Dakota Today

**Get your rituals here: How to Pray the Rosary

Link: How to Pray the Rosary.

WNAX radio of Yankton, SD played this stuff over and over again years ago. Not sure if they still do it or not however.

A few million people must find some kind of satisfaction in mindnumbing repetitious ritual. A couple million trekked off to the 120 acre country to worship a dead body. Just now listening to Pat Buchanon and John Mclaughlin checking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin...in Latin. If George Will were included, they could have discussed how many mimes can dance on a pinhead with a bowtie..

** Stay tuned even if this is a "Hail Mary Post" not to be confused with "Drop kick me Jesus through the Goalposts"--- Doug Wiken

**More Fascination with Google Maps and Photos

Link: Lexicon Finds Google Maps Fascinating

I guess it must be something to to with the desire of humans to be birds flying over their territory.
Fascinating anyway.

The problem with Google Maps and Photos is that what begins as a quick look can turn into an hour of dinking around scrolling this way and that, englarging, shrinking, looking at map, looking at satellite photo, etc. etc. etc. etc.

I may do as Lexicon says he will. Just keep adding new links to this post as interesting google photos turn up.

Now, how is Google going to make a few million on this? My guess is that at some point they will be selling glossy prints of photos people like. You may have noticed they have more or less prevented saving any picture to your hard drive for future reference or convenient labeling...like "Flying in?"...watch for our red roof next to the airport and stop in for a few gallons of booze and some very friendly locals of the female persuasion..your wife will think you are hunting pheasants anyway."

** Stay tuned after you check out Lexicon's childhood from the air---- Doug Wiken.....nothing interesting under these clouds..

**More Google Photos via MetaFilter

Link: See the Sights from Satellites | MetaFilter.

It took me a while to find Rapid City with Google Maps and satellite photos. MetaFilter gets so many posters that there is probably a week or two of seaching if one person were to find all the views linked here.

Check on things like Crater Lake, Grand Canyon, The Pentagon, etc, etc. etc.

*** Stay tuned even if MetaFilter almost always does it better--Doug Wiken

**Car "facts"...well some old humor about old car repairs

The link for the jokes in the continution of this post is dead. I found it in a Google Cache.
of some old forum. Some of the apparently British driving terms make no sense to me.

However, a lot of this "truth about cars"is a good reminder of skinned knuckles, blood
blisters, metal slivers, bruises, cuts, and many frustrations with car repair manuals..
especially the "trouble shooting" sections. So take a look at the continuation for a
few laughs about the things that strike car repair nuts as funny.

**Stay tuned even if all you find new right now is a bad set of old car jokes--Doug Wiken

**Autonaut..WORDLAB | The Leading Resource for Free Names, Slogans and Brand Identity Development

Link: WORDLAB | The Leading Resource for Free Names, Slogans and Brand Identity Development.

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Lost In Translation: "The Spirit of American Style" is the current advertising slogan for Buick, and recent campaigns to introduce this slogan invoke ghostly apparitions of Harley Earl, the father of modern automotive design in America.

An article titled "The Style of American Spirit" presents the slogan from a different perspective:

But when I think of the modified 1959 Buick that recently departed the shores of Cuba to cut through the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, carrying its eleven passengers towards America, and freedom, "spirit of American style" seems almost right. Unquestionably, the Cubans who sailed the open seas in a Buick demonstrated the Style of the American Spirit.

These autonauts were not deterred when their previous attempt, in a converted '51 Chevy, failed to provide them the ideal vehicle to "see the U.S.A." One can only imagine Harley Earl in their minds, quietly advising on each redesign, as they went back to their garages in Havana to create the perfect vehicle to achieve the American dream.

Re-engineers who convert classic land yachts into immigrant boats are called truckonauts, a clumsy word that doesn't do justice to their craft. Apparently, this new English word is a rough translation of the more elegant Spanish word, camionauta. These new words can be found online at Word Spy, which is now also available in print at better bookstores in the free world.
- abnu [2:20 PM] [ ]

Sure I thought..believe it or not, now and then I think a little...that "Autonaut" might be a good name for a blog on fixing cars, etc. ...I guess somebody found a better use for the word sometime ago. Look around this site. Might be interesting even if I tripped over it while browsing in the dark.

**Stay tuned even if this is just a trip back to the drawing board-- Doug Wiken

**Woster Catches up With old news ..or Rapid City Journal: Former conservative ‘blogger' to become Thune senior adviser

Link: Rapid City Journal: Former conservative ‘blogger' to become Thune senior adviser.

Former conservative ‘blogger' to become Thune senior adviser By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer

A South Dakota State University history professor who ran a computer Web site critical of former Sen. Tom Daschle during the 2004 campaign is joining the staff of Sen. John Thune, the Republican who ended Daschle's 26-year congressional career.

