I Love People: 5,000 Miles, 930 People, 162 Seconds from Benjamin Jenks on Vimeo.
Benjamin Jenks hitchhiked across America and created this awesome video called, “I love people.” From the description: 5,000 Miles, 930 People, 162 Seconds.
Awesome!
It reminds me of this awesome video I posted awhile ago, “The Longest Walk.”
According to Foursquare, as far as the last 6 months are concerned, I’ve been to more unique airports (11!) than bars (10). And even more unique coffee shops (13) + cafés (11).
Is this what being a grownup is like?
STS-134 NASA Tweetup and the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour
On April 28th and April 29th, 2011, I was fortunate enough to participate in the NASA Tweetup for STS-134. It was to be the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the second to last mission in the Space Shuttle program. I traveled to the Space Coast from San Francisco and spent three fantastic days with fellow Twitter users and enthusiastic space geeks at Kennedy Space Center. Things didn’t always go as planned (you’ll see), but it was an experience that I’ll cherish and never forget. Godspeed, Endeavour.
Of course, I have my Rdio playlist ready to listen to on the flight home.
(I’m currently on a plane, en route to Florida for the STS-134 NASA Tweetup.)
A British couple behind me are looking out the window and ask a flight attendant if that’s the Grand Canyon below us and to our left. She says yes, so I look out and see that it’s actually Valley of the Gods in Southern Utah (neeeeerd). I turn around to say something, right as the husband says, “Oh, that is so great! I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon!”
Alright then. Just smile and turn around, Dave. 
Good grief, we geologists can (nearly) be assholes sometimes!
EDIT: The Big Picture is featuring powerful and scary photos of the damage.
We’re just starting to find out how bad today’s M6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand was.
A former professor of ours when we were in New Zealand in 2006 dropped us an email this evening and let us know that it was going to be bad. He also informed us that the iconic Christchurch Cathedral in the center of the city was destroyed.
It was an absolutely beautiful building – originally built in mid-1800′s and completed in 1904.
As we saw it in 2006:
And as it lays today:
[via TwitPic]
My heart goes out to everyone in Christchurch. This is going to be fairly bad.
We were supposed to take the Amtrak Coast Starlight train down to Southern California, but it was severely delayed due to bad weather in Oregon and Washington. Changed trains, taking San Joaquin to Bakersfield and then a bus to Los Angeles.
Here we go!
Man, wouldn’t it be nice to have a high speed rail system in California?
Sneak attack!
We’re 3/4 the way through a bottle of wine when we hear over the intercom, “Remember folks, you’re not allowed to drink your own alcohol on the train, or we’ll remove you and your alcohol from this train.” Crap!
On another note — the Central Valley is a lot more fun to look at when you aren’t driving through it.
Oleg Volk created this TSA checkpoint sign in 2008, which is now getting attention due to recent abuses by the organization.
Interestingly enough, the social location service Loopt is offering 10 iPod touches to people who check in to an airport using the app on November 24th, and tweet about being pat down by the TSA.
As a slight gift to opt-outers out there, Loopt is giving away 10 iPod Touches for TSA touching. Just check into your airport on Loopt* on Wednesday, November 24 (with iPhone, iPod Touch or Android), share a bit about your experience, push it to Twitter with the hashtag #touchedbyTSA, and you can win an iPod Touch. That simple.
