MetaFilter posts by Brian B.

we heart electric bikes

Brian B. — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:10:52 -0800

Bicycles are the most efficient mode of transportation; walking is a distant second, followed by crowded vans and motorcycles, with everything else being relatively equal. This may change soon. WSJ online jokingly tests a new plug-in electric bike versus a standard racing model.

the secure solution to ultra-urbanization

Brian B. — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:49:50 -0800

Ferris wheel parking versus automated stacking.

the doggy in the window

Brian B. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:59:00 -0800

Amish puppy mills, outrage and controversy.

The American way

Brian B. — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:37:03 -0800

State by state electoral college analysis and predictions for the main 2008 presidential candidates, based on polling data and updated daily.

thermal appliances for the poor

Brian B. — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:04:52 -0800

Turbo stove busts the inventor. A handy stove that promises to save remaining forests can me made simply and cheaply for people who cook indoors with gathered wood. Others show how to make it yourself.

Best of the web you bet!

Brian B. — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 11:05:02 -0800

Poker hand simulator. Get a feel for the odds before you bet the farm.

Damn the torpedoes...

Brian B. — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:32:23 -0800

Sunk by their own torpedo? Apparently a few U-boats or subs may have been lost due to a "circular run" of their own swim bomb.

The Heather in the Glen

Brian B. — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 16:08:00 -0800

Is winter flowering heather the next viagra? A British newspaper is reporting on April 1 that a 55-year-old man serendipitously discovered that a winter flowering heather infusion suddenly required him to wait a full hour before he "could decently walk down the street." Also known as Erica carnea rosantha, it isn't typically planted from seed, but may require cuttings.

Book of Mormon authorship

Brian B. — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 11:39:05 -0800

Who really wrote the Book of Mormon? It's always been an open question if you weren't a true believer. After enduring the casual dismissals of Joseph Smith admirers and biographers in the 20th century, the Spalding-Rigdon theory reemerges as the abductive explanation, as Spalding's "manuscript" parallels obscure or disputed sources and turns the tables against apologists.

The orphan train era

Brian B. — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:23:32 -0800

Orphan trains. From 1853 to 1929 an ambitious relocation adoption program run by the Children's Aid Society, founded by Charles Loring Brace, sent kids from urban slums and orphanages out to live on Midwestern farms, with mixed results. Some became state governors, others suffered abuse or servitude. Even though we use the name Orphan Train, few of these children were true orphans. Some were half-orphans, having lost one parent to disease or accident. Some had both parents but had run away do to abuse or neglect. By 1910, CAS had "placed out" over 106,000 children and the program ran for another 19 years. Also, similar programs were run by the New York Foundling Home (called Baby Trains), New York Juvenile Asylum, and the Boston Home for Little Wanderers. In all, at least, 200,000 children found themselves moved from the city to small towns and farms across the Nation.