SoCal Wildfire Map

As the fires increase in size I wish there is something I can do to help. While I am unable to provide direct support to those fleeing the flames I'm still hoping to contribute something.

After a frustrating search for resources showing where the fire has burned and is burning I decided to make my own map with the help from Google Maps.

Here is the result:

Southern California Wildfire Map

It is a work in progress but I wanted to get it out as soon as possible to maybe help cut through the confusion that is certainly gripping the hundreds of thousands evacuated. PLEASE READ THE NOTES AT THE BOTTOM! There I describe exactly what the data shown on the map actually represents.

The fire data comes from http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

KPBS.org in San Diego does have a really great Google Map but it only covers the SD area.

Please give me any suggestions for improving the map in the comments section.

My heart goes out to the evacuees, firefighters, and police officers as they work through this unimaginably difficult time.

Big Brother is Watching the Mass!!!!

On the last Friday of each month (only until August according to some) there is a meeting of Chicago bikers to participate in a little civil disobedience called the Chicago Critical Mass. For the June event I bolted a camera to my bike, set it to take a photo every 15 seconds, and posted the results on Google Maps here. See if you can find an action shot of yourself! There are over 400 photos; more will become visible as you zoom in. I'll post a how-to in future post so stay tuned.


FYI: This does not work with Apple's Safari browser. I know it works with Firefox.

Hacking the Apple Weather Widget

I use a Mac. I use Dashboard. As a biker I use the weather widget every morning to prepare myself for weather conditions I will encounter on my ride to work. If rain is in the forecast I will check the radar page to see if the precipitation is eminent. This involves three clicks with associated wait time for the web page to load (1. Click on weather widget to open accuweather.com, 2. Click on "Radar," 3. Click on Large, animated radar). It also bothers me that the default page the widget is linked to displays all of the same info listed in the widget. Most mornings I am running late and would like to speed up this process.



I want a one click solution from widget to radar.

Since widgets are just html and javascript I figured that somewhere there is a link to a accuweather.com page. After poking around in the weather widget I found the link and changed it. After a quick logout-login I have one click access to my preferred radar web page.


How to:

1. In the Finder select Go to Folder... from the Go menu.
2. Type "/name of your OS X volume/System/Library/WidgetResources/.parsers/" and hit return.
3. Drag the file "weatherParser.js" to the desktop and create a duplicate of it named "weatherParserOrig.js. This is important because if you mangle something in the script you will need a backup.
4. Open the "weatherParser.js" file on the desktop in TextEdit.
4. Scroll all the way down to the bottom to find the text:
"return 'http://apple.accuweather.com/adcbin/apple/Apple_weather.asp?location=' + location;"
This is the bit that needs to be changed.
5. Change that bit to:
"return 'http://www.accuweather.com/radar-large.asp?partner=apple&traveler=0&zipChg=1&site=Enter State Here_&type=SIR&anim=1&level=state&large=1'"
Where noted enter the two letter abbreviation for the state you are in (NY, IL, OR, etc.)
6. Save this file.
7. Drag the "weatherParser.js" file from the desktop back to the .parsers folder. A window will pop up, click on authenticate and enter you password. You will also have to click on "replace" when prompted.
8. Now log out/log in and confirm that clicking on the weather widget brings you directly to the radar page.

Note: I am not a programmer and used the trial and error method to hack the widget. To change which state radar is displayed you will need to manually make the change to the weatherParser.js file. I tried to use a variable to get the state abbreviation to be automatically placed in the correct spot but could only find a variable which returned the zipcode. If you are an expert programmer and have a more elegant solution to this please post in the comments.

DOWn Chemical

Yesterday upon arriving home from work I found the July '07 issue of National Geographic Magazine waiting for me. I'm always excited to flip through and see if there is a new feature map included. At first glance this issue seemed to deliver a new map, but upon closer inspection my excitement turned to disgust.

The map included was not a product of National Geographic but a thinly disguised attempt at an advertisement for DOW Chemical. The map was an accompaniment to a two page four-color ad for a company sponsored 20 person relay race around the world to raise awareness of the millions of people without access to clean water.



The advertisement does state some interesting facts not normally put forth by a multi-national company:

–One billion people have no access to safe, clean water.
–Only one percent of the Earth's water is drinkable.
–By 2025 more than three billion people will live in countries with water issues.
–More than 2.2 million people die each year from diseases associated with poor water.

