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In response to Florida’s smoking ban, a Ft. Lauderdale bar is serving up Sun-Sentinel reports that the owner of the Cathode Ray Club is offering various cocktails made with his home brewed tobacco vodka including the nicotini. Patrons can choose from regular, menthol or “Black Lung” flavors. No word yet on when “Medium” or “Ultra Light” might be available.

via BoingBoing

Learn a bit of history about the London Underground, namely the schematic layout of the system map that was created in 1933. This map is still in use today, with some changes of course. This particular map allows you to see the original version morph into the current version then into a geographically correct version.

The “schematic” design was used by many other transportation systems around the world. Take a look at the current New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Paris system maps and notice the similarities. I think the map of the DC Metro most reminds me of London’s Underground map. The Potomac River winds through the system in the same mechanical way as the Thames on the Underground’s map.

via Small Values of Cool

Bryant Park has offered free wireless Internet access for well over a year. Today was the first day that I actually checked it out though. It really beats the hell out of working in the office, so from now on, if the weather is nice, you can find me in Bryant Park. I’ll be sure to forward my phone.

It is also worth noting that the Downtown Alliance has seven hotspots downtown that offer free access. Check nycwireless for other free locations.

“Y’all ready to shoot the freak?”

A question posed by a barker on the boardwalk at Coney Island. For those of you who don’t know: Shoot the Freak is a game where one can pay a few bucks to take shots (with a paint ball gun) at some poor soul in protective gear running around a vacant lot. I didn’t meet the quarry personally, so I have no idea if he was a freak as advertised or just a regular guy who is actively rethinking his career choices.

Barker: “Ma’am, he’s good.”

Woman: “Thank you, he is an excellent shooter!”

A quick exchange in reference to the woman’s son who appeared to be about 11 years old. This kid was able to nail the freak in the head consistently from at least 20 yards. I wonder how this kid became such a good marksman? Maybe I don’t want to know the answer to that question.

“I don’t feel so good”

Muttered by a woman 15 or 20 seconds before hurling. The pirate ship claims another victim!

In case you were not able to tell by now, I made a trip out to Coney Island on Friday night. If you are in the New York area and have not been there yet, I highly recommend it. Sure, it’s a little on the gritty side but that’s what we love about this city right? It just wouldn’t be New York unless it was a bit rough around the edges.

CNN has a story about Juju Jiang who pled guilty to installing keystroke logging software on public computers at 14 Kinko’s shops around New York City. He admitted that he has been doing this since February 14, 2001. Covertly installing keystroke loggers at Kinko’s, now that’s a Valentine’s date option I never thought of. Since then, Jiang captured 450 usernames and passwords and used them to open bank accounts on line. This went on undetected until one of his victims saw Jiang log into their home computer with GoToMyPC and open an account online in the victims name.

via slashdot

A lawsuit by a pedestrian who was hit by an 80-year old driver alleges that the driver’s vision should have been tested. New Jersey officials admit that they have not been enforcing the mandatory 10 year eye examinations for drivers. The Motor Vehicle Commission stated that the agency was underfunded and they also wanted to avoid inconveniencing drivers. The agency might start vision testing again when they issue digital drivers licenses.

My question is, what is more inconvenient, a 30 second eye test or being railed by a licenced driver who can’t see? The pedestrian in this case, Vincent Corso, is still hospitalized with head injurys, that sounds like a major inconvenience to me.

via The New York Times

I thought that Hershey Foods seemed to be going a little overboard with the Reese’s line as of late. For years all you could get was the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Sure they had different size packs; the single, the standard two pack, the fat boy four pack, there were even the miniatures. Of course there were also the Reese’s eggs in the Spring, one of my personal favorites. Reese’s shook things up a bit with the introduction of Reese’s Pieces, in fact they proved to be especially popular with certain aliens. Other than the pieces, things seemed pretty quiet at Reese’s for a long time.

However, over the last couple of years I’ve noticed a steady string of new products. Not just special holiday candy either. It looked like Reese’s felt the need to be creative: Fast Break, NutRageous, ReeseSticks and more recently, Bites. All basically the same thing combined a slightly different way or with some additional ingredient. More recently, I saw a white chocolate Reese’s which for some reason peaked my interest. I wondered what other craziness they might be thinking of at Hershey.

Well, according to the Reese’s web site, the white chocolate Reese’s are actually part of their 2003 Limited Edition line. Now this is something to get excited about. There are still a couple of new Reese’s candies coming our way this year: July is the Reese’s Big Cup, August is Honey Roasted and in September, the wacky Inside Out Cup. Now, I’m not exactly sure why the year 2003 is significant enough to warrant an “LE” line of candies. Maybe it’s to mark the 40th Anniversary of the sale of H.B. Reese Candy Company to the Hershey Chocolate Company. Or, it could be that the company wanted an excuse to roll out five new products in rapid fire succession. Whatever the reason, I can’t wait for September and the Inside Out Reese’s!

The San Jose Mercury News reports that talking on a cell phone while driving is actually more dangerous than driving drunk. The University of Utah study also concluded that using a hands free device doesn’t help.

The evidence seems to be mounting on this. There have been several studies that seem to reach the same conclusion. Two of these studies were talked about here: Distracted Driver Personality and of course the one I referenced while bashing talkative cabbies. What municipality will try to regulate this first and how long after the regulation will a study be produced by a wireless company to dispute these claims?

If you’ve ever needed a quick email address but don’t want to encourage the free flow of spam to your personal address, Mailinator is the answer. You can use any email address you wish @mailinator.com and then retrieve the mail from www.mailinator.com later. This is an excellent idea!

via Joel on Software

Two summers ago I rode my bicycle across Montana to raise money for an AIDS vaccine. Due to the kind donations of friends and family, I raised over $5,000. This year I am participating in the Empire State AIDS Ride as a volunteer.

The Empire State AIDS Ride is organized by cyclists and is an all volunteer effort. The costs of the ride are being paid for by registration fees and generous donations from businesses and individuals. This means that nearly all of the money raised will be going to the four beneficiaries. In fact, the organizers estimate that 96% of the donations will be sent directly to the beneficiaries. There are not that many charities that can keep their administrative costs this low. Please consider making a donation to this worthy cause.

The ride starts on August 18th. I will be updating this site with photos from the road, so watch this space!