From World66. Clever promo for this interestingly open travel info site.

I find it particularly intriguing that the European team behind the site should adopt a logo based on the American icon for the freedom of the road, the old Route 66 sign.

In an unrelated tangent, I recently walked on the slab of 66 that’s now on permanent display at the Smithsonian.

The unvisited area on my map must be the former Czechoslovakia and Hungary; I suppose we might have gone through them on the train to Austria from Switzerland, but I’m not gonna count that. The only other country I’m uncertain about is Peru – we might have visited briefly on our way out of Chile in 1970.

OK/Cancel: I, Robot, You Jane, via Blackbelt Jones.

Roomba Review, community site for Roomba. Looks just launched. Astroturf? Those are some good prices.

Genius art-guy Gary Panter on Roomba.

A bar.

Takeapart walkthrough at Jake’s World (which has some other cool stuff, looks like). Macly!

Roomba Community: Zoomba. Hacks. Uh-oh. Yeah, this looks like the place.

Roomba Diagnostic Mode.

Has anyine crossbred a Furby with a Roomba yet? Also, did I hear tell now would be the time to pick up your MindStorms kits? Uh… Yes, but never mind.

Ralph the Roomba at Bunk.

Popular Science: Hijacking Your Cute Little Vacuum Bot.

Business Week: How the Roomba was Realized.

Unbound Spiral: Roomba Robot. ‘Early adopter’ enthuses.

The Morning News – The Non-Expert: IKEA.

TMN brings in Mr. Baldwin for some words of wisdom on the lurking menace that is IKEA.

EmptyBottle.org: The force that through the green fuse drives the flower sums up, in brevity, wot the hell the ol’ canuck was yammering aboot the other day.

If you didn’t take the time to read the whole thing (and you should, it was a doozy, and I was not alone in noticing it) you might check out his boil-down. The boil-down leaves much less room for interpretation. I think I agree with these ideas all the way. Especially #7.

Although, now that I think of it: could we get a powerpoint presentation, please?

seattlepi.com Microsoft Blog: Mike Rowe, future CEO? muses Todd Bishop at the PI MSBlog.

Google News picks it up (hey, the URL is a legit P-I link, right?) and the fun begins. Dozens of trolling Mike Rowes, a Steve Jobs, a Bill Gates, a Linus Torvalds, and many other puns are made.

Hey Todd! Please don’t delete the comments! There’s something vaguely historical happening here. I suppose, however, some of them might get bounced for direct threats.

Disneyland Resort Tower of Terror: (seen in a different context at BoingBoing) yipes, such an unfortunate name.

I feel like the doofi that got bent outta shape over The Two Towers, having never heard of this before.

EmptyBottle.org: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Wonderchicken, says Stavros at great length. Word is, blogs are like parties. Mmmm. I folla. Not sure I agree. He, of all people, will understand my reference in the title here.

I get the whole blogs=punk rock thing. Part of what made punk valuable was moving beyond punk per se. Here’s a total tangent: punk rock is for old people, I think. I keep waiting for the next thing, the thing that will make me shake my head and wonder what the hell those kids are thinking, and it ain’t here yet. Blogs ain’t it. GWB ain’t it. Halo ain’t it.

Cell phones come pretty damn close, though.

Grey-haired indivizzles who once stood amazed as they listened to Joey Shithead rage and roar and now find themselves bloggizzle may enjoy Stavros’ thoughts. I did.

Intrepid correspondent B² covers the upset in Iowa, as millions fled the smoking rubble of Dubuque in the wake of the mighty battle.

He’s updated the scoreboard, as well.

The Illuminated Donkey flips on the teevee, Johnny Walker in hand, and blogs the Iowa caucuses. Among other learned observations, he notes that “less than 1% of Iowans are under 50 years old; seriously, it’s like that Soviet town they used to show in the yogurt commercials,” and that Joe Lieberman has a big future as a Chinese-food deliveryman.

And stop to admire the election-season graphics, why don’tcha. You’ll have to hum the puffed-up brassy pseudo-march soundtrack by yourself – just take Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl”, imagine it all in majors and up-tempo with snares and no vocals and you’ll be on the right track.

Today it was sunny and 60, the white moutains bright in the distance as the cedar-scented breezes ruffled my hair.

Tintin & Switzerland excites me with information on the real Marlinspike and other locales near Lac Leman, including a cameo appearance in The Calculus Affair of a place I have been. In fact, I was there rather frequently for a part of my life around 1982. The interior of the station at Lausanne stands in for one at Cornavin, presumably in Geneva.

via The Cartoonist, via, uh, things mag.

Jeez, the things citations are outta hand.