Can you believe this? I couldn’t! So I took a few pictures.

I actually bought gas for $1.89/gallon tonight in Fort Lee, NJ, on my way home from a client’s house. I’ve just become numb to the price of gasoline lately, and hadn’t really noticed the prices falling. I cannot remember the last time I saw gas for under two dollars per gallon.

I did a quick Internet search, and found that the highest price in my area of New York City was $4.41/gallon on 7/16/2008; that was only 4 months ago. (The highest price in the Fort Lee, NJ area was $4.01/gallon on 7/6/2008.)

Today I got 12.217 gallons for only $23.20, that would have cost about $50 four months ago.

The Fuel Gauge Report website has more information about gas prices, including this chart of the:

12 Month Average For Regular Unleaded

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.

If you love music, but don’t know about SomaFM yet, you’re really missing something special.

Based in a warehouse in San Francisco, SomaFM broadcasts 14 unique channels of listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative radio.

But SomaFM isn’t a station that you listen to on a regular radio. They stream their music over the Internet, and you listen on your computer. (More about how to do that in a minute.)

SomaFM’s founder Rusty Hodge started the station in 1999 with one channel, and they now broadcast 14 unique channels of music, 24 hours a day. SomaFM’s commercial-free streams are listened to in over 200 countries around the world!

Listening to SomaFM gives you access to music and formats that aren’t available on commercial radio, or formats that are “not being done right” as Rusty puts it.

To listen to SomaFM you use a music (or media) player program on your computer. Mac (and Windows) users can use iTunes. Winamp for Windows plays both aacPlus and MP3 streams. Windows Media Player users can get the Orban aacPlus plugin to hear aacPlus feeds right in Windows Media player.

Just go the SomaFM listen page, to see the different music channels, and get links to the different players and streams.

Here are the 14 fabulous channels they have:

1. Groove Salad: A nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves. (My favorite!)
2. Secret Agent: The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life. For Spies and PIs too!
3. Drone Zone: Served best chilled, safe with most medications. Atmospheric textures with minimal beats.
4. Indie Pop Rocks!: New and your favorite classic indie pop tracks.
5. cliqhop idm: Blips’n'beeps backed mostly w/beats. Intelligent Dance Music.
6. Beat Blender: A late night blend of deep-house and downtempo chill.
7. Tag’s Trip: Progressive house / trance. Tip top tunes.
8. Illinois Street Lounge: Classic bachelor pad, playful exotica and vintage music of tomorrow.
9. Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Spaced-out ambient and mid-tempo electronica.
10. Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls
11. Boot Liquor: Americana Roots music for Cowhands, Cowpokes and Cowtippers
12. Lush: Sensuous and mellow vocals, mostly female, with an electronic influence.
13. Digitalis: Digitally affected analog rock with a DIY mentality.
14. Sonic Universe: NuJazz + avant-garde EuroJazz. Transcending the world of jazz with experimental takes on tradition.

SomaFM is the soundtrack to my day here at TheoreticalKen. For example, Groove Salad, Secret Agent and Illinois Street Lounge are medium/up-tempo energy, great for listening during the day. Space Station Soma, and Drone Zone are great for those quiet post-midnight working hours!

But try ‘em all! You’ll hear an amazing diversity of music, artists and genres!

How exciting! My wife Michelle’s Unnata Aerial Yoga class was written up in the NY Times “Thursday Styles” section this past Thursday! You can see a copy of the print article over on the Aerial Yoga website. Or if you like, you can read the article on the NY Times website.

As I have mentioned before, the Aerial Yoga class is now in its new location on Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg, and was recently featured on NBC’s First Look NY. In fact, Michelle’s segment on First Look NY was syndicated, and played in the little TVs in the back of NYC Taxi Cabs for about two weeks! Many people called to say that they saw Michelle in their Taxi Cab!

FYI: Tonight (Sunday Oct. 12, 2008), Michelle is doing an Aerial Acrobatic performance at the Zipper Theatre on 37th St. (b’twn 8th and 9th Aves) at 7PM. Come on down for an exciting evening of mixed aerial performances by some of New York City’s leading aerial acrobatic performers!

