nope, still not done!!) - Sarah Perez
If i remember right, there were some researchers saying that after this much broadband internet connection without pushing new investments to infrastructure, sooner or later we will be stuck with a more slower web. http://bit.ly/EkyB - doruk tokçabalaban
Google Maps are *horrible* on the iPhone using either edge or 3G. They simply will not load. This might not be so bad if there were a way to load a KML file on the iPhone to use the map function there, but alas, there is not. One of the main reasons I bought an iPhone in the first place was to use Google Maps on it which is entirely worthless. - Thomas Hawk
That's interesting--I certainly the agree the iPhone is frustratingly slow (even with it's internal apps)--but I think overall Google Maps is one of the more useful features. - Rob Michael
They don't seem to be working too well. We all seem to be paying for their fuck-ups. Bailout *cough*. - jjprojects
eeeeexcellent review! loved the zebra head & 2,2 kids. actually laughed like crazy at the whole episode - commie cars & all - sigurdur thor johannesson
Тест-драйв обычной Форд Фиеста, но какой размах -- гонки в шоппинг-центре, высадка морского десанта. Really like! - «Weird & Sons»
@jjprojects - I think Ford Europe is actually profitable, it's Ford US that have woes. The European and Japanese manufacturers seem to be able to sell t he same car around the work but it looks like the US manufacturers have to produce different cars for their home and export markets. - Andy Davies
These are incredible. I'd love to know what kind of setup he uses, and how much is done in post. The first photo with the tree looks like infrared film. - Kevin Fox
Wait, is that Cayenne parked or is it in the process of parking? - Roshan Vyas
Oh, it's very parked. Been there all day, including when the other car was blocked in by someone in the other space. Not the first time I've seen him parked like that, either. - DeWitt Clinton
it wouldn't be too difficult to get out of that spot. what would be even easier is kicking out a sideview mirror jackie chan style. - Cee Bee
Maybe he parked a manual shift without the e'brake set? I have a hard time believing that someone could be _that_ obnoxious. - Bill Strathearn
No, he's done it on numerous occasions. I'll snap a pic next time of him blocking people in. - DeWitt Clinton
It's not the Porsche's fault, it's the driver of that car. It must be a pompous driver. You should put a copy of "No Asshole Rule" book on his car. ( http://bobsutton.typepad.com/m... ) - imabonehead
Earlier I parked my car expecting to be just a few minutes, and came back an hour later about 30 feet from where I left it. The funny thing was that even though it was in the middle of a place with no parking spots, somebody have parked parallel to it, as if it were in a valid spot. - Gabe
"In Patagonia, South America, Darwin ate a puma (it tasted like veal) and an ostrich-like bird called a Rhea. Actually, Darwin had been looking for this particular species of Rhea, only to find that he had been eating one all along. He sent back the uneaten parts to the Zoological Society in London." - Simon
Robert: Yep, just realized. Wikipedia filled me in on the rest. Learned something new: "Although the 1985 Weights and Measures Act[3] expressly prohibited the use of the stone as a unit of measure for purposes of trade (other than as a supplementary unit), the stone remains widely used within the British Isles as a means of expressing human body weight." - David Bisset (sn)
Heh.. I didn't even know "stone" was a measurement.. Well Robert, I learned something new today because of a question your wife asked. =) Also David, it's used in the British Isles. Googled it. - deepikaur
deepikaur: I didn't know that either. - Robert Scoble
I love it. We in the US are ignorant to all these measurements and such. I would be totally lost outside the US without Google. - David Bisset (sn)
The UK is kinda half-assed metric. You buy pints in a pub, but half litres in a supermarket; same goes for milk. You can go to jail for selling a pound of apples though. Britain is really controlled by Brussels, and Brown & Co are just their muppets. - Ian May
This made me realize I watch too much You Are What You Eat on BBC America, because thinking of weight in terms of "stone" has become second nature to me. Damnit, BBC America, update your programming whydoncha. - The Bohemian Penguin
One thing I wish google had is a date calculator, like "dec 15 + 90 days" - Chris Lamprecht
Bohemian Penguin - a good percentage of what is on BBC America wasn't actually ever broadcast on the BBC in the UK.... - Ian May
matt: I might love you if you were always on and answered my questions in microseconds. :-) - Robert Scoble
Somehow I knew that a stone was 14 pounds. Ask Google something hard like [speed of light in furlongs per fortnight] or [the number of horns on a unicorn times pi]. :) - Matt Cutts
I love how Matt Cutts shows up when we talk about Google. :-) - Robert Scoble
I love stones, it makes me feel smaller :-) but have not yet figured out the weird phenomenon known as 'cups'... what's wrong with pounds and ounces? UK cookery books are useless in America. - Sally Church
And I wish everything was in grams and kilos :) - Deepak
My wife just said i should weigh myself in boulders. Ouch (she loves a good joke). - David Bisset (sn)
UK people of my generation are often comfortable with both systems, since they learned imperial/british from their parents and metric/SI at school. Australia is more "metric-ised" than the UK (road signs, shopping) though confusingly, many people give their weight in kilos, but their height in feet. And then there's beer measures - schooners, middies, pots etc :) - Neil Saunders
@Sally cup:volume::pound:weight It's supposed to be a way to get the volumetric equivalent of 8 ounces for those without access to a kitchen scale. Which also why you need two types of cups (liquid & dry). - Lynn Garris
Lynn, yes different cups for liquid and dry and guess who balls it up every time :(. Scales are so much more uncomplicated and easier. - Sally Church
I love how the Firefox Google search field will auto-suggest the answer to conversion. Start typing "32f in c" - Andrew Smith
I remember when I worked for MSFT and worked wtih Bill on the 'new world of work' strategy.... one of the main topics was search, his main story of "what would make MSFT Search better than Google" was the fact that Microsoft's search would give answers and not just links.... I guess MSFT didn't really know how to get that done while Google did. - Oudi Antebi
No one asked Robert the obvious question... Why did your lovely wife ask this question? - Mark VandenBerg
Can we please fawn over Google for something they do that other SEs don't do? - Sam Pullara
Good - if he can maintain the transparency and withstand the inevitable charges of being biased by these meetings, it will go a long way toward building trust with the American people. - Hutch Carpenter
