Something Wonderful

I love Google Street View! I love being able to click through the narrow roads in Wales, look up places I've lived to see how much they've changed, or in some cases, look back in time to see destroyed places as they once were.

There is so much potential for this technology, especially when they incorporate the "Panoramio" features like they did last Fall at the ACL Festival. They used panoramic cameras to capture on video the experience from all angles. Click here to check these out. Click, drag, pan, look behind you, look down, look up, look at the band, look at the audience (where we managed to get our mugs in a couple of times - typical us...)

They are now sending the cameras to the Great Barrier Reef. Read more about it in the article here, and give some of the results a tryout here, (sample screengrab below).

There's a sidebar on the panoramas to show you where you are on the map. Is this cool, or what?

A refreshing and unusual campaign ad

That's Lee Leffingwell, our current Mayor, singing in the shower and running for re-election. The guy in bed is our previous Mayor, Will Wynn. Don't you wish all political ads were this much fun?

Leffingwell is pretty liberal (as are the previous Mayor and pretty much the rest of City Council, FWIW) and I like him. He has a challenger, Brigid Shea, who also seems like a good choice to me. I don't know that much about her yet, other than she is a strong environmental activist.

Still deciding...


Ferris Bueller's Day Off seems to be a favorite movie of several famous folks, including Dan Quayle, Justin Timberlake, and Wolf Blitzer.

Spring?

Well, there are actually roses all year, but this one was particularly pretty and perfect in the front yard, so I had to take a picture. There was a robin in the backyard last week, but in this area I don't know what the significance of that event. Birds are abundant but robins seem to be rare. The main sign of Spring's return seems to be the appearance of crane flies. A lot of people think they are "giant mosquitoes" or "mosquito eaters" or some such thing, but they are neither. They are only interested in some old dead wet leaves and mulch, and do not want to nibble on you or your pets in any way. When these guys show up, I think of Spring, and too soon they are gone and replaces with the mosquitoes of Summer. After the hellish Summer we had last year, I am not looking forward to this one.

Ad Choices - huh?

LowerMyBills.com thinks that you, a driver over the age of 55 who drives less than 40 miles a day, will relate somehow to this image of a poor, unfortunate, marooned and ill space alien.

Hmmmmm... come to think of it, I am in that insurable group, and can also feel sympathy for this little dude's dilemma. Hope his insurance rates didn't skyrocket after the crash.

Love Interruption

I *love* this new song from Jack White. Enjoy!

A toast for Prince Henry

Our Henry is featured over on She Who Seeks today! We miss him (and the other kitties) so much.

Booker 2016

Mayor Cory Booker Responds to Question about NJ Marriage Equality Referendum

I love the brain, the heart, and the pure old common sense, tell-it-like-it-is approach of this man.

Marriage equality is a simple civil rights issue. Civil rights shouldn't be left up to a popular vote. That's not how things are supposed to work in this country.

Red weed

Someone gave MrB this plant awhile back and it's beginning to grow nicely. We just don't know what it is.

Pink Stink

Boycotting Susan G. Komen for the Cure over this latest dickish political move of ending their partnership with Planned Parenthood? Yeah, same here. I've been boycotting them already for awhile over previous issues.

Pinkwashing
Corporations whose products are unhealthy can participate in a pink ribbon campaign (e.g. KFC and their pink "Buckets for the Cure") and get people to buy their products because of a portion going to Komen, and improve their ethical standing with the public. The charity and their corporate sponsors have a sweet mutual back-washing deal... mega-donations balanced by pinkwashing and increased sales. That is par for the course, but what is a bit more disturbing are the drug controversies that have sprung up. There are quite a few in-depth articles about this, worth checking into for your own benefit or curiosity if nothing else. A few links:

Healthier Talk: Breast Cancer Deception Month: Hiding the Truth Beneath a Sea of Pink - Part I -- Part II
Mother Jones: Is Susan G. Komen Denying the BPA-Breast Cancer Link?
In These Times: Seeing Red About Thinking Pink
Pinkwashing ridiculousness: Pink Fatigue (blog)

Huge non-profit CEO salaries irk me
Although it's very common, and SGK is certainly not unique here, it makes me sick to learn that the CEO of this charity - one that rakes in money from the grassroots where people may not have much to give but they care enough to do it anyway - is paid over $450,000 per year (again, not singling them out... fyi... according to Charity Navigator, the CEO of the American Red Cross pulls in nearly $1 million per year for a salary).

Petty legal action against other charities over colors and names
Susan G. Komen For the Cure has reportedly been spending about $1 Million for year cracking down on smaller charities that use the color pink and the word "cure" in their name - even if the offending charities are not fighting breast cancer. [reference][reference] This is the first thing I heard about SGK that caused me to remove them from my list of preferred charities. The practice of a charity fighting for its 'brand' is, again, not limited to this one - but a $million a year to crack down on hundreds of small charities?

You can pink it but you can't un-stink it.