maps.google.com's view of Seahawks stadium

Google recently updated the satellite images on maps.google.com.

Just for fun, I took a look at Seahawks stadium on maps.google.com. Guess what? The satellite image is from a day where the Seahawks were playing. I wonder if it's just coincidence that of the two professional outdoor stadiums (football and baseball), the imagery shows the successful team playing…

Too bad they couldn't have used a picture showing the Seahawks about to score. In this particular picture, the away team (in light colors) is playing from their own 5 yard line.

Hmm, I also just noticed that the logo at the center of the field is the Washington State University Cougars… So this might not even be the Seahawks playing. Oh well.

Santarchy 2005, Dec 10th

You too can join in the Santarchy fun…

Santarchy 2005

http://www.gmpseattle.com/

One unsuspecting city
Hundreds of Santas
Hours of fun

Never heard of Santarchy? You're in for a treat.

Saturday, December 10th, starting at 12 noon, hundreds of men and women dressed as Santa Claus will begin their annual day-long march through the city of Seattle. And all over the world Santas will be coming together this month to march on their own cities — from McMurdo, Antarctica to Auckland, New Zealand; Barcelona, Spain to Tokyo, Japan; Helsinki, Finland to Seattle, Washington. Think of it like swallows flying back to Capistrano, or the Monarch butterflies making their migration to Central America. Okay, maybe it's a little more like lemmings throwing themselves off cliffs — but it's still a LOT of fun!

But Why and How, you ask?

Read More …

Scott Adams on airline risks

Scott Adams, author of the Dilbert cartoon strip, had this funny post in his blog:

How Certain is Certain?

I’d better reduce the font for this entry because it’s about the guy sitting next to me on the flight to Chicago.

Before takeoff, we both sat here tapping away on our Blackberries, sending last-minute messages. But where I interpreted the flight attendant’s instruction to turn off all electronics as just that, the high powered executive next to me had a different view. He interpreted it to mean hide your Blackberry when the Flight Attendant is looking. Otherwise, keep working all the way through takeoff.

On one hand, I’m almost totally certain that a Blackberry can’t bring down an airline. If it could, even in the most unlikely scenario, it surely would have happened a dozen times already. If you consider all of the flights in the world and all of the cell phones and Blackberries and laptops and PDAs that have traveled on them, it seems impossible that they could be a threat.

But still. There he was, tapping away, and maybe, just maybe killing me. I thought about doing something, like informing the flight attendant. But I need to rely on this passenger to move for me at some time during this flight so I can use the rest room. It could be a tense, uncomfortable flight if I get him angry. I had to weigh a 20% chance of not getting a timely wiz versus a .00000001% chance of a fireball-related death.

So I just sat there staring at the rule-breaker thumbing his little death machine while the pilot gunned the engines and headed skyward. Could this be the one time when a Blackberry causes a jet to plunge into the Rockies? How certain was I that this was safe? Can you ever be sure enough in these situations?

My only solace is that if this puppy goes down, the headlines will read “Plane Crashes. Dilbert Cartoonist is turned into Charcoal.” That’s called Top Billing, baby. Take that, rule breaker! I hope he’s not the new Chairman of the Fed or something. That would really suck.