joshedwards.com

Remember when we were in Dubai and we said how they refer to the Gulf as “the Arabian Gulf”?

Well it appears that Google has found itself in the midst of that debate now: “Iran: Map Sets Off Dispute With Google“.

Since becoming a father I’ve taken a hard look at my views on war and capital punishment. I have found myself in a deep sanctity-of-all-life place. Everyone is somebody’s child. Everyone deserves love.

And then I read this story, and I want to hang the motherfucker by his neck until he is dead:

“Father admits to squeezing, throwing infant son, police say“.

Looks like I got a 3.70 (A-) for my final grade in the Health Communication Masters program class!

I’ll take it!

No word on my final grade yet, unfortunately I did get an 80 on my final paper (oops!) but got a 100 on the presentation, with these notes:

Excellent presentation, Josh! You had a thought-provoking, well planned presentation, with a strong purpose and sufficient context. You were very engaging and delivered your presentation with ease and charisma. You paid excellent attention to detail and did a terrific job thoroughly answering questions. Congratulations!

So that’s something!

My professor just emailed me asking if it’d be possible for her to share my slide presentation with some colleagues.

Wow!

I’m in a very, very good mood after this class!!

I had my final presentation for my online BU Health Communication class tonight. Five slides in five minutes. Present in a webinar online.

I did how the environments we live in can cause obesity.

The facilitator of my group thought I did a good job, then the professor came on and talked at great length at how important this is and how I did a great job getting so much information across in such a short amount of time. She suggested a book for me to read, even though I had covered many of the points already.

I really hit it out of the park tonight. I am so thrilled!!

Here’s a photo from the Baseball Hall of Fame of Opening Day of Fenway Park on April 20, 1912:

I like this publicity shot from the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Resort Paris yesterday:

I have had quite a few amazing experiences in my life, but one of the the most amazing, “Holy shit” moments was when Liz and I went to Disneyland Resort Paris in 2007.

The park opened my Sophomore year in high school and from Day One I wanted to go there. But I never figured that I’d get the chance. I mean, when do I randomly find myself in Paris?!

When I marry a crazy lady who lives in crazy Dubai, apparently.

Anyway, today Disneyland Resort Paris turns 20 years old.

Here’s a photo from the construction of the park, since I love Disney theme park construction photos:

I filled up my gas tank yesterday for the first time in over a month.

Living 3/4 of a mile from work is one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made …

I just saw this photo on the Gulf News – it’s our former beach in Dubai, the Jumeirah Free Beach. It’s pretty different now. The whole arcing marina is new since we were there.

And I’m not sure what’s up with the very orderly umbrellas, either.

UPDATE: I made a mistake – this is the Jumeirah Beach Hotel beach – closer to the Burj than our free beach. My bad.

Weird, I remember the “new” Universal Studios logo for its 75th year.

Guess that was 25 years ago …

I bought my darling Jetta nine years and about four lifetimes ago …

I registered the Jetta today and discovered in the last year I drove 5045 miles.

That’s not even 100 miles a week!

If any of you visited the site on Wednesday, saw the redirection to the SOPA Strike website and were confused or worried, I apologize.

It was a late-night, last-minute decision to join in on “Black Wednesday” so I didn’t have time to warn you.

For more information about the protest visit SOPA Strike or your local library …

Just because I like a good protest, this site’s going dark as part of SOPA Strike.

So when it hits midnight you’re going to see some serious shit.

I thought this was a fascinating take on the Burj being in the new Mission: Impossible movie: “The Burj Khalifa two years later: With help from Hollywood, the world’s tallest building asserts its status as a global icon, but real estate and urban planning problems remain“.

Looks like I spoke too soon! Apparently the U.S. Mint is not going to make any more of the Presidential $1 Coins for circulation, check out this article from three weeks ago: “Treasury to stop producing unneeded dollar coins“.

The Administration will still be required, by law, to continue to produce a relatively small number of the coins to be sold to collectors, at no cost to taxpayers. Instead of producing 70-80 million coins per President, the United States Mint will now only produce as many as collectors want.

The program was only 20 Presidents deep when it was canceled, but there is still a 1.4 billion coin backlog hanging out in Federal Reserve Bank vaults.

The real losers are the fans of Chester A. Arthur; his coin is coming out February 16, 2012, but only to collectors.

I used to follow coins and collecting more. With so many changes recently in pennies, nickles and quarters my numismatic interest has severely waned.

First we had the 50 State Quarters program.

Then District of Columbia and United States Territories Quarters. The Westward Journey nickel series, the Lincoln bicentennial cent, the Union shield cent and the terribly unpopular Presidential $1 Coin Program (who can wait until 2014 for the Warren G. Harding coin?!?)

Thus I was surprised to read about a new Maine special quarter coming out this year. Apparently the “America the Beautiful Quarters Program” started in April of 2010?

Oops.

Check out the article in the Bangor Daily News, “Bass Harbor lighthouse, Acadia to appear on new quarter“.

It’s a pretty cool coin, actually:

At some point I’d like to sit down and put together a “Year in Review” for 2011 – it’d be a doozie.

Until then here are some fun facts about Maine from the Bangor Daily News:

The Institute for Economics & Peace ranked the Pine Tree State the most peaceful state in the country in its first U.S. Peace Index. Factored into that: The number of homicides, jailed inmates and police officers.

Related to that ranking: Maine recorded the lowest rate of violent crimes in the U.S. in 2007, according to the U.S. Census. The figure: 118 incidents per 100,000 people. South Carolina, on the opposite end of the spectrum, counted 788.

Read the rest at, “The ways Maine is No.1“.