Window Seat, Erykah Badu, 2010

Any of you using this?

Flavors.me. via.

How to Pack

Pretty cool. Also feels a bit like an infomercial, which is a new format for the NYTimes.

What a Wonderful Time to Be Alive

Want to know if that watermelon is ripe? There's an app for that.

Moonshine: Yet Another Reason Why Brooklyn is Better than Manhattan

A Cobble Hill bar with 150+ bourbons to choose from can't keep enough white dog (bottled moonshine) on the shelf.

Jurassic Park: Coming Soon to a Cornfield Near You

Turns out Monsanto's plan to rule the world by selling Round-Up herbicide and Round-Up Ready herbicide-resistant corn, soybeans, and cotton has an Achilles's heel: Round-Up Resistant Weeds.

"Don't Drink the Water!"

A huge water main broke in Boston over the weekend, with two remarkable results: First, 8 million gallons an hour rushed out of the broken line and spilled down the banks of the Charles River, DOUBLING its downstream flow and raising its level by nearly 8 inches in places. Then, the Boston water supply had to be shifted to the ancient system of open-air reservoirs in the area, meaning that untreated pond water is currently flowing through the pipes of Boston.

A Glimpse of What The View of Healthcare Reform from Across the Pond

The Economist has a very condescending look at American healthcare.

Books on the Shelf Still Worth Something

Kids who grow up with 500+ books in the house go to school 3.2 years longer than kids who don't, even after adjusting for dad's occupation and income. That's nearly a bachelor's degree, right there, or a master's if a bachelor's is the standard.

Health Inventory and Goal-Planner from American Heart Association

My Life Check: painless and helpful in suggesting, quantitatively, what you could be doing better for your health, without being puritanical about the salt, sugar, and fat.

Ode to the Cast Iron Skillet

In an essay that would make Strunk & White proud, Salt & Fat lays out the virtues of cast iron in the kitchen.

A Plea for Pragmatism Over Ideology on Earth Day

A little practice often upsets a lot of theory. 

Funniest Thing We've Read in Months

A restaurant review. No, it's not fiction.

The New Non-Profit Journalism

This may be the only way investigative journalism will continue to get done: ProPublica, which is funded by a non-profit and by individual donations, not subjected to focus-groups or concerns about news-stand sales. Of course, that is what NPR is supposed to do, but they aren't exactly investigative, are they?

Now THIS is Web2.0

TripIt: You email it reservation confirmations (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc) and it mashes up an itinerary for you, publishes it as an iCal feed, alerts you to people you know who live (or, if they use TripIt too, people who will be traveling nearby), and suggests sights to see. Via.

Free Coffee!

Friday Happy Hour

Courtesy of David Wondrich, who knows his drink:

The Shandy Gaff

Fill a pint glass a little more than halfway with a good American pale ale (eg, Red Tail) that's been well chilled. Top off, slowly, with ginger beer (we recommend Goslings). 

Boston Common, Visualized by Color Analysis in the Time Domain

Fascinating. Beautiful. Not sure what it is good for otherwise.