Google Maps Exercise

View Our Beach Cleanup Day in a larger map

The Matrix Runs on Windows XP

The Scariest Words in the English Language

Warning the language is a bit rough... but it's still funny.

Interesting Take on the Health Care Debate

Twine... new ways to sort through information

One of the things I look to learn more about is the concept of social networking as it relates to the planning profession as well as to the concepts of community development and citizen participation as a whole. One of the things that I have notices is that social networking can be quite a daunting task even in the bests of circumstances. With all the resources out there to share information (Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook, Reddit, etc.) its easy to quickly give up and just turn off to the whole idea because of how quickly you can drown in the sheer amount of information put out there by those who want to network with you (not to mention the numerous social media gurus who try to creep onto your list of contacts).

Twine offers a simple way to share links and pertinent information about certain topics called "twines". Within those twines the people that you network with can place links along with commentary referencing the usefulness of the links. Twine allows you to control the types of information that you see and organizes it in such a way that makes it easy to sort through. Twine also encourages you to share your web browsing experience with other users and even offers the ability to upload your pre-categorized bookmarks to the site.

Although Twine still lets the occasional advertiser sneak through and still gives you far more information than you could feasibly handle, the ability to pass along user tags and categorization make it a valuable tool for social networking. It is particularly powerful for community development and citizen participation solely because of the volume of information featured about those topics. Check it out at http://www.twine.com.

Asheville Transit Needs Your Comments to Keep Weaverville and Black Mountain Routes

Dear Transit Patrons,

As you may have heard the future of Route #28 (Black Mountain) & 54 (Weaverville) is uncertain at this time. We do know that the routes will operate in their current configuration through the end of October 2009.

Currently there is a collaborative effort underway to retain these services. Asheville Transit (City of Asheville), Mountain Mobility (Buncombe County) Black Mountain, and the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) are working with NC Department of Transportation to maintain the state and federal funding necessary to continue to operate these routes.

At this time ridership on Route # 28 & 54 continues to grown rapidly, with ridership in 2009 for the Black Mountain route at 55,000 riders and Weaverville Route #54 with 27,000 riders in 2009.

If you feel so moved, please consider writing a brief statement detailing the benefits that these routes have for your and your transportation patterns, then sending it to iride@ashevillenc.gov.

Please feel free to forward this message on to others who may have concerns with this loss of service.

Sincerely,

Asheville Transit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Julie Atallah, Bruisin’ Ales, 828-252-8999
julie@bruisin-ales.com

June 5, 2009

“Beer City Bash” to be held at The Orange Peel on June 26

ASHEVILLE, NC—Bruisin’ Ales, The Orange Peel, and The Mountain XPress are sponsoring the “Beer City Bash” on Friday, June 26. The bash is a celebration of all things beer in Asheville. The event is a victory party for the local beer community, who rallied to win an Examiner.com poll by Charlie Papazian, founder of the Brewers Association, author, and one of the most recognized names in the world of beer and brewing.

The poll was an informal vote for “Beer City, USA” and included other notoriously large beer cities, such as Portland, OR; Denver, CO; and Philadelphia, PA. Asheville was the smallest city by population in the poll. In the end, Asheville tied with Portland, OR—a city five times the size claiming the co-title.

The Orange Peel in downtown Asheville is hosting the “Beer City Bash.” For the event, all draft lines at the venue will feature locally-brewed beer with all area breweries represented. Tickets are $10 per person (ages 21 and over), including two 9 oz. craft beers of your choice, a raffle ticket for giveaways, and live music. The music line-up features the bands Rat Jackson, Wilsin and Floating Action. The bash starts at 8:00 p.m. Doors at 7:30 p.m.

Proceeds from the event will go to the newly-formed Asheville Brewers Alliance and Arts2People, both non-profits that benefit the local community.

Tickets are available through www.ticketweb.com, 866-468-3399.

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Interesting Video on the Threat that Sprawl Poses on the Environment

Gopher 1, Josh 0

I finally got all the tomatoes planted last night.  For the most part I planted tomato in buckets (due to limited yard area and worries about possible soil contamination), but when I got home today, two out of the three tomatoes I planted in raised beds were missing.

I was able to quickly identify the culperet as it didn't stray far from the scene of the crime (it was busy destroying the neighbor's lawn at the time I discovered the damage).  The tell-tale gopher-esque teeth marks on the remaining stem of the tomato plant confirmed my suspcisions.

I did some quick research on humane and safe gopher repellents and deduced that perhaps I could try lining my garden beds with a mixture of Tobasco sauce and water.  It seemed like a good idea to put the mixture into a Super Soaker in order to expedite the process (in turns out that the force at which the Super Soaker discharges the mixture aerolizes the combination and produce a mace like substance).

My own personal discomfort aside, we'll see how the plan works.  So far the gopher has left the corn, squash, and beans in the other raised bed alone, but there is no telling if he is just waiting for it to ripen.  I'll try to remember to post an update about how the plan works out.

Ecofont

Ecofont is an environmentally-friendlier typeface intended to save toner by making the font more or less hollow.  As you can see from the graphic above, the font has holes to cut down on the overall footprint.  When the font is printed in it's actual size, it is intended to appear just like any other font.  Check it out at www.ecofont.eu.  An added bonus is that Ecofont can be downloaded for free.