According to this intelligence test, anyway.  Granted, it took some time, but I finally made genius status by scoring a 19/33 on these word puzzles.  Kind of a fun distraction.

In the next three weeks, the President will make crucial decisions about next year’s budget, including how America will best use our resources to help educate, feed and treat those most in need. As ONE, we’re asking that the U.S. give an additional 1% of our budget over the next five years so we can keep our life-saving promises to fight AIDS and poverty.

Ask President Bush to fund the promises made

What could just one more penny of every dollar do? By giving an additional 1%, the U.S. would be able to help prevent 10 million children from becoming AIDS orphans and send 100 million children to grade school.

Found a map of all the urban rapid transit systems in North America.  Very cool, although a similar map of Europe would simply blow this one away.  Supposedly the systems are drawn to scale.  The map is posted at RadicalCartography.  Click it to view the full pdf.

[via Gothamist]

Just ran across Chicago Bloggers, a blog directory that organizes blogs according to their writer's proximity to CTA/Metra rail stations.  Looks like I'm one of 30 people living near the Loyola Red Line stop.  Kind of a cool experiment in social networking. 

While we're on the topic of transit, check out Chicago-L.org.  It's an excellent site dedicated to the history of public transportation in Chicago.  The transit nerd in me loves the fact that this site provide everything I ever wanted (and couldn't possibly care) to know about Chicago's beloved (and often despised) El system.

[via CTA Tattler]

Wow...a 19 year old going by the nick name of Jupelo is spending the entire year at Walt Disney World (with a $100k budget) before he heads off to college.  Follow him on his website, which includes a live feed of him walking around the park.  A couple of questions come to mind:

1) What kind of businesses did this kid run to amass that kind of cash in high school!  I was making $7.50 an hour working at Best Buy and I thought that was a good gig.

2) I'm going to put it out there right now that this kid won't end up making it the whole year.  I mean, how many times can you actually visit It's a Small World and still maintain your sanity?  If this kid even goes on the ride once a week for a month, he will in fact go insane or lose the will to continue his endeavor.

I can't say it isn't a creative idea, though.  Could end up a lucrative business move for this kid.  Should lead to some positive publicity for Disney, at the very least.

[via BoingBoing]

of the FATTEST cities in America, for 2006!  Woohoo!  I knew we could do it.  After placing 5th fattest for the past two years, we finally did it!  When it comes to the Second City, we are Second to NONE in our ability to eat.  After all, we have the best food in the world, do we not?

I finally got around to "reading" Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code.  The controversy and/or hype surrounding the book has been swirling around for quite some time now, but for one reason or another I never got a chance to read it until now (technically speaking, I listened to it on CD.)

I have to admit, the storyline is incredibly intriguing and very addictive.  I actually found myself longing for my commute to and from work each day, knowing I'd unwrap a little more of the story with each drive.  The story itself unfolds rather quickly, but the more controversial aspects do not show up until about the half way point.

Suddenly, you are hit like a ton of bricks with the assertion that Jesus Christ was not only married, but had a child as well.  The book clearly blasphemes the Christian understanding of Christ's fully divine/fully human nature.  While I can certainly understand the objections the Vatican and many other Christian organizations have had to this work, one cannot deny the freedom Mr. Brown has to share his opinion. 

However, it seems that the general public is increasingly unaware of the fact that this is indeed a work of fiction, not fact.  That people are accepting this work as historically accurate is concerning, especially since the story's popularity has spawned a Tom Hanks film and even a video game.  The popularity of this novel has had its effect at the Louvre, where record attendance has been recorded, and has spawned pilgrammages to the Rossyln Chapel. 

Christian apologist (and staunch Calvinist) James White does a good job of discrediting Dan Brown's work on his blog.  Pretty interesting read for anyone discerning the truth behind what is otherwise a thorougly entertaining piece of fiction.