Food Tripping

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Finding healthy food on a road trip in the U. S. is usually a big challenge. Now there’s a really helpful app that meets that challenge. Food Tripping uses GPS to enable travelers to locate the closest farmers’ markets, health food, vegetarian/vegan joints, juice bars and natural food restaurants.

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Created by the multi-media outfit Shft, the easy to use app also allows users to add their personal suggestions for inclusion in updates.

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One of the creators of the iOS and Android-based app is Adrian Grenier—yes, that guy from Entourage.

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Who Will Save Our Books

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

I have never read any of his bestselling blockbusters, but I’m now a big fan of author James Patterson for this full-page ad that he placed in the New York Times Book Review. Patterson wants to know “Who will save our books? Our libraries? Our bookstores?” Don’t we all?

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All the Beer in China

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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The always entertaining and informative website Buzzfeed created this clever video that demonstrates how much food one can purchase with the equivalent of $5 US in various countries around the globe.

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“How Much Food Can You Buy For $5 Around The World” examined the retail cost of bananas, rice, coffee, beer, Big Macs and more. Thought provoking stuff.

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Avoid Eye Contact

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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New York City subway riders have one more reason to avoid eye contact now that thirty more subway stations and platforms are equipped with both wireless voice and data services. Travelers can connect to free wifi (see below), use mobile phones, text and surf the web.

Newly covered stations—as of April 25th—range from 18th street to 96th street on Manhattan’s West Side, including Times Square and Rockefeller Center. The MTA expects to eventually cover all 241 stations in the system.

To connect to the free wifi service, riders must choose “FreewifibyHTCone” and endure ads.

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Bigger Than London

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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The coming New York Wheel, which is scheduled to launch on the New York Harbor in May, 2016, will dwarf both the famous London Eye and the Singapore Flyer.

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The 625-foot tall Ferris wheel, which will be situated near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, is expected to attract up to 4.5 million visitors each year for a 38-minute thrill ride.

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Good Gravity Here

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Former shoe salesperson and current Google staffer Bri Hand created this wonderful, whimsical tourism ad campaign inviting extra-terrestrial travelers to drop by and visit Earth. The campaign consists of audio broadcasts and print advertizing that extolls the virtues that make our planet worth a visit, such as gravity, conviviality, science, humanity and electricity. I hope that somebody out there is paying attention.

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On the Cuff

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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The very imaginative folks at designhype have created a cleverly designed line of urban street and subway maps embossed on metal cuff bracelets. Metro Cuffs currently cover New York City, London, Paris, Berlin, Milan, and Chicago. The next release in the series is Brooklyn. I want to see how they fit the Moscow metro system on one bracelet. You can purchase Metro Cuffs here.

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Is There Money In E-Books

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

This interesting infographic is from the folks at Write Your Novel, Now ! , which is an online writing coaching service (paid of course). The graphic is packed with lots of timely information about the recent growth in e-book publishing markets around the world. I have some doubts about the figures on the global e-book market. Do they make any sense? Did 4,000 e-book titles really generate $1.8 billion in Brazil. And did the UK actually produce one million e-book titles? But all in all, it’s worth a look.

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Inside Out New York

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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TED-prize-winning French street artist JR is bringing his widely popular Inside Out Project to Times Square, New York City starting tomorrow. The public participation art project invites folks to take a self-portrait in a customized photo booth. The 3 foot by 4 foot B & W photo posters will be either displayed in Times Square or sent home with the sitter to be displayed in their home town.

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Inside Out New York City will coincide with the world premiere of the documentary film Inside Out: The People’s Art Project at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. The film, which will also be shown on HBO in the U.S., covers the project’s visits to Israel, Palestine, France, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi and China, where 70,000 photo posters were taken.

The project’s photo booth truck will be in Times Square until May 10th, when it will then travel to the city’s other four boroughs.

You can discover more about the Times Square part of the project here and follow the ongoing events on Facebook.

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JR Spans the Globe

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Brian D. Butler

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Before he set out for the U.S. to promote his ongoing Inside Out Project, French street artist JR recently visited Berlin where he completed several large-scale new works. His Wrinkles of the City project explores both aging of individual Berlin residents and the transformation of the city over the past decades.

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