Author: Matt Maldre

Mars is a pretty cool planet, because Marvin Martian lives on it. Can you name any other planets that have a cartoon character that was either born or lives there? There’s the Great Gazoo (from the Flintstones), but he’s from…

(image courtesy northwestern.edu) (image courtesy aerospaceweb.org) What is your favorite planet? What is your favorite dinosaur? My answer is in the comments. Please leave your answers in the comments.

How high is the river near you? The U.S. Geological Survey has real-time water data! You can look up the past 31 days of water activity. Pictured above is a graph for the Chicago River at Columbus Drive (that’s right…

I bought a winter jacket at the Water Tower Macy’s and had to carry it back to work down Michigan Avenue. I have to admit I felt pretty self-conscious about it, since most Chicagoans hate Macy’s for killing off Marshall…

Chicago water is so popular that people bring it back home by the gallon. One of my friends at work told me about how an out-of-state relative of his requested that he bottle up a few gallons of Chicago water…

Last week, the historical landmark Wrigley Building was testing out some new lights in their courtyard. One of the workers told me that he was concerned that they were too big. I thought they looked just fine and told him…

The newest fashion accessory. Crocheted kneepads. Totally. For when women wear a dress with boots and her knees are exposed. Gotta keep those knees warm in the winter. I can even see a guy wearing them over pants.

There should be one location every year where Chicago has good old fashioned snowball fight. Probably in Grant Park somewhere. Whaddya think? More snow posts on spudart: ‚Ä¢ Fun in the snow: Leave snowballs at famous places ‚Ä¢ Fun in…

My snowball fort. Just try to break through it!

Many of the Reps in the Illinois House have Metra stations in their district. However, many of these Reps did not vote to pass funding for Metra. $400 billion is needed a year for Metra, CTA and Pace. Here’s a…

Chicago is still in great need of funding for public transit. The Illinois House of Representatives voted on bill SB307 on 11/28/2007, but didn’t pass it. This bill would have used primarily gas tax to fund the needed four billion…

u Pludgu ulluguuncu tu thu flug uf thu Unutud Stutus uf umurucu und tu thu Rupubluc fur whuch ut stunds, unu Nutuun undur Gud, unduvusublu, wuth luburty und justucu fur ull.

Go to freetranslation.com, translate some English into another language, and then convert it back to english. ENGLISH: I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under…

What do you want?

There should be some sort of program where you can enter a word, say “cat” and then it would generate a palindrome using the word “cat.” e.g. “Was it a cat I saw?” (fyi, palindromes are phrases where it reads…

In the 29 years since 1978, USA has won Air Hockey World Championships 27 times. Talk about dominance. Air Hockey is America’s sport! Tim Weissman won eight times in a row. He should be in the top 100 American athletes…

The McDonalds by me closes at night, but the drive-thru is open 24 hours. They don’t let you walk up to the drive-thru, but they let you come via bicycle. But how about a kick scooter? Or maybe roller blades?

Papergirl asked a great question, “You can have a year to do whatever it is that you want to do. Don’t worry about money. What’ll it be?” Off the top of my head, I’d travel across the world and find…

Today (Monday, November 19) is 733,000th day since January 1, 0001. Seven hundred thirty-three thousand days. That’s a lot. 733,000 pennies would weigh 2.29 tons. But then check this out: A million pennies visualized. Doesn’t look like much, eh?

noonionon demand 1) The fast way of saying “No onion on” or “No onions please.”

GWIK = get with it, kid. developed via IM with coworker friend, L: L: hey! you’re not at the staff meeting anymore! spudart: (Autoreply) 1:30pm staff meeting L: get with it, kid! spudart: GWIK

New name for Marshmellows: bonemellows or skinmellows Marshmellows are made from bone, skin, and sugar? GROSS! They should be called bonemellows or skinmellows, so people are aware of this. I will NOW start calling marshmellows that. Oh what a party…

Have you ever heard someone pronounce “Beverly Hills 90210” to be nine-oh-two-TEN? Or how about ninety-twenty-one-ZERO. This show was quite popular when I was in high school, and I’m surprised I don’t recall anyone saying the 90210 part as a…

With the millions of dollars that baseball players get paid, you’d think there would be a good sizable list of players who contribute to their presidential candidate of choice. There’s not. In fact, there are only two current major league…

Drinking caffeine will make the joints in my fingers to make cracking sounds. The caffeine will also make my hands hurt overall. I don’t drink soda or coffee very often (maybe once a week) and EVERY time the next morning,…

It’s a lot of fun to make a little drawing of Godzilla and tape it onto your TV set. Godzilla is about attack whatever is on the screen. Godzilla is attacking a school bus! Godzilla is attacking the U.S. Capitol!

There are some days that I’ll shoot a photo that just really pleases me a lot and makes me surprised that I’m able to create something so neat. This is one of those images. (Shot yesterday during lunch). The reflections…

You want a president that will keep communication lines open. Of all the 2008 Presidential candidates, Dennis Kucinich and John McCain both sent out the most emails in October 2007. They sent out 16 emails each. The most secretive candidates…

Ut oh. Apple’s stock is eventually gonna drop (not right now, but in the coming years). You watch. iTunes is gonna stop being the one main source for music and tv content downloads. The entertainment industry is catching on that…

Jay Hoffman–a democrat and chairman of the Illinois House transportation committee–did not vote to support Metra, CTA and Pace in the initial vote for SB572. What’s wrong here? A) He’s a democrat and only the very very southern Democrats have…

Everyone’s talking about how it sucks that the Illinois legislature has not passed funding for Chicago’s transit system. 39 bus routes cut, fares increased, 600 employees laid off. The Illlinois House will be getting together again on Friday, November 2,…