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A little web app for creating a shadow image for custom Google Maps icons.
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Handy little wizard for generating custom Google Maps icons.
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Nice royalty-free icons, including the new free Payments set.
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Handy bit of JavaScript to get the longitude and latitude of the center point on a Google Map. This works great as a bookmarklet.
Moving Through Water
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MetaFilter is turning ten and we're celebrating with meetups across the globe. We have members planning meetups on six continents. We just need to find a MeFite in Antarctica to cover them all.
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A collection of pictures and postcards from Portland's past. The design is wacky but the stories are good. [via MeFi]
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Fun discussion of the song Aquarela do Brasil, WWII propaganda, Frank Sinatra, and Disney.
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Why are passenger trains slower today than in the 1920s? Short answer: more freight, interstates, jets. [via MeFi]
UFO Display
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Andy funded a chiptunes jazz album in less than two hours with his new project Kickstarter. Nice demonstration of the new service and the album is a fun project I'm looking forward to hearing.
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A list of all the books mentioned in the classic Ask MetaFilter thread: What single book is the best introduction to your field?
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For all your Star Trek bridge needs.
Music Share: En la Caleta
I used to play guitar and I still remember the day I discovered the pentatonic blues scale. It was like discovering the DNA of all the music I'd grown up listening to. I eventually learned that you could draw a straight line from Robert Johnson to just about any of the music I was listening to.
I'm still startled when I hear music that's built from entirely different DNA. And that's what flamenco feels like to me because I can't picture the structure as it's playing and I have no sense of its history. It's obviously following some strict rules, but I don't have a handle on them yet. I especially like this track with unusual rhythm called En la Caleta from what I think was Paco de Lucía's debut solo album in 1967.
I'm still startled when I hear music that's built from entirely different DNA. And that's what flamenco feels like to me because I can't picture the structure as it's playing and I have no sense of its history. It's obviously following some strict rules, but I don't have a handle on them yet. I especially like this track with unusual rhythm called En la Caleta from what I think was Paco de Lucía's debut solo album in 1967.
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Ryan Tate on Oakland bloggers: "...I often found that bloggers were the only other writers in the room at certain city council committee meetings and at certain community events. They tended to be the sort of persistently-involved residents newspapermen often refer to as 'gadflies' — deeply, obsessively concerned about issues large and infinitesimal in the communities where they lived."
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"They certainly don't make SF book jackets like they used to." Fun post about classic Penguin book covers. I enjoyed browsing through the Penguin Covers on Flickr as well, and I recommend Penguin By Design by Phil Baines for even more design inspiration.
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Eric Johnson covered on a Nintendo. He mimicked the guitar tones (including harmonics) well. I can almost picture the side-scrolling shooting spree this could back. [via waxy]
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Lifehacker brings down the hammer on commenters. Interesting to see what will earn someone an instant ban from their site; it's a catalog of bad online behavior.
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Nice collection of YouTube videos featuring many Jazz legends at their peak in 1959. (My favorite is Horace Silver's Señor Blues.)
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Nice post about commercial illustrator Frank Soltesz who drew cut-away illustrations in the 40's and 50's.