I misplaced a camera battery pack — an extra one — somewhere, probably in June 2008.  I may have lost it while taking pictures at an author event.  I have not encountered it since.  I was also borrowing the camera and therefore the batteries.  I am in the process of replacing the missing item, with bashful apologies.

This is part of a continuing series of drawings of things that I have lost, mislaid, and left behind.

The New York Times has posted a glorious interactive graphic of box office grosses from 1986 to 2008. See how blockbusters spike and then fizzle away and word-of-mouth favorites extend into plump worms. I love how the graphic turns the film industry into a thorny, twisting vine of earth-toned globs — clumped together artery-clogging fat sediments, writhing, with neat Helvetica labels.

Winner of the 2004 [City Lights Competition] to create an innovative, state-of-the-art streetlight design — to light streets, sidewalks, and parks within the city’s five boroughs.

Images from the [NYC Department of Design & Construction] and [LEDs Magazine].

“The flights of sooty shearwaters documented in this new study represent the longest animal migration routes ever recorded using electronic tracking technology: around 65,000 kilometres (39,000 miles). Taking advantage of prevailing winds along different parts of the migration route, the birds trace giant figure eights over the Pacific Basin.” [Wildlife Extra]

On July 22 I lost my (at the time, fairly recently aquired) bright blue and white-striped polo shirt. It fell to the ground at some point as I hiked along the cliff walk overlooking Dublin Bay, on a rainy afternoon in Howth, Ireland. It had been draped over my messenger bag.

[From the U.S. government guidelines for taking one's own passport photo. "Successful U.S. passport and visa photography begins with careful setup and appropriate production methods."]

Last month sometime, my camera a/v cable disappeared. After a few weeks, I finally gave up looking for it and ordered a new one. The day after it arrived in the mail, I found my original cord — in a bag, in my apartment.

“A freak sandstorm in Egypt has uncovered the top of the Great Pyramid of RA the Sun-God. Already dozens of explorers, singly and in teams, have entered the pyramid through the door at the very top. None have ever returned. You, a lowly undergraduate student in Archaeology, have decided to enter the pyramid on your own and learn its secrets, and (if you can) survive to tell the outside world of its wonders.“

[From the elegantly designed and succinctly informative
Baseball Field Guide by Formosa & Hamburger.]