Geoff signed up for a free account today. I hope it wasn't pure peer group pressure that tipped him over the edge. Now we can be true geeks and communicate with each other via blog. Being verbal is so 1990's. Welcome, redozdachs!
Google has posted post-Katrina satellite maps of New Orleans at Google maps. The free service lets you toggle between maps, pre-storm satellite, and post-storm satellite views. It's captivating real information. I felt hopeful looking at the pictures of the French Quarter that maybe the news media was focusing on the few bad spots as they did during the 1989 Marina fires. There's no water on the streets in the Quarter. But, then I looked at east... There's more on Google's subscription Key Hole service. Geoff is researching at Key Hole and is amazed at the amount of information about specific places and [...]
As of 6:15 this morning. As billeyler posted earlier, the Amazon.com system makes it very quick, especially if you've used Amazon.com before. I think it took me four clicks (go to page, click on donate, select credit card on file, confirm) and a few key strokes (to type in the donation amount). Click to give
Dear Friend, The wrath of Hurricane Katrina has destroyed lives and livelihoods along America's Gulf Coast. This loss is shared by all of us, and today we all grieve as one American family. Even as we grieve, we must take quick action to stem the crisis and help those in desperate need. I am pleased Speaker Hastert agreed to my request for a special session of Congress to get to work immediately and bring relief to the victims of this horrific disaster. This is a clear and unmistakable bipartisan signal to the people of the Gulf Coast region that we [...]
How easy is it to donate for hurricane relief? Darn easy. And convenient. First there's the Red Cross' site . It gets bogged down (and, that's a good thing, Martha), but it works. Amazon.com has it's own Red Cross donation page. It's fast, after-all, Amazon is used to collecting money, eh? You can also enjoy watching the total amount increase every time you refresh your browser. Daddy's Bar/440 Castro will be doing a benefit Sunday from 4 -8 pm. Geoff and I will be there. Craig's List is pitching in with a Katrina resource page. Craig's List also has pages for [...]
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Our tragic failure to act effectively, quickly, and appropriately in the aftermath of Katrina’s devastation of the South is both a symbolic and physical horror. I want troops protecting lives on the ground now yesterday. I want food, medicine, water delivered now yesterday. I want the military to [...]
Daddy's/440 Castro, our neighborhood bar, decided last night to hold an emergency fund raiser for victims of the Katrina this Sunday afternoon. The proceeds will go to the Red Cross. I'll post the time and details when I learn them. Or, join Daddy's newsletter list and get the info first hand. You can also give money directly to the American Red Cross. Be patient with their site: it's swamped this morning.
Fox News justed report a levy break in New Orleans as a voiceover while showing their reporter "Steve" acting as a human wind target in an semi-open field. Sheets of water, blowing trees, and missiles of debris are visible. Something small beaned Steve and while Steve tried to compose himself to babble further, the anchorman avoided dead air with a comparison with the dangers of Afghanistan. Huh? The sound of the storm would have been more intelligent. What verbal media drivel. What pictures of real life. What fool-hearted reporting! Steve declared he was leaving the blowing field when three feet [...]
Do you have an automatic preference for light-skinned people vs. dark-skinned people? For gay images vs. heterosexual images? Vice versa? Researchers at Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington have developed a series of free on-line tests that purport to measure our automatic preferences on a variety of topics. Each test takes from 10-15 minutes. One of the other members on my church's Search Committee for a new minister sent the link to me with the idea that the committee members could discover prejudices of which we were unaware. The site has the look and feel of a serious [...]
Buried in the news this week is the story that playwright August Wilson is dying of liver cancer. We just saw his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Wilson's final work in his 10-play cycle about blacks in the 20th Century is just now running in Los Angeles. Wilson is only 60 years old.