A slide show of pictures taken along 4th avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, the morning after the December 26, 2010 blizzard.

The storm started on Sunday afternoon, and by nightfall the street was clogged with stuck cars — many returning from the Christmas holiday weekend. Monday morning brought un-plowed roads and heavy, unprepared traffic.

Official snow totals in Central Park were measured to be 20″, though snowdrifts were 3-4 feet deep in areas.

Slide show music by Mecca Bodega: meccabodega.com

Okay, what’s up with the weather here lately?!

We just had a massive hailstorm here in Brooklyn. It sounded like someone was wailing handfuls of gravel at our apartment windows!

So I went outside and took a few shots, and then scooped up a coffee cup full of the hailstones.

At least there was no tornado.

(I don’t think there was a tornado!)

HOLY CRAP!!!!

Check out the below video shot from a 20th floor apartment in Queens, NY, by YouTube member DTRAVELZ

The video is a bit shaky in places (he was in a freakin’ tornado!), but the camera clearly captures the sight of this storm approaching and absolutely engulfing the entire area. This thing passes directly over his building! Check out the intense power of the wind and the incredible amount of rain falling. The clacking sounds are likely hailstones bouncing off the glass window. Great work DTRAVELZ!

This guy is really lucky that his windows stayed intact — apparently some of the glass panes of the balcony below his were blown off.

Put this on full screen, and turn up the speakers!

YouTube – TORNADO in Queens, Highrise view

The tree visible in the video stills is towering above the surrounding 2-4 story buildings — it must be about 60-70 feet tall.

While you cannot see a visible “funnel cloud” in the video, you can definitely see the sheer power of the wind, and the intensity of the rain as the storm hits and practically shreds the giant tree. It’s lucky that it’s still standing.

The NY Times is reporting that over 2000 trees in Brooklyn and Queens were toppled or fatally damaged. See incredible reader’s photos and interactive graphic here.

NY Times also reports that meteorologists have confirmed two tornadoes occurred in this storm.

The below video is kinda shaky, as the guys filming it were freaking out and running around from place to place in their apartment — and rightly so — this was a freaking scary two minutes here in Brooklyn (and Queens), and even I was looking out of our windows yelling “Holy f***ing shit!”

No, this is not about the beloved NYC rock-opera musical. It’s about the differences (and benefits) of access vs. ownership; and a look at just what will have value when so much is available for free.

Kevin Kelly over at KK.ORG has just posted a very interesting essay on this topic, called Better Than Owning: Access is better than ownership. Take a few minutes and read it. Here’s an excerpt:

Very likely, in the near future, I won’t “own” any music, or books, or movies. Instead I will have immediate access to all music, all books, all movies using an always-on service, via a subscription fee or tax. I won’t buy – as in make a decision to own — any individual music or books because I can simply request to see or hear them on demand from the stream of ALL. I may pay for them in bulk but I won’t own them. The request to enjoy a work is thus separated from the more complicated choice of whether I want to “own” it. I can consume a movie, music or book without having to decide or follow up on ownership.

For many people this type of instant universal access is better than owning. No responsibility of care, backing up, sorting, cataloging, cleaning, or storage. As they gain in public accessibility, books, music and movies are headed to become social goods even though they might not be paid by taxes. It’s not hard to imagine most other intangible goods becoming social goods as well. Games, education, and health info are also headed in that direction.

In fact, take a few more minutes and read this piece posted by Kevin Kelly in January, 2008: Better Than Free. Here’s an excerpt:

The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it…

…Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.

Well, what can’t be copied?

And finally, if you’ve got 43 minutes to invest in getting a glimpse of the future of the Internet, watch this Kevin Kelly presentation at Web and Where 2.0+ in February 2008.
(The presentation is about ~23 min. and the Q&A, the other 20 min.)

Kevin Kelly’s “Web 3.0″
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J132shgIiuY[/youtube]

Whoa!

Has every state now gone blue?

No, there are still a few red states left. But what the above map does show, is the levels of flu activity in each state (as of today, November 11, 2008); lighter blue for minimal flu activity, and darker blue for raised levels of flu activity.

Google (that’s right, the search engine) has just launched a new service called Google Flu Trends. Google has observed that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses Google search data to estimate flu activity up to two weeks faster than traditional flu surveillance systems managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of course, not every person who searches for “flu” or “flu symptoms” is actually sick. But trends do develop amongst the millions of searches done each day. It makes sense when you think about it; people might do a search themselves before they actually end up at their doctor’s office where their case of the Flu gets reported.

By making flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza, and may enable public health officials to better respond to seasonal epidemics and pandemics.

Learn more about Google Flu Trends here.

About twenty years ago, I was working next door to a shoemaker’s shop. One day, I was complaining to Joe (the Shoemaker) that my new sneakers kept coming untied. These shoes had roundish, nylon shoelaces and my standard shoelace knot that I had been taught as a child was not staying tight at all with these new laces.

Joe taught me what he called “the nylon shoelace knot,” and from that day forward, my shoelaces never come untied by themselves. But here’s the best part; a quick, firm pull on the two loose ends, and they come untied with ease. Beautiful!

Fast-forward to today; with the Interwebs being what they are, of course there is a website devoted to shoelaces – only shoelaces: Ian’s Shoelace Site.

I have now learned that this knot is called the Surgeon’s Shoelace Knot.

Ian’s Shoelace Site has tips on lacing shoes, tying shoelaces, slipping shoelaces, crooked shoelaces, shoelace lengths, shoelace tips for teaching children, shoelace tips for sports, shoelace tips for the elderly/disabled; shoelace tips for everyone!

This website will change the way you think about shoelaces. It’s never too late to learn to tie your shoes well!

I happen to love maps. So of course, I love my new Google Maps Plugin for Wordpress.

You like maps too?

Awesome US, World & State Wall Maps:
Raven Maps & Images

And you like on-line weather maps too?

Giant National Radar Composite (it’s huge!):
National Mosaic Enhanced Radar Image

Do you know of any other great map resources? Do tell; leave a comment!

Blue has always been my favorite color. (Take look around this site!) So the news today that Pantone has selected BLUE IRIS as its color of the year for 2008 really caught my eye; and I like this color a lot.

According to their press release, Blue Iris is “a beautifully balanced blue-purple,” that combines the “stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple.” Additionally, “Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement.”

Ahhh, that’s nice!

There exists a certain psychological state which tends to produce laughter, which is the natural phenomenon or process of “humor”, or “humor perception”.
–Thomas C. Veatch, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Here is the short scientific explanation of “funny,” and here’s the full version.

Here’s why I’ll try my best to avoid making puns ever again.

My favorite part of the above referenced paper: “Humor is emotional pain that doesn’t actually hurt.”