Saturday, December 07, 2002

An Informed Electorate. From Jennifer Klyse, exactly the kind of project that would generate a tremendous amount of attention and awareness of how weblog technology can produce tangible benefits: What I've been working on when I haven't been at work.. I had an idea for a newsfeed. Since I've become completely hooked on my aggregator in Radio, I find myself frustrated with any news that I cannot have delivered to me once an hour at my desk. Information about the activities of my Congressional Representative and Senators was at the top of this list, so I went looking for that elusive little XML button on their sites, on a variety of congressional information sites, on Google...I couldn't find what I wanted. Now, in my brain, I have it mapped out. To be an informed citizen, part of an Informed Electorate, I need to know what the elected officials who represent me are doing. And this is how I'd like it to work. Please, if you read it...let me know what you think. [klyjen.blog] [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog] 12:13:40 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

A Disaster Governor Easley has declared a state of emergency in North Carolina. More than one million people are still without power--over 250,000 in Charlotte alone, and over 80,000 here in G'boro: "Duke Power is calling it the worst storm in its 100-year history, worse than a 1996 ice storm that eclipsed power for 660,000 people, worse than Hurricane Hugo that had 696,000 power outages 13 years ago at a cost of $69 million." We had Elijah's friend Drew and his parents sleep over last night--their neighborhood might be without electricity for days. Our power went out from 7 this morning til about 1O, but we are among the lucky. My office has juice, too, so I'm on a pretty normal schedule. The roads were OK as I drove downtown, but the damage to trees is enormous. Limbs and entire trunks are down everywhere. It's a landscape of icicles and splinters. To get up N. Eugene Street you have to drive under a tunnel of snapped power lines that are trapped in tree limbs and have been secured to plastic garbage cans across the road. Fortunately it is supposed to warm up quickly--fifty degree days being more common here in early December than winter storms. [EdCone.com] 12:12:16 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

A Landscape of Ice and Splinters ... Meanwhile, almost a quarter-million people in our part of North Carolina are still without electricity, and Duke Power is saying it might be Wednesday til they can get it back on for many folks. The Governor has activated the National Guard to get people into shelters. No blogging from Steve MacLaughlin since Thursday's excellent suggestion that we all just take the rest of the year off--he may be among the many in his part of the state still without power. Things are fine at our house, fortunately. Luna and I walked for an hour this morning. There are still many opportunities to bust your butt on black ice, but we did OK. Oh yeah--the forecast is for another storm next week. [EdCone.com] 12:11:04 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Technorati RSS Watchlists "Technorati now has RSS feeds that show you who is linking to your blog or web site.  Here's the RSS feed of the newest inbound links to this blog.  It's a great way to see the conversation that is inspired by your website.  I've gotten addicted to the Technorati Link Cosmos Watchlist I have for Sifry's Alerts - it lets me very quickly see people's reactions to posts here, and add comments on their blog." [Sifry's Alerts, thank Will Cox for the heads up] Whoo-hoo! Doing the happy dance... planning to sign up.... [The Shifted Librarian] 12:08:36 PM    trackback []     Articulate []