Author: Matt Maldre

Northeast Illinois is in desperate need of additional funding. On September 4, 2007 the Illinois House of Representatives voted on bill SB572, which would have raised $400 million for operating costs for the CTA, Metra, and Pace. But the bill…

Chicago’s 47th ward Alderman Gene Schulter sent me an email about how the Berlin Wall is going to be installed at the Brown Line Western Avenue stop. Last year, through my work with the German Consul General and local German…

Let’s say you want your new phone number to spell something specific. For instance, I want mine to be 778-3278 which spells SPUDART. Now I would need an area code where that phone number is available through a cellular provider.…

Chicago boasts 1,900 miles of public alleys, the largest system in the world

Things I am currently doing: Put my computer devices on power strips that I only turn on when they are in use. Use my 3.3 watt 2-inch screen tv, instead of the 180 watt tv. Recycle glass, plastic, metal, paper…

This octopus scarf is just so funky cool. I think I can pull it off… or can I? Honestly now, would this scarf be too girly? I think it’s got so much funk oozing out of it, that it overcomes…

It seems like everyone in the past week has made an inspiring post about free-form-let-it-bust-out-a-groove dance (thanks wembley, sparx, and mary! yooz all are the best!) Here’s my contribution to the area of let-it-loose-and-have-fun dance! The rhythm i feel is…

Someone out there, please make a plush stuffed Sears Tower, complete with arms and legs. And the eyes would be lights up in the top of the Tower. Oh man. That would rool so hard core. Would it really a…

There are so many great lists of places to go, and things to see. ‚Ä¢ 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World ‚Ä¢ 100 Places To See Before You Die ‚Ä¢ Top 10 Most Peculiar Places in the World ‚Ä¢…

Kleenex makes two types of tissue box designs: 1) The predominant designs found on tissue boxes are of the feminine aesthetic. Flowery, flowy pieces of CRAP. Narrrr! I am man! I want manly tissue box covers. 2) The other type:…

How similiar is your taste in movies with your friends? This super cool new quiz asks you rate a bunch of movies, then it compares your Movie Compatibility with your friends. To take this quiz, sign up for facebook and…

I’d like to see a breakdown of where the average Chicagoan’s taxes go, in federal, state, city, county, etc. What got me thinking about this is an article by the Chicago Artists’ Coalition where they said, “The budget approved by…

How can this be? The Chicago Public Library classifies my borrower status as “good.” I’ve had so many late books and lost books, that I am a large benefactor to keeping the library’s budget balanced. What sort of levels of…

If you could see any sports event from the past, which one would you want to see? I’d have to go with a World Series from the deadball era of baseball (pre 1918). Since we are in that time era,…

100 Things I√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve Learned About Photography 53. No image is better than a bad one 54. Everyone has to start little 55. Your opinion about photography is important! 56. Leave a funny but thoughtful comment 57. Speak about your experiences…

Cubs playoff tickets. A great thing to have. Game four. Certainly there would be a game four, right? Not with these Chicago Cubs. They got swept by the Arizona Snakes in three games. Ouch. It‚Äôs certainly disappointing to see the…

Which of these two Abraham Lincoln photos do you like more? (on the left) Abraham Lincoln: Face Forward (on the right) Abraham Lincoln: three-quarters view At first I liked the three-quarters view, cuz it shows more depth. But then I…

How many times can you get a bouncy ball to bounce off the walls of an elevator? I got nine. That doesn’t seem like much.

This is so me in the elevator. I like to knock on things to see what pitch it generates. (btw, this is not my comic strip, it is the wonderful xkcd.)

AP photo, via the Village of Oak Lawn. (from Chicagoist.com) Oak Lawn, Illinois installed funny signs beneath their existing stop signs. These signs say things like: ‚Ä¢ right there pilgrim ‚Ä¢ and smell the roses ‚Ä¢ or we’ll hunt you…

The year is 2050. Grass lawns have been outlawed due to some scientific reason. What would replace them? Stones? Cement? Steel? Astroturf?

Some thoughts on dates since January 1, 0001: October 1, 2007 would be day number 732,951 starting from the beginning of AD in January 1, 0001. It’s been 1,055,449,440 minutes. That’s just a tad over 1 billion minutes. (One billion…

NASA says they have a goal to men on Mars by 2037. “We are looking at the moon and Mars to build a civilization for tomorrow and after that,” Griffin added in while addressing heads of the world’s space agencies.…

The presidential candidates’ websites send out some rather entertaining emails. Yesterday I get an email from Bill Clinton; part of it says: So here’s an idea: why don’t you and I share that excitement together during an upcoming debate. Hillary’s…

Seriously though. Do you really need to listen to your headphones for that extra thirty seconds in the elevator? What if someone wanted to talk to you?

These coins were so bright I couldn’t even see them. Is the USA Mint putting extra gloss on the coins? Boy howdy seems like it!

I cannot find the answer anywhere on the web. Here are some hints: one grain of sand has a volume of 1.3 * 10^-9 cubic feet (from gomath.com) Some people on abc.net.au tried to figure out how many grains of…

Am I an idiot for not ever realizing that Hindustan would be the world’s third most popular language? I guess it makes sense since there are so many people living in India. Where are all the Hindustani websites? And Bengali?…

Today Chicago reveals their new logo today for their bid of the 2016 Olympic games. The previous logo featured a torch. (Critique of that logo available at Previous torch Chicago Olympic logo). The International Olympic Committee allows the torch to…

According to CNN, Carnegie Mellon professor Scott E. Fahlman was the first to use the 🙂 in a computer message. Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982,…

Here are the superpowers I do NOT want (in no particular order): Accelerated healing I would be too tempted to harm myself by doing silly things, and that just doesn’t seem right. Duplication I already have a twin. We don’t…