Dear friends who work in marketing and PR. Promise me you won’t write things like this.

How confusing can this be? Referencing multiple time zones in the same sentence, changing previous embargo times.

The attached news release regarding [redacted] will be distributed on Thursday, Jan. 6 at 8 a.m. EST, however, the embargo on the news lifts at 11 a.m. PST tomorrow, Jan. 5, so you can include the news in your stories regarding the [redacted] launch. I’ve also attached images.

Also, keep in mind that [redacted] news embargo also moved up to tomorrow, Jan. at 11 a.m. due to [redacted] launch.

Yes, the date was missing in that second paragraph.

“F this train! (Don’t worry, it’s all cool.)” – January 3rd, 2011

Even when I’m otherwise pissed off at SF Muni, the F line always pulls through. It’s one of my favorite ways to travel through the city — the historic cars, the old seats, and the awesome growl of the train as it travels down the tracks. It’s not the quickest, but it’s fun!

Back in March of 2010, I wrote a post looking at the frequency of earthquakes occurring around the world and examined whether or not there were more earthquakes occuring than normal. Specifically, I chose to look at earthquakes between M6.0 and M6.9, as they are sufficiently large enough to be detected by seismometers around the world and they seem to be well documented in recent history.

So, what were the final numbers for 2010? Using the global earthquake search tool on the USGS website, we can see that there were 151 M6.0 – M6.9 earthquakes detected last year.

FILE CREATED: Mon Jan 3 19:59:37 2011
Global Search Earthquakes = 151
Catalog Used: PDE
Date Range: 2010/01/01 to 2010/12/31
Magnitude Range: 6.0 – 6.9
Data Selection: Historical & Preliminary Data

According to recent USGS data, an average of ~134 earthquakes happen in this range every year. Yes, we had 151, but does that mean it’s time to freak out?

No!

It falls well within what we would expect. In fact, there were more earthquakes within this magnitude range in 2007 (178) and 2008 (178)! What? Crazy!

A few more data points:
M7.0 – M7.9 eq’s in 2010: 21 (avg: ~17)
M8.0 – M8.9 eq’s in 2010: 1 (avg: ~1)

Here’s a handy table from the USGS [via]:

So, to sum things up, the world is not ending, despite what crazy folks say, earthquakes are not increasing, and there’s probably a number of other things more important to worry about.

Cheers and happy new year!

Divisadero at night, in front of Gamescape in San Francisco. I absolutely love their logo (it’s the city skyline).

Amusing and relevant autocorrection!, originally uploaded by Dave Schumaker.

Oh, man. I think I have a morbid sense of humor.

Ringing in the New Year with some simple light painting in our apartment. Here’s to hoping 2011 is awesome!

This picture instantly makes my palms sweat and my feet tingle.

Original author unknown

[via Weird Friends]

Is it that time of the year already? 2010 has absolutely flown by! One of my favorite ways to reflect on the past year is to look back on it through the photos I’ve taken.

See previously, my photographic year in reviews for 2009, 2008, and 2007.

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I recently stumbled across a 1997 article from Outside Magazine on what it’s like to freeze to death. Can’t say that it sounds too enjoyable.

At 85 degrees (core body temperature), those freezing to death, in a strange, anguished paroxysm, often rip off their clothes. This phenomenon, known as paradoxical undressing, is common enough that urban hypothermia victims are sometimes initially diagnosed as victims of sexual assault. Though researchers are uncertain of the cause, the most logical explanation is that shortly before loss of consciousness, the constricted blood vessels near the body’s surface suddenly dilate and produce a sensation of extreme heat against the skin.

All you know is that you’re burning. You claw off your shell and pile sweater and fling them away.

This is pretty brilliant! I picked one of these GRID-IT organizers up today thanks to this LifeHacker post.

These are all things that are floating around in my bag anyway (and cluttering things up), so it’s nice to finally have a way to organize them!

So, what do we have here?

• iPhone USB cable
• iPhone power brick
• micro USB cable
• mini USB cable
• iPad camera connection kit
• USB flash drive (16GB)
• Transcend multicard reader

Now I just need a way to easily keep track of one of my various cameras, and I’m all set!