Safe routes and safer fashion

They’re so photogenetic
Still-camera technology is blowing up (bad pun, sorry). I recently dropped three Clevelands on the Nikon D300 and two lenses (Grover Cleveland was our 22nd and 24th president, and has the honor of having his bushy mustache on the $1,000 bill). Now I read that Hasselblad just released the world’s first 50 megapixel camera. I thought 12.3 MP was overkill. With the Hasselblad H3DII-50 you can make prints that you can hang on a billboard in Times Square.

And if prints the size of Rhode Island are not what you need, maybe a camera that doubles as a time machine is. New firmware—downloadable software that is “embedded” into your hardware and updates the functionality of the device—for the Casio EX-F1 lets shooters record video before they press the record button. Cool enough that it shoots 60 frames per second in burst mode and 1,200 fps in SuperSloMo mode (1,200 stills in one second!). It also somehow shoots and buffers video, storing five seconds of said video before the record button is pressed. Impressive.

iCycle
I was just in Portland, Ore., and Montreal, and in both places, city streets were filled with bicycles—easily 10 bikes in one’s vision at any given time, usually many more. Chico has its fair share of two-wheeled travelers, but cities with aggressive, chaotic traffic like San Francisco and New York City have fewer bikers per capita than our fair city.

Google Map-like technology is hopefully about to change that, at least for the Big Apple. “Ride the City” is a Web site that lets you enter your starting location and destination and not only gives you the shortest distance from point A to point B but also gives you a “safe route” and the “safest route.” Designed for cyclists, it will not direct you through tunnels or unbike-friendly bridges, and the safest routes will steer you toward “greenways” and place caution icons where previous bikers have had a history of accidents. Maybe renting a bicycle on your next trip to NYC is not such a bad idea after all. www.ridethecity.com

Deflective duds
If your next trip to the East Coast is not to the city so nice they named it twice but to our nation’s capital, you may want to invest in some new “D.C.-safe” threads. Now that nine old people sitting on our highest court have legalized the sale and possession of hand guns in the already violent, crime-riddled District of Columbia, you may want some stylish protection.

The fashion site Pipeline has not only compiled a wardrobe of bullet-deflecting denim jackets, executive Kevlar waist coats and bulletproof hip-hop hoodies, but also highlights the Ballistic Groin Cups, bullet-deflecting briefcases and bulletproof children’s backpacks.

Wacky Web site of the Week
Really sick of a certain Web site? Want a little sweet revenge that won’t hurt anyone or anything? Wield a chainsaw, summon a swarm of wasps or throw dog poop at any URL. Strangely satisfying. www.netdisaster.com