Carrie Bartkowiak v. 5.0

Being a geek at heart, I occasionally run across stuff that is pretty cool, and I like to share it in a non-geekspeak way with other people. Here are four cool things I found (or was reminded of) tonight:

• Map My Run - This site uses Google Maps to pull up a map of any location you want.  Then you can click on the map to build a route that you’d like to run/walk/bike and it will measure it out for you. No more wondering if the pedometer got every single step!  I found out that walking around my neighborhood in a figure-eight pattern would net me 7/10ths of a mile. Neat, eh?
  If you keep track of your starting and ending times, and put in your weight and height, it will also tell you how many calories you burned. No registration required!  If you *do* register though (free) and use the beta version of the site, you can keep track of your total mileage and (I think) post it on your blog.
• Want to go for a walk, or exercise on your treadmill or elliptical, and share it with others? (C’mon, “sharing” is an essential part of blogging; sometimes too much so!)  Nancy over at The Ultimate Creator is hosting a virtual walk from Yorktown, Virginia to Florence, Oregon.  Each week she tabulates the miles walked from the participating group members and lets them know where they are on the map. This would be a great little exercise (no pun intended) for homeschooling mamas - take the kids with you, then at the end of the week go online and check out the “spot” that the group made it to!  Check pictures, Wikipedia, the town’s website, plot the route on a map at home… all kinds of fun stuff you could do with this. I’ve joined up just because it’s finally gotten pretty out and I want to get back into shape. No, no weight loss goals here, and forget dieting - I don’t do it (I don’t put any stock in a number on a scale, being that muscle weighs more than fat so a 150lb couch potato will look completely different than a 150lb jogger of the same age and height).  I just feel guilty that I don’t get out and walk or work out in any way.  So come walk with me!
• Paperback Swap - okay, so this site isn’t new and I actually registered for it a loooooong time ago (and forgot that I did); but I figured I’d introduce it to anyone who hadn’t found it yet.  Make a list of your books that you no longer want to keep, and offer them up online.  Someone looking for one of those books will contact you; you send the book to them and get credits through the site. You can then use those credits to request books from other members and have them sent to you.  It’s great if your book collection has gotten too large, or if there are things you’d really like to read but can’t afford them or don’t have a library close by that has those titles (something I’ve been running into a lot lately!).
• Pando Channels - the popular file-sharing program Pando has added a new feature called Channels.  It’s basically a video podcasting feature, and it’s free.  You can currently subscribe to channels such as National Geographic, NBC Nightly News, CNN’s “In Case You Missed It” news wrap-up, and a bunch of other offerings from media outlets from Mtv and E! to what looks like average people looking for a bit of fame.  Subscribe to a channel and Pando will automatically check for new videos, download them when they’re available, and you watch them at your leisure.  I recommend the Nat’l Geographic ones, and of course the news videos are a nice way to catch-up if you’re looking for a bit of current events depression.

What do you think? I wanna know! Please leave a comment :)
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Even though the Bears didn’t win the Bowl, I gotta put this picture up for my Dad.   It’s a fantastic shot from a Flickr photographer - and in the link below you’ll find an article from the Chicago Tribune on how they do it. No, there’s no automagic computer trickery involved (except for designing the layout) - all the lights are turned on/off by hand.

Source: How do they do that? | Chicago Tribune

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 On television, you only get two parties. Big government, and bigger government.
All hail the internet, where you can actually hear differing opinions from the OTHER parties. (Yes, Virginia, there ARE other parties!)

Here are responses to the SOTU address by some Libertarian candidates:

The LP Response To The State Of The Union Address
William Redpath gives the official Libertarian Party response.

Steve Kubby’s response
Too bad he’s been diagnosed with cancer and his main aim seems to really be legalizing marijuana. I do realize he’s lived with cancer for over 30 years now, but I really don’t relish the thought of finally getting a free thinker into the White House only to have the stress and a fatal disease kill him off a year later.

Dr. George Phillies gives his own SOTU overview, rather than a response.
Check out his position on the No Child Left Behind Act:

Education: The No Child Left Behind Act bears no semblance to a legitimate activity of the Federal government. I will work for its repeal. In its place, I will ask Congress to phase in a tax credit, $5000 to each child, available to anyone or any company who contributes to the child’s education. That’s enrichment like computers, books in the house, and a daily newspaper subscription. That’s tuition for private schoolers. That’s teaching materials for home schoolers.

I also love his “veto-high-speed-laser-printer” line. A candidate with a sense of humor? Perish the thought!

I’ve read plenty of comments from self-labelled Libertarians around the web that think Phillies’ article is too “inflammatory”. Oh gee darn. It’s called opinionated honesty, get used to it - and quit calling yourself Libertarian until you’re ready to throw off the yoke of political correctness.

There were some other responses by so-called Libertarian candidates, but if your campaign “headquarters” online is a MySpace profile, a Blogspot blog, or a Geocities webpage, forget it. Get serious and maybe people will treat you seriously. How can you expect us to trust you to manage the federal budget when you can’t even budget enough for a $10 hosting account for a real website? Not to mention the hypocrisy of being Libertarian and forcing other people (or companies) to foot the bill for your “campaign”.

As you can see I’m on a news-browsing, current-issue-digging bent today. Enjoy.

What do you think? I wanna know! Please leave a comment :)
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