Rear View

Pikeville, Kentucky in my rear view mirror. Traveling here involves a 6 am flight with a connection through Cincinnati to Huntington, West Virginia, followed by a two hour drive on twisty roads over hilly terrain to Pikeville. Then, when the trip is over, it's back to Huntington to stay the night before catching a 7 am flight the next morning.

It's a rough trip to a less than desirable location. I've done it six times. Today I left Pikeville for the last time.

Technorati tags: travel, kentucky, pikeville

Along the Road

The Ghost of Harold Stassen Rides Again

Look folks! Ralph Nadar is back.

This man is pure hubris, plain and simple. He loves to hear himself speak. I heard an interview with him not too long ago, and he was almost incomprehensible. For a man who claims to be fighting for the little guy, he's as much detached from reality as the rest of them.

Nothing further to see here.

Nader announces new bid for White House - Yahoo! News

Technorati Tags: politics, nader, futility

Dancing with the Coal Trucks

On the road from Pikeville to Ashland, Kentucky, you're traveling through the heart of coal country. On a Friday afternoon, seems the rush is on to get the coal to the distribution yards. And so, with the fog thick with drizzle, it's a surrealistic pas de deux.

Heading Away From Huntington

Kenovo, West Virginia.

Oh, How I Wish My Office Were Like This

So go work there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Robert Scoble blogs on the tour he received of Microsoft's new research building. Basically, MS let their employees design their own workspace, and you can see the results in his post.

A couple of years ago, the software company I worked for opened up a new headquarters. In some ways, it's a modern design, with state of the art environment control and power and network capabilities. But it's nothing more than a cube farm with windows. Almost no thought was given to how people collaborate with each other. In fact, a couple of the meeting rooms have been allocated as team rooms, but they are not up to the task as such.

Sure, MS has deep pockets, and I work for a fairly small company. But they didn't get to be one of the Fortune Magazine Top 100 Best Companies to Work For for no good reason.

Microsoft’s cool new research building, a photostory « Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger

Technorati Tags: scoble, microsoft, work

This One Is Different

Alright, I'm on a geek riff again. But this news about a Jupiter-like planet around a sun-like star is really cool stuff. There have been dozens of extrasolar planets found, but they are considered to be in systems unlikely to have an earth-like planet. That's because the planets were huge gas planets very quickly circling stars much larger than our sun at relatively small distances from those stars. This recent discovery is different because this new planet travels at a distance more like Jupiter, leaving space in the system for smaller, rocky planets to exist closer to that star, just like earth. What does it all mean? Phil Plait discusses at length in his blog, linked below.

Bad Astronomy Blog » Jupiter’s twin found… 60 light years away!

Technorati Tags: cool stuff, astronomy, bablog, science

Needly

Hoarfrost on a cold morning in Willmar, Minnesota.

DND365 Day 1

Drew Domkus, of the popular (and my favorite) podcast "The Dawn and Drew Show" invited me to join his flickr group intended to show one self portrait a day for the next year. I decided to take the challenge and here we see Day 1, or "It's Two Below Zero and I'm Sitting on a Four Foot Snowbank Taking a Picture of Myself".

If you wish to follow along, you can view my special 365 set here. To see the DND365 photo group, go here. Let's see how it goes.

Technorati tags: dnd365, dawnanddrew, self portrait, wisconsin

Getting Out On A Sheet

The ice is at least six inches thick, probably more. Locals drive their trucks onto the ice just to place their shacks. Yet I can't shake the image of my lifeless corpse being dredged from the bottom come spring time, so for that silly reason I step lightly across the ice.

Just about anything will pass for an ice shack, as long as it blocks the wind and you can cut a hole in the ice through the floor. Every once in a while I give some thought to taking up the hobby, but until the day comes when I can pick up a wi-fi signal on the ice, I'll just take pictures of shacks.

Lake Willmar, Willmar, Minnesota.
Technorati tags: minnesota, willmar, ice, fishing

Inside From Outside

George Rogers Clark Memorial, Vincennes, Indiana.