Rob Curley the “Internet nerd from Kansas who is in love with local news and the evolution of traditional media” wrote about their new weather page at his new Las Vegas Sun job.

As a banner they have animated flash graphic of the Las Vegas skyline with each section of it being part of the five day forecast.

I think it is great. It communicates the weather graphically and personalizes it to the city. That differentiates it from other weather services.
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I hadn’t concluded my account of our trip to Missouri. The drive back was long and slow. That’s it.

Well, we did also stop in St. Louis to see the arch.

• Summary of packed workshop in Missouri 11 Aug 2008
• Getting to Columbia for workshop: morning arrival 8 Aug 2008
• Off to Mizzou for Leadership Training Workshop 4 Aug 2008

Here are some photos.

This is a regular one of the arch peaking up out of the trees on the archgrounds.

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Single & Sexy — Waterloo’s play that educates frosh about the perils of campus life — is in its twentieth season (meaning it started 19 years ago).

S&S is an interesting piece of undergrad culture at Waterloo because it is one of few things that almost everyone experiences.

They were watching Single and Sexy, a university orientation play that addresses some of the situations that plague first-year students who are often living on their own for the first time.

This year’s premiere of the 75-minute play — it was first staged in 1989 — was Thursday afternoon. Nine shows are planned next week for the 6,000 new students on campus. It makes them aware of issues and they learn where they can find counselling.

[...]

The production is a melange of education and entertainment, harsh language and tough situations — which helps get the message across.

“Its strength is in making students understand how crucial these issues are without lecturing them,” Spencer said.
– Play’s message is sexy, powerful 30 Aug 2008

We are the champions. We won our division title with a game to spare.

Wednesday evening under the lights at Lions field, we played Tech. I had to leave early to jet off. I was prepared to stay if the match remained close though.

They knew they were a weaker team despite being only 5 hundredths of a point behind us in skill rating, so they had a plan. They played a disciplined game.
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I have some friends who got a hilarious e-mail at work that also illustrates the tragedy of the commons, workplace etiquette, and what can happen when hundreds of people leave old food in two refrigerators.

I think about times when I have had a few roommates and inevitably something is forgotten and goes a bit bad, but usually it is only a few weeks off, not, as shown in this case, more than a year.

The real message though is:
There are no refrigerator fairies.

Here is the opening of the message:
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Renowned arts and sports writer Colin Hunter wrote a humourous album review.

The review is good, but it says that the album is bad, which might make it a bad review.

I was always taught that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
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Um.
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Mike Goetz has a lovely singing voice.

There, I said something nice.

So even though Goetz’s music really isn’t my cup of tea, his manager/publicist insisted — almost daily — that I review his new album, Escape, in the paper. So despite my personal distaste for Escape, here goes. I’ll continue saying only nice things:
— One good thing about this album: elevators will always need music 28 Aug 2008

Then he goes on saying good things, which are like backhanded compliments.

The part I like the best is that at the end of it is asks for more CDs to review. Like if you want your album to be reviewed like this, send it to us.

The plant that I grew from a shoot on a piece of ginger root is now about 40 centimetres tall.

Just a month ago it was still a spout, probably about 5 centimetres, but no it is tall. It almost looks like crab grass.

I just wonder how big the root under the soil is.

I’ll have to unearth it an see pretty soon.

• Ginger root grows higher 23 Jul 2008
• Growing ginger root 6 Jul 2008

Two years ago this November on a trip to Washington D.C. I was talking to my friend’s roommate about politics. The democrats had just just gained control of the house of representatives and the senate in the U.S. general elections.

The guy pointed to the senator being interviewed on television and said that he thought one day that man, Joe Biden, would be president. It seemed unlikely when he dropped out of the primary race after finishing fifth in Iowa earlier this year, but at least now it is an indirect possibility. (more…)

Tim writes about what he considered the most important message delivered at an open source conference. That is advocating for open source by using the term “secret software” for proprietary software.

It seems like a George Lakoff-style tactic of using choice of words and metaphor to frame an issue.

It’s simple: when data is gathered and used for the people as part of civic processes (voting is a good example), processing it using secret software, especially if it’s a private-sector secret, should be totally out of bounds.

This is very closely aligned to the struggle for the use of open-source software where appropriate, but “Open Source” is a term of art and is associated with ill-groomed inarticulate geeks who have odd opinions about lots of things. “Secret software” is a term that anyone can understand instantly [...]
– No Secret Software! ongoing 27 Jul 2008

Yikes, this story shows what can happen with addiction.

A dude who was on probation and under house arrest got drunk, high, and a hooker, and crashed his pickup truck.

And as he crashed into a Kitchener car lot — driving naked while speeding, drunk, high on crack cocaine and next to a naked prostitute — he was not being of good behaviour.

“This is one of the most flamboyant, flaming relapses I’ve ever seen,” defence lawyer Brennan Smart said. “It’s almost the stuff of comedy writers.”
— Flaming relapse — convicted drunk driver’s naked joyride with hooker 20 Aug 2008

He was one month away from finishing his house arrest. The judge gave him the minimum four month of the sentence for his previous convictions.