Saturday Links: Themes That Didn’t Quite Make It

Today’s clearin’ of the links is dedicated to So Cal Games Day 54, which I’ll be heading off to later. The links this week just didn’t want to theme, so posts never quite came together. Here’s what accumulated:

• Interesting Kickstarters. Two kickstarters caught my eye; I was hoping that a third would show up to make a theme. The first was an Indegogo project by one of the original Kingston Trio who is working on a Kingston Trio documentary. They are barely at 5% raised, with 37 days to go. Haven’t decided on this one — seems a bit like a vanity project, and there was a lot of controversy about the KT and their mangling of lyrics and history. The second is also a documentary — this time of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, documenting its rise and fall. They are also way short of their goal — $8K of $150K with 38 days to go. An interesting subject, but one that again probably has no audience.
• Helmet Speakers. A post by Stormdog over on LJ reminded me of some searching I had done regarding bike helmet speakers. The problem is how to listen to podcasts and musics while bike riding, as technically earbuds aren’t legal. I found wireless speakers that fit in the water bottle holder, as well as mini-speakers that fit in a bike helmet. Of course, one problem is that the iPod Classic doesn’t have Bluetooth, but there’s a solution to that.
• Space Stuff. This one is a little work related. SpaceX and USAF have signed an agreement regarding certification of the vehicles. They don’t mention security in the post, but hopefully it is included. I had been hoping to accumulate some more either space or security posts, but it didn’t happen.
• Being a Supporter. While reading my RSS feeds, I came across this post about a majority in Israel supporting Reform and Conservative Equality in Israel. I wanted to tie it to a survey I had read recently about a majority in California now supporting Gay marriage, and then perhaps to other areas where support for something had changed. Didn’t end up having time to do the research for the former, and a new item related to the latter never caught my eye.
• The 405 Maze. LA Weekly had a nice post about all the detours that those of us driving the 405 (San Diego Freeway, I-405) face every day. Luckily, I no longer live on the westside, but one day the van missed getting on at Cotner, and it added an extra hour due to the subsequent detours. No other articles seemed to fit to this, and it had no information for the highway headline posts… so sit it did until Saturday.
• Bad Charities. There was a good post in Boing Boing about bad charities. It linked to investigative reporting on the 50 worst charities in America, with a lovely PDF cheat sheet. Given I’ve got a mother-in-law who keeps getting mail from many of these folks, I wanted to write a post about fleecing of our seniors… but it never came together.
• Apartment Life. My daughter is moving from the dorms to an apartment in Berkeley (she has the apartment now, but won’t be moving in until later in the summer). The Daily Cal had a nice piece I wanted to show her on apartment life. Again, it didn’t theme.
• And Lastly, the Laid-Off Life. Lastly, an interesting photojournalistic tumblr from one of the laid off photogs from the Chicago S-T. He is documenting his life as a laid off worker… in pictures.

Music: SMASH – The Complete Season Two (Music From the TV Series) (Katharine McPhee, Jeremy Jordan): “Rewrite This Story”