C.F. Cat Rambo's "Magnificent Pigs"
http://podcastle.org/2008/07/15/pc016-magnificent-pigs/

Huh. I was going to point out that the wave was invented in Oakland, CA, but the history is more convoluted (or contentious) than I thought:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_wave

C.F. the Japanese idea of Wabi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Well, yeah, it doesn't make sense without the associated helmet and jetpack...

He also posted at Wired's GeekDads blog:
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/08/the-styrobot.html

Yeah, it sounds (sorry) weird, but a lot of Deaf-with-a-capital-D people are very against any attempts to 'fix' them. It's counter-intuitive to those of us who can hear, but it's extremely real.

The "All your base" link is wrong. I think it should be this one:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Know-Your-Meme-All-Your-Base

As others have mentioned, it's an early Mapquest-style set of directions. There were wrist-mountable ones (watch style). This might be a cheaper version of that, or a dash-mounted one. I can't make out the scale, but I'm leaning toward the latter one.

Ah, my Google-Fu is still strong:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1045114/The-1920s-satnav---weird-wonderful-gadgets-quite-took-off.html
That looks like the higher-end Brit version of the above.

True, but a goldfish is seriously disadvantaged out of water.

I'm thinking triathalon is really Phelp's sport.

Huh. The WikiP article on the regiment says he's the third, while the article on him says he's the second.

"So I go in and ask them if they serve pork bellies, and the guy just starts laughing his head off."

Adult Education just put up a video about metatourism (taking pix of tourists,) which included a bit about these "Pisa Pushers":

http://www.archive.org/details/AdultEducationMetatourism