Unlicensed New Super Mario Bros. comforter, with the logo being changed to “New HAPPY BOYS.” and both Mario and Luigi using Mario’s design but displaying an “L” (mirrored in Mario’s case) on their caps.

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In Super Mario Bros. 3, the rock between the path to the first fortress in World 4 and the Spade Panel can be destroyed with a Hammer item, allowing the player to bypass the fortress. There is no obvious indication that this rock is destructible, as it is surrounded by decorative rocks. In fact, many guides for Super Mario Bros. 3 do not mention this shortcut. (Footage recorded by me in a NES emulator.)

Koopa Troopa car from a series of Super Mario Kart toys.

Actor Wil Wheaton with his younger brother Jeremy and Mario at the 1987 Beverly Hills “Super Mario-A-Thon”. With a high score of 239,400 points, Wil had the highest score of all celebrity guests invited. See also other guests.

Unlicensed gold and silver Waluigi charms.

Characters leaving the camera’s field of view and ceasing to be rendered piece by piece in Mario Party 2.

Bootleg Mario games.

In various levels throughout Super Mario World, bonus rooms where groups of three blocks must be hit in the correct order for a 1-Up can be found. There is a way to cheat at this mini-game and always collect every 1-Up by entering the bonus room as Cape Mario carrying a Koopa shell. By placing the shell on the ground and spinning Mario’s cape to make it hit the blocks, every hit registers as correct regardless of the order.

From a set of Super Mario quiz cards.

By removing the foreground layer, we can see what Blarggs in Super Mario World look like beneath the lava.

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Great story -- with mini stories, including one with Saul Bass -- on Tom Martin, a veteran art director in the movie industry who has designed and/or art-directed dozens of posters, including the search for a Jurassic Park logo that yielded hundreds of options (shown).

Animated bananas and banana bunches from Donkey Kong 64.

Promotional art for Virtual Boy Wario Land showing the Virtual Boy’s 3D effect by having Wario slowly come closer to the viewer.

From a Japanese guide for Super Mario Kart.

From a Japanese guide for Super Mario World.

Racers in Mario Kart 64 from the side. Every racer is a 2D sprite that is always turned towards the camera.

In Super Mario Bros. 2, standing on a log while a POW Block hits the ground will make the log ascend to the top of the screen with your character.

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"He drew it by hand, on a drawing board, describing it as part sculpture, part face, with hand-cut type that was inspired by the seminal design magazine of the 1980s, Emigre." Gizmodo on the original Logitech logo designed by Timothy Wilkinson in the 1980s.

This is from DQ Fitness Advisor Doug Walsh, in response to the picture of the gigantic 64 oz. soda cup last week.

I was in a convenience store in the Dallas area (Plano). I had just gone running. It was early Sunday morning and I was going to be headed to Gearbox after a quick shower. The guy in front of me has this massive 64oz bucket-with-a-handle travel mug of soda. I watched him fill this thing with Coca-Cola, a few ice cubes, and a splash of Orange soda on top. Not a bad combo, if I do say so myself. 

Anyway, he gets to the cashier and she says, "Is that going to be it for you today?" To which he replies, "Yeah, this is all. I tend to get thirsty in church."

I will never forget this moment for as long as I live.

Years ago, when I was learning how to drive, my mother made sure to emphasize the fact that a motor vehicle is a lethal weapon. Nearly two tons of steel and plastic, moving at speed, is dangerous when misused or mishandled. That's not cause to be passive, but rather, to be cognizant of the consequences and continually vigilant. As a teenager, it was easy to get excited about the new power available to me, while not considering the risks, nor giving thought to others in the world around me -- except as obstacles. And like most Americans, I managed to make it through those years without serious incident, despite some mistakes, with the help of a few lucky breaks here and there. Because I was okay personally, I didn't think much beyond that, at the time.

Some bike lanes were painted in an effort to try and do something, anything at all, but despite the well-meaning effort, the street remains a major problem.

One of the goofier unchallenged phrases is "American love affair with cars." Cars are useful things! We built infrastructure to accommodate them, and then places that required them. People in other countries have cars too! They also, sometimes to a lesser extent, built infrastructure to accommodate them and places that required them.

