• MinneAfrica.com is (aiming to be) your one stop shop for all things African in Minnesota. (Aside: The connection to the now-defunct Metropolitan Cafe is merely coincidental.)
• Is Second Harvest Heartland your charity of choice? Follow them on Twitter: @2harvest
• You know any guide to the Twin Cities written by Max “Bunny” Sparber is gonna be… different. If anyone knows “hidden treasures, little-known locations, and strange history,” it’s Max.
• LiveJournal discusses the best apple orchards and pumpkin patches in the TC. (via @alexisthegirl)
• Inside Northside is a North Minneapolis Encylopedia in wiki format. Remember, a wiki means anybody and errbody can contribute to it. Who, what, and why.
• The Lynx’s Candice Wiggins handily won the WNBA’s Sixth Woman of the Year Award for the 2008 season. She set a league record for bench players in averaging 15.7 points per game. Gettin’ Wiggy wit’ it! The team has audio and Ice’s highlight reel.

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s website has complete results from yesterday’s primary. Warning: data porn. I thanked my polling place volunteers. Did you? Mary Lahammer on the primary’s biggest winners and losers.

If you follow the Minnesota Historical Society on Twitter, you will receive a “this day in Minnesota history” tweet and alerts about other MHS events.

While Northeast Beat the Website has been assimilated by the TC Daily Planet, Northeast Beat lives on in a Ning group! (FYI, Ning is a service providing DYI social networks.) It has 138 members at the moment.

Tom Elko at MnIndy: “McCain connected 35W bridge collapse to Palin’s pork.” Money quote from McCain: “‘Maybe if we had done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country,’ McCain said at a campaign stop in Ankeny, Iowa on Aug. 4, 2007. ‘Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it.’” Zing!

If you enjoy playing the hockey, check out pickuphockeyfinder.com. You can find games and sign up yourself/your friends/a team to play. Ice hockey (indoor), pond hockey, roller hockey, adult, youth, etc.

Opposite of hockey: Are you a surfer? Or at least interested in protecting our beaches and lakefront? Graeme Thickins is helping startup the Minnesota chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

Webdigs is yet another local real estate brokerage. They’re pimping their use of technology/teh internets and some sort of rebate program. It’s pretty to look at. I haven’t done enough house shopping to know how their user interface compares. Also, having not done much by way of homebuying I appreciate their “How Buying Works” and “How Selling Works” info. And they have a pretty good blog going (which I’m not just saying because they linked us once).

I’m completely RNCed out, but the fallout continues. Y’all know where to go (The Uptake and MnIndy). If you need some handholding, Thinkery’s early-September archive has some most excellent aggregation of independent and MSM coverage. (Yeah, I’m rounding up a roundup. Meta!)

People fret about gas prices, wish they could get away with driving less, but not everyone is hearty, hale, and brave enough to bike. So naturally scooters are the next best thing. We are totally planning on buying a scooter next summer.

Did you know there’s a Holy Land Exhibit in Stevens Square? And that it’s 50 years old? Me neither. It’s not affiliated with the restaurant/deli/imported grocery biz.

Rhubarbarism describes for you the archetypes of Twin Cities cyclists. (Yeah, this one is ancient in internet years, but it’s still funny.)

“The unassuming gazillionaire”: The Strib’s Patent Pending blog talks to Saint Paul native Jawed Karim (PayPal and YouTube co-founder) about his latest project, Youniversity Ventures, which helps fund internet software startups founded by college students.

“If I had 4 days in St Paul…” Where Jen would eat, drink, and shop.

I’m not familiar with Big Quarters, but I want one of their “From the Home of Brown Babies and White Mothers” t-shirts (even though my dad’s the white one). Lake City Browns! w00t! Here, watch one of their music videos. (via MPLSSTPL)

National Geographic Traveler’s 48-Hour Guide to Minneapolis (July/August 2008 edition) lists local blogs and podcasts to check out, followed by newspapers and magazines, maps, and books and movies. We’re a design mecca on the prairie. (I didn’t know Building Minnesota had a podcast.)

TC Daily Planet: Copper Thieves at Coldwater. Exploring the effects of neglect of the Coldwater/Bureau of Mines land.

I knew there was the Minnesota Thunder, our professional men’s soccer team in the United Soccer Leagues. I didn’t know there was a women’s team, the Minnesota Lightning. They’re clearly affiliated, judging by the look of the websites. And by the extremely confusing navigation of the Lightning website, in which all of the links and even the site name up at the top of the browser point to the Thunder, but with a light blue color scheme instead of a dark blue one and a picture of women playing at the top instead of men. Boo! [twitter: @mnthunder]

Vote Yes MN implores you to protect the Minnesota you love. Everything you need to know about the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, a proposed amendment to the Minnesota state constitution appearing on the ballot this fall. If passed it will dedicate funding to protecting the environment “by increasing the sales and use tax rate beginning July 1, 2009, by three-eighths of one percent on taxable sales until the year 2034.” [web: yesformn.org] [twitter: @yesformn] [facebook: group]

While the Lynx’s Seimone Augustus is off playing in the Olympics, the team and staff will spend the WNBA league break out in the community, putting on the 33 Days of Augustus.

