HTML5 is the thing to talk about these day. Today, we have a collection of some ridiculously impressive HTML5 canvas-based experiments that will make you say, “Wow!” Let’s take a peek at some of the latest, cutting edge examples out there.

1. 8 Bit Color Cycle

2. Particle Letter Animation

3. Cloth Experiment

This is one of the best canvas-based experiments.

4. Particle System

This is one of my favorites — absolutely amazing!

5. Strange Attractors

This example generates beautiful fractals, like the ones generated by Apophysis. Be sure to tick the composite .

6. Canvas Nebula

7. Bomomo

8. Liquid Particles

9. Fake Floor Reflections

10. Sinous

This is a really fun game; is it not as easy as it looks!

11. Water in HTML5

12. Blob

13. Magnetic System

14. Trail

15. Particles

16. Shattering Box Physics Simulation

This incredible example depicts real world physics in action.

17. Flower Power

Try to guess the word.

18. 9Elements Particle Play

This is a beautiful example which demonstrates audio and canvas in action.

19. Beauty of Maths

20. Tree

21. Cloth Simulation

So what do you think? Getting your own ideas for a neat canvas application? Well, now you have more than one reason to create HTML5 apps: CodeCanyon just launched an HTML5 category! Have fun!

Today is just such an event. WordPress 3.0 has been out for a while now, and so it’s time for our second major update. This is the biggest one yet. We’ve combed through the entire book updating anything that was out of date or stale. We’ve also added a new Chapter 12, which is specific to the 3.0 update. The book is also sportin a brand new front and back cover!

If you already own our book in any form, this is old news, because we’ve already sent out an update email containing your new download. If you didn’t get it (spam filters happen), email sales@digwp.com with your original receipt and we’ll make sure you get it.

If you are considering it, but want to know more, you should check out the PDF sample of the book.

Regarding print version of the book, yes, they are coming back! It’s going to take us about a month to have them ready. If you’d rather not wait, you can buy the PDF now, and when the print version is ready forward us your receipt. We’ll send you a coupon code for exactly what you paid for the PDF to use in purchasing the print version.

There is no shortage of documentation on WordPress’ famous content-spewing structure, but I still feel like there is more confusion and mystery surrounding “The Loop” than there should be. In this screencast I try and explain what it is, how it works, related parts, and then demonstrate some alterations and various tricks. Things like running multiple loops, writing your own custom queries, and handling pagination with your own custom loops.

View Screencast

If you’ve dropped by Behance, you’ve probably noticed their appreciate badge, which is a neat solution to this exact problem. With it people share their appreciation for somebody’s work. Tutorialzine taught us how to implement An AJAX Click to Appreciate Badge, which you can include in every page of your website with a bit of jQuery magic.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://demo.tutorialzine.com/2010/07/click-to-appreciate-badge…
License: License Free

This week’s question comes from reader Kinya Hanada. Kinya touches on a question I’ve wondered myself for several years now. She loves riding on NE Ainsworth because it’s a “nice, direct route,” but wonders if there are any plans to make it more pleasant to bike on (emphasis mine).

“I was wondering if you know if there is anything planned for Ainsworth St., specifically on east of MLK. I like to ride there when I’m going to the NE side or to the Columbia river and it’s a nice direct route to take.

The only thing that detracts from the experience are the parked cars. There aren’t so many of them and the traffic is not too heavy most of the time, so it’s not super dangerous, but when I have to pass the parked cars and there’s a car approaching from behind, there isn’t enough room (or at least so it seems) for both car and I.

So, I either slow or stop to let the car go first or take the lane and make the car slow down. Either way is a bit inconvenient. I think every time I go through there that it would be so much better if the cars weren’t allowed to park there. It’s not as if there is shortage of parking in the area on the side streets. I think it would make a very nice bike corridor and encourage more people biking in the area if they made some changes there.”

Ainsworth is a designated
bike route.