And it's Nickelback.

From Rob Funk, and this is fantastic: Have We Found Alien Life? Microbes That Eat and Breathe Electricity Have Forced Scientists to Reimagine How Life Works--On This Planet and Others.

From Simon Jones, and this is a great read: The curious case of the sweaty nipples.

From The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, and this is fascinating: Education plus ideology exaggerates rejection of reality. Next, and this is remarkable, it's Raspberry Pi Engine Control with Real-Time Adaptive Extreme Learning Machine (Linux). This next link is fascinating, believe it or not: Example of an economics exam from Harvard University in 1953. One more, and it's breathtaking: Clear Roof Breathes New Life Into Historic Spanish Church.

Speaking of breathtaking, have a look at this link from Matt Kreuch: Zoomable Andromeda Galaxy. Also, and all I can say is "Wear a cage, people!", it's Blood, Sweat and Teeth: Wild Nights with an NHL Dentist.

From J.R. Parnell, and these are entirely wonderful: 15 Creative Long Exposures Capture a World Unseen. Also, and this is fantastic data visualization: NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life.

This is a terrific article from a very unique perspective: Silk Road Mom Learns Sad Truth About Son.

From DQ VB.NET And Extreme Weather Advisor Garret Remple: Don't leave your car, professor says.

From Jonathan Arnold, and I have no words:
Oregon Was Founded as a Racist Utopia.

A bevy of excellent links from C. Lee. First, it's How Books Became a Critical Part of the Fight to Win World War II. Next, and I now have the book referenced in this article (but haven't read it yet): Did Civil War Soldiers Have PTSD? Next, and it's whimsical (and true): Parachuting Beavers Into Idaho's Wilderness? Yes, It Really Happened. Lastly, and bean cookers can celebrate, it's Don't soak your dried beans! Now even the cool kids agree.

Rep. Colleen Garry, a Democrat from Dracut, proposed making it a felony to block highways. She told the Lowell Sun she was furious about the Thursday morning protests that blocked two sections of the heavily traveled highway through Boston, one north of the city and one south.

"I'm just outraged that people would be that reckless," Garry said. "Everyone has a right to protest, but to do that kind of thing in a highway or a roadway?" [...]

Nearly 30 protesters were arrested and arraigned on charges including trespassing, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and willfully obstructing an emergency vehicle.

State police said an ambulance transporting a seriously injured car crash victim to a Boston hospital was forced to divert to a hospital outside the city that did not have a trauma unit. The man survived. 

State Sen. Richard Ross, a Wrentham Republican, filed legislation that would impose a minimum $5,000 fine and allow a jail sentence of up to six months for willfully trespassing on state highways. Current law allows for a maximum $50 fine and a jail term of no more than three months.

And the same week, State to propose opening S. Boston Bypass Road to all drivers:

State transportation officials will file a notice in February with Massachusetts environmental regulators to allow cars coming into South Boston to use the Bypass Road, which is currently restricted to trucks and other commercial vehicles. The pilot program would last six months and could begin as soon as March. [...] 

The 1.1-mile road was built to accommodate trucks during the construction of the Central Artery, and when the tunnels were done, the road remained restricted. But as traffic becomes heavier in the fast-growing Seaport District, there has been pressure to open up the road to everyone. [...]

As part of its filing, the state will also propose letting all drivers use the high-occupancy vehicle lanes outside of South Station and the South End.

These two pieces of news are, in fact, related: because together they illustrate the hypocrisy and insincerity of our Commonwealth's transportation policy with regard to emergency vehicles. If our elected officials truly cared about emergency vehicle response time -- which they should -- then they would put a quick end to this proposal that will destroy the efficacy of both the South Boston Bypass Road as well as the HOV lanes outside of the South End. If not, then it is quite clear that these politicians, Rick Ross and Colleen Garry, are merely posturing and mouthing platitudes, all while silently sticking it to emergency responders. By far the most common obstacle for emergency vehicles on our roads is not protesters: on a daily basis, emergency vehicles are obstructed by other motorists and the traffic jams created by motor vehicles.