Common Roots is celebrating its 1st year of operation with a Summer Celebration on Saturday August 9th from 2-9pm. “Featuring grilling on the patio, an heirloom tomato tasting, local beer and wine samples, family activities and live music.” [facebook: profile] [facebook: event] [twitter: @commonroots]

Are y’all checking the late night movie schedule at the Riverview Theater?

FringeFamous is a blog covering the Minneapolis/St.Paul independent theatre scene, written by a group of quasi-anonymous “Twin Cities theater professionals.” They do year-round coverage (as of March of this year, anyway), but you can imagine how frothy they are over the impending Fringe Festival. [twitter: @fringefamous]

Community Design Group is “an urban planning and policy consulting group” touting “a people-centered, asset-based approach to urban planning, policy and design.” (via mediation)

Edina Realty now offers foreclosure searching.

See the Declaration of Indepence in Saint Paul. An original printing will be on display for public viewing at Saint Paul City Hall/Ramsey County Courthouse, September 2-4. (via Saint Paul-itics)

MPR: Ramsey County creates gas siphoning report line. To which I say, “Isn’t that what the non-emergency police line is for?” Enh, just program it into your phone, I guess. That phone number is not actually included in the MPR story and I could not find it on Ramsey County’s website, so I’m assuming it’s not actually set up yet and suggest you just call the county in the mean time (651-266-8500). There is, however a nice Gather video demonstration of gas siphoning.

Twin Cities Streets for People has the scoop on the Streetcar Feasibility Study that was presented to Minneapolis City Council in January. In case you need it laid out for you in plain English, or in case you missed it the first time around (or both). I’m sloooowly coming around to the idea that, much as I like shiny trains and still firmly believe that the metro needs a comprehensive LRT system, there is a lot of opportunity in adequately funding and fleshing out our bus system and bringing back streetcars.

TC Biz Journal: I still can’t wrap my brain around this Denny Hecker/electric car thing. Just like my brain shorts when I see a bus drive by with Denny Hecker’s mug on it. (Y’all know I’ve been scarred by Denny.)

Northstar News and Updates: “Northstar Commuter Rail achieved another milestone recently when the first locomotive rolled off the production line.”

MPLS Mirror goes to the Lake Street Festival and Art Car Parade. Photos and video!

Someone who didn’t like the Red Bull Illume exhibit felt compelled to make a statement.

Photo courtesy of Corporate Babysitter.

Dialing that phone number — (612) 230-6400 — gets you to the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board.

… It’s like a raid gone wrong in the World of Warcraft”

Just in case you’ve been living in a cave, or a Microsoft Pillow Fort of Righteousness, today Apple released the new iPhone in the Twin Cities.

 (and maybe elsewhere, but who knows?)

Thanks to our cool cat on the scene @TaulPaul has captured it all with -

Apple Store iPhone Line Watch

Yeah, you should probaly hit - Favorite

I’m pretty sure he may have flipped us all off right around second 51 and he even admits to making a child cry.

It brought a tear to my eye.  

 Do you have the new iPhone?

In case you hadn’t heard, Minnesota is turning 150. This is mostly a happy time (seriously–why do you read this blog if you hate Minnesota so much, huh?), but MinnPost doesn’t like to see a parade go un-rained on. So, they have given us a three-part feature:

150 Minnesota moments we’d just as soon forget.

It’s a lot of tornadoes, cold temperatures, and murders, but there are some other things as well. I’ve selected some of the sillier, less-depressing items for your perusal. I hesitate to call them my favorites, but whatever. You get the idea. (more…)

• June 1: The Minnesota Historical Society is holding a state-wide open house (i.e., free admission) at all of their parks and historic sites. There are eight such sites in the metro: Mill City Museum, the State Capitol, Fort Snelling, Sibley House, Minnehaha Depot, Alexander Ramsey House, Minnesota History Center, James J. Hill House.
• Starting in November, Alaska Airlines will offer roundtrip service from MSP to Seattle. That’s a new carrier at MSP. They’re offering a special introductory rate of $139 (one-way) between MSP and SEA so if you wanted to do that fly out, drive back (or vice versa) thing, here’s a good chance.
• Chuck Olsen has Atmosphere on Conan.
• “Sharp increase in anti-LGBT violence in Minnesota.”
• “Minnesota Nice? Fuck That.” Verbal assault at the Holiday Station. What a douche!
• The University of Minnesota has entered their solar-powered vehicle, Centaurus, in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. (And I’ll just point out that my alma mater, the University of Michigan, has won four of the eight races.)
• MinnPost has video of the Minneapolis Art on Wheels project. Super cool! Commenter suggests projecting on the side of the Xcel Energy Center during the RNC.
• “Good to the last drip: Minneapolis to spend $180,000 to market its (wait for this) tap water.”
• The Walker, mnartists.org, and The Unconvention are sponsoring a competition for artist-designed political yard signs called My Yard Our Message.
• Memorial Day Weekend is the time for the Northstar Classic Softball Tournament. There are all sorts of activities surrounding this giant gay softball tournament.
• That Lunds that has been under construction for three years at 12th & Hennepin could end up two blocks up the road, and bigger.

Lastly, because I can’t let it go, you need to look directly at the Taylor Carik = Bon Iver photo.

Image courtesy of mthomps00. Okay, I’m done with that.