We complain about holiday mashups and Holiday Creep, but we secretly love “Nightmare Before Christmas” displays, where retail necessity meets art, and cool holiday mashups ensue. Hobby Lobby puts out their Christmas merchandise early, even by craft store standards, and we have gradually grown to enjoy these Halloween trees, even as it’s fundamentally wrong to celebrate the coming of autumn with evergreens. [More]
mashups
Do You Live Near A Food Desert?
By 5.4.11
If you’ve ever wanted to find out if you live in a wasteland with a dearth of access to fresh and nutritious food, boy have we got the government-sponsored data mashup for you! The USDA just launched the “Food Desert Locator” which lets you see where it’s hard to get a decent bite to eat in America. A “food desert” (remember: not dessert, that has two s’s because you want more of it) is a low-income area where a most of the people live more than one mile from the nearest grocery store/supermarket. Thanks to this map, now we know why North Dakotans are so sad: no one will make them a sandwich! [More]
Radio Shack Opening Mobile Phone Kiosks In Target Stores
By 11.3.09
One problem I’ve always had when shopping for jacked-up prices is I can’t find enough crazy to go along with it. Same thing for the crazy: I know where to go to get cart-loads of that, but I can’t find the 2400% markup! What I need, clearly, is for Radio Shack to open up specialty kiosks inside Target stores, so then— oh hey! It’s the Bullseye Mobile Solution!
Fancy Fast Food Makes Your Favorite Junk Into Eye Candy
By 7.10.09
We’re really intrigued by Fancy Fast Food, which takes standard fast food items and, using only those ingredients, transforms them into something approaching haute cuisine. The recipes are available on the site if you want to try at home. (Pictured above: the Tacobellini)
Heat Map Of Rental Prices Based On Craiglist Listings
By 7.23.07
In a project born out of “boredom” and an experience with a landlord that was facing foreclosure due to gambling on an ARM, grad student Ethan Garner created CraigStatsSF, a site that visualizes craiglist San Francisco rental listings. He writes:
As I started looking for places, I noticed everything that used to be for rent was now for sale due to the same foreclosure effect that happened to my landlord.
Search Multiple City Craigslists At Once
By 2.9.07
Crazedlist.org lets you search across multiple Craigslist city pages at the same time.
Philadelphia BYOB Google Map
By 11.2.06
Philly’s BYOB Google Mashup shows what restaurants you can brown bag it in the city of brotherly love. They even show the nearest liquor store!
Chicago BYOB Dining Google Map
By 10.5.06
Brown-bagging it is a time-honored money-saving tradition for alcoholic nonconformists. Dr. Vino’s new Google Map mashup shows what Chicago-area restaurants let you be a BYOB cheapskate.
Bloodsport Does Mentos
By 9.15.06
Although sad that this Jean Claude Van Damme Mentos commercial doesn’t end with him punching a tube of Mentos Ricky-Oh style through the spurting torso of his enemies, it’s amazing how Mentos-like Van Damme’s girly little chase scene from Bloodsport actually is.
Consumer-Made Ad Mocks Chevy
By 3.31.06
With all the bloat and spasmodic jibbering about consumer-generated ads, it’s nice to see one backfire. Chevy teamed up with The Apprentice to hold an online contest where you remix video and sound clips to make your own Chevy Tahoe ad. Winners receive their choice various expense paid trips.
Must Bookmark: Google IP Maps
By 3.13.06
You may have always heard how you can geographically pinpoint where an email came from using IP address but now GeoTool makes it possible for the layman.
