You don't think of this as a "recognizable brand" but it is one of the brands with the widest recognition in the world.
Monday, May 31, 2004
Friday, May 28, 2004
Who is Rance? His blog has Hollywood abuzz because of all the inside scoops he is getting. He says he is an A-list actor writing under a pseudonym. Some speculate that he(she?) could be Owen Wilson, Ben Affleck, Jim Carrey or George Clooney.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
For those of you that are still unclear on what exactly my newly choosen GIS career entails, I think this write-up I prepared for the county engineer will give you a pretty good idea of what GIS is and how I use it.
The initial plan for scoring the 153,548 parcels in the county for a new salt storage location was to maximize the distance away from existing salt storage locations while simultaneously minimizing the cumulative distance to county roads.
The first step of the methodology of assigning a score for a given parcel was to first determine the distance from that parcel to the nearest existing salt storage location.
The second step of the process was to sum the distance from the parcel to each of the 1,278 county road segments. The idea is that the smaller this cumulative distance, the more accessible a parcel will be to county roads.
With these two pieces of information calculated for all 153,548 parcels in the county, a score was assigned to each parcel by dividing the distance to the nearest existing salt storage location by the cumulative distance from that parcel to all county road segments. The larger the numerator (distance to existing salt location) the higher the score will be, and the smaller the denominator (cumulative distance to county roads) the higher the score will also be.
Looking at the attached map of the entire county the scores seem to be arranged almost entirely by a parcel’s proximity to an existing salt storage location. This indicates that the county roads are evenly distributed across the county and that county road proximity is not a useful input as used in the above methodology.
A limiting factor in the above methodology is that the number of lanes of each road is not analyzed. If lanes were factored into the above methodology I would predict a grouping of parcels with higher scores in the southeast corner of the county near the multilane roads Randall Road, Orchard Road, Kirk Road, and Fabyan Parkway.
With this in mind I am recommending a new salt storage location in an area of southeast Kane County that scored in the highest tier from the initial analysis. The location is a triangular area along either side of Kirk Road and from Fabyan Road south about two miles. [See attached detail map]
Salt Storage Location Methodology
This document outlines the assumptions and conclusions regarding the “best” location of an additional salt storage facility in Kane County.The initial plan for scoring the 153,548 parcels in the county for a new salt storage location was to maximize the distance away from existing salt storage locations while simultaneously minimizing the cumulative distance to county roads.
The first step of the methodology of assigning a score for a given parcel was to first determine the distance from that parcel to the nearest existing salt storage location.
The second step of the process was to sum the distance from the parcel to each of the 1,278 county road segments. The idea is that the smaller this cumulative distance, the more accessible a parcel will be to county roads.
With these two pieces of information calculated for all 153,548 parcels in the county, a score was assigned to each parcel by dividing the distance to the nearest existing salt storage location by the cumulative distance from that parcel to all county road segments. The larger the numerator (distance to existing salt location) the higher the score will be, and the smaller the denominator (cumulative distance to county roads) the higher the score will also be.
Looking at the attached map of the entire county the scores seem to be arranged almost entirely by a parcel’s proximity to an existing salt storage location. This indicates that the county roads are evenly distributed across the county and that county road proximity is not a useful input as used in the above methodology.
A limiting factor in the above methodology is that the number of lanes of each road is not analyzed. If lanes were factored into the above methodology I would predict a grouping of parcels with higher scores in the southeast corner of the county near the multilane roads Randall Road, Orchard Road, Kirk Road, and Fabyan Parkway.
With this in mind I am recommending a new salt storage location in an area of southeast Kane County that scored in the highest tier from the initial analysis. The location is a triangular area along either side of Kirk Road and from Fabyan Road south about two miles. [See attached detail map]
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
I added a link on the right side of my blog to find the sunrise and sunset time for any day past, present, or future. I just used it to see how much time I have left to mow the lawn tonight. I will have light until 8:49 PM CDT.
Look at the "End civil twilight" time, not the "Sunset" time. Sunset is actually a technical term for when the upper edge of the disk of the sun is right on the horizon. Not very useful is it. Civil twilight is how late useable light is available. Much more useful.
Look at the "End civil twilight" time, not the "Sunset" time. Sunset is actually a technical term for when the upper edge of the disk of the sun is right on the horizon. Not very useful is it. Civil twilight is how late useable light is available. Much more useful.
Friday, May 21, 2004
Thursday, May 20, 2004
FBI BULLETIN: LOOKOUT FOR SUICIDE BOMBERS INSIDE THE U.S.
Thu May 20 2004 19:09:51 ET
Warns Officials To Look for People Wearing Bulky Jackets on Warm Days; Smell of Chemicals; Trailing Wires from Jackets Bombers May Disguise Selves As Pregnant Women
New York - The FBI has disseminated to 18,000 law enforcement agencies an intelligence bulletin advising police officials to be on the lookout for suicide bombers attempting to strike inside the US, TIME's Elaine Shannon reports today on TIME.com. The lightly classsified bulletin, headlined "Possible suicide bomber indicators," and circulated earlier today (May 20) via the FBI's secure Law Enforcement Online (LEO) Intranet, warns local badge-carriers to look for obvious signs of trouble - people wearing heavy, bulky jackets on warm days, smelling of chemicals, trailing wires from their jackets - and, as well, more subtle ones, such as tightly clenched fists. Someone who never shows his palms could be gripping a detonator rigged to go off when a button is released. "If you shoot him, you're still not safe because his hands relax and the bomb explodes," says a counter-terrorism official, TIME reports.
