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There was no one in sight, a guaranteed getaway, and loot worth millions. So it must have seemed all too easy to make off with a high-priced painting from a cargo warehouse at Kennedy International Airport two weeks ago.

Except, the authorities said, for two small details:

1. It was all captured on videotape.

2. The thief apparently left behind a copy of his driver’s license.

Now, all of this is totally misleading for a whole host of reasons, but as far as newspaper articles go, it does make a killer lead-in.

(For those of you who aren’t actually going to read the article to find out what was misleading, let me summarize: the ‘thief’ didn’t premeditate stealing the painting, but took it out of spite, and in the heat the moment; aside from which, he probably didn’t even know what was in the box.)

(NYTimes: “When Taking a Painting, Don’t Leave Your Picture,” by Anahad O’Connor [May 17, 2005])

Did you know…

Fears of food tampering predate even Snow White and the wicked Queen with her apple.

No, really!

Yes, so with a title of “But the Dang Thing Won’t Open,” of course it’s going to be at least partially a tounge-in-cheek article. The article–on the trials and tribulations of product packaging–is, if not illuminating, at least interesting, in a sadistic sort of way. Did you know that wrap rage–the phenomenon of a consumer throwing caution to the wind in trying to open a package with knives, scissors, or what-have-you–causes upwards of 60,000 injuries a year in Great Britain alone? I bet you didn’t. You’ll learn many other things from this informative article if you so desire. Of course, it only addresses the consumer and producer angles of things, and doesn’t so much as whisper of the whole waste issue of (over)packaging.

(WaPo: “But the Dang Thing Won’t Open,” by Joyce Gemperlein [June 12, 2005])

May 18th, however, has all the meaning in the world.

Well, not quite. A tutor (and specialist in Happiness) has devised a formula to determine the best day to come up with resolutions that have the best chance of being achieved. And that day, according to the formula, is May 18th.

I personally don’t have much faith in the formula, but it can’t be any worse a time than January first, and it certainly could be a better day. Who knows?

(The person who devised this formula also determined that January 24th is the most depressing day of the year.)

(Science Blog: “Whoops: May 18 was best day to change your life”)

It’s like one of those friction-operated flashlights, where you have to squeeze to get light. Except for the fact that the light is television, and that instead of squeezing, you have to walk. It’s a prototype pair of shoes that bestows upon the wearer one minute of TV time for every 100 steps taken.

(New Scientist: “Smart shoes decide on television time,” by Will Knight [May 18, 2005])

Intel ranks cities for the availability of wireless internet access, listing the top 100. Here are the top 10:

1. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett-Tacoma, Wash.
2. San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland, Calif.
3. Austin-San Marcos, Tex.
4. Portland, Oregon - Vancouver, Wash.
5. Toledo, Ohio
6. Atlanta, Ga.
7. Denver, Colo.
8. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
10. Orange County, Calif.

(via PLANETizen)

Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond

In all likelihood you do not need me to tell you that this is a fascinating and well-written book, so I won’t dwell on the obvious. It’s a book I’ve been encouraged to read on numerous occasions and, having read it, I’m not disappointed. One thing I found refreshing was how on-target Diamond remained throughout the entire book; often, in anthropology/sociology/(etc.-ology) books that veer into or are targeted at pop culture, the author makes numerous departures from the main idea to relate entertaining or otherwise informative anecdotes that do not correspond directly to the thrust of the work. This makes the books fun to read (and imparts fun facts on the reader) but has the unfortunate side-effect of diminishing the strength of the author’s thesis. Diamond rarely veers, and somehow makes sure that all his anecdotes are highly germane to the GGS canon. For this reason, despite its length, Guns, Germs, and Steel is actually fairly straightforward and simple to understand.

Girl in the Flammable Skirt, by Aimee Bender

This is as entertaining a collection of stories as any, and one of them is enough to get you hooked (or ought to be, anyway). The title is catchy—it’s what caught my attention—but is also interesting for the fact that the eponymous story is possibly the weakest in the collection. Which is to say that it’s quite good, but not brilliant. Good stuff. What’s to say? A fun, quirky mix of realism and fantasy, elements of the absurd and the totally expected mixed together expertly.

The OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form) is an attempt to put all definitions into, yes, limerick form. Right now you’re out of luck if you want a limerick-ified definition for, say, bottle, or (heavens!) zebra. But there are 23^* definitions for aardvark, so it’s not all bad.

^* some of which are still tentative, and not officially ‘approved’

(via Research Buzz)

US city rankings by SustainLane.

In addition to having a logical color-coded system, SustainLane has a fairly comprehensive break-down of sustainability issues for each city, with individual rankings for everything from concrete things, like air quality and transportation, to less obvious things, like city innovation and knowledge base. The rankings include info for the top 25 cities (of which the bottom half aren’t so impressive, but still in theory rank above other cities).

The 1840, seven-volume edition of John James Audubon’s Birds of America is now avaiable online. Granted, it’s not as useful as modern field guides, but it’s certainly interesting for the historical context (and the illustrations, of course.)

(via LII)