Connected Well

As the weather warms, I’ve been eying my bicycle hanging in the garage for too-many months. Google Maps is now making it easier to find a quick way from where you are to where you’d like to go following bike-friendly roads and paths.

For example, check out these biking directions from Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, Utah to Sugar House Park. Unfortunately, Utah has few bike-friendly roads (ranking 18th/50 in the USA according to the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly Community campaign) so you may want to check out other bike-friendly cities in the US and around the world:

• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Portland, Oregon, USA
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Boulder, Colorado, USA
• Davis, California, USA
• Sandnes, Norway
• Trondheim, Norway
• San Francisco, California, USA
• Berlin, Germany
• Barcelona, Spain
• Basel, Switzerland

And, here’s Google’s own video introducing the service:

Does anybody know if these bike maps show up on mobile google maps’ installs? The Google Maps for Mobile website doesn’t reflect this yet, but this makes a lot of sense, and I am sure it will be there soon enough.

Oh, and you can Tweet to win a new bike using the hashtag #bikewithgoogle (rules/regs)

Rahhb Apps, Tools, human, life, mobile biking, community, commuter, google, google_maps

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

“Citizenship in a Republic,”
Theodore Roosevelt’s Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

[I wrote this once before and found it once again. Now you have found it, and should share it, if you think it worthy to do so]

Rahhb human, life, quotes and thoughts citizenship, quote, republic, Roosevelt, thought

The BBC has a good article about Google’s free/paid news announcement called first-click-free which enables news outlets to let Google index and show their news, but then limit the number of “free” articles you can read to five per day:

We’ve updated the program so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing.

Check out Google to Limit Free News Access over at the BBC with an informative video that I can’t easily embed and a follow-on article called “Did Google Just Blink” by the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones:

Rupert Murdoch has made clear his desire to see other papers in his worldwide stable follow the Wall Street Journal’s lead in asking readers to pay for at least some of their online journalism. And he’s also expressed, in forceful terms, his view that Google – and the BBC for that matter – are an obstacle to those plans because they provide a route to so much free news.

In my opinion, Murdoch and other news outlets have only two cards to play: Either make their news so interesting, so exclusive, so relevant and niched, personalized and so amazing that people will keel over and die if they can’t read it, or realize that, if you want to appeal to the masses, the masses don’t want to pay dollars for it… at least not in the traditional sense.

There’s a new economy for news. No longer are todays papers tomorrow’s kitty-litter liner or fish-n-chips wrapper. News comes and goes in megabytes per second, and in 140 character snippets.

The good news is read, shared, commented, revised and rebuffed by its own readers and created into something new and interesting every single millisecond.

The uninteresting news simply never. gets. read.

This is not Google bowing to the publisher. This is Google playing its cards to ensure it has top content in its engine, and when the day comes that the big mass media players finally give in to reality that “pay for access” won’t cut it anymore, Google will already be so far out ahead nobody will be able to catch up.

Geek News Central and others agree with me.

Good luck mass media. See you in the funnies.

Rahhb life, next bbc, google, massmedia, media, murdoch, newmedia, news, newscorp, newspapers, twitter

I first recognized this song because they sampled numa numa, the song made popular by this guy (I dare you to watch without smiling). This is a song about making your life better and escaping from the things that hold you back no matter what the pain you have to go through might be.

Live your life…

It’s worth noting the artistry of the video, showing himself as a young hustler trying to make a name for himself, then having to go through the pain of getting out later, as he (himself) walks in to make a deal with the gang boss, showing the cycle repeating itself. Nice work.

And, just because… here’s Numa Numa guy:

api life, video live your life, numa numa, TI

The below is a moving video I watched earlier this week of a man, Victor Guzman, who was on the 85th floor when the first plane hit the first tower of the World Trade Center. I won’t post more about September 11th today. Two years ago, I posted “9-11: Where Were You?” which I think is enough. Other than this post, I will remain silent today in honor of those who lost their lives.

His life changed a lot after 9-11. Watch the video to see him tell his story of escaping the tower, only to turn around and watch the building collapse.

“Since 9-11, my life has never been the same. It’s actually better.”

He describes his journey from tragedy and trauma to hope, healing, and renewal through Jesus Christ. I realize with soberness everyone’s journey since 9-11 has not been the same, but I believe in the healing power he has experienced, and I appreciate the chance to share.

Please feel free comment, forward, tweet or share on facebook, etc., if this post moves you.

I will never forget those who died that day and since that day in the name of Freedom.

api America, human, life, people, video 9-11, faith, hope, life, tragedy, video

Google’s customizable homepage just got social-er.  I already use this as a personal dashboard of what’s going on in my world.  This will add even more cool stuff:

See the Google IG Social video on YouTube

api Apps, Social Networking, Tools, life google, interconnected, new, social, Social Networking

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life -

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

~ William Stafford

src

api life life, memory, poetry, William Stafford

Twittering takes too long. 140 chars? Plz.

[Hat tip to Richard Bliss for pointing this out]

api Social Networking, humor, life flutter, funny, humor, mock, mocumentory, twitter, video

This morning was evidence that Bill Cosby was Right:

Parents are not interested in justice, they want quiet!

api humor, life bill_cosby, family, happiness, justice, kids, life, living, parenting, quiet

Lance Halladay is a good digital artist.

I got tuned into Lance’s work because of a great video he did for Entice Labs, a company that looks like it will literally turn the recruiting and sourcing industries on their respective ears.

Here’s a funny video he did that goes along with a funny skit from Jim Gaffigan about how long church is (specifically, catholic mass).  Awesome stuff.

Jim Gaffigan Text Animation from Lance Halladay on Vimeo.

He’s also a comedian himself.

Need a digital artist or comedian? Connect with Lance.

api humor, life, video entice_labs, funny, humor, jim_gaffigan, lance_halladay, life, recruiting, video