HughPage is a wiki that is described as an "open source CraigsList for bloggers." Will be interesting to see what it becomes.
HughPage: Open Source “Craigs List” for Bloggers
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Local Politicians Defined
Lenslinger, a cameraman for a local TV station has a blog and is quite a good writer. He has an excellent post about local politicians that resulted from a follow up story he and a reporter were doing about some Guilford County commissioners who were attending a National Association of Counties meeting in Hawaii at taxpayer expense.
As a result we have one of the best quotes I’ve ever heard re. local politicians:
How come successful, educated, seemingly rational people run for public
office only to devolve into infantile behavior once they‘re seated? I’m
not just talking Guilford County, either. I’ve done time in County
Commissioner and City Council meetings from here to the coast. No
matter what issue was at hand, I’ve been summarily flummoxed by the
childishness exhibited by the low-level politico. Black, White, or
Plaid, the foolishness knows no racial bounds. Something about
achieving a local constituency makes eight out of ten well-meaning
civic geeks go absolutely bat-shit. Why that is I don’t know, but
commissioner hissies and councilman tantrums are as common an
occurrence as that dork on TV, the one broadcasting live(!) from the
backseat of some housewife’s grocery-getter with a giant thermometer in
his sweaty grip.
US Geological Survey’s Free Tool
The USGS Seamless Distribution System lets you get alot of the raw data that services like MSN’s Virtual Earth.
Lots of complex data is available but thankfully there’s also a tutorial. If you’re interested in geography at all you can play with this thing for hours.
Coincidences
So I was doing a Google Image search on my last name (can’t even remember why), and I came across this picture on the left of Fr. Charles Lowder. It seems that he was the founder of an Anglo-Catholic movement called the Society of the Holy Cross.
I don’t know much about my paternal genealogy (I plan on changing that soon), so I was a little curious to see whether or not he had emigrated to the U.S. and perhaps done some unpriestly things that might mean I could be a descendant. Technically we’re talking Episcopalian here, and I don’t know when the Episcopalians started allowing their priests to marry, so maybe it wouldn’t have been un-priestly after all. Anyway, there’s no mention of it in the brief history I found on the Society’s website, but there is the mention of a nephew so maybe there’s a distant relationship.
What really caught my eye though is the society’s motto: "in hoc signo vinces." This happens to be the only Latin I know, because it is also the motto of my fraternity, Sigma Chi. It means "in this sign, conquer!" From the beer-addled memories of fraternity life I also remember that this had something to do with Constantine, but that’s really neither here nor there.
In reading the Society’s history I started flashing back to the Sigma Chi history that was pounded into our heads during pledge training. There were lots of similarities, from the way in which the founders met in secret, to the number of founders (six for the Society, seven for Sigma Chi), to the feeling of moral fortitude relayed in each history. Even the timing was the same: both were founded in 1855.
I know it sounds heretical comparing a church to a fraternity, but I was just a little taken aback by the similarities. That has to be some kind of sign that there’s a family connection, right?
A Satellite View of Lewis & Clark’s Journey
The US Geological Survey has a neat little site that let’s you see Lewis & Clark’s journey from a satellite view.
Each satellite view has some information about that particular leg of the expedition. For instance image #14 tells us this:
Image Name: Camp Fortunate, Montana
August 17, 1805Image Source: Landsat 7 and DEM
Image Date:October 7, 2002
Image Description: Lewis and Clark were reunited at
this site after parting company near the Big Hole and Jefferson Rivers.
Lewis arrived first and lodged with a band of Shoshone. When the
Indians began preparing to head east to their buffalo hunting grounds,
Lewis persuaded them to wait for Clark’s return. When at last Clark
arrived with Sacagawea, she recognized the leader of the Shoshone as
her brother. It was in part this fortunate twist of fate that led to
the Shoshone agreeing to help the expedition cross the Continental
Divide—and gave the camp its name.Digital TIFF File Size:Approx 160 MB
This is the kind of stuff that makes me shake my head in wonder at what information technology hath wrought on our world.
Personalize Your Google Experience
Here’s a site that allows you to type in anything you want and it will convert what you type into an image of the Google home page with your text in place "Google."
Here’s a screenshot of one that I did:
MSN’s Virtual Earth
Microsoft launched it’s own maps feature at http://virtualearth.msn.com/.
I haven’t had a chance to compare it to Google Maps in any depth, but I can tell you that I like Google better on first blush. As is the norm with Google the interface is easier to understand, and the mere fact that you can use it for directions (I couldn’t find a way to do that with Virtual Earth) makes it more valuable to me.
On the other hand Virtual Earth has a couple of utilities I really like. One is that it has an ActiveX feature that can automatically tell where you are based on your Wi-Fi access point, or IP address if your not set up on Wi-Fi. That makes their local search very powerful.
Another nice little feature on Virtual Earth is the ScratchPad which lets you see your most recent searches in a small window.
That said, I think Google Maps is a superior service.
Reading List July 25, 2005
- Rolling Thunder vs. Scoble Style (The Post Money Value)
- Shhhh, don’t tell anyone (Robert Scoble)
- Blog Search = Opportunity (The Post Money Value)
- The Cult that is Human Service Alliance and the Center for Purposeful Living ( Chris Short via Patrick Eakes)
- Standards and Practices (John Robinson, Editor Greensboro News & Record) –Editorial note–This is a list of 16 standards that the Greensboro News & Record has set out for its staff bloggers.
- Levitt Replies to the Critical Letter Published in NY Times (Freakonomics)
- Using Blog Search for Business (BlogMaverick) –Editorial Note–This is Mark Cuban’s blog and I personally found this the most useful of his posts to date.
- Marc Canter’s Clue (Moore’s Lore) –Editorial Note– I consider Dana Blankenhorn my digital canary in the mine. If he thinks something is important I pay attention to it, so I’m going to do a little research on AlwaysOn and GoingOn.
Tarheel Tavern at Erin Monahan’s Place
Check out the newest issue of Tarheel Tavern over at Erin Monahan’s blog. There you’ll find writings, ponderings and musings from the likes of Mandie, Laurie, Lance, Billy and many more.
Rich Takes on New York
My good friend Rich Erb’s mom died earlier this year. As hard as that is he’s now also tangling with the state of New York over his mom’s death benefits. You can read about it at a blog he set up to document the dispute.
As Rich points out the issue isn’t the amount of money involved. The issue is the fact that his mom took great pride in the work she did for the state, the sacrifice she made in terms of pay because of the benefits, and the fact that she told Rich she didn’t want the family to have to pay for her funeral, that’s what the death benefit was for. Until New York didn’t hold up their end of the deal.
If this dispute was a horse race my money would be on Rich.
Befuddled 