Near Boulder is a reservoir: Boulder Reservoir. Man-made lakes have always been a favorite of mine, and this one is no exception. $6 to get in if you come during business hours, but I got there late enough to drive in for free. There’s a beach, benches, barbecue pits, and lots of water. Not a bad place to spend some time on a warm summer night. Click on the cliché sunset to view the gallery.

If I ever film a remake of Children of the Corn, I just might do it in Niwot. Downtown wasn’t quite as deserted as these photos imply, but close. I was there around 6:30, and I think they roll up the sidewalks around 6. There’s an imported car dealership on the Main Street with some expensive Audis, so I’m thinking this is a bedroom community for the well heeled ex-hippies from Boulder. Click on the fire station below to view the gallery.

Just a few random shots around Longmont. Click the spider web to view the gallery

Estes Park is the gateway to the Rocky Mountain National Forrest, home to the Stanley Hotel, and an interesting place to spend an afternoon. It’s also a good place to experience a touch of altitude sickness, as one member of our party found out on the winding drive up there. The town itself is only 7500 feet up, but the nearby Trail Ridge Road tops out at over 12,000 feet as you cross the Continental Divide. Since permafrost, tundra, and puking passengers aren’t really my thing, I didn’t venture any further up. Click on the tourist traffic jam below to view the gallery.

German RFID tinkerer Lukas Grunwald has come up with a way to crash RFID passport scanners. His exploit uses a modified JPEG2000 image to crash the readers, and the consensus is that an exploit isn’t far behind. Wired has the whole story, and there will be further discussion at DefCon this weekend.

The “good” news is that the US is still issuing non-RFID passports to some folks who request an expedited passport. The bad news? Nothing has been done to address US e-voting flaws. If the bedrock of democracy isn’t technologically sound, and if illegal border crossings are tacitly accepted, how much time and effort will be spent to patch potentially faulty passports?

There are a number of Roman copies of lost Greek sculpture in the British Museum. Here are a couple of my favorites:

The world’s first Pez dispenser features the head of Epikouros (founder of the Epicurian school) on a marble dispenser shaft.

The Greek collection at the British Museum is every bit as good as the others I’ve posted here. There are one or two Roman copies of lost Greek sculptures in the collection, but when the copies date from the 1st century AD you can’t complain too much. Click on the naked fighting people to see the gallery.

The British Museum’s Assyrian wing strikes a perfect balance between age and condition. Most of the pieces date from the 9th century BC, and most are in spectacular shape. Lots of reliefs and statuary, generally more whimsical than the Greeks or Romans who came after. Click the doorway guardian below to enter the gallery.

There’s a “riverbus” service up and down the Thames run by the same folks who bring you tubes and road buses. It’s a pretty smooth ride, and there’s some great views from the boat. I rode from Millbank to Bankside (lots of banks on the river) in ~20 minutes, but there are longer routes if you want more boating. Cheaper than the tourist boats too. Click the boat’s wake below for the gallery.

For my last night in London, we visited South London Pacific, a gorgeous tiki bar on Kennington Road. Notaw had been by it on the bus many times, but never actually went in before. They have an excellent drink menu, and full on tiki decor. From what I hear, it’s also much cheaper than Trader Vic’s and Mahiki. If you’re planning to go, be sure to check in advance that they’re open. Friday and Saturday nights seem to be public, but they often rent it out for private parties during the week. And I found £5 in the street nearby when I was there, so keep your eyes peeled.