The East Coast got two new toys this month and Seattle didn't get any. We didn't even get a Microsoft/Yahoo buy-out like we were promised. Why can't Seattle get a bike-sharing program of our own, a la Washington, D.C.'s new "SmartBike DC"? Our city has a dedicated (at times, frighteningly dedicated) cadre of bicyclists who will shoot down objections that Seattle's just not bike-friendly. If we can embrace Zipcar, as undoubtedly Seattle has, we......

If you are anything like us, you frequently read glowing recommendations of fine little eateries on the outskirts of Seattle and think: I really should check that out sometime. But the truth is--urbanite that you are--you only vaguely know where places like Kent and Burien are (south?) and rarely take the time to actually venture out of your cozy little city. But as fine a city as Seattle is, it lacks some things that are......

Over at Ballhype, Jason created a Google Maps mashup that shows the birthplace of every NBA player. Is Seattle represented? Yes, oh yes. Seven players are born in Seattle. That, ladies and gentleman, is more than any single city north of Los Angeles (14) or west of Dallas (9). San Francisco proper has as many NBAers (1--Jason Kidd) as Edmonds (Martell Webster). Ha! Eat our dust, Golden Gaters! Overall, 10 NBAers were born in Washington......

Um, we are not so sure this is a good idea.....but, Uber Tavern up on Aurora is hosting a "pub crawl by bike" this Sunday, August 12. Actually, hell yeah it is a good idea. Just WEAR A HELMET, please. If you can make 11 (all awesome) bars in 1 day on a bike, kudos. From Uber's email: Starting time? 1pm at Uber Tavern (we will open 2 hours early for the occasion) How......

At work the other day, Seattlest was talking to a coworker and friend who originally hails from Minnesota. Naturally, we talked of the bridge collapse. As one would expect these sorts of conversations to go, the conversation logically ended with us looking up the coordinates for the northernmost point in Maine. Just how did this happen? In the course of conversion, it came up that Minnesota, not Maine, is the northernmost contiguous United State. So......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

--Damn right, "Beware the Kraken." --Are you the guy who rented Max Maven’s Mindgames on VHS from Scarecrow? --The greatest anti-spam device ever has been unveiled. --A meeting with Les Schwab is not soon forgotten. --A studio on the Hill for $1500 a month? Sign us up! --This is just a really nice story about two Seattle women becoming friends in the 1930s. Where the river was from The Paper Moose. Where it is......

A couple of months ago, the PI's Robert Jamieson publicized an issue with some sites using Google Maps data: Seattle's Martin Luther King Jr. Way South was showing up under its pre-1982 name, Empire Way South. "You're not going to say we are being racist," a Google spokeswoman wondered. No, I assured her. The point of this tale is that even the best technology can miss things -- and people with careful eyes can......

The first time we saw "Ask an Uptight Seattleite" in Seattle Weekly we thought it was a fake headline for "Ask a Mexican" and was supposed to be some kind of joke reaction to Seattle's reaction to "Ask a Mexican." Then we read it and it was the funniest thing we've probably ever read in the Weekly. It was funny and accurate (and exactly the kind of thing that would be great on Seattlest) and......

Those beknighted souls with web-enabled cell phones will now get places faster than everyone else, because the Washington State DOT has created small screen versions of their wildly popular real-time traffic maps. The larger real-time maps, launched in 1994, receive 400,000 daily page views. (Though state officials admit that much of this comes from people who've Googled "Seattle Traffic" in search of local reunion concerts of the seminal 1960's Steve Winwood-fronted band.) Until now they've......

Seattlest is a bit of a wino. We can't help it, we love the red stuff. Living in Seattle has only fed our addiction, considering Washington State is the second-biggest producer of wine in the country (after California, of course). So recently, we decided to head east to see where that wine comes from, besides a brown paper bag. Walla Walla ho! We don't know what MapQuest and Google Maps were talking about, but......

For some reason our collegiate system places very few demands on the time of its participants. Undergrads may not believe this, aspiring undergrads couldn't be convinced of it, but post-college types generally admit that those five years were scheduled pretty lightly. Not that there weren't commitments. Parties had to be attended. Frisbees had to be thrown. Bongs have evolved, but they have yet to smoke themselves. And there's no better environment for game playing than......

Upcoming.org is a nice way to find out what's going on on a given day. You know that and you always check it right after Seattlest when you're looking for something to do. Google Maps are pretty cool, too. This mashup of Upcoming and Google Maps may be a little shy of the sum of its parts, but it's still pretty neat to play around with.......

Last week a commenter pointed out Flood Maps which pairs NASA elevation data with Google Maps and show us the various lands we'd lose if the ocean were to raise a variable amount of meters. Worldchanging hit on this at the end of March: For some people, global warming is a hard sell. Temperatures going up by a few degrees doesn't sound all that bad, and even results like drought or increased spread of......

At the risk of appearing overly enthused about Google Maps this week we've got to say something about Seattle's Googlecenter. Wired talked about the Googlecenter of the US this week and our mother ship Gothamist pointed their readers to NYC's Googlecenter so here we have Seattle's. The Googlecenter is where you end up if you simply zoom all the way in. If you open maps.google.com and zoom all the way down you get to......

Is this old? When you scan eighteen blogzillion items a day sometimes you see something that you think you might have seen before, but you can't be sure. Manuel found what looks like an airplane under water near the Renton Boeing facility. It's hard to see, actually it's nearly impossible on the half-assed screen capture we're posting with this, so click through and look at the actual image. We had a hard time with......

Seattlest's mothership Gothamist.com found this great mashup of Google Maps and Fundrace data that shows Seattle's 2004 Democratic donations to be about what you expected. Above is a flat image of a random north Seattle zip code (98103), but over at the site you can type in any number of zip codes and you'll get a clickable Google-style map that will let you see the name, address, amount and recipient of donors.......

Can this Google Maps application be a Kirkland.Google construction? How long until the Redmond city council, operating under pressure from "local businesses", requires that all non-Microsoft technology workers be tracked in similar fashion? Please, you can't tell Seattlest that Google's expanding Kirkland facility is anything more than a recruitment office established on Microsoft's front lawn. We wouldn't be surprised to see shadowy figures lurking around the parking lots at night with trenchcoats full of NDAs......

Keep an eye out for these creepy bikes from the netherword around town starting today. Ghostcycle is planting them at various locations to raise awareness of the death-defying nature of riding a bicycle in the city and to remind you that when your car and a bike attempt to occupy the same space at the same time bad things will happen, generally to the bike and the person on it. From their site: The......

Seattlest had a dream last night wherein we were shrunk down to thumbtack size and sucked into Google Maps. All of our readers/participants could dial us up on the internet at Google Maps and watch our various exploits across the city, clicking the pinheads scattered in our wake in either map or satellite view to read our little blurbs or view our tiny photographs. Alright, there was no dream. We have been hearing a lot......

This month's Seattle Weblogger Meetup will be at Ralph's Grocery and Deli at 2035 4th Avenue. Festivities start at 7pm and generally run until 9-10pm or so, so feel free to wander in whenever you can. Seattlest will be there right at the start, of course!...

Google Maps is not just for finding your way to your next job interview, Google Maps is for sightseeing, just click the satellite tab on the top right. Google Sightseeing, a weblog dedicated to aggregating all the interesting scenes, has sprung up, allowing you to take a sightseeing tour from the comfort of your own LCD display. Google Sightseeing feeds off user contributions, so stop by and check it out and if there is something......