Thanks for the question Kinyada. I live near Ainsworth, bike on it frequently, and I share your feelings about it. The street is seductively narrow and calm, but it’s sometimes uncomfortable to take the lane while a car pulls up right behind you. (Note that the speed limit on Ainsworth is 30 mph.)

The riding conditions on Ainsworth were brought into focus in November 2008 when a group of riders were passed too closely by a Portland Police officer in a patrol car and where then ticketed for impeding traffic. The tickets were ultimately dismissed and the incident led to a bike law police training video that was completed a year later.

What the street needs is a bit more breathing room for bikes and cars. That leaves two choices. Either remove the on-street parking or widen the street by cutting into the large median in the middle of the two lanes (it’s a couplet separated by a tree-lined park).

Ainsworth during Sunday Parkways.

The on-street parking is an interesting issue. PBOT is loathe to get into parking removal battles, especially when many of the houses don’t have any other place to park. I think that moving people from A to B is a more important use of our public right-of-way than private vehicle storage, but parking removal is a very touchy subject and it’s unlikely the City would propose it just yet.

As for building some sort of bikeway into the median, I wouldn’t count on that either. It turns out that the wide and wonderful median is officially recognized as the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum (which celebrated its 5th anniversary last week). Chopping into that arboretum — with its sensitive roots from 60 different species of trees — to put a bikeway, is pretty much a non-starter.

Interestingly, Ainsworth is signed (see photo) and mapped as an official bike route. On a PBOT map of the “Recommended Bikeway Network,” Ainsworth is labeled as being slated for a “Future separated in-roadway” treatment, which could be either a standard bike lane, a buffered bike lane, or a cycle track. The 2030 Bike Plan makes no mention of a forthcoming project on Ainsworth and I haven’t heard of anything planned either.

Further making it not too likely that a bike facility is coming to Ainsworth any time soon, is the Holman Bike Boulevard project. Holman is just one block north and many people prefer it to Ainsworth already.

This is probably a longer answer than you were looking for, but I hope it answers your question and gives you some background on riding conditions on Ainsworth.

— Got a bike question? Ask us. Browse past questions and answers at our Ask BikePortland archives.

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Burley Design, a Eugene-based company known for its bicycle trailers, has won big at the Eurobike trade show that kicked off today in Friedrichshafen, Germany today. Eurobike announced today that Burley has won a 2010 Eurobike Gold Award for their new Travoy cargo trailer.

The Travoy was awarded in the Accessories category and design credit was given to Aaron Beese, Joel Wilson, Gwen Spencer, and Chris Casler. The expert jury that doled out the award said the Travoy is “an impressive contribution to bicycle mobility” and that it’s, “A good idea that has also been well implemented.”

417 products from around the world were in the running for an award. Of those, the jury chose 92 winners, with the 12 most innovative being honored with the GOLD award.

The Travoy is a departure for Burley. Instead of carrying kids or cargo with the common trailer design they helped standardize, the Travoy attaches to a bike’s seatpost. It folds up when not in use and it goes from being pulled behind your bike to being used as a hand-truck/shopping cart in seconds.

We took a first look at the Travoy back in February and were immediately impressed by it. A few months later, reader Chris Sullivan followed up with a positive review of his own.

Congrats to Burley! Way to put Oregon on the international stage.

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On Monday, the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) — an influential group of state DOT directors — announced a report calling on Congress to prioritize funding for expanded rural highway capacity in the forthcoming re-write of the transportation bill. Spending hundreds of billions on highway projects and adding 30,000 new lane miles is sure to raise eyebrows in active transportation circles, but could AASHTO’s plan help improve biking conditions on highways across America?

Maybe.

In a statement about the new report, AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley says, “Improving connectivity for the 60 million Americans who live in rural areas is just as important as improving mobility for those who live in metropolitan areas.” Key to Horsley’s argument is that most interstate highways were built 60 years ago, and little has been done to improve or expand capacity on them since.

