After 36 years, Shoup’s writings—usually found in obscure journals—can be reduced to a single question: What if the free and abundant parking drivers crave is about the worst thing for the life of cities? That sounds like a prescription for having the door slammed in your face; Shoup knows this too well. Parking makes people nuts. “I truly believe that when men and women think about parking, their mental capacity reverts to the reptilian cortex of the brain,” he says. “How to get food, ritual display, territorial dominance—all these things are part of parking, and we’ve assigned it to the most primitive part of the brain that makes snap fight-or-flight decisions. Our mental capacities just bottom out when we talk about parking.”

A well-detailed article on the history of parking, and of one man's attempt to fix the parking problems plaguing L.A.

(via Kottke)

Being mentally weak is the reason I ran so poorly at the Twin Cities Marathon this year. I didn't go into the race with a great mental plan and I ended up doubting myself the whole time. Even when I'd get bursts of energy or encouragement, I'd still tell myself that I'm going to fail. The Sunburst Marathon tested my confidence in my running ability; the Twin Cities Marathon destroyed it.

Even though I may never run another marathon in my life (more on that in another post), if I learned anything from my marathon training class at the U, it's the importance of always staying positive. Of course, life will throw it's fair share of crap at you. Bills, work-related stress, dirty house, awful race, what-have-you. As long as you look for the positive in any situation and find joy in the things you do, you'll always make it through. Even if you run an awful marathon (or two).

Dennis Barker is the head coach of Team USA Minnesota. He's spent most of his career researching mental training and offers some great advice on how to prepare your mind for a big race. I used word cues during the Eau Claire Marathon and I'm convinced that they were the reason I did so well.

Anyone who is training for any sort of running event this year must watch this video. (And not just because I make a cameo appearance).

Antonio Vazquez, who calls himself the "Brujo Mayor", or grand warlock, leads a Mexican tradition of "brujeria" (sorcery), centered in the south-eastern city of Catemac.

He has been making new year predictions for 25 years, with mixed results.

Grand Warlock. BBC, you're on fire this morning.

Researchers have been trying to reproduce such silk for decades.

But it is unfeasible to "farm" spiders for the commercial production of their silk because the arachnids don't produce enough of it - coupled with their proclivity for eating each other.

Silk worms, however, are easy to farm and produce vast amounts of silk - but the material is fragile.

All we need now is the ability to synthesize and implant adamantium.

As a former employee of Best Buy (and for full disclaimer, a current shareholder), I can't say I entirely disagree with Larry Downes' post on Forbes regarding his latest experience at one of their stores.

It stinks that the store I loved visiting as a kid (and mostly loved working for) is going through such trying times right now. I hope Brian Dunn and the rest of the crew can turn the boat around before it's too late.

And I agree, there are far too many salespeople who work there that don't really understand how to give great customer service. But for every awful experience I've personally had there as a customer, I've easily went through dozens of solid interactions. There are lots of people I know who work at Best Buy for the same reason I wanted to work there: making sure people understand how cool technology is and how it can really change your life.

"Congress has sat idly by as the TSA strip searches 85-year-old grandmothers in New York, pats down 3-year-olds in Chattanooga, and checks colostomy bags for explosives in Orlando. Enough is enough!" said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) "The least we can do is end this impersonation, which is an insult to real cops."

First step towards ending the charade of security theatre in airports. Kudos to you, Marsha Blackburn.

Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals.  Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours.

I don't normally like to link to these list type of posts since they mostly seem to offer mostly obvious tips. In this case, though, staying focused and productive is easily the most difficult part of being a freelancer, and this list offers some good advice for doing just that.

Susan Etlinger, an analyst at the Altimeter Group, said society was adopting new behaviors and expectations in response to the near-ubiquity of Facebook and other social networks.

“People may start to ask the question that, if you aren’t on social channels, why not? Are you hiding something?” she said. “The norms are shifting.”

I don't know if people ever think that because you're not on Facebook, you are hiding something. It can be frustrating to organize an event and try to remember all of your friends who aren't on Facebook, but besides that, I think a lot of my friends have a bit of respect for those who can get away.

As soon as something better comes along, or as soon as Facebook screws up big (like GoDaddy big), people will move to greener pastures.

Nilay Patel, for The Verge:

Faced with concrete impact to its business, it appears GoDaddy did the only sensible thing — fold.

Yeah, I'm still going to leave them.

The Olympian measure of endurance for a Soyuz crewmember is to hold your bowel for the two-day passage.

Pooping from the point-of-view of a NASA astronaut.