Last train to Clarkesville

Could a map of London's underground tube stations be used as the basis for charting 100 years of music? Other mapping attempts can be found at Gnoosic and Liveplasma.

Now comes a music map based on a public transit map that might well be called the Rock Island Line.

Dorian Lynskey, the UK newspaper Guardian's music writer, got out some sheets of paper and a box of crayons and transposed the history of both rock and roll onto a schematic diagram of the world's most extensive underground rail line.

Using particular routes for particular music roots, Lynskey's diagram neatly maps many of music's intersecting points (for all the details firsthand, visit her Guardian Unlimited blog entry here).

Lynskey's efforts are based on the London Underground map designed by Harry Beck in 1933. Beck moved away from the strict geographical design of previous maps and based his simple layout on an electrical circuit diagram. The format has been copied by transport systems around the world.

Lynskey's full map can be found here as a .pdf, and can be purchased here for only £7.95.

How to impress your boss

A recent article in the Washington Post features a picture of U.S. National Security Agency director Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander giving President Bush a tour of the super-secret agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Alexander and Bush are photo-opped in front of a giant computer screen in an apparent update of the Bush background generator ploy that White House press flaks use whenever they can. Trouble is, the super-secret security screen that Alexander is revealing to Bush is available to you and I and even the dreaded Axis of Evil.

Compare for yourself. Here's a blow-up of the NSA security screen and here's a live link to the same screen, also known as the Talisker Computer Network Defense Operational Picture.

The Talsiker page is a product of Computer Network Defence Ltd. located in the UK (whose site also features some neat/geek-friendly security cartoons) using data from DShield.org and SANS, home of the Internet Storm Center.

Now, if you want to impress your boss, set the Talisker screen as your home page and tell him or her you're on the watch for those pesky cyber-terrorists. And to get your boss to buy you coffee, show him or her the level of threat your IP address poses on the net. Hey, if it's good enough for the leader of the free world ...

JD'd rather be somewhere else

Once heir and hair apparent to sit in Walter Cronkite's old chair, veteran CBS News White House correspondent (and Canadian) John Roberts is joining CNN. Roberts, 49, made his last appearance for CBS News covering American President Bush's State of the Union address on January 21st, 2006. He starts at CNN February 20th.

Roberts' departure effectively ends the chances of another Canadian bringing home the news to Americans on a major U.S. network. Toronto-born Peter Jennings held the outpost at ABC from August 9th, 1983 to April 5th, 2005 before dying from cancer.

CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves made no secret of his dislike for Roberts. The network's contined non-decision in announcing Dan Rather's successor (who left March 9th, 2005) prompted Roberts to jump to the CNN cable network. No doubt the doors at Fox weren't open too wide to accommodate a Canadian. Or was it something in Roberts' past?

What most American visitors to this site may not know is that John Roberts was once known as JD Roberts, a VJ on Much Music -- the maple-flavoured version of MTV. JD first hosted "The New Music" in 1979 on Toronto's CityTV, which with "City Limits" helped the station's owner CHUM launch Much Music in August, 1984. Joining JD on "the nation's music station" was Christopher Ward, and soon Michael Williams and Erica Ehm (pictured with JD). Viewers who remember JD's "backstage condition" interviewing pop stars of the day on the New Music show have no doubt often wondered how much CBS knew of their once-golden boy's early broadcast style.

And what of Erica Ehm? The former miss Miechowsky (we guess that's where the 'Ehm' came from) is now a mother of two, writing songs and plays while occasionally hosting radio talk shows.

You can keep up with the divine Ehm at www.ericaehm.com. Her current project is hosting Yummy Yummy, a parenting TV series that's running on the various forms of the Discovery and Life networks.

Longtime fans of Erica can leaf through a gallery of photos covering her career. We especially like this one (that's her, far left). Yummy yummy indeed!

What's up?

What's Up?

Tired of scouring the internet in search of up-to-the-second news? Dissatisfied with bland RSS feeds? Well, look no further and clock in with What's up?

A product from the mind of Jeroen Wijering, What's up? displays news feeds from around the world in balloon captions displayed against a world map -- and it's in near-real time.

Jeroen will soon be releasing What's up? as a screensaver. But even in its current form it will be sure to make your cube station a must walk-by visit on the way to the local watercooler.

They've got your number

The In-N-Out chain is a beloved California institution replete with local lore, legend and myth.

Apparently, there are only four food items on the 'public' In-N-Out menu: Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double-Double and French Fries. But like a Masonic handshake, there's more for "those who know" than their straight-up alternate menu of shakes and cola beverages.

Fr'instance, there's a secret Flying Dutchman burger, an Animal Style burger and a 3-by-Meat burger. Many web sites claim to have the complete secret In-N-Out menu, but this one claims to have the whole enchilada (with pictures to prove it).

The folks at Badmouth recently discovered that employees at In-N-Out will do anything to a burger if you ask them -- and in any number.

Badmouth had heard of a 2x4 Burger that had two beef patties and four slices of cheese. Undaunted, they challenged In-N-Out with an order for a 20x20 burger. Sure 'nuff they got it!

Word got out and soon a good ole Canadian boy named Will stepped up to the plate upping the ante with an order for a 100x100 (actually a Double-Double with 98 extra patties). Will's blog entry indicates 19,490 calories were consumed by 8 eaters, with only one call made on the porcelain telephone.

Now, while the above-linked tales of mass-consumption may disgust (and offer indigestion), nothing can match the claim of eating an entire loaf of Wonderbread in a single bite. Compressing a whole loaf to the point of spontaneous fusion, the intrepid (read foolhardy) folks at Badmouth tried just that with documented results.

Google 2.0?

Page shows Google.com may get makeover

Google's sparse search results page is about to get a whole lot more "integrated."

Wizened Google users have long-enjoyed the search engine's relevant-only results page (albeit slightly encroached in the recent past with "sponsored links"). Things are about to change -- at least according to what some users have seen and reported in the link above. From the article:

Some Web users are reporting seeing a reformatted Google Inc. results page that has the links to specialized search pages listed in the left-hand column instead of placed horizontally across the top of the search box.

In addition, these links to the image, groups, news, Froogle and local search pages are each accompanied by a horizontal bar graph with a gray background and a green fill.

Jeepers! What's next? Banner ads?

And in case the screenshot link in the above-posted article doesn't work due to the slashdot effect, it can be viewed here.