First, a little background: it is quite common for ordinary motorists to believe that the exact same facilities that enable their own travel at high speeds are also beneficial to emergency vehicles. A related objection to certain traffic-calming measures is that they will slow emergency response. However, in reality, the truth is much more complex and requires context-specific analysis. More car capacity might help emergency vehicle response time, under some circumstances. In other scenarios, additional car capacity might harm emergency vehicle response time. An additional, open, free-flowing lane can help emergency vehicles -- but if that same lane jams up with private automobiles then that lane just becomes an obstacle: an overall detriment to response times. In that scenario, removal of a jammed travel lane -- a reduction in car capacity -- can give emergency vehicles the maneuvering room they need in order to avoid the obstacle created by other motorists.

BU Bridge under renovation (source)

The BU Bridge renovation project gives a prime example of how removal of a lane can help emergency vehicles. The engineers behind this project understood that the prior existing condition of having four substandard travel lanes (with no shoulders) was unsafe and liable to create immovable jams at a crucial choke-point for emergency vehicles traveling between Boston and Cambridge. Therefore, they chose to eliminate a lane and reallocated its space into a pair of 5-foot shoulders on either side of the motorway. These shoulders are not intended for motor vehicle travel but they do provide a space for other vehicles to pull over while yielding to an emergency vehicle. In addition, they provide breakdown space to help recover from crashes or other incidents. They also serve as a continuation of the bike lanes coming from Boston. All-in-all, a fairly solid engineering compromise, considering that the intersections on both sides of the river need substantial renovation and rethinking.

But none of those safety issues were important to motorists such as Stanley Spiegel, who was quoted in the Boston Globe, in February of 2009, making this threat:

"There's going to be road rage," predicted Stanley Spiegel, who lives across the bridge in Brookline. "If you're going to spend public money to go for an improvement, you don't predictably make things worse.

This kind of attitude shows zero concern for the safety of anyone else, but it is sadly all too common among entitled motorists of Mr. Spiegel's ilk. Whenever safety or emergency response goals conflict with increased car capacity, we can see quite clearly where motorists like him stand. Thankfully, in the case of the BU Bridge thus far, MassDOT has not capitulated to the bullies who would remove the shoulder space and turn it back into a fourth congested travel lane.

The South Boston Bypass Road (source)

The South Boston Bypass Road was assembled out of a narrow right-of-way for the purpose of helping the industries along the waterfront thrive during the Big Dig. It also keeps a bunch of heavy trucks off of the regular city streets, and it provides a clear lane of travel for emergency vehicles operating between the South Boston Waterfront and South Bay. As you can see from this picture, the shoulders are fairly small: they seem to vary from 2-4 feet. It's not a road designed for high volumes of traveling vehicles. As a result, heavy traffic induced on this road could result in jam-ups that would be impassable for emergency vehicles.

For a number of years, pundits such as Shirley Leung have been campaigning to allow private cars on it. She has quoted old-school 'highwaymen', such as Frank DePaola (who coincidentally is the interim Secretary of Transportation right now), with statements like this: "If you have traffic, and you want to relieve it, you have to find road capacity." As a result of this kind of short-sighted thinking, the South Boston Bypass Road will be jammed up with private cars and will not be able to serve its former purposes any longer. And it goes to show, that when the political push comes to shove, concerns about emergency vehicles suddenly disappear, in favor of a temporary band-aid covering up much deeper, systemic problems with South Boston transportation.

HOV lanes are also a popular target of attack by privileged motorists. It's so common that it's even got a name: the "Empty Lanes Attack", so called because drivers will often claim that the HOV lanes are "mostly empty" or not being used, and therefore should be given over to single-occupancy vehicles. What they (intentionally) fail to realize is that the relative emptiness is what gives the HOV lane its value: it is passable. If it were congested, then it would not be useful. Too bad, then, that even our Boston MPO doesn't seem to understand that most basic of concepts. And because such lanes are designed not to be congested, they are also useful for emergency vehicles that need to bypass major traffic congestion. Thus, the proposal to 'open' the HOV lanes outside of South Station to general traffic will result in degradation of emergency response times.

