tfl: The Flatiron Life

I am a total Google Maps nerd. I get emails everyday from Google Sightseeing. It is awesome and I see all kinds of cool places from the sky. Tooling around it this morning I noticed that ALL of Indiana is not available in high resolution. Vermillion County has been since the beginning of Google Maps Satellite, but now the whole thing is. Very cool!

The have also added some high res images on other continents, so there is going to be a lot more to see without leaving home.

In USA Today today, Sec. Rumsfeld talks about how the detainees are treated at Guantanamo. He is clear and direct about what is done. I would like to think that this would clear up any problems that people might have with the camp, but I know better. I have read all of this information before. It is likely that if you think that we are treating the detainees too harshly as a matter of policy, you are not going to believe anything the Secretary says.

You don;t know what I am talking about with Katie and Tom. This is a good summary.

We have all thought about it since Tom was on Oprah, now there is a website dedicated to setting Katie Holmes free of that one good man. He had her at hello, but can the both handle the truth?

A few months ago I was looking at the headlines on gNews and noticed a story about Togo’s President, Eyadema Gnassingbe, dying and his son, Faure Gnassingbe, being installed as successor by the military. That seemed like the kind of story you would hear about once and never hear a follow up. So I created an email alert and receive a couple stories every day about the situation.

The situation has not improved much. The international community, lead by the countries in Western Africa, have been pressuring Togo to take the opportunity to reform. Faure was forced to step down as President. Elections were held where the opposition parties felt they were not being fairly treated, due to the way voter cards were handed out and because independent radio stations were taken off the air. Faure was elected in the election, but the opposition coalition said that there was wide spread fraud. Now there has been violence and an exodus of opposition supporters to Togo’s neighbors.

Most of you are probably wondering “Where the heck is Togo?” I do not blame you. Togo is one of the forgotten countries of the world. It is not significant to the world as a whole and moves below our notice. First it is a very little country in West Africa. Today my news alert had this great little history of the country. Also, check out the CIA World Fact Book entry on Togo.

I do not have a solution. It is hard to know what exactly is going on and which side is truly the good side. It is important to know what is going on in the world and take the step to see the world that the media does not present to you. For now my only suggestion is to pray for the Togolese.

There are now comments on the website. So you can easily tell me what you think about a post. Also, on the right I have added links to the new RSS feed! If you have a feed reader of some sort subscribe away!

This story linked to on /. is very interesting. It is about something that I am excited to do with my own son. (Once he is born and all that stuff years from now). Imagine seeing the Star Wars Sextet in order! Blogger Ghent’s son just did! The /.ers have some pretty good comments too.

Thanks to google I have added a couple new features on the site. As you can see above I now have ads! SO click on through and visit me sponsors. Also to the right you can search the internet or TFL straight from the home page.

I have been refraining from posting because I lost! Tom and I were not clicking in our game on Tuesday. We lost and lost bad. 10-5. We did not get any points when I was drawing.

However, I would suggest Pictionary to any one looking for a fun team building event. It is a lot more fun then I expected it to be. And I think it plays well into the minds of technical people and builds on the skills that they might lack (like communication).

Winner again!

Tom and I wowwed the crowd by earning three points in a single round. We won 10-5 in a game that was not even as close as that score suggests. The team we were playing against pictioned well, but just were not drawing on all cylinders.

We could have one a round earlier, but I messed up drawing twice. First, the term was “checkpoint.” Check was easy with a box and a checkmark in it. For point I draw a dot. Tom was not getting point so I drew numbers on either side. He guessed it then, but that is a violation of the rules (no numbers or letters). The next term I tried was “Break A Leg” however I read it as “Broken Leg.” Small differs, but after Tom guessed “Broken Leg” the other team pointed out that was not right and we talked about it for a second or to so I could not draw anything else. I used the very little time to do “Brushfire,” but time expired. No points that round.

I seem to be much better at guessing. I have always wanted to be able to draw, I just cannot.

The next round should be early next week, maybe Monday.