Jon Lauck said Tuesday night that he would begin his new job as senior adviser to Thune sometime this summer. Lauck, who received $27,000 from Thune's campaign last year as a research consultant, said he was excited about the chance to work full time in helping Thune shape national policy on key issues.

"This is a very historic time for our country," the 33-year-old Madison native said. "Why would I want to be digging through the archives and writing history when I could be living history?"

Woster finally caught up with the old blog news. But, see some more at the site.

Lauck wants to " live history". I thought he just wanted to "lie history", but I guess we all live history...some of us just a bit more honorably than others.

I sure hope Lauck doesn't buy a house in Washington. It would be such a shame if he lost touch with South Dakota.

***Stay tuned even if now and then we just report the old news again---Doug Wiken

PowerBozos from Hullabaloo

Link: Hullabaloo.

Powerbozos

You know, I'm a big fan of blogging. I dabble in it myself. But, this absurd notion on the part of some bloggers that they are taking down the big time media brick by brick is just absurd. And by "some bloggers" I'm referring to those schmucks over at Powerline. Jesus, has there ever been a bigger bunch of vainglorious nobodies in the history of the world?

Looks like a prescient post of somekind. See previous post here on Washington Post story on the Schiavo Memo.

**Stay tuned anyway. Late as it is, it will get later. Time has not stood still for several eons.--- Doug Wiken

washingtonpost.com:Republican Author Of Schiavo Memo Steps Forward

Link: washingtonpost.com: Author Of Schiavo Memo Steps Forward.

washingtonpost.com Author Of Schiavo Memo Steps Forward Sen. Martinez's Counsel Cited Upside for GOP

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A01

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

Brian Darling, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.

Martinez said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, other Senate aides gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.

Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said.

The mystery of the memo's origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of a brain-damaged woman.

Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush's National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.

[MORE AT THE SITE]

Well now. Isn't this special. All those whizbang GOP RNC feed blogs so sure this was a Democratic or evil mainstream media plot.

Wonder if they will all be offering apologies all around. Same guys were convinced the CBS AWOL stuff was made on a modern word processor when IBM Exccutive Typewriters were shown capapable of producing everything on the memos and in fact, the Bush WhiteHouse released a memo from the time period with the same style and form of typing ..of course after CBS and Rather had stuffed their foots in their mouths in abject surrender.

**Stay tuned. You never know when another example of towering GOP hypocrisy and propaganda will materialize out of the blog and media miasma--- Doug Wiken

**Google Maps, etc on Rapid City--SDSM&T

Google has a new map and satellite photo system. For a look at part of Rapid City click the link. You can move around the area with arrows at left or switch to map version.

Google Photos Rapid City in area of SDSM&T

Sort of interesting. The resolution of the maps varies with regions. Pretty fuzzy out here in the boondocks. A bit better in an area like Repid City. I really did not try the map system. My guess is in another way it has more useful information than the satellite photos.

**Stay tuned even if local blogger is just gawking around after hearing a link on NPR--Doug Wiken

**Medford hotel owners say Bush Admin. left them with unpaid bills

Link: FOX 12 OREGON Medford hotel owners say Bush Admin. left them with unpaid bills.

MEDFORD -- It's a distant memory for most of the country, but President Bush's campaign swing through Southern Oregon is fresh for hotel owners still waiting to get paid nearly $19,000 for expenses incurred by the administration last fall.

Three hotels, including the Rogue Regency, the Red Lion and the Jacksonville Inn, report they have been waiting almost six months for bills generated mostly by the U.S. Secret Service during President Bush's whirlwind tour through Jackson County, according to an article by the Mail Tribune newspaper.

Owed $3,332.72, the Red Lion Hotel in Medford sent a letter on March 28 to the president at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The letter written by the hotel's accountant Kirsten Yunuba Stephens, said: "My question to you: Is this how you help balance the budget at the White House by ripping off retailers in the towns you visit? If that is the case please do not come back to the Rogue Valley."

A White House representative said the hotels should direct their inquiries to the Secret Service rather than the president.

Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin apologized for delays in getting payment to Rogue Valley hotels. "If we haven't paid it we should have paid it," he said.

He added that any hotels in the area that have not been paid should contact his office immediately. "If they are sure they are all our rooms, these are things we can work out tomorrow," he said Thursday.

There is more. Surprising a FOX station would report news like this. The things you can find at a blog like Crooks and Liars Blog

I guess stiffing hotels comes naturally to an administration that is stiffing several generations of Americans in multiple ways.

** Stay tuned...TOMORROW... I am crashing. Wind has blown. Another day shot to hell--- Doug Wiken