Satellite Images of the U.S. Shoreline as Sea Levels Start to Rise

by Rio Flores on May 9th, 2006

Climatologists agree that world sea levels will rise this century. Skimming through the headlines on the topic at Digg, the predictions seem to suggest higher and higher sea levels. The first prediction that popped up on Digg suggested a 90cm, the most recent predicted a rise of 3.5 meters or 11.5 feet.

What would that world look like? While not super accurate, this cool Google Maps mash up will let you see what the world might look like at various increments of sea level rising. For a static, more accurate scenario, Harvard Magazine commissioned an artist to show what the Gulf Coast and Island of Manhattan might look like if sea levels were to rise by 3.5 meters or 11.5 feet. Click below to see a slide show.

VIDEO: Mapping the Diffusion of Walmart

by Rio Flores on May 8th, 2006

Here is an interesting video showing the growth of Walmart stores in the U.S. There is not a ton of insight can be drawn from it alone, but it’s still interesting. The video:

Money Changes Everything - The Challenges of Economic Inequality Among Friends

by Rio Flores on May 8th, 2006

Last Sunday’s New York Times Styles section has a great article inspired by the recent film, Money Changes Everything. It dives into the awkwardness of large economic disparities among friends, of all ages, which the article suggests are largely the result of two recent phenomena. The first is the very rapid income growth of the top 1% and even 5% percent of the population when most Americans are seeing their real wages stagnate or decline. The second is the much higher numbers of college students from lower-income households (even if, as a percentage of total students enrolled, this number is shrinking).

Perhaps surprisingly to some, the pressure to blend in among peers is intense and goes in both directions. There is probably the better known story of individuals like me who attended college on scholarships and students loans. Many of my friends drove cars my parents couldn’t afford. I left college with over $70k in college debt and $7,000 in credit card debt - much of that the result trying to keep up with my better financially off international friends.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those affluent students who prefer to simply blend in – feigning an inability pay for a taxi or brining up other gripes so as to not put off their less wealthy peers.

I highly recommend reading the full article here.

Where Did the Chevy Apprentice Sites Go? Chevrolet Caves!

by Rio Flores on May 8th, 2006

In spite of the claimed positive results, it would appear the Chevy caved into the pressures of all the negative PR they were getting from there Make Your Own Ad Contest. The websites www.chevyapprentice.com and www.tahoeapprentice.com are no longer online and both URLs redirect you to http://www.chevrolet.com/tahoe/. Searching Chevorlet.com for “contest” or “apprentice” yields zero results.

If I were Chevrolet’s director of PR, I would have strongly recommended against it. The move will only serve to embolden their critics.

FireFox Optimization Download: Search & Translate From Your Address Bar

by Rio Flores on May 4th, 2006

If you’re not familiar with Firefox’s keyword search capability, it’s a great way to efficiently search the web without having to scroll through search plug-in in the search bar. Downloading this set of 140+ keywords will allow you to translate and search directly from your address bar. The keywords use simple two letter acronyms for most major search engines. So if you wanted to search digg.com for youtube you could type “di youtube.”

The keyword set also has easy access to translations via Google. If you wanted to translate por que from Spanish to English, you might type “esen por que.” If you wanted to translate a URL from Spanish to English, you could type “esenu www.example.com.”

Download Unavailable at this time.

Stephen Colbert Lambastes Bush at White House Coorespondent’s Dinner

by Rio Flores on May 1st, 2006

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a group of more uncomfortable people than when Stephen Colbert lambasted the president,sitting only a few feet away from the podium. While the AP barely mentions Colbert’s performance, the blogs left are overjoyed. One clever fellow set up Thank you site (Digg it here). My favorite lines:

The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ‘em through a spell check and go home. … Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!

Watch the Video (Part One of Three)

View part 2 and part 3. View the full transcript at DailyKos.

UPDATE: Apparently, Bush was really angered by Colbert’s performance. I couldn’t be more pleased.