Elsewhere

Guest Editor Evany Thomas of Evany.com is underway at Mighty Goods, and she is awesome. Check back over the next couple of days to see all her picks.

Back to School Guide at Mighty Junior, featuring astounding gummy bear pencil sharpeners, and lion backpack so adorable that I’m trying to justify buying it for myself. (Rawr!)

Lunchbox Roundup at Mighty Junior, featuring a surprising number of attractive, grown-up friendly options.

Go have a look!

8 Youths Who Require Closer Supervision, on Flickr

Most of these photo stunts involve fire or bikes and, in one notable instance, both. Kids! I’m surprised any of us survived.

8. Jumping from the top of a waterfall. With shoes on?

7. Photographing an alligator from a few feet away.

6. Jumping fire on your bike.

5. Riding your bike on old roller coaster tracks. (This one is incredible to me. Anyone know if this is photoshopped or something? Update: Indeed it is. Thanks Jenn!)

4. Binding your pal’s hands and feet with shoelaces and then pushing him into the water. Back story is below the photo and other photos in the stream tell more.

3. Making a flame thrower for your dorm room.

2. Biking in swift currents.

1. Pouring petrol on your back and lighting it.

Tune in tomorrow for some slightly more harmless lapses in judgement.

The Top Ten Stupidest Ideas on Flickr

Did I spend several hours perusing photos tagged “stupid” on Flickr? I did. And I did it for you, my friends. Here’s the payoff for all that arduous clicking while I watched Tivo.

The Top Ten Stupidest Ideas on Flickr

10. Standing over a body of freezing water on a hunk of thin ice.

9. Nude photo shoot at the base of a waterfall, over which logs frequently crash.

8. Using a wet/dry vacuum on exhaust mode to stoke a fire.

7. Lighting fireworks on your head or standing over the pretty, pretty lights.

6. Playing guitar while driving.

5. Sweeping snow off an icy roof.

4. Breathing fire… in your kitchen.

3. Rigging an extension cord to float in the pool. (So halfwitted that I almost assume it’s a joke.)

2. Ignoring crossing warnings at the train tracks.

1. Leaping from cliff to cliff, in flip-flops, with one arm full of camera equipment. (Update: Snopes says the photo has been cropped to seem more dramatic.)

Pretty spectacular, no? And lest you think this is all the stupidity the Internet has to offer, tune in tomorrow for the “kids do the darndest things” version of this list.

Most Public Index

Say, I’m included in NowPublic’s MostPublic Index, their take on the most influential folks in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Their criteria for selecting people are interesting, and actually has a lot to do with all of you, so scroll down past the list of links to see how they decided.

In the meantime, if you need me to influence anyone, you know how to reach me.

What’s Yours

Poem from the May 12 New Yorker:

One Can Miss Mountains

and pine. One

can dismiss
a whisper’s

revelations
and go on as

before as if
everything were

perfectly fine.
One does. One

loses wonder
among stores

of things.
One can even miss

the basso boom
of the ocean’s

rumpus room
and its rhythm.

A man can leave
this earth

and take nothing
–not even

longing–along
with him.

Todd Boss

Like Me, But Feral

Flashback to me, pregnant with Hank, walking along the street with Bryan — host-gift wine bottle in hand. I notice an angry man up the street, weaving and yelling in our path. In the time it takes to blink, my brain flashes to me smashing the bottom of the wine bottle on a nearby lamppost, and assuming a fight stance while bellowing profanities.

Whoa. That’s new.

I think the ready-to-gut-offenders adrenaline will fade once I give birth, but not so. This afternoon at the cafe, someone hovers suspiciously over my bag. Cut to mental image of him grabbing my bag, and me leaping over the table to tackle him and claw at his eyes.

What the hell.

When did I become some Clockwork Orange version of Ally McBeal? If I ever decide to take up caffeine again, you might need to alert someone — lest I fly at Bryan in a blind rage when he tries to take a bite off my plate without asking first.

My bite.