Lonely Los Angeles Water Fountain

Before you do anything else (well, go ahead and finish reading this post), you should visit the TED website and view the talk "filter bubble" by Eli Pariser.  I won't ruin anything, but the talk discusses the filter bubble we exist in based on the controlled flow of information pumped to us based on our existing tastes and interests.  Couple this with the early explosive growth of Google+ and it's certainly something to think about. So go watch that after you read this post. 

I'm not actively using Google+ yet but one of the first things I noticed was a post from a person in my fledgling Circle of Friends about "The Best Water Bottle Ever".  The post had floated back in to my thoughts a few times in the last week or so and, as if I was given medicine, yesterday I felt the absolute urge to go purchase one of these water bottles.  I even convinced my girlfriend she should get one to get excited about drinking water.  I'm now the owner of a blue camelback water bottle, and she is the owner of a green Nathan's water bottle.  Almost entirely because of the post I saw on Google+.

It didn't stop there.  After my girlfriend bought a new Google Nexus S smartphone this weekend I became much more excited about what the android system can do.  With all the apps out there I figured there was probably a water drinking app. I thought it would be fun to have a little contest to see who could best keep up with the goal of drinking more water.

Again we're talking about water bottles!

It turns out there ISN'T an app for that.  I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but I came across this post which discusses the world of smartphone water source location in addition to other air and water filter news (and I though THIS was a fringe blog-wow!).

That post led me to a new app, not yet released that will allow the cloud-crowd of users to add to the ever-growing database of available public water supply points. Pretty cool idea.

I looked for a random location in Asia but so far, the database only includes UK and US locations.  I happened to zoom in to the Los Angeles area and found a sole, lonely water fountain and thought I'd share it with you.


View FountainTest2 in a larger map
You can also access the drinking fountain map here.

I picked Los Angeles, not entirely at random.  LA was also home to the much over-hyped CARMAGEDDON.  The biggest freakout over nothing in recent memory - a freeway closure? 

Since I spent last week at a transportation conference I would be remiss if I didn't share the story with you about the bike vs. jet competition.  For some reason Jet Blue decided to offer commuter specials to those looking to bypass all the backups caused by the freeway shutdown, but in a race whose outcome was decided before it started, the bikes, or course, prevailed.

In other place-based smartphone news.  Download SCVNGR.  It's like foursquare...but better.  Add me, Ryan Buck as a friend.