This tie-tying tutorial works pretty darn well. I’ve always been a good tier of ties, but I just tried this, and it totally ups my game. (Via.)

When David Weinberger talks about how effective the Internet has been at evolving sophisticated filters for processing all the stuff that’s on the Internet, this is what he means. AideRSS is a Godsend. It analyzes the activity around each item in an RSS feed — Technorati hits, comments, Del.icio.us links, traffic reports, etc. — and calculates a score for the item. It then creates four feeds from the original feed, each set to a higher activity threshold.

Example: So far today, BoingBoing has posted a liver-curdling 18 entries. I could cut that down to two entries by subscribing to the feed of what AideRSS has deemed to be BoingBoing’s “best” posts. (Today, I’d be reading the obit of the fellow who could dial a phone by whistling, and a post on this “John Hughes meets George Romero” graphic novel. Among other things, I’d miss cheap plastic toys, fugly sweatshirts, a clay iPhone, and politically-themed crafting projects. Think I’d live.) If I really only want to hear from BoingBoing every couple of days, I could go for just the hits.

For those of you overloading on RSS feeds, but hoping not to miss anything big, this is totally key.

In Romenesko Letters today, Gordon Trowbridge makes a very good point about the coverage before the collapse of 35W: the press did see this one coming. Over the past several years, newspapers have published a number of prominent investigative stories on bridge/highway deficiencies. My own paper published a front-page story in 2001 headlined “A bridge too far gone? Repairs overdue on many spans.” An excerpt:

Bridge work is getting increasingly expensive as a bubble of structures built after World War II are wearing out and requiring major renovation or replacement during the next 20 years. [The 35-W bridge was built in 1967.]

And some state highway officials warn that Minnesota isn’t keeping up.

Read more…

Check out the tagset of del.icio.us user Kio. Also, “indigenous content.” (Via.)

I’m fine.

“We don’t often talk about love at gatherings like this; it seems too squishy.” — Clay Shirky, in a speech at Supernova ’07 that really is quite pleasant. Filled with fun nuggets. (Joho!)

• Bittman’s 101 10-minute meals.

The oppressive frequency of the need to replace the blades in my Gillette Mach 3 finally drove me to desperation this summer. When a pricey box of 20 razor cartridges ran out in a matter of weeks, I began hunting for an alternative. I have found it.

Just like this Ask MetaFilter poster, I was led to the Merkur 1904 stainless steel “Hefty Classic” double-edged safety razor by a post on Cool Tools. After reading the unanimous raves of the MeFirati, I bought the razor, a badger-hair shaving brush, and some shaving cream, and put blade to face.

Wonderful. It’s this solid, stubby metal instrument with a delicate platinum blade that bows so gracefully when you screw it in place. Few moments in masculine hygiene are as satisfying as making smooth, perfect rectangles appear on your face where foam and hair had been just before. I’m a full-fledged member of the cult now. My gaudy, plastic Mach 3 is officially retired. Does this make me old-school yet?

I just finished reading the McSweeney’s story “The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter,” about a circus elephant hanged for murder in a small Tennessee town in the early 20th Century. Brilliant. Affecting, gripping, wonderfully written, and a little bit heartbreaking. It’s one of those stories that you Google when you finish reading it, and then come to find out many wondrous things. For example, the story’s not entirely fictional. In fact, an entire book has been written about it, attempting to get at the truth behind what happened that day in Tennessee.

And then there’s the squonk, a legendary creature from the Pennsylvanian wilds said to dissolve into a pool of tears and bubbles when cornered.

There’s a throwaway reference to a ballet, “La Chauve-Souris Dorée,” by a choreographer named Plastikoff — “a rare work,” the story says, “in that it celebrated not courtship, but daily love, the often-pale and unnoticed emotions that pass between a man and wife.” Google yields no English references to Plastikoff, but “La Chauve-Souris Dorée,” or “The Gilded Bat,” is the name of a promising story written and illustrated by Edward Gorey.

I love texts that make you want to Google every word. And I love that you can.

All I have to say about the iPhone is it sure took Apple long enough to create the wifiPod. 😛