The FBI bulletin also notes that suicide bombers may disguise themselves in stolen military, police or firefighter's garb or as pregnant women, TIME reports.
Developing...
Thu May 20 2004 19:09:51 ET
Warns Officials To Look for People Wearing Bulky Jackets on Warm Days; Smell of Chemicals; Trailing Wires from Jackets Bombers May Disguise Selves As Pregnant Women
New York - The FBI has disseminated to 18,000 law enforcement agencies an intelligence bulletin advising police officials to be on the lookout for suicide bombers attempting to strike inside the US, TIME's Elaine Shannon reports today on TIME.com. The lightly classsified bulletin, headlined "Possible suicide bomber indicators," and circulated earlier today (May 20) via the FBI's secure Law Enforcement Online (LEO) Intranet, warns local badge-carriers to look for obvious signs of trouble - people wearing heavy, bulky jackets on warm days, smelling of chemicals, trailing wires from their jackets - and, as well, more subtle ones, such as tightly clenched fists. Someone who never shows his palms could be gripping a detonator rigged to go off when a button is released. "If you shoot him, you're still not safe because his hands relax and the bomb explodes," says a counter-terrorism official, TIME reports.
The FBI bulletin also notes that suicide bombers may disguise themselves in stolen military, police or firefighter's garb or as pregnant women, TIME reports.
Developing...
Associated Press
May. 20, 2004 08:55 AM
CINCINNATI - Pringles has a question - would you eat printed chips? Pringles will soon be selling potato chips with trivia questions written right on the chips.
Jamie Egasti, from Pringles' parent company Procter and Gamble, says it's a great way to add fun to lunch.
The questions will be printed with red or blue food coloring. Someday there could be ads printed on the chips, too. But Egasti says no decision has been made yet on the edible advertising.
The printed Pringles will go into limited distribution next month, with a North American roll out by August.
May. 20, 2004 08:55 AM
CINCINNATI - Pringles has a question - would you eat printed chips? Pringles will soon be selling potato chips with trivia questions written right on the chips.
Jamie Egasti, from Pringles' parent company Procter and Gamble, says it's a great way to add fun to lunch.
The questions will be printed with red or blue food coloring. Someday there could be ads printed on the chips, too. But Egasti says no decision has been made yet on the edible advertising.
The printed Pringles will go into limited distribution next month, with a North American roll out by August.
Student suspended for throwing a pie in the principal's face, after winning a school-sponsored contest to throw a pie in the principal's face.
You'll never guess what we bought tonight; a dozen canning jars! First I am going to make pickled eggs. That doesn't really need canning jars, but it makes it easier. I also bought the jars because I want to experiment with pickling this summer. Pickles, chow chow, and peppers like Grandma B. used to make. I don't think I am interested in canning jams, jellies, corn, green beans, tomatoes, sauces, meats, etc. Just pickles. But who knows. It might turn out that I like doing it.
My plane was waiting for me hidden behind a bush when I got home. I tested out all of the controls and the motor and it looks like it is none the worse for spending the night in a tree.
My plane was waiting for me hidden behind a bush when I got home. I tested out all of the controls and the motor and it looks like it is none the worse for spending the night in a tree.
A city crew found my plane and will drop it off at our house tomorrow! I thought I would need to be there to show them where it was because it was really high and in thick leaves. I really expected them to tell me tough luck or that they would have to charge me $75 per hour for their time or something, but I figured I had nothing to lose by calling. What a great city!
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
I just got my answer from the Goolge News Alert I set up:
WASHINGTON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Communications Workers of America announced that a 4-day strike involving 100,000 union employees of SBC in 13 states will begin at 12:01 a.m. local time in each time zone on Friday, May 21. Workers will return to their jobs at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, May 25.
WASHINGTON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Communications Workers of America announced that a 4-day strike involving 100,000 union employees of SBC in 13 states will begin at 12:01 a.m. local time in each time zone on Friday, May 21. Workers will return to their jobs at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, May 25.
Google News has a really neat new feature. After you search for something, the results page has a little envelope icon on the left side and is labeled "News Alerts". Click on this and enter your e-mail address. Any time Google finds a new story about what you searched on, it will send you an e-mail. You can specify whether it should send you a notice once a day or every time it finds a story.
I am interested in whether or not SBC is going to go on strike in Illinois today because we have some things at the county they are supposed to do this week. If they strike today that will impact what we will do. The alert will search on the terms "sbc Illinois strike". Pretty cool, huh?
I am interested in whether or not SBC is going to go on strike in Illinois today because we have some things at the county they are supposed to do this week. If they strike today that will impact what we will do. The alert will search on the terms "sbc Illinois strike". Pretty cool, huh?
