Left Turn at Albuquerque

We all know that the mail never gets delivered on Sunday but now Saturday may be a no mail day as well due to less demand for snail mail. In addition to this there may soon be an increase in postage and postal office closures. The Postal Service experienced a 13 percent drop in mail volume and lost $3.8 billion last year.

More @ The Washington Post. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.

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Following the 2009 bicentennial pennies that were released last to celebrate 200 years since Lincoln was born, the U.S. mint is releasing an updated penny with a similar look to what we’re used to. Not much changes on the heads side. The tails side gets a slight redesign but also looks somewhat familiar.

Specifications:

• Composition: Copper-Plated Zinc: 2.5% Cu, Balance Zn
• Weight: 2.500 g
• Diameter: 0.750 in., 19.05 mm
• Thickness: 1.55 mm
• Edge: Plain

More @ usmint.gov.

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in 1989 a Puppet Master came out, a movie that so far has 9 sequels. The special thing about Puppet master are the puppets that come to life, each with unique weapon and killing abilities.

Blade Blade is in every Puppet Master movie ever made making him the most popular puppet. Although he has a great relationship teaming up with the other puppets, he is alaso independent compared to the others.
Jester Jester has a multi-paneled face, which will spin until he has decided which face best fits his mood. Jester doesn’t have any real weapons which makes him vulnerable so he does not wander around by himself often. He is very small and fast and can fit into tight places.
Leech Woman Leech Woman’s weapon is to vomit up leeches which will suck the life out of her enemies. You don’t want to mess with her. It does however take a while for her to fully vomit a leech so she is better at fighting enemies that are already weak and on the ground.
Pinhead Pinhead is the strongest and largest of the group of puppets but not necessarily the smartest. Although loyal to all the puppets, he spends a lot of time with his best friend Jester.
Tunneler Tunneler is a deadly puppet who uses a drill on his head to drill into the enemies. Although he prefers drilling into the head of victims for a faster kill, he can also be seen drilling into other body parts in movies.
Six Shooter Six-Shooter gets his name from his six arms, each with a handgun that shoots at his enemies. Before he is about to attack his bandana falls to cover his mouth.
Torch Torch is a dangerous puppet that shoots fire out of his right arm. He has a bad temper and is offended easily.

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You may wonder how a chess set that looks like a scale model of a city skyline is actually a chess set for beginners. The grooves in the pieces actually remind the player of the move pattern which that particular piece is allowed to do. Also the red wooden pieces on top of the grey wooden board doesn’t hurt in making this set attractive.

More @ The Design Blog.

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There are already hundreds of editions of Monopoly out there but hold on to your hats for yet another one. To celebrate Monopoly’s 75th anniversary, Monopoly is releasing a new circular board. In addition to the new board shape, this edition of Monopoly will also feature a banking system which works on credit, not cash. It looks as though also the game tokens and property cards have also been redesigned. This edition of Monopoly should be coming out later this year.

More @ Wired.

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Even wonder how Crayola came up with so many colors for their crayons? The website Weather Sealed has posted a graphic of how Crayola colors have multiplied from 1903 – today. Originally there were only 16 crayon colors until 1935 when the number doubled. On average the number of colors doubles every 28 years which means that by 2050 there will be over 300 different crayon colors.

More @ Weather Sealed.

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Tonight will mark the first time you can watch The Simpsons in HD. On top of that, there will be a new show introduction which seems a bit long (see above). Of course if you’re interested in watch full episodes in SD right now, you can always check out Fox on Demand.

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Google has finally added their street view service to the Baltimore/DC metro area. The service lets you view pictures to scope out areas for whatever reason using Google Maps without actually traveling there. The service has been available for a while now in other cities but was just recently turned on in the area. I heard the reason it didn’t come to the area sooner was for security reasons but according to the Fox 45 news it is because they were shooting hi-res pictures which delayed the process. Whatever the reason, it’s nice to see they added the area.

More @ Google Maps.

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I love coins. Something about the jingle of them in my pocket excites me. I love feeling the grimy metal run through my fingers. But I hate pennies. Think we should do away with the things and just round up to the nickle. The U.S. Mint disagrees with me though as they have just recently unveiled the first penny redesign in 50 years to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. The first of four pennies celebrating Lincoln’s life will be released on February 12th, 2009 which is Licoln’s birthday. The other designs will be introduced in three-month intervals after.

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I went to Miami Beach, FL with my girlfriend a couple weeks ago for four days. We went down there for one of her cousin’s weddings and we had a great time. I’ve been to Florida before but it was Orlando, Florida and it was fifteen years ago. This was my first time in Miami. I got some decent pictures to share. We took off from BWI and landed ahead of schedule, ten minutes early in Ft. Lauderdale. We then rented a car and drove down I-95 towards Miami.

The first thing i noticed besides the palm trees was how tall the buildings were. There was tons of construction going on all over Miami and they build up. I’m from the DC suburbs and there are plenty of buildings around but none really that are this tall and amazing looking. Many of these skyscrapers looked like apartment buildings and they are 50+ stories. Below is a shot I took going over the bay towards Miami Beach.

We made our way to the hotel that we were staying at. I discovered how nice Miami Beach was when we pulled up to the hotel round-about and the valet parker knocked on my window to get out so he could park the car for us. This was my first time with my own personal car parker. The hotel was right up on the beach and the view from out hotel room was of downtown Miami.

The next day we decided to drive to the Everglades with my girlfriends family. It took about 45 minutes to drive there from Miami Beach. On the way we passed the airport we’d be flying out of, Miami Airport. When we got to the Everglades park we learned of a 14 mile path. We decided to rent bikes and ride the trail. Along the way we saw many animals that we wouldn’t see in Maryland including alligators, large turtles and huge birds. After the bike ride I found a friendly grasshopper near the park entrance.

The weather in Florida is different then it is here in Maryland. It would rain for five minutes and then the sun would be out five minutes later. This would be consistent throughout the day some days. After the small rainstorm on the way back from the Everglades, we decided to go on the beach. The water ocean water in This part of Florida is amazing. It’s a much lighter blueish green color and really beautiful. it’s clear and you can see much deeper into the ocean then you can at the beaches around here.

The next morning we decided to visit Coconut Grove, an outdoor mall to do some shopping. They sell a lot of surf apparel in the area. That night we visited South Beach which was a short walk from out hotel. We ate at a fancy restaurant called Grazie. The food there was delicious and food was amazing tasting. After we walked around South Beach but it was dead because we went down about a month before the season really starts.

The wedding went really well on the final day of our trip. We left Miami in the evening and got back to BWI around midnight on 11PM. Miami is an awesome place to visit. I would move down there if it wasn’t for the humidity.

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