Here’s more from Horsley:

“… investment is needed in America’s rural transportation system to keep agriculture, new energy products and freight moving; improve access for the travel, recreation, and tourism industries; connect new and emerging cities; and to ensure reliable access to key defense installations.”

AASHTO report cover.
– Download here -

Specifically, AASHTO wants the US highway program to be increased to $375 billion over six years and they are calling for 30,000 new highway lane miles. The report also provided a state-by-state list of highway projects. For Oregon, the report singled out the controversial, $550 million dollar Newberg-Dundee Bypass project (which scored a $192 million earmark from lawmakers in Salem last session).

While the report has enough talk of more and bigger highways to make active transportation advocates cringe, it also advocates for rural transit service to “more than double over the next six years to keep pace with rising demand.” There’s also the question of how bicycling could benefit with smoother, wider shoulders, and more space on bridges and roads.

Given AASHTO’s support of Adventure Cycling’s U.S. Bicycle Route System, and Mr. Horsley’s familiarity with bicycling in general (he keynoted the National Bike Summit in 2008), I asked Adventure Cycling’s Ginny Sullivan if she thought AASHTO’s desires could benefit bicycling.

“It could be a boon to the USBRS,” she said, “it all lies in the implementation.”

Sullivan says the USBRS and a push for higher quality rural interstate roads share a “common goal” of linking developing with scenic destinations. Here’s more from Sullivan:

“If implementation of this rural road/highway system includes adding or expanding shoulders that are protected from in appropriate rumble stripping, then yes, this push is beneficial. I also see the potential for overcoming other barriers, such as widening bridges to accommodate bicycle passage safely and conveniently. As we both know, adding vehicular capacity doesn’t always make a friendly bicycle route, but if the rural roads initiative takes into account all users, this could be a wonderful benefit for the development of the U.S. Bicycle Route System.”

Sullivan says she’s already discussing the report with her contacts at AASHTO.

Whether you buy AASHTO’s argument for expanded highway capacity or not, at least Adventure Cycling is at the table, reminding them that their projects should not forget to include adequate provisions for bicycle traffic.

— Learn more about the USBRS here. Visit AASHTO’s website to download a PDF of the report, “The Case for Capacity: To Unlock Gridlock, Generate Jobs, Deliver Freight, and Connect Communities.”

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Streetfilms has a new video on 20′s Plenty for us, a campaign in the U.K. working to make 20 mph the standard speed limit in residential areas. The campaign is catching on quickly, with more and more U.K. cities adopting the policy all the time. Given that PBOT might be considering a legislative fix to wrest greater control of speed limits from ODOT, and the fact that Mayor Sam Adams has already shown an interest in reducing speed limits and has made safety his number one transportation priority, this could be an idea that catches on here in Portland.

The 20′s plenty pitch is simple: Lower speeds make for more pleasant places to live, work, and play. Seems like everyone would agree to that. Watch the excellent video to hear how people working on the campaign pitch the idea:

A 20 mph speed limit isn’t just fodder for a catchy campaign slogan, its impact on saving lives has been confirmed by major study findings and even the World Health Organization has endorsed 20 mph speed limits. (Learn more about London’s success with 20 mph zones in this Streetsblog article.)

PBOT has used the “Effects of speed on stopping distance” chart (see it below) in neighborhood meetings and presentations for at least five years now (I first published it in 2005). It shows that 20 mph is the maximum speed at which someone can operate a motor vehicle and still stop in time to avoid hitting someone…

Effects of Speed on Stopping Distance
- View full size -
(Chart: PBOT)

The Streetfilms piece also reminded me of a law that passed in 2007 but that I’ve not heard much about since (thanks to reader Robin Dale for bringing it to my attention again). In the 2007 legislative session, State Rep. Carolyn Tomei sponsored a bill (H.B. 2297) that defined a “narrow residential roadway” as any street “not more than 18 feet wide at any point between two intersections or between an intersection and the end of the roadway” and “Not of sufficient width to allow one lane of traffic in each direction.” The bill amended Oregon’s basic speed rule so that all such roadways could have a maximum speed limit of just 15 mph. Unfortunately, it seems that there aren’t many streets that fit that bill and it seems to have had little impact thus far.

