Reporter Recommends Padmapper

For those of you graduating this spring, finding a place to live in your new town, or just getting out of your mom’s basement, is paramount. But apartment hunting is a miserable, time-consuming process dreaded by young professionals the world over. Enter PadMapper, the ingenious product of one young man sick of struggling to find the right digs.

Powered by Google Maps, PadMapper highlights all the major cities in the U.S. and U.K. and lets the user scroll around checking for available rentals. It features a number of filters that let you adjust the price range you’re looking for, as well as number of bedrooms and baths, and the type of rental agreement. You can get email alerts when new ads are posted, search with keywords (female, pets, laundry, etc.), and even get mapped overlays of crime statistics, mass transit routes, Walk Scores and Yelp reviews showing how close you are to restaurants, bars, attractions, etc. and a commute calculator to time your trip to your new job, your boyfriend’s place, your gym or whatever. And of course, there are iPhone and Android apps.

Playing around on PadMapper isn’t just easy; it can be downright fun. You can find yourself cruising through cities you have no intention of moving to, just to scope them out. The site is constantly rolling out new ideas to improve the experience, and is in the running for a Webby award, the internet’s equivalent of the Oscar. And it deserves to win. PadMapper is the best way to get to know everything about your new city before you sign the lease on your first grown-up apartment. Happy hunting.

Check PadMapper out at http://padmapper.com.

Quote

“I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re goin’, and hook up with them later.”

— Mitch Hedberg

Rapper Coolio, most famous for his song “Gangsta’s Paradise”, was robbed during a Wednesday, February 25 performance at Britain’s Staffordshire University. After the rapper flattened a girl in the audience after attempting a stage dive, the crowd attacked him, stealing his bandanna, shoes and jewelry before he was rescued by SECURITY.

SECURITY was pretty lax for the micronation of San Marino’s lone prisoner. For a brief period in 2011, out of the 30,000 people in the tiny nation, only one was in prison. According to a February 2011 Telegraph article, the prisoner had access to a gym, television room, and meals from a nearby restaurant. The 30-year-old man, serving a sentence for domestic violence, was alone for about a month before until another man joined.

For almost 30 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of North Carolina Wilmington have operated an underwater laboratory off the coast of the Florida Keys. According to its web site, the 81-ton Aquarius lab has hot water, a shower and toilet, a refrigerator, microwave and six bunk beds to make researchers feel at HOME.

The Belgrade Zoo in Serbia is HOME to the memorial of Gabi the German Sheppard, a security dog that fought an escaped jaguar in 1987. According to a city guide produced by In Your Pocket, she managed to handle the much larger beast long enough for police to arrive, keeping it from getting loose and hurting anyone. beast long enough for police to arrive, keeping it from getting loose and hurting anyone.

Word of the Week

Growelery n. - A place to “growl” in; jocularly applied to a person’s private sitting room.

After his poor test performance Grayson snuck off to his growlery, the third floor bathroom in the Science Building.

Definition taken from http://oed.com/

Comic

Emily DeVault

Haiku

"You Only Live Once"

Should be more of a warning

Than encouragement.