America’s Scenic Byways catalogs the 96 distinct and diverse roads designated by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. America’s Byways™ include the National Scenic Byways and All-American Roads. The one I think of as “mine” is of course the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut.

The NY Times discovers tool lending libraries, Berkeley’s in particular. I’ve dug out from my Jan 2003 archive the links I had for online catalogs and updated them here: San Francisco’s seems to be in transition but may be open again soon, Berkeley’s tool library has a PDF list of tools, here’s Oakland’s list. The article also mentions Grosse Point and a new one in Portland, OR.

My favorite quote from election coverage: “The largest number of calls have been from polling places saying they ran out of ‘I voted’ stickers because turnout is so high.” – Alameda County (CA) assistant voter registrar, Elaine Ginnold, commenting on the success of electronic voting machines

Who’s counting the votes for the media? The Associated Press and only the AP. Details on the intricacies and failovers for their operation is detailed in the press release. “For the first time in a presidential race, the AP and its partners will refrain from making a call in any particular state until all the polls have closed.”

Washington Referendum/Initiative analysis and recommendations from Sherri
the same for California Propositions from Peter
I should’ve posted these sooner but I was preoccupied with raising a future voter.

From the Smithsonian: Vote: The Machinery of Democracy. I wish I had had a chance to vote in person using Connecticut’s lever-operation voting machines, but I was always away at college. My parents recently moved from Connecticut to Washington and my mother asked me if there was a party lever she could use here. I had to explain that not only was there not a party lever, there weren’t any levers at all. Actually, Connecticut has gotten rid of the party lever, and is planning to replace all levers with electronic voting machines in 2005 with money from the Help America Vote Act.

By the way, I don’t need to tell all you American citizens to vote, do I? (thanks Matt!)

It’s been exactly two years since wireless recharging devices last crossed my radar. At that time, two solutions were making the vapor-news rounds: Splashpower and Mobilwise. I heard about both from readers after I wished for a purse that would automatically recharge my mobile devices. There isn’t anything really new to report, but Engadget says that Splashpower is “gearing up to finally release their SplashPad charging mat.” The company site doesn’t have any news, but perhaps PR is revving up for a product launch. A SplashModule is necessary for a mobile device to recharge. Until it’s integrated and off-the-shelf we may not see quick adoption.

I’m extremely late getting into the baseball season this year, but I’m a sucker for the drama of the ongoing BoSox-Yankees rivalry. And the drama has indeed been good with nail-biting extra innings and controversial calls. Since I haven’t been paying attention until now, I notice things that are probably old news. For instance, what is the deal with those nasty, grungy batting helmets many of the Red Sox are sporting? Cabrera’s looks like it was partially burned in some ritualistic bonfire to appease the baseball gods. I found the article: “A dirty job at the top. Filthy hats, helmets preferred by some players.” and one about logo appearance that mentions: “MLB no longer will tolerate the batting helmets of Sox players […] which are smeared with dirt and pine tar, obscuring the ‘B’ logo on the front of the helmets.” It appears MLB has lost out.

Did you notice that the hockey season hasn’t started yet? If you have you probably already know the details. But maybe you’re curious anyway. The best source for details is Canadian media, so here’s the CBC’s guide to the collective bargaining agreement (or lack thereof). There’s also the NHL’s own CBA site and the Player’s Association site which have their own biases.

LEDs have replaced incandescent bulbs in many applications, but despite their efficiency they have the same problem of heat production at high output. Creative solutions are necessary to employ LEDs for bright lighting situations. Manufacturers use heat sinks to dissipate the heat of high wattage, however the size of the heat sink makes the LEDs cumbersome. Lamina Ceramics has a solution with a heat sink made up of layers of metal and ceramic which numerous LEDs can be attached to. Lumileds Lighting has combined LEDs of improved thermal efficiency with a metallic heat sink. Both companies hope to offer LED arrays for high illumination applications. (source: NY Times article)