On the way up through Charlotte, we stopped to put gas in the RV. No sooner had Dad gotten out of the RV then a stranger walked up and began trying to sell him a tool kit, a set of jumper cables, and a stuffed doll. Looking around the gas station we could see two more vendors.

When we were gawking around in Italy this sort of outdoor street vendor solicitation was not a surprise, but in Charlotte, North Carolina right off of I-85 it surprising. I’ve never seen in-your-face-at-the-gas-station-selling around here.

The RV has a big gas tank and we were at a very slow fuel pump, so we got to watch the men at work for a while. Not too long after we arrived, a SUV pulled up and the driver began a tirade on one of the vendors. His speach lasted for seemingly ten minutes, and then the unlucky young vendor vanished. We could not guess if he was the owener of the gas station, or the ringleader of the vendors, but new arrival’s emphatic hand guestures were a thing of awe to behold.

As we left, the other two continued pouncing on cars as the cars drove up.

I’ve been doing some work over at JAARS, working from a computer that is not my own. I kept feeling cramped and unable to do “simple” things. I realized what it was. I was missing an extra limb or two that I’m used to - Ruby and Rexexps. Boba Fett without his jet pack. Indiana Jones without his whip. Me without Ruby and Rexexps. I use them so many times during a day that I never even think of them

Over at interconnected, matt talks about watching an excavator work. We had one in our backyard for day clearing out stumps. Honestly, we called off work, pulled out chairs, and watched it work. It was hard to believe that the thing was not alive.

Oh, and unless you happen to have a friendly construction worker that lets you drive one, you can have no idea how must skill it really takes to be smooth with big construction machinery.

Unlike concepts like “Truth” or “Dishonesty”, a flag is symbol - it provides a visual focal point for a nation/organization/concepts behind it. While the nations behind a nation’s flag are unambiguous, the concepts and ideals that it symbolizes to the person looking at it vary with the person looking at. So it is with the Confederate flag.

Some folks see the confederate flag as a symbol of the belief that black folks are worth less than white folks. Fortunately, this view of the flag is in the minority. Unfortunately the folks that see it representing this are very noisy ( Whether they are from the KKK side, or NAACP side).

Others see it a symbol or rebellion. Bikers, truckers, and drug gangs see and use it this way (Yeah, I’m over generalizing). Oddly enough this group takes very little trouble from either of the other sides Maybe they don’t care. Maybe nobody wants to mess with them.

Others, like I and most southerners, look at the confederate battle flag and think fondly of the outnumbered “grey’s” whipping the “blue’s”, of the right of the people form their own government, of courage in the face of privation, of chivalry, of skill, and of daring.

One of Scotland’s unofficial nationals anthem begins:

bq. O Flower of Scotland, When will we see Your like again, That fought and died for, Your wee bit Hill and Glen, And stood against him, Proud Edward’s Army, And sent him homeward, Tae think again.

Scotland is now a part of EnglandBritain, but many scots are proud of being scottish. It’s the same thing with Southerners. We are American’s now (and proud of it too), and we are also proud of have “whupped” the yankees on numerous occasions against ugly odds. Just mention Lee, Jackson, Stuart, or Forrest, and a southerner’s face will light up, just like a “true Scot’s” face would light up at the mention of Wallace or Bruce.

Next time you hear a “debate” on the flying of the southern flag, remember that for all practical purposes the sides could be arguing about totally different flags, because to different people, the flag represent very different concepts.

It’s true, some confederate leaders were total racists. (By the same token, so were many Yankees. That does not excuses the southern ones, of course.) There are bad things in almost every nations history. Learn from and avoid the bad; be proud of and repeat the good.

We don’t hide the US flag because of what happened to the indians. We say, “that was stupid of us, won’t do that again”, move on, and hang the Stars and Stripes out on the front porch in honor of our freedom and in memory of those that died to keep it for us. So it is with most of the people flying confederate flag.

(Though my parents with from the “North”, and I have one or two soldiers in blue in my ancestry, I was born in the south, raised in the south, and live in the south. Therefore I am southern. These are southern opinions and I can’t vouch for the opinions of “Yankee’s”. Any Yankees around? Let me know what people in your area think)

Confluence.org has a mission of getting pictures from every crossing of a line of latitude and longitude. The stories behind the visits are fascinating. Too bad photos from most of the US have already been taken.

Reading stories of photo visits from around our area has me laughing at the common fear of gun toting rednecks. “With the hope that I wouldn’t find myself at the dangerous end of a shotgun.” - 33N 81W.

I just wish the whole world was searchable like this. Imagine being able to pull up photos and stories for restaurants in a strange city….

[Link via Beth]

The BBC “History” info on the Cambridge Spies, ends with this jaw dropper.

Perhaps one way would to be to consider whether we need intelligence services in the 21st century. They are only a comparatively recent phenomenon (the SIS dates from 1911, the KGB from 1917, and the CIA from as recently as 1947). It could be that nations have been the victim of a vast confidence trick to deceive us about the necessity and the value of spies.

What the heck is up with that question? George Washington used spies at the founding of America. The French kings had quite a spy service. One of the oldest military classics, “The Art of War” has a section devoted to spies. The Byzantine empire has a legendary spy service that allowed then to have a tiny army. During the wars between the Romans and the Carthaginians it seemed that as many cities fell by treachery as by force. Spies are mentioned several times in the Old Testament. Spies have played a vital part in the drama of nations since the dawn of time, and will continue to do so as long as humans want what other humans have.

I wonder if Phillip Knightley really wrote that paragraph, considering he seems to have made a life out of writing spy books.

By this time the whole internet has probably seen this spoof of the matrix - in a ping pong battle. I just watched it, and nearly fell out of the chair laughing. (Streaming, WMP Download)

If you did not know, MLM’s are a S.C.A.M. Kalsey asks if this stuff actualy hooks anyone. Sadly, yes. “What’s Wrong With Multi-Level Marketing” is worth a every page read.

MLM’s exploit people who either, need money badly, or are greedy. It sucks money from almost everyone involved, and transfers the money to the few who started the con. MLM’s are based on deception, greed, and exploiting (and destroying) people’s friendships. They are Evil.

Civic Helicopters. Photo Gallery makes me want to learn to fly. How to (and not to) work with a designer . Must send to all customers. Ember. Mesh networks POPFile. Baysian content filtering. I love it when something I’m going to build is already built. CVTrac. http://www.browsercam.com/

I’m getting people responding to my post about testing AIM. It’s great meeting strangers - reminds me of traveling on a cruse ship. Sadly once this becomes mainstream, we will no longer have the experience of randomly walk up to strangers and talking with them.

So far I’ve hung out with someone from Paris, New York, and Virginia.

Some visitors are coming from Google. It’s been less than two days since I made that post, and it’s already indexed. Maybe I made the post right before an index update, but I think this is more of a sign of more rapid indexing from google.

The TouchStream keyboards finally have their own official web forums.