It’s been a busy week over at my wife Michelle’s Aerial Yoga class! Last night was the grand opening party at the new home of Unnata Aerial Yoga. And tonight, Unnata Aerial Yoga was featured on NBC’s 1stLook NY, on channel 4 at 7:30PM here in New York City.

As I mentioned in June, Michelle moved the class over to a great new space on Bedford Avenue, in the heart of Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. Last night we finally had a house-warming party to introduce the space to everyone. Since Aerial Yoga is a hybrid of traditional yoga and aerial acrobatic training, the evening featured two aerial acrobatic performances (by Michelle, and Angela Jones), one on-the-ground dance performance (by Ede Thurrell), and lots of Unnata Aerial Yoga demonstrations.

The Aerial Yoga TV piece was taped in August, and was featured this evening on NBC’s 1stLook NY, a half-hour life/styles program produced by LXTV.com. The theme of tonight’s program was “Back to School” — different classes for adults to partake in now that the kiddies are all back in school. Aerial Yoga was one of the super-interesting classes available in the New York area that were featured on the show. Also included were: Skydiving and SCUBA diving lessons, Sushi making and Sake tasting, cooking and bar tending lessons, and more. How fun!

You can see the Unnata Aerial Yoga segment on NBC’s “1stLook NY” website, and of course it’s on the Unnata Aerial Yoga website too.

Park Slope, Brooklyn, residents should note that according to the NYC Department of Sanitation, the temporary suspension of Street Cleaning/Alternate Side Parking (ASP) Regulations will end on Monday July 14th, 2008.

The no-parking window (during which the street is cleaned) has been reduced from 3 hours to 1.5 hours, so ASP parking rules were temporarily suspended in May to allow for the replacement of the street parking signs in Park Slope. The work is complete, and the ASP regulations will go back into effect on Monday July 14th, 2008. Read the signs on your street for day/time changes.

Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens and Gowanus streets have Street Cleaning/ASP Regulations temporarily suspended as of July 7, 2008 for the same reason.

More information about Street Cleaning/ASP Regulations in Sections of Brooklyn 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!

WOW! I just came across these beautiful 360 degree panoramic images taken inside of the famous CBGB club in New York City. The images (by Jook Leung) were taken 2 days before the club closed its doors forever on October 15, 2006.

If you’ve never been inside CBGB, here’s your chance to see it in all its glory, with 33 years of personality applied to every square inch of the place.

You can read the history of CBGB here on the official CBGB website.

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering what CBGB and OMFUG mean, here’s a clip from the CBGB website:

The question most often asked of me is, “What does CBGB stand for?” I reply, “It stands for the kind of music I intended to have, but not the kind that we became famous for: COUNTRY BLUEGRASS BLUES.” The next question is always, “but what does OMFUG stand for?” and I say “That’s more of what we do, It means OTHER MUSIC FOR UPLIFTING GORMANDIZERS.” And what is a gormandizer? It’s a voracious eater of, in this case, MUSIC.

360 VR pictures of CBGB (by Jook Leung) from the 360VR.com website.

On Tuesday, June 10, 2008, Unnata™ Aerial Yoga moves to its new location on the main strip in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

The new location is at 241 Bedford Avenue (buzzer #7). This is on Bedford Avenue between North 3rd and North 4th. It is only a 2.5 minute walk from the Bedford Avenue stop on the L train; very easy to get to!

Classes at the new location will begin on Tuesday, June 10. Class days and times will be Tuesdays, 7:15-8:45pm, and Saturdays, 2:15-3:45pm. Additional schedule and reservation information can found at the Aerial Yoga Website.

Unnata™ Aerial Yoga’s new location (classes began two and a half years ago over at the Streb SLAM Studio), will offer some distinct advantages over the old space, says founder Michelle Dortignac:

“At this new location, I will be able to hang more apparatuses (when necessary) to ensure no more than 2 people per apparatus - even when class is full! Also, we will be the only class happening in the room when we are there, so it will be much quieter with fewer distractions. I had been looking for a space that would be more conducive to Yoga, and this space is really it!”

Classes, which are designed for all levels - even beginners with no previous experience - will cost $20. There will be a 5-class card for $85 (good for 2 months) and a 10-class card for $150 (good for 5 months).

Bruce Schneier’s latest Guardian column points out the absurdity of harassing photographers “to prevent terrorism”:

“Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.

Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don’t seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?”

(verbatim via)