"In extracting these buried fields and denormalising them into my post files I was able to think—as a purist—about how posts should be represented online. Especially for my circumstances. I have opinions, y'see." Timezones, pagination, and flow. Good stuff.

Maria Popova: "Affirmation sells a lot better than information. Who wants to hear the truth when they can hear that they're right?" http://t.co/eD3ZOwQx

"I had to admit that I had no clue where I first saw it referenced, due to the way I consume links I find on the net. So, I thought I'd write a quick blog post to explain myself, and then pitch a product idea that could make my life (and maybe yours) much easier." I vary in the specifics but the product he outlines would be a great tool.

Clay Johnson: "When you click on that article about Kim Kardashian over on the right-hand sidebar of that other website, your boss may not see you reading it, but you've made it more probable that she will read it. Your click is a vote, and with that vote, you're not just saying to your media companies that you want to read it, but other people like you want to read it too. Clicks have a significant, and immediate social consequence. As our obesity epidemic challenges our healthcare system, our poor information diets are challenging the fabric of our democracy."

"The joint operation, dubbed Operation Safe Pilot, fed in the names of 45,000 pilots in Northern California, cross-referenced them with the names of those who got any Social Security benefits, and came up with some 3,200 violators." Apparently this is probably but not certainly illegal in the US. I assume the UK's Data Protection Act would forbid this, but I'm not sure. One to watch.

"The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association."

"After controlling for factors like partisanship, education, and other demographic factors, the pollsters found that Fox New viewers were 18 points less likely to know that the revolt was successful than their non-active news consuming counterparts."

A table of hours and prices for museums in New York City, complete with sortable columns and a map. Could be handy.

While I'm listing exhibitions in London that I can't go to, in the hope some of my friends will, this roundup of the work of the Isotype group was one of the highlights of my visit to MAK in Vienna last summer. It's small, but worth a look, particularly for the book covers by Marie Neurath.<br />
Closes 13 March 2011.

"The visual work of Otto Neurath and his associates, now commonly known as Isotype, has been much discussed in recent years. This short book explains its essential principles: the work of ‘transforming’, or putting information into visual form."

"[MTC have] begun to provide free personal monitoring services to users of Clipper. It's now possible to access to a complete, up-to-the-minute stream of your own card usage (including the geographic location of each beep)". This for Oyster, please. The Bay Area may be slow to start but they're getting that bit right early.

"In this exhibition the artists locate and challenge the logic, the status, and the nature of data, information, and knowledge." "They find new and unique languages to articulate visually and poetically how such systems and networks of data/information/knowledge that constitute and are constituted by metadata might be brought to light, questioned, and, perhaps most pressingly, how they might be disrupted." I'm not sure if this'll be wanky, interesting, or both, but it's probably worth a visit.

"Next month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will unveil a resized, recolored and simplified edition of the well-known map, its first overhaul in more than a decade." First reaction: it's a lot less cluttered. Looking back, the MTA's subway map has veered a lot more since '68 than the London diagram, but this is way better than the '79 nadir.

"Where do you find the [Digital Economy Bill] that finally emerged - and in particular the controversial clauses? I tried - and failed - to locate the key bits, until I received some help from a colleague who has been immersed in the Parliamentary system for many years."

"The 30-year rule for publishing secret government papers is to be reduced to 20 years ... phased in over 10 years by doubling the amount of old records released each year".

A slightly crazy jazz-soundtracked film + animation about the exciting new world - for the 1960s - of automatic ticket barriers, from the London Transport Museum. This was on as part of a series of free films in Trafalgar Square in November, and it stuck in the memory; it's great to be able to share it.

"MBTA had auctioned its 1980s Solari departure board on eBay last fall, after replacing it with a more modern digital board [for] $550. But the winning bidder never showed up with a check, and commuter rail officials failed to reach him after several attempts. So they decided to sell it to Sanchez for the same price, as long as he paid the removal costs." Wow. Bargain. It makes me wonder, again, what happened to all the British Rail boards.

On a Solari board being retired in the US. "NPR reports that New Haven's LED display will have a simulated click click click."

Hm. Might be expensive, but it's a nice idea, I think.

"Mobile and web information should be available by the beginning of 2011, and the roll out of new Countdown signs will begin a few months later." Seems annoyingly slow.

A bar code that's only good for a million items per airline, apparently, which is less than useful when a big carrier gets through that much in a few days. Of course, this is because baggage tags aren't for you: they're for the airlines, to stop another Lockerbie-style attack. (See BBC Four's excellent Secret Life of the Airport.)

"groups tend to spend most of their time discussing the information shared by members, which is therefore redundant, rather than discussing information known only to one or a minority of members" "people talk about more famous people more because it's a social lubricant to have a shared topic, therefore making the famous more famous" This probably explains why talking about The Terminator works so well as an icebreaker.

How long have Hackney Council had this not-bad-actually mapping + local data app? It's the sort of thing I would have expected Up My Street to do, if the smart people who set it up had still been there when the Google Maps APIs matured. Ho hum.

Tom Scott calls out Daytum for lack of individual panels (actually there, but well hidden), lack of alternative representations, and the lack of an API. The latter is forthcoming, apparently.

"Understanding the shortcomings of the pie chart can help us make sense of and improve the emerging scientific aesthetic of the 21st century."

Ah, Drop 7. I was meaning to write a post extolling its virtues, but I think I played a few games of it instead...

"Use it to collect and share bookmarks, notes, videos and other content. Twine organizes your content, learns as you use it and recommends new things to check out."

PDFs for Apple's current product line, outlining what the environmental impact of their production and use is.

Scroll down and there are strange, but potentially useful, little lines next to each of the bus routes showing (I think) how many buses there are. Needs a bit of work, but not a bad idea. The map at the top of the page is nice too.

So US-centric it hurts. Boggle at "Google Transit may well become the world's best way to run a railroad" (no, the best way to do that is good frequency and reliability) and the fact this is on their car blog, then point out TfL doing this better, sooner.