These mind numbing statistics are not what turned my stomach, it was the little blurb in the lower corner of the map (circled in yellow). Here it is an enlargement:


As you can see the total funding for DOW Chemical's "Journey to Save Lives" is $1,000,000. This is what got to me. First, the cool million represents %0.002 of 2006 revenue. Second, they have provided clean water for just %0.002 of the people in need. Isn't it interesting that at this rate the revenue from just one year from just one company could solve the World's water shortage? The third thing is what really got me. The cost the 2-page spread and a 20x30 inch glued in poster runs about $750,000*. That's right, DOW Chemical spent about 75% of the amount used to save lives to tell you that they saved lives.

If they had only spent 50% on the ad I might have been persuaded to forget about Agent Orange, napalm, dioxin contamination, exploding breast implants, selling nerve agent as a "safe" household chemical, or the disaster in Bhopal India^.



*This is an estimate based on the cost of four full page ads (the cost of a poster insert is not provided by the National Geographic Advertising Rate Sheet)

^The Bhopal Disaster occurred at a facility owned by Union Carbide in 1984. In 1999 Union Carbide became a wholly owned subsidiary of DOW Chemical. The legal minds at DOW consider all claims for the 22,000 deaths settled and the company bears no responsibility for the ongoing contamination.

Car Alarms are Gifts from Lucifer

Credit Score is B&#% S!@%

Watching "Maxed Out" (see my last post) inspired me to pull my credit report. You can get three free credit reports per year, one from each of the three agencies. You need to go to www.annualcreditreport.com to receive the actual free reports as there are many scams, just google "free credit report" to see a few examples.

After reviewing my report with nothing out of the ordinary I decided to get my credit score as well which costs an additional $7.95 from TransUnion. It came back that I am in the 43rd percentile, much below where it seems I should be based on my faultless payment history. So I sought out a second opinion. Over at MyFICO.com (this is the big dog of credit scores) you can receive your FICO score free for thirty days (make sure to cancel or it is $90/year after the free trial). I signed up for the trial and found out that their credit score ranks me in the 85th percentile. So what's the deal?

Based on the same information one company lists me as a risky borrower and another rates me as "GREAT." If I were in the market for a home loan the difference between the two scores could easily make for a several hundred dollar increase in the monthly payment (nearly $200,000 over the life of the loan). I don't know what is weighing down the TransUnion score as they wanted more money to analyze my results. The MyFICO came with a break down which listed the one negative on my account a new line of credit within the last year (hooking up gas and electricty to our apartment rates negatively on my credit!?!)

As I stated earlier: the credit score is bull shit.

"Maxed Out"

This evening I sat down to put a dent in my Netflix queue by watching "Maxed Out," a documentary about the state of consumer credit in the United States. This documentary mixed the standard fair of expert interviews with personal testimonials. I found the movie as a whole to be interesting and informative, but a little bit one sided. There certainly are lenders who target people with bad credit expecting they will carry a balance and incur interest + fees. However in many of the testimonials people seemed to be of the notion that if the credit card company was offering to give them credit they must be able to afford it. The credit card company didn't force a single purchase upon the card user, they took the responsibility of credit and abused it.

I was absolute appalled by the practices of CitiFinancial who targeted low income homeowners with the promise of lowering people's monthly mortgage payment only to have the payments actually go up once they became CitiFinancial customers. An enterprising investigative reporter uncovered many examples of deceptive refinancing practices by Citi in states from Alabama to New York. It was definitely not a case of a few over zealous employees, but an corporate policy.

The second thing that really struck me was the existence of a VIP list maintained by the credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) which contains the list of elected officials, business leaders, and celebrities. The purpose of this list is to insure that no one on the list has an issue with their credit report (and credit score) which might prompt them to enact legislation regulating the industry. One women (not on the VIP list) was mistakenly listed as deceased by a credit bureau and need to be disposed twice under oath to prove she was alive.

Finally I was struck by the shear size of the financial hole America is in. An American's average share of the national debt is $30,000 and the average household has over $9,000 in credit card debt. I question reasons for this debt (a war machine and iPods, respectivly) and wonder how long until the vacuum implodes. Maybe I should take up subsistence farming?

Stepped In It

I'm back from a great evening with Steppin' In It, a great acoustic roots music group from Lansing, Michigan. I've been a huge fan since my college days when I first heard them at Blissfest way up in Bliss, Michigan. They are a great mix of folk, blues, and cajun. Tonight they were at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The treat of the evening was an impromptu little blues duet between Andy Wilson (harmonicas) and Josh Davis (guitar, vocals) prompted by the failure of Josh's D string which was being expertly repaired by Joe Wilson (steel guitar, vocals) and Dominic Suchyta (upright bass). It brings back memories of the ol' Green Door on Monday nights: dancing, drinking, and listening to great music.

Hello?

Hello internet. It's me, Jon. Just dropping a quick note to let you know I've got my eye on you.