A Favorite Photo

I posted a few of my photos on Flickr and Buzznet. My photo of an orchid got quite a few views and, more importantly, it received a favorite rating from one of Flickr's kind appreciative souls. I'm surprised how good it made me feel.

Tags: photography photoblog flickr buzznet flowers orchid blogging weblog garry's_blog

Meme - Advice for the Bride-to-be

Let's say it's your granddaughter's wedding day. You have a lifetime of experience and now you have a moment alone with her. You have an opportunity to give her lasting advice. What do you say?

Honor each other in words and deeds.
Think of the other one first.
Be flexible, compassionate and caring.
Keep a sense of humor.
Be grateful.
(from a 62-year old grandfather, married twice)

Respect each other.
Don't try to control.
Make up your own mind and don't make it up for others.
Don't push yourself on others.
Be square.
(from a 90-year old great-grandfather, married for 67 years)

Be yourself.
Be honest.
Don't try to be someone you're not.
Communicating is important; money is the problem.
(from a 67-year old grandfather)

Tags: meme wedding advice garry's_blog

War & Casualties and Saddam Hussein

How many deaths did Saddam Hussein cause? Matthew White helps me understand how difficult a question that is. His, Tyrants, has Saddam Hussein as a Secondary Level Mass Murderer. Iraq: A Population Silenced makes me believe Saddam is responsible for at least 50,000 deaths without including the Iran-Iraq War (1 million casualties). I've learned, thanks to Matthew, there is always a question of accuracy with atrocity numbers.

The below sites help give us an overview of war, casualties and costs.

Conflict Map
The Education Section of the Nobel eMuseum offers a timeline map in Flash that covers conflicts throughout the 20th Century. Move throughout the map and zoom in for specific data.

Wars, Massacres and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century
Matthew White offers a timeline with year-by-year death toll over the 20th Century. Advance to next slides for quarterly maps and excellent summaries. Some data is a few years old, but very well done. Also, see the main site, Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century. Lots of info here. A well-done to author of the site and librarian, Matthew White.

Americans Killed/Wounded by Action
The American War Library has a very comprehensive table of the number of Americans killed in wars from 1775 to the present. Included is the Cost of the Wars.

Statistical Summary - America's Major Wars
LSU's Civil War Center offers a statistical summary of America's major wars and breaks it into three important tables: Military Participation Ratios, Casualties and Financial Costs in 1990-dollars. Thanks to our friends in the Allied Coalition, the Gulf War was probably America's least expensive war.

Wars and Genocides of the 20th Century
Piero Scaruffi has an excellent site listing wars and casualties ranging from 1860 to 2003. During the 20th Century, 160 million people died in wars.

The Wide World of War
Fact Monster provides an excellent collection of interesting details dealing with war. Included is everything from Battles That Changed History to A Who's Who of Warriors. Also valuable is the Timeline of U.S. Military Operations.

Tags: world+wars war casualties blogging weblog conflicts tyrants militarysaddam+hussein genocides garry's_blog

The Wonderful World of Color Scheme Generators

For graphic designers and webmasters, here are a few color picker sites worth looking at (in order of my preference):

Color Scheme Generator
WellStyled.com has a generator with lots of choices - mono, contrast, triad, tetrad and analogic styles and variations for all.

Color Palette Creator
SlayerOffice.com has a palette tool that provides 10 shades of any base color and multiple options for changes.

ColorMaker
Bagism's ColorMaker is very handy by letting you vary and test text colors and backgrounds. Then you can save the script. Many related links are included.

ColorSchemer
A well-done to ColorSchemer.com. Includes buttons for lightening and darkening.

ColorCombo
A four-panel side-by-side color combination viewer and quite a few other viewers. Very comprehensive. Can be downloaded for offline use.

And somethings different:

StrangeBanana
When you get tired of playing with colors, just pick a randomly generated blog site and use that design for your own.

ColorMatch
A nice simple color scheme generator by StrangeBanana.

 

Tags: color picker blogging weblog scheme generator weblog design garry's_blog

Meme - What do you love? What do you hate?

Tags: meme love hate

Concentration - C'mon Kids! Match Up Disasters

There was a humorous BoingBoing post by Xeni Jardin about the current terror threat level. It even includes a crazy photo bonus. Well, here's another crazy FEMA bonus, special for the kids: The Concentration Game.

Tags: FEMA government

Glitter Text by GlitterGraphics

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Here's a sample of glitter text by GlitterGraphics. Nice job and nice free samples.

Tags: graphics glitter

An Excellent Optical Illusion

This optical illusion, created by M Bach & JL Hinton, is one of the best I have seen. It works so well, I had to pass it on to friends and family. Thanks to Tim Bray for the link.

Tags: optical_illusion garry's_blog

The Incarceration Mentality

When will we understand that in the U.S. today, it's the incarceration rate and not the crime rate that is escalating? According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, despite falling crime rates since 1991, the rate of incarceration has increased 51%. The three strikes law is wrong-minded, the death penalty is inhumane, and the justice system needs help (but not through Homeland Security).



Two quotations:

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"Treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of civilization of any country."
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Tags: government blogging weblog death penalty incarceration prisons

Visualization with Search Engines

Searching visually should greatly enhance knowledge management efforts. Check out the following for a mind mapping concept of web searching:

KartOO
KartOO is a metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. KartOO is too cool.

MusicPlasma
This is a great visual search engine that will allow you to identify all the artists that fit your musical tastes. Compare this with the currently popular Pandora.

TouchGraph
This is one of the top visual search engines.

Web Brain
Visually browse the ODP - Open Directory Project.

and for related resources . . .

Mind Mapping Resource Center
Mind mapping is a popular brainstorming tool. The Mind Mapping Resource Center has collected the best resouces and tools on this subject into one convenient location.

Tags: mind mapping search visualization visualisation blogging weblog garry's_blog

Religion and Politics Self-test

Here are two sites providing religious and political self-tests.

Religious Self-test
Even if you don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic knows. Answer 20 short quetions about your concept of god, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic will tell you what religion (if any) you practice . . . or ought to consider practicing.

Political Self-test
On the Issues has a self-quiz where you can check out your own political beliefs. Select the Quizzes Tab at the top and then go down to the quiz, "Politics Match Quiz of Your Political Philosophy." You can even compare your opinions with those of top U.S. leaders.

Tags: philosophy religion politics test self-test blogging weblog garry's_blog

Hope for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD, ADHD)

Need help for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD)? Read some good news through ZDNet. Maybe the Smart BrainGames video games system can help.

Here Comes Generation Y

Are we ready for Generation Y? They're today's 10 to 27 year olds and number 73 million. Just to get a perspective, the Y Generation is almost as large a demographic group as the 78 million Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964. In 2015, the adult members of Gen Y will comprise 34% of the U.S. population. They will be the largest market segment in the United States.

Tags: generation+y blogging weblog garry's_blog

Edge - The World Question Center

This is a site with answers to questions like, "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" or "What's your law?" Read what the experts as well as commonmen say.

Tags: edge.org blogging weblog garry's_blog

Why Not?

WhyNot.net makes it easy for good ideas to be heard. People can challenge the status quo and find ways to do things better.

Molecular Expression

The Florida State University in Tallahassee has put up a very interesting Java applet on their site called "Powers of 10." Very educational and very mind-boggling.

Tags: science blogging weblog garry's_blog

Daily Inspiration

I found this affirmation that was on my desk and used daily while working with Perot Systems for over 10 years. It seemed to work.

Autumn Colors

Autumn colors in
Carrollton, TX.

Taken Dec. 5, 2005