Spud Hilton takes us on a journey with the Hippie Bus:
It’s 5 a.m. and my left leg is wedged irretrievably between a couple of Brits, who are spooning in somnolent bliss as our strangely loaded bus trundles through the Sierra foothills.
Everywhere are bodies on mattresses — a tangle of blurry-eyed Brits, shaggy-headed Germans, curled-up Kiwis — languorously sprawled as if acting out a page of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog, only with more clothes.
If such a scenario sounds far-fetched, it shouldn’t. With the presidential election less than three months away, such tactics are gaining momentum, as organizations attempting to influence the election are betting the necessary votes are hidden within consumer databases.
Activist groups including MoveOn.org, along with the major political parties, are spending unprecedented amounts of money to find out where you shop before trying to sell you on their candidate
Dan Neil’s review of the new Toureg SUV Diesel version provides some useful background on Rudolph Diesel’s invention, along with a discussion of biodiesel fuel.
Johnny Winston, Jr. sent a note today about a wonderful event that the 100 Black Men of Madison are holding:
The 100 Black Men of Madison’s 8th Annual Back To School Picnic will be held on Saturday August 28th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Demetral Park on Commercial and Packers Ave. This event will be held rain or shine.This year?s picnic will feature the distribution of over 1,600 backpacks filled with school supplies to help needy elementary and middle school students get off to a great start.
Children must be in attendance to receive a backpack and they are distributed in a ?first come, first served? basis. In addition, hamburgers, hot dogs and other treats will be served. The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile and the Madison Fire Trucks will also be there.
For the first time, The 100 will work in conjunction with the Madison
Department of Public Health to provide toothbrushes and well child clinic
information.
The 100 Black Men of Madison, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) not for profit service
organization. The Back to School Picnic is sponsored by include Oscar
Mayer, Kraft, Target, Office Depot, Famous Footwear, Anchor Bank and
Jansport.
For more information please contact Wayne Canty 608-285-6753, Darrell
Bazzell 608-263-2509 or Micheal Boulden 608-285-6036.
Robert Sawyer takes a look at our lives in 2014:
Your cubicle will have a smart wall of its own, giving every worker the appearance of having a window; yours might show real-time footage of Lake Louise, assuming that global warming hasn?t melted the adjacent glaciers and flooded everything. And no matter which office chair you sit on, it will adjust automatically to your body?s proportions.
Of course, we?ll all live in an enhanced reality. Today?s bulky virtual-reality goggles will have been replaced by contact lenses that overlay textual information on your vision; the lens will be in constant communication with the computing powerhouse in your wristband. You?ll never be in the embarrassing situation of not remembering the name of an acquaintance you happen to run into; facial-recognition technology will identify the person, and provide you with all pertinent details instantaneously.
There’s been a fascinating discussion online regarding John Kerry’s Vietnam war record statements vis a vis the media’s attention to President Bush’s Vietnam era National Guard service (Note: I’m no fan of either one). The story illustrates, however, the terrible condition of many major media organizations.
I always thought the purpose of news organizations was to inform (perhaps that’s an idealistic approach) the thinking public. Thank God for the internet, and our ability to route around these outages (the first blogger, Dave Winer, started largely because the tech press infrequently got things right).
“The bias is pervasive. As the Media Research Center, a media watchdog, pointed out, ABC, CBS and NBC did 75 stories on charges Bush was “AWOL” from the National Guard. They did nine on claims Kerry fibbed about his war record. Biased might be too kind a description.”
Ed Cone pens a timely column on our deteriorating level of political discourse.
Another useful perspective: Jason Zengerle on the state of the George W. Bush joke.
UPDATE: This link has been passed around a bit. It’s interesting to see who is having a look.
Katie Fehrenbacher on Japan’s interesting cell phone accessible food safety database:
hey?ve already got a functioning beef tracking and data system?by which the consumer can locate their steak?s species, sex, stats, place-of-birth, farmer in charge, and location of the farm, all from a ID number on the?beef packaging?via any Internet connection.?Now the fish business is the?next food item to get the treatment and DoCoMo Sentsu (subsidiary of NTTDoCoMo) partnered with the Marine Fishery Systems Association to create a 2D barcode tracking system for all fish
Wisconsin Public Radio’s Home page tells the story:
NOTICE: Due to rights issues, the Ideas Network internet streaming service cannot carry the BBC and CBC programming from 11:30pm to 6am weekdays and 12am to 6am on weekends until the conclusion of the Olympics on September 1st. Our live streaming for the Ideas Network will be off the air during these periods.
This absurdity, due to NBC’s broadcast rights deal with the IOC (International Olympic Committee), is yet another example of how the media has had its way with our politicians.
Backpacking around Europe in 1985 (!), I spent some time in the region featured in the Sunday Times Travel Section: Bavaria’s Chiemsee. I remember the beauty, serenity and history. The Prien hostel I stayed in was pleasant enough. One of the highlights is Herrenchiemsee, one of “mad” King Ludwig’s enourmous castles. Eric Pfanner takes us there.
New Mexico’s Bernalillo County once again sets a great example for Dane County: Free WiFi (Wireless internet access) throughouth the 10-story courthouse. The WiFi network is intended to reduce juror frustration with waiting to be called for cases and to provide fast internet access for lawyers and judges as well. VOIP (Voice over internet protocol, or internet phone calls will also be supported on this wireless network).
North Carolina plans to install WiFi in all 100 of its courthouses. New York has similar plans.
Albuquerque provides free airport WiFi – while Dane county plans to eventually offer fee based WiFi access at MSN. This is a great example of our political leaders failing to embrace important new technologies that benefit everyone. Wisconsin needs pervasive true highspeed internet access. I’ve written extensively on this problem here and here.
