Best of Weblogs!

by Erik Olsen on

Howdy folks. Another edition of Weblogs Inc.’s best of. These links are a great way to keep informed about a
whole range of topics covered by the Weblogs crew. Really good stuff here.

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a
week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to
you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find links to the hottest posts from the first week of July after the jump.
Enjoy!


The Download
Squad?s Victor Agreda, Jr. tells you
why PSP + VNC = fun. Marc Perton asks what you want to
see on Download Squad; there?s still time to
respond to this poll.
Jordan Running suggests
MediaPortal as a
free alternative to Tivo, MCE or MythTV for Windows users.

Engadget?s Peter
Rojas anticipates the upcoming debut of the Disney Mobile
cellphone service. Barb Dybwad digs some
Japanese-flavored iPod accessories. Marc Perton finds a
gadget for watching flicks in your rear view mirror while
you drive (!), and gives credit to Siemens for its limited edition
wooden cellphone.

Autoblog?s Eric
Bryant is spooked by a British GPS device that automatically puts the
brakes on speeding vehicles. Randall Halcomb weeps over
plans for a cheesy sequel to Fast and Furious, and reports
on an epic employee discount battle between domestic auto
manufacturers. John Neff tells you how to put John Cleese?s
voice in your navigation system. 

Joystiq?s James
Ransom-Wiley speculates on a revival of Virtua Cop,
reports on Team Ninja front man Itagaki?s take on Xbox 360
limitations, and reveals that Capcom may be working on a remake of
Resident Evil DS. Joystiq has put out a call for a new
writer to join the Joystiq team.

.Gadling?s Erik
Olsen goes gaga over Latitudes magazine, agrees with
Mediabistro?s look at America from afar, and checks out the
latest Worldwide Panoramic event. Adrienne Wilson wonders
at sex huts for World Cup fans.

Hackaday?s Vince
Veneziani?s Monday sipping is a real goody, and his
hackaday lazy afternoons reveals that  Hackaday is
written up in the latest Macworld magazine. Eliot Phillips finds a guide for using an old
Mac SE/30 as a web server and a popular article on building a
backpack-based wireless access point.

Luxist?s Rick Reed
appreciates the Presidential Full Entertainment Home Bar.
Peter Thompson recommends traveling the French Riveria by
helicopter. Adam Newman checks out a robotic lawn
mower. Deirdre Woollard showcases Round Hill estate in
Greenwich, Conn., listed at a cool $16.9 million.

TUAW?s
C.K. Sample III

explains how to copy all your music from your old
iPod to your new iPod. Laurie Duncan turns you on to
high-end home
theater with iPod integration. Dave Caolo increases your
odds of winning the iTunes
Music Store contest. Scott McNulty takes suggestions for
a TUAW meetup in Boston during Macworld.

Cinematical

Carpet Makers of Antigua Guatemala

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s a short, but sweet piece by Jim Kane on Guatemala, a place he recently revisited after many years. He talks about the Guatemalan carpet-makers in Antigua, Guatemala, where on Easter weekend, thousands of people build the most amazing “carpets” on the roads of the city.

I was there myself years ago, and found the event utterly fascinating. Deeply religious, but also revealing a very unusual and rich artistic heritage, the ceremony involved making magnificent paintings out of flowers and pine needles and all sorts of things on the ground. It’s sort of like the Rose parade, but on the ground. The event also includes processions through the streets where participants dress in religious and Roman regalia and ply the roads slowly, often bearing crosses or effigies of Christ.

If you are planning a trip to Guatemala anytime soon, try to orchestrate your visit around Easter time. You won’t regret it.

The View From Afar

by Erik Olsen on

It’s always very interesting to see how we are seen from a distance. When you are in the center of the maelstrom that is American media, it is often hard, if not impossible, to get a perspective of what it all looks and sounds like from outside. I’ve lived abroad a few times and each time I was overseas, I was amazed how my perspective of America changed. Gone was the feeling and notion that America was the center of everything. Gone, certainly, was the notion that any news having to do with Tom Cruise was at all important.

So here is a really fun piece from Jesse Kornbluth at mediabistro on exactly this topic. Kornbluth is living in France and he offers his perspective on America and the American media from that vantage point.

He makes many of the same observations, notably that the American media when seen from afar comes across less as an instrument of information providing crucial knowledge to active and involved members of a democratic republic (not that we thought that was the case, but you know, that’s the hope), but rather as a cacophonous cornucopia of celebrity-driven drivel. Thin gruel indeed. Of course, most intelligent, “aware” Americans will find the arguments here obvious. But I did quote enjoy the article, if anything just to refresh and reestablish some notions I’ve held for a while.

Zion By Shuttle

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s the good news: America’s National Parks are some of the finest in the world. The
National Park Service does such a fine job taking care of our natural and
historical jewels, that you don’t have to go far to experience the wonders of our National Parks. Here’s the bad news.
Lots of people do this, and some of the parks are ridiculously crowded.

If you have ever spent a summer week in Yosemite Valley, you know what I’m
talking about. The valley becomes so congested in summer with motorhomes and cars and grill smoke, that it sometimes
more closely resembled Disneyland than a wonder of the world. The same goes for Zion National Park, which has a
reputation during July for Los Angeles-style traffic jams.

Now the NPS is trying to fix all that. According
to this piece in the
Washington Post, the folks at Zion have begun a shuttle service through Zion to ease the congestion problems. Now,
you may say, whoa, wait a minute, why should I celebrate riding a shuttle in a magnificent place like Zion. You
shouldn’t. But for the time being it is the next best alternative to preventing visitors into the park. It ain’t
pretty, and I’m not sure there isn’t a better solution down the road. But for now, that’s what they’re doing.

So if you are planning a summer Zion trip, beware. You may be seeing the park not from your car window, but while
sitting next to some chatty dude and his wife from Las Vegas.

Greenland By Kite

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s another hard-core expedition for fans of, well, hard-core expeditions. It is also one of those trips you can
talk about in a bar conversation about when people say that everything has already been done.

Niklas Norman, Trygve Nakling and Carl Gustav Rye Florence
have embarked on a plan to ski-sail 1,553 miles across Greenland from south to north. Using only wind power, the goal
is to make the trip in less than 30 days. How will they cover so much ground in so short a time? Amazingly, the winds
are so fierce in this part of the world, that they will often his speeds in excess of 60 mph.

Dealing with gnarly white-outs and gaping crevasses, the team is currently into the trip, and they are
posting dispatches from their site.

Greenland, you might recall, is massive. It is about 7 times the size of Norway, and over 80 percent if the island is
covered by a giant ice-cap. Most expeditions traverse the island across, but the “Windpower Expedition” will do a full
length crossing.