Aug 26, 2009
POSTED BY DANIEL CHAMBERLIN
• AWESOME MAPS FROM AFRICA: The dirt scientists at GlobalSoilMap.net are making maps of all the dirts of all the world, and Africa is just the beginning. The landscape architecture obsessives over at Pruned offer up some interesting analysis of a variety of soil maps of African countries, looking at the crossover between “these beautiful abstractions of geology” and the politics of agriculture that are inextricably linked to soil quality. E.g. in vintage maps of Zimbabwe nee Rhodesia, you can find the white population firmly ensconced on the finest dirt. We want to see a soil map of Tim Dundon’s Doo-Doo Manor next! [Pruned]
• TASTY FISH OR DEADLY FISH: Are you looking for new ways to police the eating habits of your pals in public? Who isn’t, is more like it! The Monterey Bay Aquarium has been producing a guide for responsible fish-eaters for awhile now — you’ll oft see them taped to refrigerators in “conscious” pseudo-vegetarian households — and they’ve now ported these guides into a mobile-phone friendly version. There’s also the requisite “iPhone app” if you’re into those exploding Macintosh pocket computers. [via The Vigorous North]
• ATTN CONQUERING LIONS: If you ever have a sudden urge to replenish your digital library with fresh reggae tunes, You & Me On A Jamboree is the website to hit up. These Brazilian bredren have posted literally hundreds of classic out-of-print JA jams, adding more rocksteady, dub and roots albums nearly every day. Our most recent favorite is this super sexy 20 Reggae Disco Hits thing, by which they don’t so much mean “disco” as “righteous pop sweatiness.” It’s a vinyl rip and we kinda love hearing the dusty crackle underneath the super chill covers of “Angel of the Morning” and original rockers from a couple people we’ve heard of (Ethiopians, Gregory Isaacs) and a bunch of dudes and ladies that are totally new to our ears. [Y&M]
• HOT TOWN, SUMMER IN THE CITY SUCKS: Anthropogenic climate change is bad for everyone, but you’re especially fucked if you’re poor or old and you live in the city. So says a new report from the National Wildlife Federation and Physicians for Social Responsibility, via Scientific American:
The report says urban areas, with their asphalt and concrete, are as much as 10 degrees hotter than more rural regions.
More than 3,400 people died in the United States from exposure to excessive heat between 1999 and 2003, the study states, adding that heat accounts for more weather-related deaths than any other single source.
All the more reason to get yourself some of that country air if you can, forest air in particular seems to be the way to go. [Scientific American]
• SPEAKING OF OLD PEOPLE: They say wise and funny shit sometimes: “The dog don’t like you planting stuff there. It’s his backyard. If you’re the only one who shits in something, you own it. Remember that.” [Shit My Dad Says via Harper's]
Previously on Arthurmag.com: