Image via Bike Portland

According to Bike Portland, a local cargo bike builder Tom LaBonty has built this to carry his kid to school (and many other cool rigs, check them out at that link).

For non-Oregonians, the New Carissa is a famous ship here that crashed on the Oregon coast in 1999, spilled a bunch of oil, and stuck in the sand as a nuisance/tourist attraction. When I first moved here in 2001 and introduced myself, people without fail made some joke about me crashing into Oregon. When they finally started dismantling the remaining piece of the ship in 2008, I got a whole new round of jokes and a front page newspaper headline: New Carissa, Manageable or Madness? That one is still on my fridge.

As I commented on that photo, it’s good to see another (cleaner) form of transport representin’ my name.

Made by a friend of my coworker. Pretty funny stuff. If you want to see some obnoxious fixie videos, you tube it or look at Prolly. Oh here, I’ll do it for you, Bootleg Sessions.

Even radder? They formed a Ferris Bueller flash mob called Project Bueller (blog interview there, major media on their Wiki page), to recreate the parade scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. They even considered shouldering into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. A note taped to Matthew Broderick’s door got no response, but it was the weather that did them–and 2,000 volunteers–in, and it looks like it never happened. There are pillow fights in cities all over, shouldn’t there be Ferris Bueller days?

Wait, let’s take a moment to watch it:

Ah.

I hope their project continues growing. Here’s the charming description from their Wikipedia entry: “Project Bueller is part of artist Mina Karimi’s ongoing performance art piece “Everything Will Be Okay” which focuses on fostering joy in the lives of everyday people in unexpected ways.” Not much more info though, even on their blog. I added Mina on Facebook, maybe I can ask her for updates there.

The Project Bueller blog

Mina and Kara on Twitter

Related: How to dress your boyfriend as your nerd boyfriend

Update: They have a tote bag? Of course they have a tote bag. Check the little hearts in the letter holes.

Unity, Harmony? Boring. But they left a write in box for other suggestions, and Colbert has encouraged fans to add his name right here. NASA lists the top 10 write ins so far as:

COLBERT

MYYEARBOOK

GAIA

XENU

SOCIALVIBE

BUDDY

TRANQUILITY

UNUNTU

SYNERGY

VISION

Personally, I think NASA should take a lead from the Groundhog Day folks, and name the node Punxsutawney Phil in Space. Help me out, friends, by going to the site and writing in Punxsutawney Phil in Space!

NASA reserves the right to reject any name, and select one of their own instead from the list of Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture.

Japan has appointed these ladies as the Ambassadors of Cute in a bid for attention, according to the New York Times. Reuters suggests this is a ploy to increase Japan’s “soft power,” or cultural power, as it slips increasingly into the shadow of China’s monolithic economy. The word for cute in Japanese is even cute: kawaii. I think they’re well on their way.

Still, ladies, I want your job. I would totally be the one in the middle, which would you be? And can you imagine if the US had ambassadors of culture? Who would they be?

Image: New York Times Pictures of the Day

Will Steve prevail and get his tote back from the evil ransomers? Will he be forced to accrue dreaded plastic bags whilst grocery shopping? Will passerby mock him, thinking he is not literary without a clear sign of his love of books? Will his books themselves pitch off his balcony into the street below, and go to karaoke at the Alibi instead? The horror, the horror.

Join Steve and his friends at Ransom Hour, Tuesday the 17th at 5:30 at the Gilt Club on Broadway and Everett to find out.