Where is the outrage? Why, of course there is none: because motorists only pretend to care about ambulances when doing so happens to be convenient. The "Empty Lanes Attack" trumps their false concern about emergency vehicles: the allure of additional single-occupancy vehicle road capacity takes precedence over safety principles.


If officials really cared about emergency response times, then I-93 would have full-width shoulders and/or HOV facilities/zipper lanes extended all the way from end-to-end: taking existing lane space where necessary. It's the only responsible way. But, in fact, the current configuration of the highway that excludes such safety features from much of its length, especially where most constrained. This shows where the true priorities lie: always pushing for 8 lanes of general travel no matter what the consequences are to emergency vehicles or highway safety. Convenience for drivers of single-occupancy vehicles is more important than safety, to our decision-makers.

The fact is that it's easy for officials to claim that they care about emergency vehicle response times when doing so also means more capacity for drivers. But real courage would be shown by officials who show that they care about emergency response even when it's not politically convenient to do so. That means support for restricted lanes such as HOV or bus lanes. That means supporting safety features within the existing right-of-way of roads, without requiring costly expansion. And that means not playing these insincere political games in which 'concern' for safety only arises when it is useful for pursuing another agenda; when that same 'concern' suddenly vanishes the moment it is no longer useful.

Dave Roberts explains it well.

In short: There is no plan to resolve the dispute over cost overruns, which are ubiquitous on projects like this; at $4.2 billion, it’s the most expensive transportation project in state history. The tunnel will have no exits — no ingress or egress — throughout the entire downtown core (which makes the support of downtown businesses all the more mystifying). It won’t allow transit, only cars. It will be tolled, highly enough, by the state’s own estimates, to drive nearly half its traffic onto the aforementioned side streets. It will be a precarious engineering feat, the widest deep-bore tunnel in history, digging right between a) Puget Sound and b) the oldest part of Seattle, with vulnerable buildings and God-knows-what buried infrastructure. Also: Pollution. Climate change. It’s the 21st f’ing century. On and on. People said all this and more, in real time, to no avail.

Game lets you play Pong with a person on other side of the crosswalk (source)

ThisIsColossal reports on "ActiWait", which is a video game with controllers on either side of a crosswalk, allowing two waiting pedestrians to play a game of Pong.

The ActiWait is a new generation of traffic light buttons. Installed at a pedestrian traffic light with long red phases, it offers pedestrians the possibility to convert boring waiting times into positive experiences. Through a touch screen which is installed in the upper shell of the button, people can interact with each other across the street.

Slides from Ricardo Olea, SF MTA (source)

"SPOT app" (source: BostInno)

The suburbs aren't one thing, and this type of pattern is going to vary quite a bit from place to place, depending in part on when the inner ring suburbs were built. Still there is the basic issue that older suburbs are having to deal with legacy maintenance costs, changing demographics, and local resistance to land use/zoning changes that are potentially self-defeating.

I see a lot of boarded up strip malls and houses in places where that would have seemed very unlikely a couple of decades ago.

When a party suffers a major setback, everyone comes forward with their diagnosis of the problem. And in most cases their diagnosis of the problem tells us that the solution is what the diagnoser wanted to do more of in the first place. This is just human nature. We see the evidence before us as confirmation of what we already thought. When I'm asked these kinds of questions, what I always say is that we should be highly skeptical of anything that suggests the answer is obvious or simple to execute. Because for all the groupthink and folly and insular thinking of political professionals, they're generally fairly bright and they have huge personal and professional incentives to win. If it were really that obvious, someone would have tried it already.

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Morrissey's 'Autobiography': Censored Sentences on Intimate Relationship With Jake Walters Reinstated in U.S. Paperback - Billboard

Great news for Smiths fans who don't blush at innocuous descriptions of homosexual relationships -- the uncensored version of Morrissey's Autobiography is now available in the United States.

When Moz's memoir saw its U.S. release last December (less than two months after its U.K. release), three sentences detailing his relationship with Jake Walters, a British photographer, were removed