URL for BaySense will be changing soon
If you currently have BaySense on your blogroll and want to continue, please change the link to the new, short URL: www.baysense.com.
In a few days, links to the original, longer URLs will probably not work.
Joyous Iraqi voters, purple fingers aloft, send message to Zarqawi, insurgents & Arab dictators everywhere
[Off topic]
It's amazing watching early reports on cable TV of middle-aged Iraqi ladies dressed head to toe in black. Their faces are impassive, hard to read. Then the camera pans down. The only skin you see, poking out of the black fabric, is a purple index finger.
Wow. I found the sight of these Iraqi women -- and the photos below -- to be deeply touching.
After today, I suspect the purple finger is going to be a huge symbol of Arab democracy. [Click previous link for photos of purple-fingered Iraqi voters.] It's interesting that the women's joy is often guarded while the men are more likely to smile publicly.
PHOTO UPDATES: More pictures of energized men and women with purple fingers -- from the BBC, Fox News (photo of Allawi), Cigars in the Sand, and Rose in Baghdad (a purple "v" sign).
[Note: I changed the title of this post after hearing from one reader. The original title seemed to detract from the message that I had intended.]
For on-the-scene Iraqi blogger reports about the elections, start at ...
[Off-topic]
... Jeff Jarvis's BuzzMachine. He already has some extensive round-up posts here and here that point you to dozens of Iraqi blogs.
To our Iraqi friends: We're pulling for you. Vote. Be safe. You can do it. And you will.
[off topic]
There are times, like this week, when
environmental issues don't seem very important. I hope everyone -- red,
blue, whatever -- joins me in wishing the best for the people of Iraq
as they prepare for their big vote and the rough days that are sure to
follow.
If you've never read any Iraqi blogs, this might be a
good time to take a look. Below I've listed a few well-known ones that
I read occasionally. The picture you get from them isn't conveyed well
by the mainstream media in America.
Iraq the Model by Omar and Mohammed, two Iraqi dentist brothers
Free Iraqi by Ali, who used to write for Iraq the Model
Healing Iraq by Zeyad (who got started blogging with help from Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine)
Baghdad Burning, written anonymously by "Riverbend"
Here's an American site with a longer list of Iraqi blogs.
Regional environmental blogs: the wave of the future?
BaySense has a new section on the left sidebar. Under the heading "Other Regions", you'll find links to environmentally-related blogs that focus on specific geographic regions other than the Chesapeake Bay area.
I found a few of these sites through Planetizen's Abhijeet Chavan. Check 'em out.
And don't forget Sphere, New Yorker Tom Anderson's new blog about Long Island Sound and the Hudson River.
If you know of other blogs that I should include in the Other Regions section, post the URL in the comments or send me an email.
Dec 21, 2004
New & improved BaySense
The posts here on BaySense can jump abruptly from topic to topic. It is a blog after all.
But for those of you who like continuity, take a look at the new categories on the left sidebar.
Click any of the category links to see all BaySense posts on that topic. You'll be able to trace some of the major themes of the site. For example:
- Finding ways to monitor and measure environmental trends cheaper, faster and better.
- Finding a balance between regulation and free markets.
- Understanding the yin & yang of development & conservation and helping developers and conservationists dance better with each other.
- Finding ways for environmentalists to do better in communication, media & design.
- Clarifying pollution & clean-up issues faced by different groups such as homeowners and farmers & watermen.
Although the old URL will still work, the new one is shorter: baysense.com.
Stay tuned for more changes.
Scientist explains glut of left-handed architects
[Off-topic]
Slashdot Science discusses breakthrough in sinister research:
lefties have probably been around much longer than believed — at least 5 million years ... evolution has purposely kept them.
Righty William Hopkins admits:
"Being left-handed must confer some advantages," [...] "There must be a reason they have hung around so long."
His theory:
Lefties are likely to have better spatial memories [...] "Maybe they're better at navigating," he said. "With chimps, maybe they're better at remembering where that really ripe fruit is."
Me, I'm a lefty.
UPDATE: More lefty science.