Here in Portland, most residential streets have a 25 mph speed limit and many streets which run through highly residential areas (like N. Rosa Parks Way for instance) have speed limits of 35 mph.

One way I can imagine PBOT approaching new speed limit laws and policies is to legally leverage the “neighborhood greenway” concept. Neighborhood greenways are PBOT’s new name for bike boulevards, which are “family-friendly,” residential streets where people on bicycles and on foot are prioritized. Similar to how Rep. Tomei was able to define “narrow residential roadway,” PBOT could define neighborhood greenway in the ORS and then attach a 20 mph speed limit to it in Oregon’s basic speed rule. Then, any street officially classified as a neighborhood greenway would automatically have a 20 mph speed limit.

Lower speed limits — when coupled with smart engineering, focused enforcement, and a bit of marketing — would do wonders in helping create residential streets where everyone feels safe and welcome.

— Read more of BikePortland’s coverage of this topic by browsing our “speed” story tag.

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After several months of jam-packed event calenders this Weekend’s light schedule will give you a chance to go on that ride you’ve been thinking about, revisit your favorite regular events, and for those who have already given up on summer altogether, go shopping for rain gear.

Friday, September 3rd

6:30pm: Vegan Dinner Bike Ride
Meet your fellow deep-rooted vegan enthusiasts and branch out to try new and exciting cuisine. Ride meets at on the Colonel Summers Park greens and heads to a different vegan-friendly restaurant or food cart, followed by a chance to talk chop at an area watering hole.

Saturday, September 4th

8:30am (Returns Monday Evening): Cycle Wild Primitive Bike Camping up the Clackamas
Like to get your hands dirty and your feet wet? Join bike camping pros Cycle Wild on an unsupported group camping trip up the Clackamas river to a primitive (that means no showers, toilets, or cable television) camp spot.  Group meets at 8:30am at the Cleveland Max Station and rides 45 miles to the site.  Read more about the trip on Cycle Wild’s Facebook event page and learn all about bike camping at cyclewild.org.

Sunday, September 5th

10:00am: Sandy Ridge Super D
An action-packed downhill cross-country mountain bike race on the Sandy Ridge, the Super D is the main event of a weekend of dirty bike fun just outside of Windell’s Camp.  Camping, lodging, and registration information available on the Oregon Super D website.

2:00pm: Bike Polo
Bike polo has been sweeping the country and is popping up in almost every town.  If you have never seen or participated in this great sport come watch or join the gang at Alberta Park that have been playing there every week for over five years.  Bike polo is lots of fun to watch, and even more fun to play, so bring a beater bike if you want to jump in.

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The schematic for doodling Ed’s characters is so utterly basic you don’t even need to be able to read to understand how, yet the it produces a character with so much style and heart you can’t help but be captivated. As a kid, I remember sitting at the kitchen table with one of Emberly’s drawing books checked out from the library and I drew every single one of the illustrations in the book. Paper everywhere in disarray filled with marker doodles, I practiced and practiced.

Ed’s still quite active today, and if you’re lucky enough to be near Culver City, CA you can see an exhibition dedicated to his work at the Scion Installation until Aug 7th. The show features Ed’s original mock-ups as well as work from six artists who were influenced by his books as children too.

Here’s a few more of my illustrators whose work echos that of the great Mr. Ed (person, not horse, that is.)

The wooooonderful Christopher David Ryan.

The work of Japanese illustrator Toru Fukuda feels familiar too, even channeling the Mr. Men series.

And finally Jim Datz’simmense body of work definitely rocks this vibe with equal parts stunning color and typography.

Images sourced from Google, Contrarymary and Grickily’s photostreams, and My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses.